Nov.6 (DP.net).─ Participatory Democracy Cultural Initiative (PDCI), as a participant of the goals promoted by the World Movement for Democracy (WMD) is glad to announce that Vietnamese dissident, Dr. Cu Huy Ha Vu, was liberated by the authorities of his country and left Vietnam in a direct flight to the United States.
The WMD orchestrated a campaign in favor of Dr. Vu including a Recent Alert dated October 24, 2014, revealing the repressive policies of the Vietnamese government. His only "crime" was a criticism of his government in an article published in the Voice of America. Previously he had been imprisoned in 2011 for making public demands for democratic reform and organizing activists in peaceful opposition to the Hanoi's dictatorial government.
Other former Vietnamese prisoners of conscience are not so lucky.
Pham Ba Hai and Le Van Soc were beaten by orquestrated mobs after visiting former political prisoner Duong Au in Duc Trong district in Lam Dong province, some 150 miles NE of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). The Vietnamese police did not attempt to detain anyone of the agressors; instead they detained the two dissidents. Pham Ba Hai was able to report after his release that during his detention by policemen in Vinh, he was severely attacked by the local security chief and seven police officers during a violent interrogation. Furious after failing to open Hai’s personal computer, the chief attacked him by thrusting two of his fingers into Hai’s nose. He also burn Hai’s arm with cigarettes.
Another pro-democracy advocate, Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay), was recently forced to take a flight to the U.S., and said upon his arrival to America that he will challenge Vietnam’s government in international court for violations of international conventions and the country’s Constitution.
The US government had a lukewarm reaction to these abuses as Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski asked Vietnam during his visit on Oct. 22-26 "to do more" to improve its human rights if it wants to boost economic and security cooperation with the US. (The US imported from Vietnam close to $30 billion in goods and services in 2013 –twice as much as in 2010– while exporting just $5 billion last year)
During his meetings with Vietnamese government officials, the American senior diplomat explained that some articles of the country’s Criminal Code were not consistent with the nation’s obligations and that they “appear to target freedom of expression and association.”
Just a few days after Malinowski's departure, former political prisoner Chu Manh Son was detained by local police in the central province of Nghe An on Oct. 30 and tortured by a state official when he went to Vinh Airport to welcome two activists: Pham Ba Hai and Le Van Soc.
The "progressive" government usually described by the US press and praised with regrettable leniency by US officials appears to be only existing in a fairy tale Vietnam.