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A Cooperative Project of NCVA and BPSOS
May 2012 Vol I, No 2
"Severe restrictions on the citizens' political rights":
State Department's Annual Human Rights Report on Vietnam
On May 24, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton officially released the U.S. State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices covering events during 2011. "These reports, which the United States government has published for nearly four decades, make clear to governments around the world [that] we are watching, and we are holding you accountable," she said. "They make clear to citizens and activists everywhere, you are not alone. We are standing with you."
While applauding the Arab Spring and recent developments in Burma, the report noted a dismal record in North Korea, Syria and Iran as well as increasing human rights violations in China and in Vietnam. The 42-page report on Vietnam says the worst human rights problems in Vietnam in 2011 were "severe restrictions on citizens’ political rights, particularly their right to change their government; increased measures to limit citizens’ civil liberties; and corruption in the judicial system and police.”
A Cooperative Project of NCVA and BPSOS
April 2012 Vol I, No 1
Vietnam facing "time bomb" of dissent
"The US government and rights groups are expressing concern over Vietnam's crackdown on freedom of expression, as the regime faces growing dissent and labor militancy," the Democracy Digest of April 18, 2012, reports.
Among the more notorious human rights violations in recent days figure the following:
A Catholic priest, Nguyen Van Binh of Yen Kien Parish, Hanoi, was beaten unconscious by a gang of thugs on April 14 when he tried to stop the demolition by police of a house he had used as an orphanage. (The Archdiocese of Hanoi protested this in a letter of April 15, 2012.)
This followed an incident on February 23, 2012, when Father Nguyen Quang Hoa of Kon Hring Parish, Kon Tum Province, was pursued on a motorbike by three aggressors after he performed funeral rites for a parishioner in Turia Yop village (Dak Hring township, Dak Ha prefecture). After catching up with him they pursued him for over 200 yards beating him with iron rods as he fled into a rubber plantation.