According to reports from the families of Hoang Minh Chinh and Do Trung Hieu, the two men will be put on trial November 8, 1995.
Hoang Minh Chinh, age 75, participated in the resistance against the French prior to 1945, and served, at one time, as the director of the Marxist-Lenin Institute. In 1967, he was charged with "revisionism and opposition to the party" in a purge led by Le Duc Tho. He was imprisoned for 11 years and put under house arrest for the next nine. Following his punishment, Mr. Chinh continued to request that the Hanoi leadership reconsider his charge and that it allow a democratic system in Vietnam. On June 14 this year, he was arrested in Hanoi, accused of "spreading opposition to the government". Authorities have incarcerated Mr. Chinh with hardened criminals and treated him harshly since. His health is in serious deterioration; and not until October 2 was Mr. Chinh's family able to visit him. At that time, he expressed the desire to have his case tried in public with a defense lawyer of his choice, not one appointed by the state.
Do Trung Hieu, age 57, joined the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1956. After 1975, his responsibilities included mobilizing religious groups. In 1981, the Party assigned him the task of unifying the Buddhist church. Finding serious faults in the government's policy, Mr. Hieu called on the Hanoi leadership to sincerely work with Buddhists. In one writing, he detailed the efforts of Hanoi to gain complete control over religions. For insisting that renovation occur in all spheres, not just economic, he was expelled from the Party in 1992. For his involvement in the Club of Revolutionary Veterans, Mr. Hieu was imprisoned with Mr. Nguyen Ho in 1990. Since leaving jail, Mr. Hieu had incessantly campaigned for democracy and human rights in Vietnam. He has contacted Hoang Minh Chinh and urged the state to reconsider the verdicts surrounding the "revisionism and opposition to the party" episode in 1967 in order to restore the rights of innocent victims. As a result of this call, Mr. Hieu was arrested on June 13 in Saigon, and charged with "directly partaking in the case of Hoang Minh Chinh". Up to now, the family of Mr. Hieu has not seen him, though many visits have been requested.
The struggles of Hoang Minh Chinh and Do Trung Hieu have won strong support in Vietnam from both the people and those conscientious party members. Overseas, a Committee has been organized to campaign for the return of the two men's freedom. This effort has received the backing of the international community.
To protest the flagrant violations of basic human rights by the Hanoi government against the Vietnamese people, demonstrated again by the imprisonment of Hoang Minh Chinh and Do Trung Hieu, we urgently request that:
1) Members of the media broadcast reports on these two human rights cases. Specifically, media organizations ought to ask for the presence of their representatives at the upcoming trials, ask for an open court, and for the defendants to have the legal counsel of their choice rather than ones appointed by the state.
2) Democratic governments and international human rights groups exert pressure on the government of Vietnam to return the freedom of individuals imprisoned solely for wanting democracy and freedom for their country. Nov. 3, 1995