The Vietnamese Communist rulers are utilizing prisons to maltreat patriotic youths

Do Thi Minh Hanh

By religious officials in Vietnam

The Vietnamese Communist rulers are utilizing prisons to maltreat patriotic youths
We demand that student prisoner Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh be released for medical care

To:
– Responsible Members of the National Assembly of Vietnam
– Officials and believers of Buddhism, Catholicism, Hoà Hảo Buddhism, Caodaism and Protestantism
– Vietnamese compatriots inside Vietnam and abroad
– Governments of democratic countries
– UN Human Rights Council, ASEAN Human Rights Council
– International Human Rights Organizations
– International and Domestic Media Agencies

· Whereas currently, in Vietnam, many patriotic young people who hold different political opinions are being detained by the government and have received arbitrarily heavy sentences that are unjust, contrary to and violating international conventions on human rights, the Vietnamese constitution and existing laws. Among those people are the 14 Catholic and Protestant students, Atty. Lê Quốc Quân, businessman Lê Đình Quân, bloggers Đinh Nhật Uy and Đinh Nguyên Kha, musicians Việt Khang and Trần Vũ Anh Bình, and Nguyễn Hoàng Quốc Hùng, Đoàn Huy Chương and Dỗ Thị Minh Hạnh, who fight for the workers’ rights, and many other young people.

· Whereas these patriotic young people are doing only what the Constitution does not forbid such as distributing leaflets calling for boycotting a rigged election, writing articles on the internet promoting freedom and democracy, warning the people of the encroachments of Vietnamese territorial waters and lands by communist China, participating in organizations and non-communist political parties as well as defending the rights of workers and innocent and defenceless citizens…

· Whereas these patriotic youths who are being incarcerated have greatly contributed to the task of truthful communications, to charity, to the defence of innocent people, to the protection of workers’ rights, and to the furtherance of a healthy pluralistic multiparty polity.

· Whereas corrections supervisors and superintendents have many a time utilized power, violence and mendacity to torture prisoners of conscience with the aim to harm their bodies and most specially to break down their wills (arbitrarily and unlawfully forcing them to confess) as is what prisoner of conscience Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh has been enduring.

Conscious of our responsibilities as Vietnamese citizens in face of such horrible conditions and of our roles as guidance counselors for believers of various faiths, we, a number of religious officials in Vietnam raise our protest and

1. Demand the Vietnamese government immediately release the aforementioned patriotic young people, who are entitled to their different political opinions: they are the 14 Catholic and Protestant youngsters, Lê Quốc Quân, Lê Đinh Quân, Đinh Nguyên Kha, Đinh Nhật Uy, Việt Khang, Trần Vũ Anh Bình, Nguyễn Hoàng Quốc Hùng, Đoàn Huy Chương, Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh, and many other youngsters who are being detained in different prisons.

2. Demand the government not utilize criminal offenders to attack and torture prisoners of conscience as has been happening with the aforementioned young people, specially not utilize prisons for the purpose of corporal punishments, torture in order to continue the work of the prosecutor and force them to confess. Furthermore, the government must have them sent to the hospital for medical attention or to let them out on bail so they may have their diseases and wounds treated; the case that raises the most concern is Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh.

3. Request that the international UN Human Rights organizations and the countries that supervise the implemenation of human rights in Vietnam prevent the maltreament and torture of all kinds of prisoners in Vietnam in a timely fashion, at the same time obligate the government of Vietnam to adhere to the UN humane standards in regard to prisons.

4. Request that governmental and private communications agencies, international press deliver press releases of violations of human rights in Vietnamese prisons in a timely fashion, and question the government on whose responsibilities it is to permit the maltreatment of all sorts of prisoners to occur.

Executed in Vietnam, August 30th, 2013

OFFICIALS OF DIFFERENT RELIGIONS OF VIETNAM

Signed:

-Mr. Lê Quang Liêm, President Hoà Hảo Buddhism (Tel: 0199.243.2593)

-Ven. Thích Không Tánh, Buddhism (Tel: 0165.678.881)

-Fr. Peter Phan Văn Lợi, Catholicism (Tel: 0984.236.371)

-Fr. Joseph Đinh Hữu Thoại, Catholicism (Tel: 0935.569.205)

-Fr. Antony Lê Ngọc Thanh, Catholicism (Tel: 0993.598.820)

-Senior Manager Hứa Phi, Caodaism (Tel: 0163.3273.240)

-Senior Manager Nguyễn Kim Lân (Tel: 0988.971.117)

-Senior Manager Nguyễn Bạch Phụng (Tel: 0988.477.719)

-Pastor Nguyễn Hoàng Hoa (Tel: 0949.275.827)

-Pastor Hồ Hữu Hoàng (Tel: 0902.761.057)

-Pastor Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng (Tel: 0906.342.908)

-Mr. Phan Tấn Hoà, Hoà Hảo Buddhism (Tel: 0162.630.1082)

-Mr. Trần Nguyên Hườn, Hoà Hảo Buddhism (Tel: 0167.341.0139)

-Pastor Lê Quang Du, Protestantism (Tel: 0121.2002.001)

-Pastor Nguyễn Trung Tôn (Tel : 0162.838.7716)

Ban Báo Chí
Cộng Đồng Người Việt Quốc Gia
Liên Bang Hoa Kỳ