News
Twenty Held After Mass Protest
A day after Vietnamese security forces forcibly occupied land for a development project, villagers are left panic-stricken. More than 20 people have been arrested following a mass protest over a land grab in Vietnam that was violently suppressed by security forces firing warning gunshots and tear gas, witnesses said Wednesday. "Generally, people are still panic-stricken after the authorities' action of coercion," a villager told RFA.Several thousand security personnel in Vietnam move to take control of disputed land from protesting villagers. In one of the biggest land confrontations in Vietnam, about 2,000 Vietnamese villagers hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails on Tuesday at a larger group of armed security forces moving to seize their land in the outskirts of the capital Hanoi, witnesses said. Backed by bulldozers, cranes, and excavators, more than 3,000 police and military personnel and unidentified men not in uniform moved in at the break of dawn to occupy 70 hectares (173 acres) of land in the district of Van Giang just east of Hanoi. In the seven-hour siege, police fired warning shots to keep the people at bay while the farmers resisted the occupation by throwing bricks, glass bottles, stones, and Molotov cocktails, the witnesses said.
Mass Security Clampdown in Land Seizure
Australia: Urge Human Rights Improvements in Vietnam
(New York) – Australia should urge Vietnam to release all political prisoners and to end restrictions on the freedoms of expression, association, peaceful assembly, belief, and religion when the two sides meet for their annual bilateral human rights dialogue in Hanoi on April 26-27, 2012, Human Rights Watch said today in a 16-page memo submitted to Australia. During the first quarter of 2012 alone, Vietnam sent at least 12 people to prison for exercising these rights peacefully. This follows the imprisonment of at least 33 rights activists and internet bloggers who were convicted in 2011 for simply expressing their political and religious beliefs. “Vietnam has mastered the practice of harassing, arresting, and charging activists brave enough to speak their minds with vaguely worded national security crimes that carry severe penalties,” said Phil Robertson , deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.Sáng nay Chủ nhật 7-8-2011, nhân sĩ trí thức và người dân Hà Nội lại xuống đường biểu tình phản đối Trung Quốc xâm phạm chủ quyền Việt Nam tại Hoàng sa Trường sa. Courtesy NguyenXuanDienBlog Người dân biểu tình chống Trung Quốc tập trung xung quanh tượng đài Vua Lý Thái Tổ, Hà Nội sáng 07-08-2011. Tin sơ khởi cho biết, vào lúc 8:20 sáng người biểu tình đã tập trung xung quanh tượng đài Vua Lý Thái Tổ.
Tường thuật cuộc biểu tình chống Trung Quốc lần thứ 9, ngày 7-8-2011 | RFA Tiếng Việt's Blog
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Armed Chinese soldiers allegedly beat a Vietnamese fisherman and threatened other crew members before driving them out of waters near disputed South China Sea islands claimed by both countries, a Vietnamese official said Thursday.A Chinese navy ship chased the fishermen before dispatching a speedboat with 10 soldiers armed with automatic rifles and batons, a border official in Vietnam's central Quang Ngai province said on condition of anonymity, citing policy. The soldiers boarded the fishing boat near the contested Paracel Islands.The soldiers punched and kicked the Vietnamese captain and threatened nine other crew members in the July 5 incident, he said, adding the captain was not injured.The Vietnamese official said the Chinese soldiers confiscated one ton of fish from the boat and drove it from the area.
Vietnam: Chinese soldiers attack fishermen
Hmongs in Laos begged to be rescued by the Western world Ever since BBC Vietnamese has its “change of the guard” – replacing pre-1975 staff with younger staff that came from Vietnam after the war ended on April 30, 1975 – I have been following its news reporting with skepticism. True to my doubts about its news reportage being used as the Vietnamese government unofficial channel to the Western world, the new BBC Vietnamese staff has dutifully used BBC’s reputation (un-biased reporting) to further the Vietnamese (communist) government’s aim in its ‘winning the hearts and minds’ campaign against the so-called Viet-Kieus – a deragotary term the communists used for Vietnamese living abroad.
BBC Vietnamese staff rebelling against the Vietnamese government ? « NamViet News
Advertising, display How to place a display ad on Chron.com. Arts and Entertainment
Freed Vietnam dissident to wage democracy fight | National news | Chron.com
Gia đình BS Phạm Hồng Sơn và LS Lê Quốc Quân kêu cứu | RFA Tiếng Việt's Blog
Khánh An, phóng viên RFA Bangkok Bác sĩ Phạm Hồng Sơn và Luật sư Lê Quốc Quân tiếp tục bị gia hạn tạm giữ thêm một lần nữa sau khi lệnh tạm giữ gia hạn trước đó hết hiệu lực vào ngày 10/4. File photo LS Lê Quốc Quân (trái) và BS Phạm Hồng Sơn. Gia đình hai nhân vật bất đồng chính kiến này đã lên tiếng kêu cứu xin cộng đồng Việt Nam quan tâm và giúp đỡ để người thân của họ sớm được trả tự do. Khánh An có cuộc nói chuyện với chị Vũ Thúy Hà, vợ của BS.
Viet Nam: Open letter: Conviction of Mr. Cu Huy Ha Vu / April 7, 2011 / Statements / Human rights defenders / OMCT
OPEN LETTER to HE Nguyen Minh TRIET President of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam HE Nguyen Tan DUNG Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Viet NamVietnamese rights lawyer jailed over call for democracy | World news
Cu Huy Ha Vu, centre, is escorted from court in Hanoi. His one-day trial saw protests and the judge evicting one of his defence lawyers. Photograph: EPA A dissident lawyer and son of a Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader has been sentenced to seven years in prison and a further three years' house arrest for calling for an end to Vietnam 's government and its one-party system. Cu Huy Ha Vu was sentenced after a dramatic one-day trial in Hanoi in which one of his defence attorneys was ejected by the judge and his other three lawyers walk out in protest. Vu was left alone to defend himself and had several heated exchanges with the judge.
Vietnamesischer Regimekritiker verurteilt: Sieben Jahre Haft für Anwalt
Vietnamesischer Regimekritiker verurteilt Ein Gericht befindet den 53jährigen für schuldig, das Einparteiensystem in Frage gestellt zu haben. Zuvor hatte er Klage gegen den Regierungschef eingereicht. von SVEN HANSEN Cu Huy Ha Vu am Montag vor Gericht.The United States is deeply concerned by the April 4 conviction and sentencing to seven years imprisonment of activist Cu Huy Ha Vu on charges of “propagandizing against the government.” We are also troubled by the apparent lack of due process in the conduct of the trial, and the continued detention of several individuals who were peacefully seeking to observe the proceedings. Vu’s conviction runs counter to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and raises serious questions about Vietnam’s commitment to rule of law and reform.
Vietnam: Conviction of Activist Cu Huy Ha Vu
Jailed Vietnam dissident's lawyers lodge complaint
Jailed Vietnam dissident's lawyers lodge complaint (AFP) – Apr 5, 2011 HANOI — Lawyers for the dissident son of a Vietnamese revolutionary leader on Tuesday challenged his seven-year jail sentence, saying the judges violated the law during his short trial.Not a prayer for US-Vietnam diplomacy By Scott Johnson While much has been made of the role leaked confidential United States diplomatic cables have played in the political convulsions now sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, there is at least one batch of documents that show how US President Barack Obama's government has willfully looked away from sustained abuses committed by an emerging strategic ally in Asia: Vietnam. The cables in question, entitled "Vietnam Religious Freedom Update - the Case Against CPC [Country of Particular Concern]", were written in 2010 by US ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak and published by WikiLeaks in January this year. The leaked correspondence which assessed Vietnam's freedom of