For Immediate Release:
(New York, July 24, 2002) – Le Chi Quang, Nguyen Dan Que, Nguyen Vu Binh, Thich Quang Do, and Tran Van Khue are five of a diverse group of 37 writers from 19 countries to receive a Hellman/Hammett grant in recognition of the courage with which they have faced political persecution, Human Rights Watch announced today.
Each year, Human Rights Watch presents Hellman/Hammett grants to writers around the world who have been targets of political persecution. The grant program began in 1989 when the estates of American authors Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett asked Human Rights Watch to design a program for writers in financial need as a result of expressing their views. This year’s grants totaled $175,000.
In many countries, governments use military and presidential decrees, criminal libel, and sedition laws to silence critics, often on trumped up charges. Writers and journalists are threatened, harassed, assaulted, indicted, jailed, or tortured merely for providing information from nongovernmental sources. In addition to those who are directly targeted, many others are forced to practice self-censorship.
Short biographies of Le Chi Quang, Nguyen Dan Que, Nguyen Vu Binh, Thich Quang Do, and Tran Van Khue follow:
Le Chi Quang is a young activist for human rights and democracy who started writing prolifically in 2000, soon after graduating from law school. All of Le Chi Quang’s articles are banned in Vietnam but are widely published abroad and on the Internet. He was arrested in September 2001 and put under house arrest. At three public meetings in October and November 2001, he was denounced by the police as reactionary and subversive. Police warned his parents that they would be in serious trouble unless they restrained their son. Friends and relatives were warned not to meet him. His phone line was cut in September 2001. No attorney would hire him and he has been unable to find work.
Nguyen Dan Que, physician who was imprisoned and prevented from practicing for the past twenty-five years, is a prolific writer of essays and open letters that advocate free elections and a multi-party political system. He spent eighteen years in hard labor camps, 1976-86 and again 1990-98. Since his release on August 30, 1998, he has been under house arrest in Ho Chi Minh City. He cannot leave his home without written authorization from security officials and his visitors are subject to police interrogation. In September 2000, he founded The Future, a review that is distributed secretly in Vietnam and openly overseas. After excerpts from The Future appeared on the Internet, Nguyen Dan Que’s phone, fax and email lines were cut, his home was searched, and he was subjected to a public defamation session.
Nguyen Vu Binh spent eight years as reporter on the Tap Chi Cong San (Communist Review) until he resigned in December 2000 to show opposition to the one-party system. In February 2001, he applied for permission to create the Liberal Democratic Party and started writing articles calling for economic and political reforms. Since then, he has been harassed repeatedly – his phone line was intercepted, he became subject to frequent interrogation at police headquarters, his friends were “advised” not to meet him, and enterprises were warned not to hire him.
Thich Quang Do, Buddhist scholar, poet, and translator, was a lecturer at the Buddhist University of Van Hanh in Saigon until April 1975. His first arrest was in April 1977. He was tortured and held in solitary confinement until December 1978, and then prosecuted for “sabotaging popular solidarity and using religion to undermine public order. Acquitted by a People’s Court, Thich Quang Do continued to express dissent against the government’s policy on religion and civil and human rights. In February 1982, he was arrested and banished to his native village in North Vietnam. He was released in 1992 and re-arrested in November 1994. This arrest was thought to be prompted by protests he made on behalf of members of the Unified Buddhist Church who were organizing a flood relief mission. He was released from prison in 1998.
Tran Van Khue, professor and researcher in Chinese and Vietnamese literature, retired in 1996 to devote himself to writing. He has written hundreds of articles for various Vietnamese reviews. He was a founder of the Centre for Southeast Asia Culture, an anticorruption NGO, which made him a target for harassment – phone lines were cut, friends were discouraged from seeing him, and anonymous letters were sent to his colleagues denouncing him as a traitor of the fatherland. In September 2001, he was placed under house arrest for two years. He refused to obey and challenged the authorities to take him to court.
For more information, please contact:
In New York, Marcia Allina: +1-212-216-1246
In Brussels, Jean-Paul Marthoz: +32-2-732-2009
In Washington D.C., Mike Jendrzejczyk +1-202-612-4341