New Vietnamese Party Vows to Challenge Dominant Communist Rule

RFA August 19,2013

A veteran member of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam is spearheading efforts to form a new party to challenge the government by attracting support from members disgruntled by a slowing economy and concerned over Chinese territorial encroachment.

The Social Democratic Party founded last week by Le Hieu Dang, a leading dissident and 45-year Communist Party member, aims to establish multiparty rule and “build a true democracy,” its leaders said, vowing to confront the government despite the risk of arrest.

Hundreds of Communist Party members have already decided to leave the Communist Party to join the new party, according to a statement by the Social Democratic Party, whose founding follows rare public debate this year on the need for constitutional amendments allowing multiparty rule.

The Communist Party’s monopoly on power is enshrined in the constitution, and the formation of other parties is banned. Questioning Communist Party rule is considered a serious crime in Vietnam and dozens of activists and netizens have been arrested this year for anti-state activities.

Dang, a civil rights lawyer, said he had founded the Social Democratic Party because Vietnam is facing a “critical time,” adding that reforms are needed if the country is to continue its social and economic progress.

“The reason behind having a new party coexisting with the Communist Party is that for any development of society we always need different opinions,” he told RFA’s Vietnamese Service Monday.

“Society can’t develop if there is only one opinion, one ruling party.”

A rival to the Communist Party is needed to challenge its policies on economic reforms and ties with China, he said, referring to Hanoi’s territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea and what he termed excessive Chinese investments on land in Vietnam’s resource-rich Central Highlands.

“Our social and economic situation is getting worse. There are concerns about our economy and education,” he said.

The Communist Party, which has based its grassroots support on rapid economic growth over the past decades, has been battered in recent years by a series of high-level corruption scandals in state-owned enterprises.

'Ready for any attack'

Despite possible dangers of repercussions, the Social Democratic Party intends to operate “legally, not in secret,” Dang said.

Cofounder Ho Ngoc Nhuan, the former vice-chair of the party-backed Vietnam Fatherland Front’s Ho Chi Minh City unit, said in a statement announcing the organization’s establishment that members are prepared to face the consequences of challenging the ruling party.

“We are ready for any attack,” he said in the Aug. 15 statement which was circulated online, urging young people to join.

“Don’t have any reservations; don’t be scared of being arrested or mistreated,” he said.

'Betrayed' by the Communist Party

The party is counting on garnering the support of longtime Communist Party members who feel disappointed in its authoritarian rule, he told RFA.

“They are angry. They have fought for the country and for the people all their lives and now they feel betrayed.”

The Social Democratic Party is committed to nonviolence and does not intend to “ruin” the Communist Party, but rather “talk to them as equals,” he said.

Its establishment follows a proposal for multiparty rule made in January in a draft constitution signed by 72 Vietnamese intellectuals and activists including Dang, Nhuan, and other longtime Communist Party members as well as government officials.

The proposed draft, an alternative to a government version that upheld protections for Communist Party’s rule enshrined in the constitution, garnered thousands of signatures of support after it was circulated online.

Journalist Nguyen Dac Kien was fired by his state-run newspaper after he blogged about an attack by the Communist Party chief on those calling for greater constitutional reforms.

Many members of Bloc 8406, a coalition of activist groups that in 2006 wrote an online manifesto calling for multiparty rule, have faced arrest.

Reported by Mac Lam and An Nguyen for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
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Pakistan: Musharraf Charged In Bhutto Death

By SkyNews August 20,2013

Dictator Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan

Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been charged over the 2007 murder of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

"He was charged with murder, criminal conspiracy for murder and facilitation for murder," said public prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar.

Musharraf appeared briefly at the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, where he denied the charges.

He has been under house arrest near Islamabad since April 19, but appeared before the court in person.

"The charges were read out to him in the court. He denied the charges," said Mr Azhar.

Musharraf's legal team has dismissed the indictment.

"These charges are baseless. We are not afraid of the proceedings. We will follow legal procedures in the court," his lawyer Syeda Afshan Adil said.

Scores of security forces guarded the area around the court in Rawalpindi, the city where Bhutto was killed on December 27, 2007, and roads were sealed off for Musharraf's appearance.

The indictment follows lingering speculation about the possibility of a behind-the-scenes deal that could allow Musharraf to leave Pakistan without facing the courts and embarrassing the military.

Bhutto, twice elected prime minister of Pakistan, was assassinated in a gun and bomb attack after campaigning for elections that were won by her Pakistan People's Party in February 2008.

There was no public claim of responsibility for her murder.

Musharraf's government blamed the assassination on Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement.

He was killed in a US drone attack in 2009.

The Bhutto case is one in a series of court battles that Musharraf has faced over allegations dating back to his 1999-2008 rule, since he returned in March from four years of self-imposed exile.

The new government headed by Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf deposed in 1999, has said he should stand trial for treason for subverting the constitution and has appointed a committee to investigate him.

The offence carries the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The case has been adjourned until August 27.
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CPP Threatens Legal Action Against CNRP

Cambodia Daily - By Matt Blomberg and Neou Vannarin - August 21, 2013

Left: Mr. Sam Rainsy--Leader of CNRP
Right: Dictator Hun Sen--Loser of CPP and Hanoi-puppet

The CPP on Tuesday threatened legal action against the CNRP if it did not cease its “defamatory rhetoric” regarding the ruling party’s relationship with the National Election Committee (NEC), which the opposition accuses of rigging July’s election in order to keep the CPP in power.

The CPP on Monday released a statement rejecting accusations of collusion with the NEC, and Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said Tuesday that there were legal avenues the ruling party could take in order to silence the CNRP.

“Everyone has their limits and we need the CNRP to know what our limits are—we can’t accept these defamatory, discrediting accusations anymore,” Mr. Siphan said.

“We respect freedom of expression but this is not freedom of ex­pression. There are laws in place to protect organizations against such defamatory rhetoric. Legal action may be taken.”

Monday’s CPP statement came a week after negotiations between the rival parties to form a subcommittee to investigate polling day complaints faltered, with the CPP and CNRP unable to agree on the NEC’s role in such a committee.

“Accusations which claim the Cambodian People’s Party colluded with the National Election Committee to cheat for votes are groundless accusations intended to create public confusion in relation to the election process in Cambodia,” the statement reads. “[The] CPP would like to strongly deny those accusations.”

The CNRP has repeatedly called for an independent investigation into reports of widespread electoral irregularities, saying that the NEC is a tool of the ruling party—concerns that have also been voiced by the U.N. human rights special rapporteur to Cambodia, Surya Subedi, and the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia.

CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann on Tuesday reiterated the opposition’s doubts over the NEC’s impartiality and questioned Mr. Siphan’s threat of legal action.

“It’s for the whole world to see—the NEC is systematically appointed by the CPP,” he said. “The voters know it, the U.N. knows it and the international community knows it.”
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Vietnam caught between a rock and a hard place

YaleGlobal August 9, 2013 by David Brown

Is disappointment with China the reason behind Vietnam president's recent hurried visit to Washington?

Early in June, US State Department officials told a Congressional sub-committee that closer ties with Vietnam, in particular weapons sales, are on hold until there is "continued, demonstrable, sustained improvement in the human rights situation". The officials put on the public record a message that US diplomats have been delivering privately for a couple of years. Their testimony largely went unnoticed except by the online media that stoke the fires of dissidence in Vietnam.

Coincidentally, Vietnamese police arrested yet another blogger on June 13, charging Pham Viet Dao with "abusing his right of free speech to undermine the interests of the State". Over 40 dissidents have been jailed this year, twice the pace of 2012. Moreover, there's evidence that the cyber-security arm of Vietnam's police has deployed FinFisher surveillance technology - made by UK-based Gamma International - to plant spy software in computers and smartphones of people who access dissident blogs.

Hanoi has not welcomed American comments on human rights issues. Party stalwarts gag on demands that Vietnam allow greater democratic freedoms, fearing that Washington's true objective is to bring down the regime.

The crackdown on bloggers seemed to manifest a regime tilt toward China, the bEte noire of Vietnam's dissidents. For years, dissident bloggers have flayed the regime for, they say, its failure to defend Vietnam's interests against its giant neighbour. Exhibit A: China's step-by-step solidification of a claim to "indisputable sovereignty" over most of the South China Sea, including waters off Vietnam's coast.

Vietnam's naval and air forces, though not insignificant, are no match for China's. Rather than risk clashes over disputed rocks and reefs - and possible oil and gas deposits - Vietnam's rulers have sought to brake Chinese aggression by rallying the support of ASEAN partners and by forging "strategic relationships" with the US and other extra-regional powers. The results of these diplomatic efforts have been modest. Asean's 10 members have jawed on about "centrality" in regional matters, but failed to establish a common front with respect to China's sweeping territorial claims.

Meanwhile, wary of being manoeuvred into defending Vietnamese or Filipino islets, the US has insisted that it "does not take sides" on territorial disputes. Worried also that the rising superpower will retaliate in other areas, Washington and most ASEAN capitals have shied away from direct challenge to Beijing's quest for hegemony over waters lying between Hong Kong and Singapore.

Beijing's claims are based on records of visits by fishermen centuries ago. In contrast, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam rely on the UN Charter on the Law of the Sea and other international law. Policy shepherds in Washington agree that the thicket of claims must be untangled by reference to those legal precepts. But this stance is undermined by repeated US failures to ratify UNCLOS and the failure of the four ASEAN frontline states to sort out conflicting claims among themselves. The stance offers no clue to Washington's course if Beijing continues to nibble its way toward a fait accompli.

As tensions have risen, non-Communist Vietnamese and a significant faction within the Communist Party have urged a de facto economic and military alliance with the US. There's been progress toward Vietnam's membership in the projected US-led Trans-Pacific economic partnership. Although many party leaders remain sceptical of US intentions, in the last four years there's been remarkable expansion of consultations with the US armed forces. In June, for example, senior members of Vietnam's general staff toured US bases.

Until recently, that sort of military-to-military dalliance, designed to signal to Beijing that Hanoi has options, seemed to have hit its natural limits - friendly visits and a bit of training in non-combat activities like search-and-rescue. A year ago Vietnam rejected former US secretary of defence Leon Panetta's proposal that it host rotations of US troops and warships.

Again this spring, Beijing flexed its maritime muscles. Uncharacteristically, Hanoi hardly reacted. In May, it registered complaints about rough treatment dealt to Vietnamese fishermen and denied a PetroVietnam report that Chinese vessels had harassed one of the state oil company's survey ships. Why became clear on June 14, when Hanoi announced that Vietnam's President Truong Tan Sang would pay a state visit to China.

Sang's trip, the first by a top Vietnamese leader since Xi Jinping was installed as China's president in March, was loaded with ritual and meaning accrued over a millennium of such missions. The Vietnamese are justly proud of a tradition of successful resistance to invading Chinese armies. Also throughout their history, they've often induced China to respect Vietnam's autonomy by projecting deference. Hanoi was kowtowing vigorously.

The orchestration of Sang's visit suggests that, notwithstanding frictions, Vietnam's leaders remain hopeful that China's leaders will not betray a ruling party so like their own. There was the usual heavy stress on the two countries' "comprehensive strategic relationship". Signatures were affixed to a sheaf of routine agreements.

Other than an earful of admonition, Sang appears to have taken little home from Beijing. Xi promised that China would "actively take effective and drastic measures" to narrow a $16 billion imbalance in bilateral trade flows. Such promises have been made before to no great effect. On the South China Sea, Sang had nothing to show but agreement on a hotline to discuss incidents involving fishermen. By rejecting mention of UNCLOS, to which both nations are signatories, and other prescriptions of international law as the foundation of a territorial settlement, Beijing stepped back from assurances it gave Vietnam 20 months ago when Hanoi agreed to bilateral negotiation of claims to the Paracels, islets that China wrested from South Vietnam in 1974. Those talks haven't made progress. Conceding as much, Xi and Sang agreed that they'd be intensified.

The Politburo's subsequent decision to send Sang to Washington on July 25 suggests that Vietnam's leaders have been shaken by what Xi and his colleagues told Sang in private, and are ready to deal with the US on a more intimate defence relationship. A leading dissident was to go to trial on the day before Sang's pending trip was announced; that trial has been indefinitely postponed. Vietnam's leaders may hope President Barack Obama will settle for such cosmetic gestures. If so, they are likely mistaken.

As the administration acknowledged to Congress last month, "the American people will not support a dramatic upgrading of bilateral ties without demonstrable progress on human rights". In fact, the US does not need a more robust military tie with Vietnam to defend its interests in the South China Sea. It can afford to take the long view and surprise cynics by standing firm on human rights. With Vietnam War veterans John Kerry and Chuck Hagel now supervising US foreign and defence policy, that may be exactly what the US will do.

David Brown is a freelance journalist and retired US diplomat who worked in Vietnam for many years.
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US criticizes Vietnam new Internet control decree

August 6,2013

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) The United States joined global Internet giants Google and Facebook on Tuesday in criticizing a new decree in Vietnam that further curbs online free speech and forces foreign companies to keep servers inside the country.

The Internet has emerged as a major avenue of dissent in Vietnam, alarming conservative elements in the Communist government. Authorities want to stifle dissent, but must balance this with the reality that a free Internet is important to maintaining economic growth and attracting investment.

It issued Decree 72 last month, prohibiting the posting of material that "opposes" the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and "harms national security" and other vague terms. The decree cements an ongoing crackdown: Many of the 46 people convicted this year under other laws banning dissent were bloggers.

U.S. officials in Hanoi, as well as large multinational Internet companies, lobbied the government during the drafting process. Some of the more draconian elements were dropped, but the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi made it clear that it was disappointed with the final version.

"Fundamental freedoms apply online just as they do offline," the embassy said in a statement. "We are deeply concerned by the decree's provisions that appear to limit the types of information individuals can share via personal social media accounts and on websites."

Google and other Internet companies have been seeking to expand their business in Vietnam, which has a rapidly growing Internet sector, but are wary about having to cooperate with censorship requests and give up users' personal information to authorities.

The decree stipulates that foreign companies have to keep at least server inside the country, a move that gives the government some control over their activities. But this increases costs for multinational seeking to expand in Asia, effectively functioning as barrier to enter the market.

"We believe that the decree will negatively affect Vietnam's Internet ecosystem," said the Asia Internet Coalition, an industry grouping representing Google, Facebook and other Internet companies. "In the long term, the decree will stifle innovation and discourage businesses from operating in Vietnam."

It remains to be seen how much of the decree, which comes into effect on September 1, will be enforced.

Google and Facebook are currently the dominant players in the search and social sectors of the Internet market in Vietnam. They don't have offices inside the country, but are able to market their products. The government wasn't immediately available for comment.
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Vietnam human rights bill approved by U.S. House of Representatives

Source: Baptist Press, August 5,2013

WASHINGTON (BP) -- The U.S. House of Representatives has approved nearly unanimously a bill designed to advance religious freedom and other human rights in Vietnam.

In a 405-3 roll call Aug. 1, the House approved the Vietnam Human Rights Act, H.R. 1897, which will prohibit any increase in non-humanitarian U.S. aid to the Southeast Asian country if its government does not make significant progress in promoting human rights. The Senate has yet to act on the proposal.

Among its goals, the bill seeks to end religious abuses and return confiscated property to churches and religious communities.

The legislation also expresses the sense of Congress that the State Department should re-designate Vietnam as a "country of particular concern," a classification reserved for the world's worst violators of religious freedom.

The bill's purpose is "to send a clear, strong, and compelling message to the increasingly repressive communist regime in power in Vietnam that says that the United States is serious about combating human rights abuse" in that country, said Rep. Chris Smith, R.-N.J., in a written statement. Smith is the bill's House sponsor.

Protestants, Catholics, Buddhists and adherents of other faiths face government abuse, Smith said. Government officials have jailed journalists and have been complicit in human trafficking, Smith said.

The House-approved bill says the Vietnamese government "continues to limit the freedom of religion, restrict the operations of independent religious organizations, and persecute believers whose religious activities the Government regards as a potential threat to its monopoly on power."

According to the legislation, "unregistered ethnic minority Protestant congregations, particularly Montagnards in the Central and Northwest Highlands, suffer severe abuses because of actions by the Government of Vietnam, which have included forced renunciations of faith, arrest and harassment, the withholding of social programs provided for the general population, confiscation and destruction of property, subjection to severe beatings, and reported deaths."

The only representatives to vote against the bill were Republicans Paul Broun of Georgia and Walter Jones of North Carolina, as well as Democrat Gregory Meeks of New York.

The House vote followed by a week a July 25 state visit to Washington by Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang. In a joint news conference, President Obama said they "had a very candid conversation about both the progress Vietnam has made and the challenges that remain."

In a statement released later, the White House noted "narrow differences" between the two countries on the issue of human rights, but a statement in Nhan Dan, the official newspaper of Vietnam's Communist Party, claimed the differences were "many and significant."
--30--
Compiled by Baptist Press Washington bureau chief Tom Strode. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).
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HRW: Cambodia Ruling Party Orchestrated Vote Fraud

Human Rights Watch- New York - July 31,2013

Donors Should Demand Independent Investigation of Election Irregularities

People search for their names on lists at a polling station in Phnom Penh on July 28, 2013.

(New York) – The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) appears to have been involved in electoral fraud in Cambodia’s July 28, 2013 national elections, according to residents and ruling party officials interviewed by Human Rights Watch. All allegations of election fraud and other irregularities, including bias in the election machinery, should be promptly investigated by an independent commission.

The CPP-controlled National Election Commission (NEC) released preliminary results showing that the ruling party won 68 seats and the opposition Cambodian National Reconciliation Party (CNRP) won 55. Based on the same results, the CPP won approximately 49 percent of the national vote, while the CNRP won approximately 44 percent. The opposition has claimed widespread fraud and called for the creation of an independent expert body that includes the United Nations and nongovernmental groups to examine the results and address irregularities.

“Senior ruling party officials appear to have been involved in issuing fake election documents and fraudulently registering voters in multiple provinces,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “And people from the party seem to have been turning up in places where they clearly don’t live and insisting on voting – not to mention the many other claims of fraud around the country.”

A CPP village chief, who asked for anonymity to protect his security, gave Human Rights Watch an insider’s account of how ruling party authorities in his district engaged in electoral fraud by issuing fraudulent “Identity Certificates for Elections” (ICE) before the July 28 elections. The certificates allow people whose names appear on voter registration lists to vote even though they otherwise lack proper identification documents.

The village chief, whose local CPP superiors worked under instructions from a CPP Center-Level Work Team headed by an army general and a CPP Central Committee member, told Human Rights Watch that his immediate party superiors directly oversaw the illegal issuance of certificates. He explained that a member of the general’s team gave the instructions to issue certificates in the names of villagers who were on the voter registration rolls but were known either to be dead or to have long left their original homes.

The work team member allegedly arranged for soldiers and their wives from an army division stationed in the province to be photographed for certificates. These were then issued by CPP commune and Interior Ministry officials, who allegedly conspired in the scheme to falsely certify these soldiers and their wives as local residents eligible to vote in the commune where these officials were responsible for voter registration. One media report, which is consistent with other accounts, recounted villager descriptions of army-organized voting by thousands of soldiers shipped across provincial boundaries in military vehicles to vote in parts of Siem Reap province where none of them had ever been seen before.

“Issuing hundreds of thousands of fake identity certificates was allegedly one of several key ways the ruling party organized large scale election fraud,” Adams said. “Now, a CPP village chief has confirmed that this happened in his area.”

In another case, villagers in Kandal province, adjacent to the capital, Phnom Penh, described to Human Rights Watch efforts by senior CPP officials to vote in more than one place. When confronted by local residents, the party officials threatened them with arrest and later returned and made death threats.

Numerous residents of Koki Thom commune in Kandal interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that on election day, Ngo Sovan, whose business card states that he is “minister delegate attached to the prime minister” and specifies that he is a secretary of state at the Ministry of Justice, arrived in their commune to vote. He was accompanied by other members of the party’s grassroots strengthening team assigned to the area, as well as by Heng Seksa, whose card says he is a “deputy secretary-general of the Royal Cambodian Government,” and an entourage of dozens of government officials from Phnom Penh.

The villagers protested the group’s attempt to vote there, asserting to local electoral authorities that none of the people were local residents. The local electoral authorities, whom the villagers described as linked to the ruling party, nevertheless allowed the group to cast ballots.

Ngo Sovan’s team included several national level civil servants. According to the national voter registration list compiled from official data on the National Election Committee website and examined by Human Rights Watch, Ngo Sovan was registered to vote in three places. The first (voter registration number R-1424108) is at his known residence in Phnom Penh, where he is a prominent figure and resident, according to local residents Human Rights Watch interviewed.

Ngo Sovan is also registered in the provinces of Kandal (voter registration number R-6132454) and Svay Rieng (voter registration number R-6851267). He heads ruling party election grassroots strengthening or work teams in both provinces. In Kandal, Ngo Sovan also ran as a CPP candidate for the National Assembly.

Heng Seksa, who accompanied Ngo Sovan in Kandal, was registered to vote in both Phnom Penh (voter registration number R-6354916) and Kandal (voter registration number R-6132299), according to official data from the NEC website.

Villagers told Human Rights Watch that members of the entourage threatened them with arrest during the confrontation over whether the group’s members would be allowed to vote. After polls closed, a contingent of “flying tiger” motorcycle police arrived in the area. Villagers told Human Rights Watch that the police said they were looking for “ringleaders” of the “disturbances” that had occurred when the ruling party group’s voter registration was challenged.

The morning after the elections, some members of the group reappeared in the village along with others, including one armed man in civilian clothes, who attempted to identify and apprehend an alleged “ringleader.” Two witnesses told Human Rights Watch that members of the group threatened to kill villagers who refused to provide information on the whereabouts of the alleged ringleader, whom the group also vowed to kill and who has gone into hiding.

“The multiple voting scheme suggests the possibility of systematic election fraud by the CPP and raises serious questions about the credibility of the election,” Adams said. “Since the National Election Committee and local election commissions are under the ruling party’s control, influential governments and donors should demand independent investigations into these and other credible allegations of election related irregularities. Without this, it’s hard to see how Cambodian voters can have confidence in the legitimacy of the elections and the new government that results.”
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Cambodia Election - Feeling Cheated

The Economist - Jul 29th 2013, 10:55 by L.H. | PHNOM PENH

Voters Protest on Election Day July 28,2013

NOT long after the prime minister, Hun Sen, cast his vote at a teacher’s college on July 28th, the first signs of trouble emerged. Allegations that the electoral roll had been rigged were coming in from across Cambodia and a riot was about to erupt on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh. The counting made it plain that Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) had won, and by a generous margin. But the opposition made substantial gains—as well as claims that the CPP had cheated.

It was a dramatic conclusion to a dramatic home stretch. On July 12th the government had issued a pardon to Sam Rainsy, an opposition leader who had exiled himself from Cambodia since 2009, while criminal charges were prepared against him. He made his homecoming on July 19th, when he was met by a jubilant crowd. They may have hoped that Mr Sam Rainsy’s presence could bring their party an outright victory in the polls, but he seemed to have known better. Even then, with a week to go before the election, he was threatening to have the results condemned if the rules weren’t changed.

When July 28th came round, some voters were angered to discover that their names were not on the rolls, or that other people had already voted under their names. Other rumours flew furiously: for instance that the CPP was shipping in Vietnamese from across the border to cast ballots.

“Khmer can’t vote—yuon can,” went up the cry on social-media sites and among many who were protesting against the CPP. Yuon means Vietnamese people in Khmer, the main language of Cambodia. Many regard it as a highly derogatory term. Two police vehicles were overturned and set alight. By nightfall troops were deployed, roads blocked and Phnom Penh’s lively rumour mill had gone into overdrive. It all made a tense atmosphere tenser.

By the end of preliminary counting, the CPP acknowledged that the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) led by Mr Sam Rainsy had picked up 55 seats, an impressive improvement on the 29 seats it had already held in the 123-seat parliament. The CPP won 68 seats for itself, down from 90, and so lost the two-thirds majority which had enabled it to rewrite the constitution. Minor parties, including the once-formidable royalist Funcinpec party, were obliterated.

Mr Sam Rainsy stayed true to form. Throughout the campaign he stoked popular anti-Vietnamese sentiment, and with it a familiar fear of hegemony on the part of Cambodia’s big neighbour to the east. Mr Sam Rainsy’s critics in Cambodia say his rhetoric verged on being xenophobic. The Vietnamese embassy issued a rare statement that accused him of using racially charged rhetoric to score political points.

That is even more a shame for the fact that he probably didn’t need it. This election was decided on more practical issues. The opposition’s greatest advantage was the anger that has been mounting against the massive land concessions that are granted to Chinese and Vietnamese companies; a widening wealth disparity; and gross corruption that favours the politically connected.

These issues were made more potent by the emergence of a powerful youth vote. Demographic change has altered the political landscape; those born as Cambodia’s civil wars were ending two decades ago are just now coming of age. Being too young to remember the 1980s and ’90s themselves, they tend to be unmoved by Mr Hun Sen’s main argument: that an opposition victory could spell a return to civil conflict.

Armed with smartphones and social media, the youth went to the barricades for the CNRP. This made for an especially lively campaign, and in turn diminished the relevance of the government-friendly media. Its propaganda machine, in the end, was capable of little more than preaching to the choir.

The opposition has rejected the results formally and demanded that an independent committee be set up to investigate the irregularities and their impact on the poll. One day after the polls closed, independent election monitors said it was too early in the counting process to determine whether the vote was free and fair. The Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel) noted some worrying irregularities, including the use of ink that was supposed to be indelible—to prevent people from voting more than once—but in fact washed off easily. Comfrel also noted the disappearance of some names from the voter lists prepared by the National Election Committee, and the fact that strangers were spotted loitering about some polling booths.

Mr Sam Rainsy told a hastily arranged press conference that the opposition was not trying to bargain its way into government. “What we are interested in,” he said, “is to render justice to the Cambodian people.”

Meanwhile Mr Hun Sen, who over 28 years has established himself as the longest-serving elected leader in South-East Asia, was staying tight-lipped. He has been handed a stark choice: Reform the CPP, or dig in his heels. Any real reform would have to include laying down a clear path for succession. If he insists on maintaining the status quo then civil unrest is almost certain, whatever may be said about future elections.

(Picture credit: AFP)
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Refugee laws ignored: report

Source: Phnom Penh Post July 1,2013

Cambodian government officials have done little to enforce laws meant to protect the rights of Kampuchea Krom refugees, a recent report compiled for the UN says.

The five-page report, written by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), will be submitted to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ahead of its 2014 periodic review of Cambodia and Vietnam.

“In the areas of civil and political rights enough mechanisms are in place to adequately guarantee the rights of minorities, however, the implementation thereof is severely lacking,” the report says. “It takes political will from the Cambodian government.”

Despite the Cambodian government’s official stance that those who live in Kampuchea Krom – an area of southern Vietnam that was once part of the Khmer empire – are considered Cambodian nationals, they face discrimination and difficulties when trying to claim refugee status or obtaining identity cards in Cambodia, the report states. When applying for ID cards, applicants must show proof their parents are of Khmer ancestry, proof of their occupation and a permanent address – documentation people fleeing discrimination in Vietnam rarely possess.

“They didn’t have the rights that other Cambodian citizens have,” said Denise Coghlan, Cambodia country manager for Jesuit Refugee Services, an Australian Catholic NGO that focuses on refugee rights. The exact legal status for Khmer Krom remains fuzzy, she said.

The Cambodian constitution guarantees religious freedom in the Kingdom, but the UNPO report notes Khmer Krom Buddhist monks suffer systematic harassment and persecution in Vietnam and Cambodia. Khmer Kampuchea Krom have been detained, tortured and had their freedoms of speech and assembly trampled upon, the report notes.

About 200 people gathered in Phnom Penh last week to demand the release of two Khmer Krom monks Liv Ny and Thach Thoeun, both 30, who were arrested by Vietnamese authorities on charges they associated with pro-Khmer Krom organisations abroad.

UNPO’s report mentioned that although protections guaranteed by the constitution are often ignored by authorities, their existence is a step in the right direction.

“Despite widespread violations of human rights inflicted upon members of the Khmer Krom and Degar [montagnard] minorities, the government of Cambodia should be commended for incorporating key human rights . . . in their national constitution,” the report notes.

In order to improve its human rights standing for minorities, Cambodia should simplify the process in which Khmer Krom refugees can apply for ID cards, commit to investigating allegations of abuses by law enforcement among other steps toward inclusiveness.

The Cambodian government’s Human Rights adviser, Om Yentieng, declined to comment yesterday.
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Smith Human Rights Bill on Vietnam Passed by Foreign Affairs Committee

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) News Release

June 28, 2013 (Menafn - Congressional Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) --Washington, Jun 27 - Legislation on human rights issues in Vietnam was passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) author of the legislation, the Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2013.

The bill was approved in a unanimous voice vote of the full Committee.

Smith's Vietnam bill, H.R. 1897, would institute measures to improve human rights in Vietnam by prohibiting any increase in non-humanitarian assistance to the Government of Vietnam above Fiscal Year 2012 levels unless the government makes substantial progress in establishing a democracy and promoting human rights. The bill aims for improvement in freedom of religion (and releasing all religious prisoners), rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association, the release of all political prisoners, independent journalists, and labor activists, and to end any government complicity in human trafficking.

"Brazen human rights violations by the hands of the Vietnamese Government continue against its own people," Smith said, noting an April 11 congressional hearing that detailed widespread abuses, as well as government officials' involvement in trafficking Vietnamese women to Russia, Jordan and other locations. "The powerful testimony before Congress showed widespread religious, political and ethnic human rights abuse, and that Vietnamese Government officials are complicit in human trafficking. Vietnam, in fact, continues to be among the worst violators of religious freedom in the world," Smith said, noting the rights and freedoms of Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants and other faiths are routinely trampled upon by the government.

Go to: http://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=328489 for information about the April hearing, or go to: http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-highlighting-vietnamese-government-human-rights-violations-advance-us to view Smith's opening remarks at the hearing or witnesses' testimony. Smith's bill was subsequently passed by the House global human rights panel, the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, which Smith chairs, on May 15.

Read this original document at: http://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=340844

Copyright (C) 2013 Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc.
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UNPO Exposes Human Rights Abuses in Cambodia and Viet Nam

UNPO has submitted reports to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in anticipation of the Universal Periodic Review of the Kingdom of Cambodia and Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. These reports focus shed light on the marginalisation of the Khmer-Kampuchea Krom, Hmong and Degar-Montagnards.

The United Nations (UN) Universal Periodic Review is a mechanism which assess UN member countries’ human rights performance. Every four and a half years the situation of human rights within a state is assessed, and both Cambodia and Viet Nam are up for review at the 18th session in early 2014.

Despite the difference in countries, there is some overlap in the human rights issues. Specifically, in neither country has the indigenous status of any member been recognised, nor does either country possess an effective mechanism for processing land claims, and land-grabbing and dispossession and common practices. Moreover, religious persecution exists both in Cambodia and Viet Nam, and it has been associated with abuse by law enforcement officers, arbitrary arrests, indefinite detentions, extrajudicial torture, and the forced defrocking of monks.

Furthermore, in Viet Nam traditional Khmer names (of people, villages, districts and provinces) must be substituted with Vietnamese names, and the Khmer language is considered illegal under the constitution. Vietnamese authorities further repress the Khmer by censoring Khmer activist websites, and cultural and religious television broadcasts from abroad. Education in indigenous languages is also prohibited in most schools, and when allowed, textbooks are poorly written and ridden with mistakes. Imported textbooks are banned.

In Cambodia, the government bureaucracy makes it nearly impossible for Khmer Krom or Degar-Montagnard asylum seekers to be granted refugee status or identification cards. The requirement of unrealistic criteria (such as a permanent address in Cambodia) effectively prohibits the acquisition of such statuses. And when the refugees are able to satisfy the stringent criteria, often the authorities illegally force Khmer Krom to adopt a Cambodian name and perjure their place of birth to Cambodia. Additionally, the Cambodian state has pressured a refugee centre operated by the UN to shut down, decreasing transparency in how Cambodia deals with refugees.

UNPO’s reports make a series of recommendations to the HRC, including to:
[Viet Nam & Cambodia] Formally acknowledge and confirm the indigenous status of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom peoples, as well as that of the Christian Degar Montagnards;

[Viet Nam & Cambodia] Create an effective mechanism for the settlement of outstanding land claims by indigenous groups, and compensate those groups for the loss of their ancestral lands, as stipulated by Article 8 of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

[Viet Nam & Cambodia] Commit to investigating widespread allegations of abuse by law enforcement, arbitrary arrests, and extrajudicial torture, and explore possible judicial remedies for victims and their families.

[Viet Nam & Cambodia] Sign and ratify International Labour Organization Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, with the aim of respecting the traditions of indigenous peoples in relation to the use of their ancestral lands;

[Viet Nam] Amend domestic law provisions that criminalizes certain religious activities on the basis of vaguely-defined crimes of national security

[Viet Nam] Permit outside experts, including those from the United Nations and independent international human rights organizations, to have access to indigenous and minority communities in Vietnam;

[Cambodia] Afford refugee status, and the protections it entails, to all individuals, including Khmer Krom and Degar individuals, who satisfy the internationally accepted definition of a refugee. This includes ceasing the forced repatriations of Degar and Khmer Krom asylum seekers;

[Cambodia] Clarify the situation regarding the granting of citizenship to Khmer Krom individuals with authorising offices and officers, including what evidence is needed and what practices are not to be tolerated.

Source: http://www.unpo.org/article/16105
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Access submits UPR report on Vietnam: Cyber attacks on civil society a key concern

3:57pm | 19 June 2013 | by Connor Gadek
Deborah Brown contributed to this post

Access has partnered with ARTICLE 19, PEN International, and English PEN on a joint submission on Vietnam to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The submission focuses on the lack of improvement of human rights, specifically freedom of expression, in Vietnam since the last UPR in 2009, and highlights the Vietnamese government’s troubling response to the recent increase in cyber attacks against civil society.

The UPR was established in 2006 by the UN General Assembly to ensure the “fulfilment by each State of its human rights obligations.” The UPR is a mechanism to review the human rights record of all UN Member States and make recommendations for improvement every 4.5 years. Vietnam’s next review – when Access’ UPR submission will be taken into account – is scheduled for January 2014.

The submission notes that considerable limitations on free expression in Vietnam remain despite the fact that the Vietnamese government accepted a recommendation from the government of Sweden during its last review to “ensure that full respect for the freedom of expression, including on the Internet, is implemented.” Of particular concern is state controlled media and the lack of press freedom, restrictive legislation on freedom of expression, internet surveillance and cyber attacks on civil society, and the persecution of writers, journalists, bloggers, and human rights defenders.

Cyber Attacks

In the second cycle, we highlight the fact that cyber attacks on civil society in Vietnam have recently escalated to include: Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, fake domains, account takeovers, and website defacement. The impact of these attacks extend far beyond those directly targeted. The attacks broadly infringe upon civil society’s freedom of association, freedom of expression, and right to access information which are established by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam is party.

The report notes that pro-government actors in Vietnam have used DoS attacks to make independent media websites unavailable by falsely overloading the sites with internet traffic until they crash. The DoS attacks target websites that are either critical of the government or offer a platform for activists to organize, such as Facebook which is often inaccessible to many in Vietnam for varying lengths of time.

In Vietnam, pro-government actors have utilized fake domains to mirror the exact information of independent media websites while serving malware to their web visitors. The malware is used to implement key-loggers onto the visitor’s computer in order to access their private account information.

In addition, civil society organizations and activists in Vietnam have been subject to account takeovers. This is often accomplished through the use of malware-laden fake domains which breach an internet user’s digital security to access their private account information. On 26 May 2013, the government arrested Vietnamese blogger Truong Duy Nhat and his website was immediately compromised. Just after his arrest, visitors to his website would receive malware downloaded and installed onto their computers without the website visitor’s knowledge.

Website defacement has also been used in Vietnam as a tactic to suppress speech by changing the content of independent media websites’ to promote alternative views to the original content. These attacks are meant to delegitimize independent media and hinder activists’ ability to peacefully organize against government policies.

Recommendations

The UPR submission makes several important recommendations to the Vietnamese government on how to improve its treatment of digital rights and free expression. These include allowing online anonymity, allowing internet users to access blogs and websites outside of Vietnam, ending arbitrary surveillance of internet users, and ending any use of cyber attacks.

The review also requests that the Vietnamese government allow UN human rights experts, known as special rapporteurs, on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and on the situation of human rights defenders to visit and evaluate the current situation in Vietnam.

The UPR is the first mechanism put in place by the UN to address all human rights issues in all countries. This process is one of the few ways for NGOs to work with governments to improve human rights and hold them accountable to international law. Access is concerned by the ongoing violations of freedom of expression in Vietnam and the specific targeting of Vietnamese civil society, who use the internet to exercise their fundamental rights. We view Vietnam’s UPR as a valuable opportunity to engage the government on the global stage and to raise international pressure on Vietnam to protect and promote human rights, both online and off.
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Vietcongs police arrest anti-government blogger

HANOI | Fri Jun 14, 2013 5:06am EDT

Blogger Pham Viet Dao

(Reuters) - Vietnamese police have arrested an author and blogger for posting anti-government comments online, according to authorities, the latest in a crackdown on critics of the country's Communist rulers.

Pham Viet Dao, 61, was arrested on Thursday at his Hanoi home and accused of breaching a law prohibiting "abuse of democratic freedom" and "infringements against the state", according to the Ministry of Public Security.

If the case goes to trial and Dao is found guilty, he could face seven years in prison.

Dao has long been critical of Vietnam's one-party system. Like other bloggers bold enough to test the limits of Vietnam's constitutionally enshrined free speech, Dao has gained notoriety as internet usage grows and discontent simmers over the government's handling of a stale economy and rampant graft.

His arrest follows that of former journalist Truong Duy Nhat on May 26, who was also held under the same law.

The authorities have taken a harsh line on dissent, with arrests and convictions on the rise in the past three years and bloggers increasingly targeted as the number of web users soars to a third of Vietnam's estimated 90 million people.

The United States is keen to boost trade with Vietnam but has urged improvements in its human rights record as a prerequisite before strengthening defense and diplomatic ties.

In a June 5 address to Congress, the U.S. State Department's envoy for democracy, Daniel Baer, described Vietnam's crackdown on bloggers as part of "a years-long trend of deterioration".

(Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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Vietnam’s Prime Minister Slammed in Rare Confidence Vote

RFA - June 11,2013

Nguyen Tan Dung (L), Nguyen Phu Trong (C), Truong Tan Sang (R) in Hanoi, May 20, 2013.

Nearly one-third of Vietnam’s lawmakers have expressed dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s performance in the first ever confidence vote, state media reported Tuesday, amid reports of a power struggle within the leadership of the ruling communist party.

Several Vietnamese citizens told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that the vote was a sham, intended to cover up the government’s weaknesses and criticism over accountability, and reflected infighting within the administration.

Dung and 46 other top-ranking ministers and officials faced a vote of “high confidence,” “confidence,” or “low confidence” by secret ballot from the 498-member National Assembly, the country’s rubber stamp parliament, according to the official Vietnam News Agency.

Dung received more than 160 negative votes, representing more than 32 percent of assembly members—the third worst rating received by an official in the rare display of scrutiny.

President Truong Tan Sang, who is seen as the main political opponent to Dung, received only 28 negative votes. He also received the third highest number of “high confidence” votes compared to Dung’s rank of 25th.

Dung’s poor rating follows his admission last October that he had failed to effectively lead Vietnam’s economy out of turmoil just one week after he effectively escaped a leadership change at a crucial ruling Communist Party central committee meeting where he was publicly rebuked over a string of scandals that were traced back to the country’s leadership.

The vote provides a rare glimpse into how Sang’s popularity has grown while Dung struggles through his second term as prime minister, which will end in 2016.

Reports have said that the party is split between factions aligned with either the president or the prime minister.

The highest number of negative votes went to Nguyen Van Binh, Vietnam’s central bank governor, who received 209. The country’s education minister, Pham Vu Luan, was given 177 low confidence votes. The economy and the poor standard of schooling are the two highest items on the list of public concerns.

No officials received a rating of low confidence from two-thirds of the assembly which, according to ballot rules, could lead to their forced resignation.

The ballot also lacked a “no confidence” option for voters from the legislative body, where more than 90 percent of lawmakers are card-carrying members of the Communist Party.

The Vietnam News Agency quoted Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung as praising the vote, saying it “reflected exactly the current situation of the country, covering all aspects from society, foreign policy to national defence, security and justice.”

Official infighting

But sources told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that the general public considered the vote an indication of political infighting at the top levels of leadership, and otherwise offered no solution to the country’s problems.

“I think they are preparing for some kind of internal conflict and that the people don’t care about the vote,” said journalist Truong Minh Duc.

“The people do not participate in the National Assembly, so this is just for internal purposes … This is a vote by the Communist Party representatives, not by the people.”

Architect Tran Thanh Van, a prominent intellectual in Hanoi, called for a reevaluation of the system that places officials in positions of power so that the people are better represented.

“The issues of the voting system, how officials stand for election, and for the selection of candidates and representatives need to be addressed,” he said.

“The lawmakers need to be elected by the people before any votes take place within the National Assembly.”

A teacher named Pham Toan, called the vote “a mere joke” that failed to take the public sentiment into account.

“Why is the vote of confidence conducted by lawmakers that the people don’t have any confidence in,” Toan asked.

“The vote should have been taken by representatives that the people trust.”

Other sources complained that the government had provided no clear explanation of how it would deal with officials who received low confidence ratings.

‘Voiceless people’

In addition to its failure to right an ailing economy and education system, the Communist Party has faced criticism in January for proposing a constitutional revision widely seen as undemocratic.

Vietnamese authorities have also come under fire from human rights groups and some Western governments for jailing and harassing dozens of activists, bloggers, and citizen journalists since stepping up a crackdown on protests and freedom of expression online in recent years.

A female farmer who has repeatedly petitioned the government over losing her land without any resolution said that many Vietnamese had given up hope of having any say in their political future.

“We people at the bottom don’t know what is what. All we can do is hope that those at the top vote with our best interests in mind,” she said, speaking to RFA on condition of anonymity.

“We voiceless people can’t do anything.”

Reported by Viet Long for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Long. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
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Vietnamese Activists Form 'Brotherhood for Democracy'

Reported by An Nguyen for RFA's Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai and Joshua Lipes.

A group of mostly former jailed dissidents in Vietnam have set up a new online group to coordinate efforts to bring democracy to the country, now under one party communist rule.

The movement, known as the "Brotherhood for Democracy," was established about 10 days ago and the membership has grown to 70 so far.

The group wants to move away from what it calls individual- and petition-based approaches that have been taken so far to highlight the need to bring freedom to the country, organizers said.

"It is time for domestic democracy activists to gather to discuss and find the shortest path for democracy in Vietnam," lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, a former dissident prisoner and co-founder of the group, told RFA's Vietnamese Service.

"Before this, [pro-democracy] movements in Vietnam were just individual-based," he said. "There was no coordination. That was why they were weak."

"Now with the Brotherhood for Democracy, we can maximize the strong points of each individual, creating collective strength to fight more vigorously and, at the same time, help one another to overcome weak points. This helps to create a solidarity between us."

Bloc 8406

The biggest online Vietnamese group pushing for democratic reforms is Bloc 8406. It was organized across the country in 2006, but many of its leaders, including co-founder Roman Catholic priest and dissident Nguyen Van Ly are languishing in prison.

Ly was involved in various pro-democracy movements, for which he was imprisoned for a total of almost 15 years. His support for Bloc 8406 led to his latest sentence on March 30, 2007, for an additional eight years in prison, where he was released and then jailed again in 2011.

Unlike the Bloc 8406, the Brotherhood for Democracy is largely based in northern Vietnam, observers say.

"The democracy movement in Vietnam has reached a very high level [of momentum]," said Pham Van Troi who was among the first to sign up for membership in the new group after emerging from prison recently following a four-year sentence in October 2009 for pro-democracy activism.

"Many people want to join the brotherhood or want to establish their own groups. They are activists who fight for human rights in Vietnam everyday … We only care for our universal goal and work together toward that goal," he told RFA.

Internet-based

Both Dai and Troi said there was no need to seek permission from the Vietnamese authorities to register the group and hoped the government will not harass the members over the move.

"We set up this association on the Internet," Troi said. "We use information technology to seek democracy for the Vietnamese. Vietnam law does not have any regulations related to this kind of online activity."

"And because we don’t have to ask permission from the government, we hope not to face any interrogations by the government."

Dai said Vietnamese law, under Article 69, allowed for freedom to form an association of expression.

Online interaction

He said Brotherhood for Democracy would evolve based on online interaction through social utility groups like Facebook.

"We created a connection between us without being controlled by the law of Vietnam and we don' t need to ask for permission. We only have to adhere to the rules set by Facebook, service providers, U.S. law and international law," he said.

"Our law does not prohibit that activity. Everybody can meet on the Internet and when we see one another in real life, we also do not need to have any permission."

Dai also made clear that the Brotherhood for Democracy was not intended to stifle the growth of pro-democracy groups.

"If there are only a few associations or political groups, there is no way to force a big change in Vietnam. At the moment, we need many associations and groups to develop in different areas, including people from all walks of life, so in the future they can be big and strong enough to create a coalition, a bigger organization," he explained.

"By that time we can pressure the government to make changes to the pave the way for democracy, bringing benefits to all Vietnamese people in Vietnam."
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Communist Vietnam -- Human Trafficker Extraordinaire

By Michael Benge, AmericanThinker, May 4,2013

Vietnam is now the proud possessor of the inglorious title "The Worst Human Rights Violator in Southeast Asia," according to recent testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. State-affiliated labor export companies are major suppliers of men, women, and children to the forced labor and sex trafficking markets, while government officials profit from kickbacks.

Statistics on Vietnam's human trafficking range widely; though accurate information about this communist country is hard to find. Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security offers an official figure of 2,935 Vietnamese who were subjected to human trafficking between 2004 and 2009. However, international organizations report a far larger number; more than 400,000 victims since 1990. Even this covers only those reported as victims, omitting untold tens of thousands of abuses that go unnoticed, especially in the labor force.

Exporting workers is nothing new for Vietnam. After the 1975 communist takeover, hundreds of thousands of laborers were sent to the Soviet Union and European Eastern-Bloc countries as a form of war debt payment. Many ended up jobless, in debt, and stranded. Vietnam quickly graduated from supplying forced labor to trafficking women and children as sex slaves.

State-Sanctioned Sex Slavery

Vietnam is a primary supplier for commercial sexual exploitation, as well as forced labor -- and some who start out as laborers also wind up as sex slaves. Fraudulent or misrepresented marriages are one method by which Vietnamese women are exploited. The lure of marriage to a man in a comparatively rich country, coupled with a promised payment of up to $5,000 (ten times the average annual wage in Vietnam), is often too great a temptation for rural women and their impoverished families to resist. Women and children are sent to Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Macau, the Middle East, and Europe. In turn, Cambodian children are trafficked to urban centers in Vietnam. Increasingly, Vietnam is a destination for child sex tourism, with perpetrators visiting from Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, Taiwan, the UK, Australia, Europe, and the U.S. Women are also shipped to other countries to serve as surrogate mothers. Some are forced to produce babies for families that cannot have their own, while others have their babies sold for adoption by foreigners, primarily from Western countries.

Russia: a Case in Point

Ms. Hui Danh recently testified about a sex-trafficking and extortion ring that lured young Vietnamese women to Russia with promises of high-paying jobs (by Vietnamese standards) as waitresses. Instead they were sold to brothels in Moscow. The operation was run by government-sanctioned labor agencies, which provided kickbacks to Vietnamese officials. The passports of the young women were confiscated; they received only a pittance in pay, and had no health care or any way to return home. Some girls were held captive in Russia for more than four years, and were savagely beaten if they tried to leave the brothel. Even though they were being held against their will, they still had to pay rent and were charged for their meager food and clothing.

Ms. Danh's younger sister Be Huong was one of the sex slaves. After several months, her impoverished parents received a call asking for money to pay for medical expenses. They scraped together $300 and sent it to her. A few weeks later she called again saying that the employment agency in Vietnam had agreed to let her return home, but she would need $2,000 for air travel. Ms. Dang, who was living in the U.S., borrowed the money and sent it to the employment agency. Soon the amount was raised to $4,000, and later to $6,000; clearly, it was extortion.

In February of this year, 13 months after her enslavement, Be Huong escaped from the brothel, along with three other victims. She was able to contact the Consular Envoy, Nguyen Dong Trieu, in the Vietnamese Embassy in Moscow and begged for his help. Trieu told her that prostitution was not legal in Russia and said, "Whoever brought you here, ask them to take you home." Two days later, Be Huong and the other three victims were recaptured by the brothel guards, and the three girls with her were severely beaten. Be Huong later learned that the Madame of the brothel in Moscow was a good friend of the Consular Envoy, who had betrayed the girls.
When Ms. Danh learned of her sister's plight, she contacted two U.S. non-government organizations; Boat People SOS, and the Coalition to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery in Asia, which put her in contact with Congressman Al Green and the State Department.

Through their efforts and with assistance from the media, Be Huong was returned to Vietnam, but not without costs. First, she was forced by the brothel Madame -- Thuy An -- to call her parents and ask them to withdraw their complaint to the Vietnamese police about the employment agency. Ms. Danh also had to submit a written apology to the Madame for wrongly accusing her of sex trafficking. Finally, she was also forced to write a letter to Vietnamese officials in Moscow thanking them for helping with Be Huong's repatriation. Only then was she allowed to leave.

Finally, Be Huong was allowed to go to the Vietnamese Embassy; there she was told by staff member Kien that her release was conditional. She had to write a letter stating what she had told her relatives about Madam Thuy An was inaccurate, and one thanking the embassy officials and Madam Thuy An for having helped her with repatriation.

The Vietnamese Embassy had of course done nothing, nor had Madam Thuy An, for it was only through diplomatic and media pressure that Be Huong was allowed to go home. Through continued pressure, six other victims were finally released and returned to Vietnam. Eight others remain enslaved by Madame Thuy An, with the assistance of the Vietnamese Embassy in Moscow.

Labor Trafficking

Vietnam started its labor trafficking by taking a page from the playbook of communist Field Marshal Tito, who exported surplus labor as a safety valve to reduce resistance amongst Yugoslavia's youth. Tito was an extreme and ruthless dictator (though quite popular in the West) who served as "President for Life" until his death in 1980.

Communist Vietnam now exports a great share of its labor force in an attempt to quell the unrest fermenting in that country, as well to increase revenue; in 2007, Vietnamese working in foreign countries sent home the equivalent of US $2 billion. Vietnam has a labor force of more than 51.4 million workers, and 70% of the population is under 30 years of age. Despite the labor trafficking, 12% -- 10 million -- of Vietnam's remaining workers are jobless, according to the International Monetary Fund.
The Vietnamese government set a goal to send 500,000 workers overseas in 2005, and the number has been increasing ever since. In 2008, Vietnam reached an agreement with Qatar to increase the number of workers to be sent to the Middle East from 10,000 to ten times that number by the end of 2010.

The Art of Trafficking

Many labor export companies in Vietnam are part of intricate trafficking syndicates and extortion rings, and government officials and banks are frequently involved. Applicants are deceived by contracts -- dubbed hop dong noi -- "domestic contract," that describe the type of work, good working conditions, and decent pay; however, they may have to pay as much as $10,000 just to apply. Applicants are often encouraged to seek a loan, such as one from a state-owned Agricultural and Rural Development Bank, to cover the fee, using their parents' property as collateral. If the loan is not enough, the parents have to mortgage or sell their remaining properties.

After the non-refundable application fee is paid, the workers are often given the real contract to sign only a day or so before leaving. This typically stipulates different terms than the original contract, using legal terms they cannot understand. Once in the destination country (which may not be the one they signed up for), the workers' passports and documents are confiscated and they are forced to sign yet another contract, hop dong ngoai -- "foreign contract," in a foreign language they cannot understand at all. Thus they find themselves working longer hours under substandard conditions, for much less pay than promised, with little or no access to medical care. Many times, workers are not fully paid and are held in debt bondage, while being forced to make mandatory monthly payments to the labor export company. As a result, workers cannot pay off their loans, have no money to return home, and their families lose their land and other properties.

The Vietnamese Embassies provide little or no help to these exploited people. True, the Vietnamese government has passed laws against human trafficking, and prosecutes a few cases now and then; but that is just window dressing. It's a charade to fool the UN, the U.S., and other gullible donor countries into believing that Vietnam's communist government is addressing the issue. Meanwhile, the labor and sex trade goes on with a wink and a nod from officials who are on the take. By the way, did you know it's against the law in Vietnam to report corruption?
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US: Human rights worsening in China, Vietnam

April 20,2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — Human rights conditions are deteriorating in China and Vietnam but improving in Burma as it continues on its bumpy path to democracy, the U.S. said Friday.

The State Department also said in its annual assessment of human rights around the world that conditions in North Korea remain “deplorable.” The report said defectors reporting extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, arrests of political prisoners and torture.

The department took aim at the continuing crackdown on political activists and public interest lawyers in China during 2012. It pointed to a “systemic” use of laws to silence dissent and punish individuals, and their relatives and associates, for attempting to exercise freedom of expression and assembly.

Authorities increased repression and restrictions on religious freedom in ethnic Tibet regions, where rising numbers of people have set themselves on fire to protest against Beijing, the report said.

The department’s conclusions typically draw a stiff response from the Chinese government, where the Communist Party monopolizes power but has overseen decades of rapid economic growth that has hoisted hundreds of millions out of poverty.

In Vietnam, another one-party state, the report said the government has attacked critical web sites and spied on, fined, arrested, and convicted dissident bloggers. The U.S. also criticized the imprisonment of dissidents using vague national security legislation, and restrictions on religious and labor rights.

The department said Burma “continued to take significant steps in a historic transition toward democracy” in 2012, with political prisoner releases, relaxing press censorship and allowing trade unions. It also staged by-elections that saw Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi take a parliamentary seat.

But it said the country’s authoritarian structure from five decades of military rule remains largely intact.

Burma also needs to work urgently to overcome deep divisions that have caused outbreaks of inter-ethnic violence, claiming at least 100 lives and displacing tens of thousands in Rakhine State in June and October. Those bloody clashes — that have spread this year to the country’s heartland — have mostly targeted minority Muslims.

In Indonesia, which has transitioned from military rule to become one of Southeast Asia’s most robust democracies, the U.S. said security forces are reporting to civilian authority.

But suppression of the rights of religious and ethnic minorities is a problem, it said. The government applied treason and blasphemy laws to limit freedom of expression by peaceful independence advocates in the provinces of Papua, West Papua and Maluku, and by religious minority groups.

The report said the government of Sri Lanka tightened its grip on power and made little meaningful effort in 2012 toward reconciliation with the Tamil minority community following the end of the country’s long civil war four years ago. Involuntary disappearances continued and the government did not account for thousands who disappeared in prior years.

The U.S. also criticized the government’s impeachment of the Supreme Court chief justice, and said persons allegedly tied to the government attacked and harassed civil society activists, journalists and purported Tamil rebel sympathizers.
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[Hmong] Vietnamese church leader killed in custody

Published: April 03, 2013--CathNews

Beaten picture of Vam Ngaij Vaj

A church leader has died in police custody in Vietnam, according to the rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), ucanews.com reports.

Photographs taken soon after the death of Vam Ngaij Vaj show “severe and bloody bruising” on his back and neck, CSW said in a statement on Tuesday.

“CSW calls on the Vietnamese government to fully investigate the circumstances in light of signs that he was tortured,” said the group’s chief executive, Mervyn Thomas.

Vaj, an elder of a church affiliated to the officially recognized Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South) and a member of the Hmong minority, was arrested for “destroying the forest” while clearing brush from his field with his wife, CSW said.

He was arrested on March 16 and died just a day later. Police claim he had accidentally put his hand into an electric socket, CSW said.

But the US Morningstar News website quoted a local Hmong leader as saying he may have been electrocuted as well as beaten.

The incident occurred in Dak Nong province in the Central Highlands and CSW said sources there report that the charge of destroying the forest is used to intimidate local Christians, many of whom fled to the area from further north to escape religious persecution.

It says it received reports last month of harassment and intimidation by local authorities and “thugs working with them.”

In another story, a Catholic Vietnamese fish farmer who became a hero for resisting compulsory land eviction has gone on trial, Radio Australia reports

Doan Van Vuon is charged with attempted murder after he and his family confronted authorities trying to evict them from their fish farm in Tien Lang district.

Mr Vuon, 50, is being tried for attempted murder with three other male relatives, who have all been in detention since the incident.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of death.

His wife and sister-in-law are being tried on a charge of resisting officers.

According to the indictment read out in court, Mr Vuon and his relatives used the homemade weapons and demonstrated "murderous behaviour" towards public officials.

"I knew the use of weapons was not in accordance with the law... my view was that the eviction was illegal so if they did not stop I would be forced to fight it," Mr Vuon said.

"We just wanted to threaten them."

He said his family did not intend to hurt anyone during the standoff but had decided to fight back to try to draw the attention of the country's leaders to their plight.

Five former local officials in the area will go on trial next Monday over the destruction of Mr Vuon's house.
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Vietnamese Blogger’s Home Targeted with Rank Liquid

Huynh Ngoc Tuan

Source: RFA English April 8,2013

A prominent blogger said Monday that he and his family in central Vietnam have been victimized by what he believes to be agents hired by local security forces to threaten him over his online criticism against the state.

The once-imprisoned Huynh Ngoc Tuan, 50, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that the attack occurred at 12:30 a.m. on April 4 when two assailants pulled up to his home in Quang Nam province on a motorbike and threw rank liquid near his bedroom.

“I heard the sound of a motorbike outside, which was nothing strange, but then I heard the sound of water splashing onto our steel gate … twice. Then I came out of my house because I knew something was going on,” Tuan said.

“In the light from the neighbor’s house I saw the backs of two young men. I saw that the water was thick and contained fish heads and organs, as well as some human excrement. It was overpowering,” he said.

Tuan said that he woke everyone in the house up and told his eldest daughter, Huynh Thuc Vy, to take pictures of the liquid.

“Thuc Vy ran out and when she smelled it, she threw up,” he said.

The family spent the entire night cleaning the house, Tuan said, but was unable to get rid of the stench.

“The neighbors smelled the liquid and asked what had happened and who had done it. I told them that it was probably the police that attacked our family … because they don’t like me, but have no legal basis to make me stop writing,” he said.

“We wrote essays and articles that they don’t like, so they attacked our family and harassed us … This is not the first time. They have done the same thing to other dissidents.”

Repeated harassment

Police have harassed the Huynh family at their home in Quang Nam in recent years since Tuan, a member of the government-banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), and his eldest daughter Huynh Thuc Vy began receiving attention for their blogs.

Tuan is accused by local authorities of posting articles on the Internet which “oppose the Party and State.”

According to Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), security agents recently threw two venomous snakes into Thuc Vy’s home as a warning to stop her blogging activities as a political and social commentator.

More recently, the group said, local police pressured the landlord of Tuan’s younger daughter Huynh Khanh Vy to expel her from her lodgings in Danang just two weeks after she had given birth. Her request for a scholarship to study in Australia was also blocked.

Less than three weeks ago, Khanh Vy told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that she and her husband had been targeted for frequent residence permit checks and had lost job opportunities because of police intervention.

In 2011, police raided the Huynh family home in Tam Ky, confiscating their computers.

The next year, after Thuc Vy went to Ho Chi Minh City to take part in an anti-China demonstration, police took her into custody and drove her back to Quang Nam, in what she said was an attempt to scare her into avoiding future protests.

After Thuc Vy and her father Tuan were each awarded an international free speech prize last year, Huynh Trong Hieu, the brother, planned to travel to pick the awards up on their behalf, but was barred from leaving Vietnam and had his passport confiscated.

Khanh Vy, Thuc Vy, and Trong Hieu, who is also a blogger, are all in their twenties.

Tuan was arrested in 1992 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for “spreading propaganda” against the one-party communist state. He was released in 2002, but remained under house arrest for the next four years.

Police surveillance and harassment is a common experience for dissident bloggers in Vietnam, which is listed by press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders as an “Enemy of the Internet.”

Vietnamese authorities have jailed and harassed dozens of bloggers, citizen journalists, and activists over their online writings since stepping up a crackdown on freedom of expression in recent years.

Many have been jailed under Article 88 of the Vietnamese Criminal Code for “conducting propaganda against the state,” and international rights groups and press freedom watchdogs have accused Hanoi of using the vaguely worded provision to silence dissent.

Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
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US: Vietnam backsliding on human rights

By By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press
March 21,2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration expressed concern Thursday about Vietnam's "backsliding" on human rights and asserted that advancing individual freedoms is key to U.S. policy in Asia.

One example cited is Hanoi's treatment of bloggers who have faced prosecution under national security laws. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Dan Baer told a congressional panel that Vietnam's authoritarian government is rightly proud of expanding Internet use, but it has diminished the value by curbing free exchange of ideas. Baer described those national security laws as draconian.

U.S. senators urged the administration to emphasize the promotion of human rights and democracy as part of its strategic pivot to Asia, which has primarily been cast as an attempt to increase America's military presence and boost trade in response to China's rise.

"What would set us apart from authoritarian competitors and would lay the groundwork for a truly American legacy in East Asia is a strong commitment to advancing individual freedoms," said Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

Vietnam is one focus of Washington's outreach but Hanoi's poor human rights record has made that awkward. Vietnam began opening its economy in the late 1980s and wants to integrate with the world, but it remains a one-party state with strict controls on freedom of speech and political expression. Activists, including bloggers, are routinely arrested and imprisoned.

"The government needs to come around to seeing that the Internet penetration they are proud of isn't fully valuable without people being able to exchange ideas," said Baer, whose portfolio covers human rights, democracy and labor standards. He also noted that Vietnam's progress of a few years ago in religious freedom has stagnated.

There's been some brighter news. Hanoi freed American-Vietnamese democracy activist Nguyen Quoc Quan in January and U.S.-trained human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh in February. That progress, however, has been overshadowed by recent convictions of dozens of other Vietnamese activists who have recent stiff jail terms.

Frustration over Vietnam's failure to improve its rights record prompted the U.S. to postpone an annual human rights dialogue that was due in late 2012. Officials tell The Associated Press the next dialogue has now been set, and will be held in Hanoi in mid-April.

Baer said the U.S. will "continue to make its case firmly" to Hanoi on various rights concerns, and will also raise Internet freedom and labor conditions in negotiations on the U.S.-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership, a regional trade pact that involves Vietnam.

Addressing the situation across the broader region, acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Joe Yun asserted that advancing democracy and human rights "binds together" the Asia rebalance strategy.
He expressed deep concern about deteriorating human rights in China, and said the U.S. has told Beijing it regards its repatriation of refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing to China from North Korea as a violation of its international obligations.

On North Korea, which is reputed to hold up to 200,000 people in prison camps, Yun said that improving dire conditions there is an "essential goal" of U.S. policy. Washington has mostly been focused on the threat posed by the North's nuclear weapons program, but it supported a resolution approved Thursday by the U.N.'s highest human rights body to establish an international commission of inquiry into grave abuses there.

Yun voiced optimism about reforms in Myanmar, but said the situation in the country — which is shifting from five decades of direct military rule — would remain difficult until long-running ethnic conflicts are settled. With critical national elections due in 2015, Yun also described the constitutionally mandated presence of 25 percent military appointees in the nation's legislature as "unsustainable."
Referring to neighboring Laos, Yun raised concern over the disappearance of award-winning social activist Sombath Somphone and the situation faced by Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who lives in exile to avoid imprisonment on what Yun said were politically motivated charges.
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