Press Release

 

Hanoi Authorities Arrest Nguyen Vu Binh

 

 

According to sources in Vietnam, at 9:00 a.m. on July 20, 2002, public security agents entered Nguyen Vu Binh's place of work in Hanoi and took him to a public security station for questioning. Later that evening, he was released and allowed to spend the night at home. The next morning, July 21, public security agents returned again to take him away. As of today, July 22, friends and family of Nguyen Van Binh have no information on his condition or whereabouts.

 

Nguyen Vu Binh became known when he submitted a petition to the highest leaders of Vietnam on September 2, 2000 seeking to form an opposition political party. Along with the petition, he distributed an essay titled "Vietnam and the Road to National Restoration," which analyses the impasses facing Vietnam and concludes that a democratic system is the only way out. A young intellectual, 33-years of age, Nguyen Vu Binh holds profound and constructive views on the state of the country. Because of these views, he has been the target of constant persecution from authorities. He has had to leave his job as a correspondent at the party-run Journal of Communism, had his phone disconnected, been economically isolated, and been interrogated constantly by authorities. Nevertheless, he has courageously continued to speak out against the government's repression of democratic hopes. On July 6, 2002, he and 16 other democracy activists in Vietnam co-signed a petition protesting the recent wave of persecution by authorities.

 

The arrest of Nguyen Vu Binh, along with the continued detention of other young Vietnamese such as Le Chi Quang, Pham Hong Son, and Nguyen Khac Toan reveals the Hanoi government’s effort to squelch the aspirations of a young generation of Vietnamese for a democracy society. The Free Vietnam Alliance strongly condemns this repression and calls on the international community to increase the pressure on the Hanoi authorities to release Nguyen Vu Binh, Le Chi Quang, Pham Hong Son, Nguyen Khac Toan and all other individuals detained or imprisoned unjustly in Vietnam.

 

 

Paris, July 22, 2002

 

Free Vietnam Alliance.