To: US President
FREEDOM For Blogger Dieu Cay Nguyen Van Hai
Dear President Barack Obama
Honorable Us CONGRESSMEN
We, the Vietnamese bloggers, are writing to inform you that we have chosen October 19th every year forward as The Day of Vietnamese Bloggers to promote freedom of speech. We urge you to take immediate actions regarding the many human rights challenges in Vietnam by pressing concerns for imprisoned bloggers (blogger Dieu Cay, blogger Anhbasg …) and many other Vietnamese bloggers whose blogs have been hacked, erased, and harassed by Vietnam National Security unit. In addition, we urge you to integrate human rights issues into the core of International Community – Vietnam mutual interest.
October 19th, 2010 was supposed to be the date of blogger Dieu Cay‘s release from prison. (Blogger Dieu Cay ‘s real name is Nguyen Van Hai, who wrote articles on his blog to promote democracy for Vietnam and to make the public aware that Spratly and Paracel Islands belong to Vietnam. He was imprisoned for two and a half years under the fake charge of “lack of income tax paying” ) . Up until today, blogger Dieu Cay is still not released from prison and the Government of Vietnam does not present any reasons why he is not released. His family is very concerned for his health and his safety .
On October 18th, 2010, blogger Anhbasg (real name is Phan Thanh Hai) was arrested without knowing what he was charged with, in front of his pregnant wife and his two little children. Anhbasg’s blog often re-posted news about Vietnam and the reality of life in Vietnam. His blogs recently were hacked and erased completely three times by professional hackers. Vietnam National Security unit frequently harassed and interrogated him about his blogging.
Recently, the Government of Vietnam has required Internet cafes and all commercial establishments in Hanoi to install server-side monitoring software. They also built firewalls to block access to Facebook. Obviously these tactics aim to attack and silence bloggers, thus violating bloggers’ freedom of expressions.
The Government of Vietnam’s desire to gain benefits from global economy must be matched by the efforts of respecting human rights. Being a member of WTO but ignoring the international law regarding human rights will only impede the development of Vietnamese people.
We urge you to call for immediate release of all bloggers, cyber activists, and all peaceful dissidents, especially the release of blogger Dieu Cay and blogger Anhbasg.
We urge you to request the Government of Vietnam to stop all harassment towards Vietnamese bloggers and online news websites, to open freely access to Facebook and other social networks, to stop Decision 15 – a regulation requiring all retail internet service locations to install monitoring device to track user activities.
We thank you for your attention and your support.
Respectfully,
Sincerely,
Duc H. Vu
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