To quench the intense international pressure and acquire financial aids in return, Hanoi government has released a number of well-known political prisoners and dissidents from prison in the last couple years. However, these former prisoners are effectively kept under strict house-arrest or pagoda-arrest with 24-hour surveillance. They and their families also suffer constant harassment and severe isolation.
Following is the translation of the letter of protest by Dr. Nguyen Thanh Giang to the leaders of the Vietnamese Communist Party and its government. The plight of Dr. Giang and his family is typical of those of dissidents' families in Vietnam today.
Hanoi, February 26, 2000
LETTER OF PROTEST
To: Leaders of the Party, State, National Assembly, Administration And the Media
On March 04, 1999, I was detained by a group of Public Security cadres en route to a science and technology center to work. After two months of ill treatment and aimless interrogation, they had to release me out of their own recognition of the nonsense of the arrest and the pressure from the public inside and outside the country. Despite that concession, they stubbornly imposed the "Order not to leave designated residential area" on me. They arbitrarily and irresponsibly neglected to tell me of either the expiration of the first extension of the investigation or the second one. They intentionally maintain the state of ambiguity to freely manipulate the laws.
Upon releasing me from the prison camp, they orally issued the order to forbid me from leaving the City. At 6:30 am on October 11, 1999, all of a sudden and for no reason, they swamped my house and took away my computer and other office equipment. They even dragged me to Hanoi Public Security Station for some pointless interrogation. Being so mad at such injustice, I could no longer control myself and reacted fiercely. They consequently forbad me to leave the district! Some time later I begged in vain for the permission to join a group of scientists to do a geographical survey to look for underground water in my hometown, Thanh Hoa.
I had thought their conscience finally caught up with them when they reconnected my family's phone line upon my release from prison. But after my angry exchange with them at the Hanoi Public Security Station, they again cut our phone, plainly violating Article 73 of the Constitution.
They not only spread the false allegation of my hostility toward the people's government and cut the phone to isolate my family but also harassed anyone visiting me. They have cruelly squeezed me under house-arrest!
They have never dared to debate me publicly but instead, resorted to all sorts of ploys to cover up and distort [the matter]. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that my thought, my political stance, my viewpoints, and my heart for the country and compatriots will reach the majority of the population sooner or later, particularly in this information era.
Normally I would not complain. I don't even get upset when I was followed, monitored, eavesdropped on the phone, or my mail was opened; But who can stand the recent abuses of power and such savage disregard [of the laws].
The science publications sent openly to me by the New York Academy of Science, the American Geo-Physics Association, etc. were opened [by the government]. (Some of the stamps on the plastic wrapping turned inward by the time I received them!).
Even a letter by the Leeds College in United Kingdom asking me to evaluate a Vietnamese student's thesis was also peeked in. The invitation letter sent by the US Science Academy well ahead of time for my speech (along with another Belgian professor) at a seminar on December 22, 1999 was delivered to me on December 26, 1999.
Many people have protested the confiscation without reason of my documents and office equipment, which, by the way, is worth several years of my income. General Tran Do asked the leaders of the Party and Government in his letter of protest: "In my opinion, computers are working tools of scientists and intellectuals. They are private properties. What laws give the government the rights to confiscate citizen's working tools and properties. [By doing so] did the government not commit the crime of robbery?" Despite the protest, to this day, they still refuse to return those equipment.
The barbaric oppression and heartless destruction of the life and career of talented scientists like Nguyen Manh Tuong, Tran Duc Thao, etc., and national heroes like those commanded the Dien Bien Phu victory and wrote the national anthem, etc. have pained the whole nation. Everyone [mistakenly] thought those responsible for such policy must have truly regretted their actions. How could they not recognize that not only people like Tran Do, Hoang Minh Chinh, Nguyen Ho, Nguyen Van Tran, Le Hong Ha, etc. but also [ordinary people like] us have overcome so many hardships and offered our entire lives for the sake of the people and the country they are ruling. All acts of ungratefulness, betrayal, inhumanity, and immorality shall be judged severely by one's own conscience, the public, and history.
I send this letter of protest in the hope that it will receive the attention of those conscientious leaders of Vietnam. [I also hope to receive] the supporting voices of the Media and the Press as well as the public inside and outside the country for the struggle to eliminate the oppression, the anti-democratic policies, and the human rights violations that the Vietnamese population are suffering from. That is the only way for the country to achieve the motto of independence, freedom, and happiness we set on the early days of the Revolution; [and that is the only way] for the country to develop consistently along with other advanced communities in the world.
Respectfully,
(Signed)
Nguyen Thanh Giang
Ph.D. and Academy Member
House A13, P9, TTPK Hoa Muc
Trung Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District
Hanoi