As they arrived at Troi’s place, his house was already guarded by
plain-clothes police. Two hours later, Troi’s house was crowded with
local policemen and security officers in plain-clothes demanding an
administrative search, due to the activist’s presence as “strange
visitors”. As the house owner decided not to open the door for the
uninvited officers, policemen forcibly hit the door and finally broke in
Troi’s house.
After 1:00pm that day, Mr Troi and the activists were all escorted by
local policemen, local guards, and plain-clothes security officers to
Chuong Duong Commune People’s Committees’ office in Thuong Tin district,
Ha Tay.
The first action taken in the Chuong Duong Commune People’s Committees’
office was the isolation of Mr Huynh Ngoc Tuan. He was put in a locked
room, where he was supervised by four bulky policemen. They savagely
beat Tuan. Tuan was hit on his stomach, chest and on his head. Tuan has a
history of diabetes and his health has been very poor. Policemen also
confiscated Tuan’s mobile phone SIM card.
All the detainees were forced to sign a statement for Chuong Duong
Commune police authorities. Mrs Nhan and Mr Hai strongly opposed to
this forced signing as it was not only illegal, but also an act of
thuggish aggression.
Mrs Le Thi Cong Nhan and husband Ngo Duy Quyen also were assaulted and
beaten. The scene truly terrified their toddler. This act was also a
grave abuse of women’s rights. In addition, cruelly terrifying a child
is a horrendous and inhumane act deserving of severe condemnation.
Both Mr Pham Ba Hai and Mr Pham Van Troi were violently sworn at, and then were forced to sign a police statement.
After 6 pm the whole group was released in a poor state of health. Their
friends in Hanoi had transported them to the hospital for check up and
medical help.
Around 8:00pm after Mr Tuan was hospitalized, police force continued to
surround the private hospital Hong Ngoc (55 Yen Ninh, Hanoi) to apply
threatening pressure on the hospital workers.
Vietnam has just signed the United Nations Convention against Torture
and recently becomes a member of The United Nations Human Rights
Council. The incident described above is one of many examples of human
rights abuses in Vietnam. These violations prove that the outlook for
improving the status of human rights in Vietnam in 2014 is seemingly
very gloomy.
Huỳnh Thục Vy (Danlambao)Translated by Jasmine Tran
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