Viet Nam
29.03.04
Urgent Interventions
Vietnam: release of Thich Tri Luc
URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY
VTN 001/0903/OBS 048.1
Release
Vietnam
March 29, 2004
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of FIDH and OMCT, requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Vietnam.
New information:
The Observatory has been informed by the International Buddhist Information Bureau that Mr. Pham Van Tuong (Buddhist name Thich Tri Luc), a former monk and member of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), was released on 26 March 2004, after serving a 20 months-imprisonment sentence.
Mr. Pham Van Tuong had been in detention since July 26, 2002, when he was arrested on charges of “fleeing abroad in order to oppose the Vietnamese government”. At the time of his arrest, Mr. Pham Van Tuong was in Pnom Penh (Cambodia). He had fled Vietnam following religious persecution in April 2002 and was under UN protection in Cambodia after obtaining refugee status from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Phnom Penh in June 2002. During the next year, his family did not know whether he was dead or alive, and Vietnamese authorities denied all knowledge of his whereabouts.
In July 2003, Mr. Pham Van Tuong “reappeared” in a jail in Ho Chi Minh City, where he had been detained for 12 months. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry admitted that Security Police had arrested him on July 26, 2002, “at the Cambodian-Vietnam border”. His family was told that he would stand trial on August 1, 2003, but the trial was postponed indefinitely without any explanation.
Mr. Pham Van Tuong was sentenced to 20 months in prison on March 12, 2004, at a closed trial at the People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City of “distorting the government’s policies on national unity and contacting hostile groups to undermine the government’s internal security and foreign affairs”. According to the information received, Mr. Pham Van Tuong’s trial lasted less than one hour and he was not represented by a lawyer. His family was informed of the trial only the day before. As he had already served 19 months and 15 days in prison, he was release two weeks after the ruling.
During his 20 months in prison, Pham Van Tuong continually protested that he was a UN Refugee and claimed the right to UNHCR protection. Indeed, the original arrest warrant drawn up by Vietnamese Security Police at the Tay Ninh Border clearly stated that they had confiscated his Refugee Card upon his arrest. However, one month later, this warrant was replaced by a new one, signed by Ho Chi Minh City Security Police, which simply stated that Pham Van Tuong had been arrested on July 26, 2002 inside the Vietnamese border, with no mention of his refugee status. The Ho Chi Minh Police told Pham Van Tuong that his kidnapping in Cambodia was “none of their business”, and they refused to allow him access to the UNHCR representative in Vietnam.
The Observatory considered Thich Tri Luc’s detention and the charges against him as arbitrary since they aimed at sanctioning his activities in favour of fundamental freedoms in Vietnam, including freedom of religion.
The Observatory asks that Pham Van Tuong be granted access to UNHCR, that he be immediately placed under UN protection and that his refugee status be maintained.
Reminder of the facts:
Pham Van Tuong was first arrested in 1992 and detained for 10 months without trial during a crack-down on the UBCV. On November 5, 1994, he was again arrested for participating in a UBCV mission to rescue flood victims and sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison at an unfair trial in Ho Chi Minh City for ”abusing democratic freedoms to harm the interests of the State”. Released on 13, February 1997, he was placed under probationary detention at the Phap Van Pagoda in Tan Binh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, and obliged to report monthly to the Security Police.
In October 1997, Police expelled him from Phap Van Pagoda without any reason. In April 2002, shortly after his five-year probationary detention sentence ended, he fled to Cambodia to seek political asylum to escape religious persecution. He obtained refugee status from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Phnom Penh in June 2002. He was under UN protection when he was abducted at his guest house by unidentified men who spoke Vietnamese on the night of July 25, 2002. During the next year, his family did not know whether he was dead or alive, and Vietnamese authorities denied all knowledge of his whereabouts.
After his release, Mr. Pham Van Tuong said that during his arrest, he was accosted by two Cambodian Security agents at 6.30 pm on the evening of July 25, 2002 as he stepped out of his guesthouse in Phnom Penh to buy food. One man blocked his path and the other caught hold of him from behind. They dragged him into a nearby car, where a third Cambodian and a Vietnamese Security agent, who appeared to be in charge, were waiting. The car had a Cambodian number plate, No 2475. Inside the car, Pham Van Tuong was handcuffed and beaten repeatedly. One of the Cambodian Security agents grabbed him by the neck and held him down as the car sped out of Phnom Penh, ordering him not to struggle. Pham Van Tuong said he almost fainted, and tried to call for help, but the Vietnamese Security officer ignored his cries. The Cambodian Security agents searched his pockets and confiscated his UN Refugee Card (no. 610 IC, delivered by Elizabeth Kirton, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Phnom Penh Office, June 28th 2002).
He was then driven to a Cambodian Police Station, interrogated for over one hour, then thrown into jail for the night, still wearing handcuffs. The next morning (26th July) at 4.30 am, he was taken in the same car across the Cambodia-Vietnam border to Ben Cau district in Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam, where Vietnamese Security officials were waiting for him. The Cambodian Police handed over all his papers to the Vietnamese, including his UNHCR Refugee Card. Vietnamese Security Police then drove him to the Security Investigation Centre (B34/A24 Prison at 237 Nguyen Van Cu Street, Ho Chi Minh City), where he remained in custody for the next 20 months. He was held in secret, denied all contacts with the outside, and not allowed to see his family until August 22, 2003.
Action requested:
Please write to the Vietnamese authorities urging them to:
i. Ensure the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Pham Van Tuong;
ii. Ensure that he be granted access to UNHCR, that he be immediately placed under UN protection and that his refugee status be maintained;
iii. Conform with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the United Nations' General Assembly on 9 December 1998, in particular its article 1, which states that " everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels ";
iv. Conform with the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and with the regional and international instruments which bound the Republic of Vietnam.
Addresses:
- Tran Duc Luong, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Office of the State, 1 Bach Thao, Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Fax : (+84) 4199 2682
- Phan Van Khai, Prime Minister, Office of the Prime Minister, 1 Bach Thao Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Fax : (+84) 4823 1872
- M. Nong Duc Manh, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Hanoi. Fax: (+84) 48 23514
- M. Nguyen Nang Tien, Permanent Mission of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the United Nations in Geneva, Fax : (+ 41 22) 798 24 69 ; (+ 41 22) 798 07 24
e-mail : mission.vietnam@ties.itu.int
Paris, Geneva, 29 March 2003
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a joint FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders, and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
To contact the Observatory, call the Emergency Line:
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch
Tel and Fax: FIDH: +33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / 01 43 55 18 80
OMCT: +41 22 809 49 39 / 41 22 809 49 29
VTN 001/0903/OBS 048.1
Release
Vietnam
March 29, 2004
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of FIDH and OMCT, requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Vietnam.
New information:
The Observatory has been informed by the International Buddhist Information Bureau that Mr. Pham Van Tuong (Buddhist name Thich Tri Luc), a former monk and member of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), was released on 26 March 2004, after serving a 20 months-imprisonment sentence.
Mr. Pham Van Tuong had been in detention since July 26, 2002, when he was arrested on charges of “fleeing abroad in order to oppose the Vietnamese government”. At the time of his arrest, Mr. Pham Van Tuong was in Pnom Penh (Cambodia). He had fled Vietnam following religious persecution in April 2002 and was under UN protection in Cambodia after obtaining refugee status from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Phnom Penh in June 2002. During the next year, his family did not know whether he was dead or alive, and Vietnamese authorities denied all knowledge of his whereabouts.
In July 2003, Mr. Pham Van Tuong “reappeared” in a jail in Ho Chi Minh City, where he had been detained for 12 months. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry admitted that Security Police had arrested him on July 26, 2002, “at the Cambodian-Vietnam border”. His family was told that he would stand trial on August 1, 2003, but the trial was postponed indefinitely without any explanation.
Mr. Pham Van Tuong was sentenced to 20 months in prison on March 12, 2004, at a closed trial at the People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City of “distorting the government’s policies on national unity and contacting hostile groups to undermine the government’s internal security and foreign affairs”. According to the information received, Mr. Pham Van Tuong’s trial lasted less than one hour and he was not represented by a lawyer. His family was informed of the trial only the day before. As he had already served 19 months and 15 days in prison, he was release two weeks after the ruling.
During his 20 months in prison, Pham Van Tuong continually protested that he was a UN Refugee and claimed the right to UNHCR protection. Indeed, the original arrest warrant drawn up by Vietnamese Security Police at the Tay Ninh Border clearly stated that they had confiscated his Refugee Card upon his arrest. However, one month later, this warrant was replaced by a new one, signed by Ho Chi Minh City Security Police, which simply stated that Pham Van Tuong had been arrested on July 26, 2002 inside the Vietnamese border, with no mention of his refugee status. The Ho Chi Minh Police told Pham Van Tuong that his kidnapping in Cambodia was “none of their business”, and they refused to allow him access to the UNHCR representative in Vietnam.
The Observatory considered Thich Tri Luc’s detention and the charges against him as arbitrary since they aimed at sanctioning his activities in favour of fundamental freedoms in Vietnam, including freedom of religion.
The Observatory asks that Pham Van Tuong be granted access to UNHCR, that he be immediately placed under UN protection and that his refugee status be maintained.
Reminder of the facts:
Pham Van Tuong was first arrested in 1992 and detained for 10 months without trial during a crack-down on the UBCV. On November 5, 1994, he was again arrested for participating in a UBCV mission to rescue flood victims and sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison at an unfair trial in Ho Chi Minh City for ”abusing democratic freedoms to harm the interests of the State”. Released on 13, February 1997, he was placed under probationary detention at the Phap Van Pagoda in Tan Binh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, and obliged to report monthly to the Security Police.
In October 1997, Police expelled him from Phap Van Pagoda without any reason. In April 2002, shortly after his five-year probationary detention sentence ended, he fled to Cambodia to seek political asylum to escape religious persecution. He obtained refugee status from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Phnom Penh in June 2002. He was under UN protection when he was abducted at his guest house by unidentified men who spoke Vietnamese on the night of July 25, 2002. During the next year, his family did not know whether he was dead or alive, and Vietnamese authorities denied all knowledge of his whereabouts.
After his release, Mr. Pham Van Tuong said that during his arrest, he was accosted by two Cambodian Security agents at 6.30 pm on the evening of July 25, 2002 as he stepped out of his guesthouse in Phnom Penh to buy food. One man blocked his path and the other caught hold of him from behind. They dragged him into a nearby car, where a third Cambodian and a Vietnamese Security agent, who appeared to be in charge, were waiting. The car had a Cambodian number plate, No 2475. Inside the car, Pham Van Tuong was handcuffed and beaten repeatedly. One of the Cambodian Security agents grabbed him by the neck and held him down as the car sped out of Phnom Penh, ordering him not to struggle. Pham Van Tuong said he almost fainted, and tried to call for help, but the Vietnamese Security officer ignored his cries. The Cambodian Security agents searched his pockets and confiscated his UN Refugee Card (no. 610 IC, delivered by Elizabeth Kirton, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Phnom Penh Office, June 28th 2002).
He was then driven to a Cambodian Police Station, interrogated for over one hour, then thrown into jail for the night, still wearing handcuffs. The next morning (26th July) at 4.30 am, he was taken in the same car across the Cambodia-Vietnam border to Ben Cau district in Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam, where Vietnamese Security officials were waiting for him. The Cambodian Police handed over all his papers to the Vietnamese, including his UNHCR Refugee Card. Vietnamese Security Police then drove him to the Security Investigation Centre (B34/A24 Prison at 237 Nguyen Van Cu Street, Ho Chi Minh City), where he remained in custody for the next 20 months. He was held in secret, denied all contacts with the outside, and not allowed to see his family until August 22, 2003.
Action requested:
Please write to the Vietnamese authorities urging them to:
i. Ensure the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Pham Van Tuong;
ii. Ensure that he be granted access to UNHCR, that he be immediately placed under UN protection and that his refugee status be maintained;
iii. Conform with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the United Nations' General Assembly on 9 December 1998, in particular its article 1, which states that " everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels ";
iv. Conform with the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and with the regional and international instruments which bound the Republic of Vietnam.
Addresses:
- Tran Duc Luong, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Office of the State, 1 Bach Thao, Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Fax : (+84) 4199 2682
- Phan Van Khai, Prime Minister, Office of the Prime Minister, 1 Bach Thao Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Fax : (+84) 4823 1872
- M. Nong Duc Manh, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Hanoi. Fax: (+84) 48 23514
- M. Nguyen Nang Tien, Permanent Mission of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the United Nations in Geneva, Fax : (+ 41 22) 798 24 69 ; (+ 41 22) 798 07 24
e-mail : mission.vietnam@ties.itu.int
Paris, Geneva, 29 March 2003
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a joint FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders, and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
To contact the Observatory, call the Emergency Line:
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch
Tel and Fax: FIDH: +33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / 01 43 55 18 80
OMCT: +41 22 809 49 39 / 41 22 809 49 29