FREE VIETNAM ALLIANCE
BP 203, 75624 PARIS CEDEX 13, FRANCE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 04, 1999
Today, April 04, 1999, marks a full month since the arrest of the geophysicist Nguyen Thanh Giang by the Vietnamese authorities. Hanoi is, however, still unable to come up with the formal charges against this scientist.
Only after strong protests were voiced by the international community and various human rights organizations did Hanoi acknowledge on March 15, 1999 the detainment of Nguyen Thanh Giang for "violation of the laws". Which laws being violated remains, to this day, unspecified.
A source close to Giang's family reported his health condition has not recovered from his recent hunger strike to protest the authorities' lawless behavior and demand an open trial. According to the same source, Giang is now held at Thanh Liet Prison Camp in Hanoi after being hidden in a prison in Ha Dong. Meanwhile, his family is living under extreme tension, both from worries for his well-being and from the constant harassment and surveillance of the security police. Under such pressure, Giang's family had to cancel the meeting with US Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez during her trip to Vietnam in late March 1999.
Since our breaking of the news on his arrest on March 09, 1999, the international community has reacted strongly to the blatant violation of Giang's rights by the Vietnamese communist authorities.
On March 10, 1999, the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, sent its official letter to Tran Duc Luong, the President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to express its dismay over the arrest of Nguyen Thanh Giang, "a scientist with an international reputation whose thoughtful political essays have been banned in his homeland and widely praised outside of Vietnam, now faces prison for exercising his right of free expression."
On March 11, 1999, the Human Rights Watch, also based in New York, issued a press release to alert the world that Nguyen Thanh Giang could be sentenced up to 12 years in prison if Hanoi charged him with the crime of Opposing the Socialist State based on his writing and distribution of anti-Vietnamese Communist Party documents. HRW called on Hanoi to release Nguyen Thanh Giang immediately and unconditionally.
On March 15, 1999, the spokesman of the US State Department, James Rubin, called on the Vietnamese authorities to release Nguyen Thanh Giang. His call brought on a furious response from Hanoi, accusing the US government of "interfering with other country's internal affairs".
In his reply to the US Congressman Ed Royce's inquiry, the US Ambassador to Vietnam, Pete Peterson, wrote: "I have been telling the Vietnamese here that this case has the potential to set back Hanoi relations not only with us, but with other developed countries as well."
On March 15, 1999, President Bent Braun of the World Association of Newspapers sent his letter to the Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong, calling for the release of Nguyen Thanh Giang.
On March 30, 1999, the New York Sciences Academy, with 47,000 members in 150 countries, sent its letter to the Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Nguyen Thanh Giang.
Members of the European Parliament, Francoise Grossetete of the French Liberal Democratic Party, Olivier Dupuis of the Belgian Transnational Radical Party, and others sent their own letters to the Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong on Nguyen Thanh Giang's behalf.
In France, Francoise Hostalier, former French government official on human rights, President of the Actions for Human Rights organization, and Head of the human rights department of the Liberal Democratic Party, asked the French Foreign Ministry to raise this matter with the Vietnamese authorities. She also brought this issue to the attention of Michel Delebarre, Chairman of the Administrative Council for the Pas de Calais area in northern France. Given the affiliation between Pas de Calais and the cities of Hue, Da Nang, and Quang Nam of Vietnam, the Council was urged to incorporate cultural exchanges, which includes human rights, with any economic ties with its Vietnamese counterparts.
French Senator Michel Pelchat, Chairman of the French Committee for Democracy in Vietnam, has raised the issue with the Vietnamese Ambassador to France, President Tran Duc Luong, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, Secretary General Le Kha Phieu, and other officials.
Australian lawmaker Julian Stephani and Bishop John Hepworth, Chairman of the Australia-Vietnam Committee, US Congressman Ed Royce, and the Texan Friends for a Free Vietnam have asked their ambassadors in Vietnam to raise the issue with the Hanoi authorities.
Numerous overseas Vietnamese organizations simultaneously protested Hanoi's violations of human rights in Vietnam, particularly through the detainment of Nguyen Thanh Giang. Since March 14, 1999, a joint statement of overseas Vietnamese intellectuals has been circulated on the Internet to voice their support for the dissident. Over 1000 Vietnamese professionals have signed their names to the Statement.
This tide of outrage around the world over the arrest of Dr. Nguyen Thanh Giang by Hanoi has showed that the Vietnamese administration continues to move against the direction of the world advancement. Its stubbornness, unfortunately, will bring further economic and diplomatic setback to the nation of Vietnam in the coming months.
The Free Vietnam Alliance asks that the Vietnamese communist authorities release Dr. Nguyen Thanh Giang immediately and unconditionally to avoid further difficulty on the nation already in crisis.
The Free Vietnam Alliance also calls on the international community, the Media, human rights organizations, and all Vietnamese organizations and individuals inside and outside Vietnam, to continue the pressure on the leadership in Hanoi until they release Nguyen Thanh Giang and end their political oppression in Vietnam.
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