FVPoC’s statement on the pardon to prisoners of conscience Nguyen Tuan Nam and Tran Tu

FVPoc | Sep 28, 2014
Translation by [rollinglinks]Trang Thien Long[/rollinglinks] (DTD)
Tell the World.

To:

– The entire Vietnam compatriots at home and abroad

– Governments of the Democratic worldwide.

– International Human Rights organizations.

On 25 and 26 September 2014, two political prisoners with heavy sentences were freed by the Vietnam authorities. The first is Mr. Tran Tu, born in 1941, citizen of the United States, a member of the Vietnam Revolutionary Party Coalition. He was arrested in March 1993 in Saigon and was sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of “conspiracy to overthrow the state”. He was detained at Ba Sao prison, Nam Ha province. The second is Mr. Nguyen Tuan Nam, born in 1938, members of the People’s Action Party. He was arrested at the border of  Cambodia and Thailand in November 1996 and was sentenced to 19 years in prison for “fleeing abroad to oppose the people’s administration” and detained at Z30A Xuan Loc, Dong Nai province. The duo is the true prisoners of conscience since Vietnam Revolutionary party Coalition and People’s Action Party are two non-violent, political organizations struggling for freedom, democracy and human rights in Vietnam.

In case of Mr. Nguyen Tuan Nam, in January 2013 he was left disabled his left half body, and then being transferred to the prison clinic, his health increasingly worsened. Currently, he speaks under his breath, cannot walk, even sit stably. Because of no relatives, and perhaps by the purpose of the authorities, he was transferred by the prison ambulance to his former prisoner, Pham Ba Hai in Saigon.  Mr. Hai received the phone call to notice this from a jailer when the ambulance came near to his house.

Time of the release of the two prisoners (the end of September 2014) is considered as the time of “sensitive foreign policy”. There is the signal that United States may lift its sanction on lethal weapons when Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh is going to come to America to meet John Kerry, as well as the increasing efforts to participate the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Before this incident, Former Vietnamese Prisoners of Conscience announces:

1. We condemn the Communist government of Vietnam with the totalitarian mentality, has never accepted other political parties to operate in Vietdnam regardless parliamentary struggle or peaceful non-violence. They also sought to hunt (even outside the Vietnam borders), detained and severely sentenced members of political parties. But when bargaining with international community to join, such as TPP, or to escape the sanctions, as in Country of Particular Concern (CPC), the Vietnam authorities use political prisoners, prisoners of conscience as hostages by releasing some and then arresting others to the stockpile.
2. Strongly we denounce the Vietnam police by the sense of hatred and contempt peacefully political prisoners, has implemented a regime of punitive prison: bodily harm to beat their will. Countless prisoners of conscience have been oppressed with full forms as solitary confinement, starvation, beating, no medical treatment or even poisoned gradually. These cause them to die in prison or just out of prison, or to suffer from an incurable diseases, such as the cases of Mr. Truong Van Suong, Nguyen Van Trai, Dinh Dang Dinh, Huynh Anh Tri, Nguyen Huu Cau, Nguyen Tuan Nam, etc. And so the habit of behaving irresponsibly, police ignored and pushed entirely taking care of prisoners of conscience to their relatives or former prisoners. Furthermore they meet difficulties to earn their lives after prison (no ID card, no freedom of residence, no easiness to do business for example).
3. Earnestly we call for democratic governments, international human rights organizations to take special attention to the tragic situation of the former political prisoners, former prisoners of conscience who continue to suffer in Vietnam. Would you please send doctors to examine and cure. Would you please take human rights as a condition of negotiations with the Hanoi authorities, forcing them to choose TPP or CPC.

The whole Vietnam compatriots, especially overseas comrades, please generously embrace and help these ex-prisoners who have sacrificed for the country’s cause and destiny.

FVPoC is pleased to act as an intermediary for your all good deeds and support that FVPoC’s members deserved to be.

Vietnam, 28 Sep 2014 – the International day of right to know and to speak out.

Standing Steering Board of FVPoC:

Co-Chair: Dr.Nguyen Dan Que, Father Phan Van Loi

Chairman of Advisory Council: Ven.Thich Khong Tanh

Coordinator: Pham Ba Hai (MBE), Lawyer Nguyen Van Dai.

Spokesman: Pham Chi Dung (PhD)