Vietnam arrests human right advocates to prevent them from attending a conference organized by the Australian Embassy in Ha Noi

A conference on "Non State Media In Contemporary Vietnam" was held this morning the 30th July 2014 at the Australian Embassy in Ha Noi. Several human right advocates and members of the Vietnamese Bloggers Network were invited to attend and to give reports. The Vietnamese government did not like this and dispatched hundreds of uniformed and plain clothes police officers out to arrest those invited, preventing them from attending the conference. Blogger Me Nam, Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, was arrested and held for more than 9 hours yesterday when she tried to board a plane from Khanh Hoa to Ha Noi. Ms Thuy Nga and Ms Huỳnh Phương Ngọc are currently surrounded at their motel room by police and threatened to be escorted back by force to the local police departments.

Ms Thuy Nga and Ms Huynh Phuong Ngoc knew that they would be stopped from leaving their houses this morning, so they tried to evade the police by leaving early and staying at a motel since yesterday. 

By midnight, the police found out that they were staying in room 102 at Truc Son Motel, 850 Lang Street, Dong Da, Ha Noi so they ordered the motel owner to get Ms Thuy Nga and Ms Phuong Ngoc to leave. The hotel sent a porter to the room and asked Ms Thuy Nga to open the door to let him in, saying that he had forgotten something in the room. Knowing that this was only an excuse to get them to leave, Ms Thuy Nga replied that nothing was left in the room and refused to let the porter in. The hotel owner then asked Ms Thuy Nga and Ms Phuong Ngoc to check out, in the middle of the night. Ms Thuy Nga replied that they had already paid for the room and had every right to stay until at least normal check out time at 12 midday.

By 6.20am this morning, almost 100 police officers arrived at the motel, surrounded the place and tried to break down the door. Ms Thuy Nga and Ms Phuong Ngoc, fearing for their safety, barricaded the door with furniture and sent out distress calls to friends and posted on Facebook. Note that Ms Thuy Nga was recently beaten by police officers disguised as thugs. Five masked and plain clothes officers chased and beat her with iron bars until her right knee cap was shattered. She is still on crutches. 

Australian Embassy representatives was notified and will come to see Ms Thuy Nga and Ms Phuong Ngoc after the conference. Upon hearing this, the police stopped trying to break the door down but is still surrounding the motel.

A few of Ms Thuy Nga 's friends arrived but they could not do anything except waiting outside to keep watch. Ms Thuy Nga said she could not let them in as the police is right on the other side of the door, waiting to force their way in to arrest both women. The police had already told Ms Thuy Nga that they have a vehicle outside ready to take her back to Ha Nam, Phu Ly, where she normally resides, and that Ms Phuong Ngoc will be escorted back to the local police department where she lives. 

By such actions, the Vietnamese government and the police have proved that they have no hesitation in violating their own Laws and Constitution to prevent its citizens from meeting overseas representatives, despite being formally invited by the Embassy. They are afraid that those invited will be able to tell the truth about all the violations of human rights committed by the government. 

We need to help bring these stories to the open, so show what this tyranny of Communist government is really doing to its citizens, to stop it from continuing deceiving both the Vietnamese people and the world.

Ngoc Nhi Nguyen