VIETNAM: BUDDHIST MONK THICH TRI LUC, KIDNAPPED A YEAR AGO BY UNIDENTIFIED MEN IN PHNOM PENH... IS FOUND... IN A VIETNAMESE JAIL !
Brussels, 12 August 2003. Exactly one year ago, I informed the Commission of the disappearance of Buddhist monk Thich Tri Luc, member of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), who was kidnapped in Phnom Penh after seeking asylum in Cambodia. Thich Tri Luc, 49 (secular name Pham Van Tuong) fled Vietnam to escape religious persecution. First arrested in 1992, he had suffered a decade of imprisonment, harassment and house arrest for his support of the banned UBCV. Thich Tri Luc obtained refugee status from the UN High Commission on Refugees in Phnom Penh in June 2002. However, on the night of July 25th, he was kidnapped by unidentified individuals and disappeared. Both Vietnam and Cambodia denied any knowledge of his abduction, and the UNHCR was unable to obtain information on his case.
Today, Thich Tri Luc has re-appeared. Not as a free man under UN protection, but as a prisoner awaiting trail in a Vietnamese jail. According to the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, after one year without news, his family received a brief summons from the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court to "attend the trial of Pham Van Tuong". Scheduled for August 1st, the trial was later postponed, and no new date has yet been fixed. The family do not know where he is incarcerated, nor under what charges, and have not been allowed to visit him. This illegal, secret detention for over 12 months has not only exposed Thich Tri Luc to grave psychological and physical pressures, but has also undermined his right to a fair trial, since he has not been able to communicate with a lawyer and prepare his defence. As a former (and current) prisoner of conscience and member of a banned religious movement, he risks a heavy prison sentence.
Question by Olivier Dupuis, Member of the European Parliament, radical, to the Commission:
"Is the Commission aware that Thich Tri Luc was abducted, forcibly repatriated in spite of his refugee status and detained in secret for the past year in Vietnam; is it informed of the charges laid against Thich Tri Luc, and has it requested that EU envoys be allowed to visit him in prison and attend his trial ? What steps does the Commission intend to take to prevent the continuing abuses of international refugee law by the Cambodian and Vietnamese authorities, especially the principle of "non-refoulement" of persons whose freedom is threatened in their own countries because of their religion, race or political views ? Does not the Commission esteem that such flagrant abuses perpetrated by the Hanoi and Phnom Penh authorities should be dealt with by sanctions provided for in the "human rights clause" of the EU-Vietnam and EU-Cambodia Cooperation Agreements ?"
www.radicalparty.org
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Olivier Dupuis
Member of the European Parliament
http://www.radicalparty.org/
tel. +32 2 284 7198
fax +32 2 284 9198