Police released dissident lawyer Mr Truyen Bac Nguyen but continues to keep his friends locked up without any reason

Two days ago, on the 11th Feb 2014, as hundreds of policemen forced their way into Mr Truyen Nguyen 's home to arrest him, nearly a thousand more were waiting for his friends along the road leading to the village.

As they arrived the police stopped them and immediately started to beat all of them up with wooden batons and 3 by 4's. The beating was severe. The went for the heads. Quynh Thuy Thi Nguyen, a young female blogger, wore a helmet but even that was broken. Another well known blogger and land rights activist, Ms Hang Minh Thi Bui, was handcuffed and beaten savagely on the head until it was bleeding. Other female Hoa Hao Buddhist worshippers fainted. All 21 of them were handcuffed and put into close-up police vans to be taken to Lap Vo police station.

They were kept there until the following day. All of their belongings such as camera, cell phone, ipad.. were confiscated. The reason the police gave for their arrest was " obstructing the traffic " which was ridiculous and totally untrue. By late yesterday, on the 12th Feb 2014, 18 of them were released but 3 remained locked up. They are:

1- Bui Thi Minh Hang 

2- Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh 

3- Nguyen Van Minh (a Hoa Hao Buddhist follower) 

Currently it is unknown why they are still kept locked up as the police is not giving out any information and it is not possible to talk to them. It was speculated that Lap Vo police may secretly transport them to Saigon, where they could use previously prepared and fabricated evidences to charge them with imprisonable offences. 

In the meanwhile, many policemen surrounded the residence of Ms Hang Minh Thi Bui in Vung Tau and threatened her young teenage son who was home alone. They terrorized the boy all through the night to the point he was so distressed he posted on his Facebook that " if the police was to force the way in, I will douse the house with gasoline and burn it down ". There was no more news from him this morning which is very worrisome.

On top of this, there were cries for help from the petitioners in the North. Overnight, the police was reported to have attacked those camping in the Mai Xuan Thuong botanic garden in Ha Noi, throwing stinky shrimp paste and garbage on their tents, blankets and clothing, so that they had nothing to wear to keep warm during the cold winter nights. Parishioners at Thai Ha also reported that hundreds of policemen stomped their way into the church late at night, forcing them to ring the emergency church bell for help. 

It seems the Vietnamese government had orchestrated a massive crack down attack at both ends of the country, to terrorize and to arrest those who dare to speak out against the oppressive regime, specifically those at the Catholic church of Thai Ha and the Hoa Hao Buddist village in Dong Thap. Considering that Viet Nam had just been granted a seat at the United Nations Human Rights Council, this is appalling and totally unacceptable.

Diệu Quyên