The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint
programme of FIDH and OMCT, requests your urgent intervention in the
following situation in Vietnam.
New information:
The Observatory has been informed by the International Buddhist
Information Bureau that Mr. Pham Van Tuong (Buddhist name Thich Tri
Luc), a former monk and member of the Unified Buddhist Church of
Vietnam (UBCV), was released on 26 March 2004, after serving a 20
months-imprisonment sentence.
Mr. Pham Van Tuong had been in detention since July 26, 2002, when he
was arrested on charges of "fleeing abroad in order to oppose the
Vietnamese government". At the time of his arrest, Mr. Pham Van Tuong
was in Pnom Penh (Cambodia). He had fled Vietnam following religious
persecution in April 2002 and was under UN protection in Cambodia
after obtaining refugee status from the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) in Phnom Penh in June 2002. During the next year,
his family did not know whether he was dead or alive, and Vietnamese
authorities denied all knowledge of his whereabouts.
In July 2003, Mr. Pham Van Tuong "reappeared" in a jail in Ho Chi
Minh City, where he had been detained for 12 months. The Vietnamese
Foreign Ministry admitted that Security Police had arrested him on
July 26, 2002, "at the Cambodian-Vietnam border". His family was told
that he would stand trial on August 1, 2003, but the trial was
postponed indefinitely without any explanation.
Mr. Pham Van Tuong was sentenced to 20 months in prison on March 12,
2004, at a closed trial at the People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City of
"distorting the government’s policies on national unity and
contacting hostile groups to undermine the government’s internal
security and foreign affairs". According to the information received,
Mr. Pham Van Tuong’s trial lasted less than one hour and he was not
represented by a lawyer. His family was informed of the trial only
the day before. As he had already served 19 months and 15 days in
prison, he was release two weeks after the ruling.
During his 20 months in prison, Pham Van Tuong continually protested
that he was a UN Refugee and claimed the right to UNHCR protection.
Indeed, the original arrest warrant drawn up by Vietnamese Security
Police at the Tay Ninh Border clearly stated that they had
confiscated his Refugee Card upon his arrest. However, one month
later, this warrant was replaced by a new one, signed by Ho Chi Minh
City Security Police, which simply stated that Pham Van Tuong had
been arrested on July 26, 2002 inside the Vietnamese border, with no
mention of his refugee status. The Ho Chi Minh Police told Pham Van
Tuong that his kidnapping in Cambodia was "none of their business",
and they refused to allow him access to the UNHCR representative in
Vietnam.
The Observatory considered Thich Tri Luc’s detention and the charges
against him as arbitrary since they aimed at sanctioning his
activities in favour of fundamental freedoms in Vietnam, including
freedom of religion.
The Observatory asks that Pham Van Tuong be granted access to UNHCR,
that he be immediately placed under UN protection and that his
refugee status be maintained.
Reminder of the facts:
Pham Van Tuong was first arrested in 1992 and detained for 10 months
without trial during a crack-down on the UBCV. On November 5, 1994,
he was again arrested for participating in a UBCV mission to rescue
flood victims and sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison at an
unfair trial in Ho Chi Minh City for "abusing democratic freedoms to
harm the interests of the State". Released on 13, February 1997, he
was placed under probationary detention at the Phap Van Pagoda in Tan
Binh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, and obliged to report monthly to the
Security Police.
In October 1997, Police expelled him from Phap Van Pagoda without any
reason. In April 2002, shortly after his five-year probationary
detention sentence ended, he fled to Cambodia to seek political
asylum to escape religious persecution. He obtained refugee status
from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Phnom Penh in
June 2002. He was under UN protection when he was abducted at his
guest house by unidentified men who spoke Vietnamese on the night of
July 25, 2002. During the next year, his family did not know whether
he was dead or alive, and Vietnamese authorities denied all knowledge
of his whereabouts.
After his release, Mr. Pham Van Tuong said that during his arrest, he
was accosted by two Cambodian Security agents at 6.30 pm on the
evening of July 25, 2002 as he stepped out of his guesthouse in Phnom
Penh to buy food. One man blocked his path and the other caught hold
of him from behind. They dragged him into a nearby car, where a third
Cambodian and a Vietnamese Security agent, who appeared to be in
charge, were waiting. The car had a Cambodian number plate, No 2475.
Inside the car, Pham Van Tuong was handcuffed and beaten repeatedly.
One of the Cambodian Security agents grabbed him by the neck and held
him down as the car sped out of Phnom Penh, ordering him not to
struggle. Pham Van Tuong said he almost fainted, and tried to call
for help, but the Vietnamese Security officer ignored his cries. The
Cambodian Security agents searched his pockets and confiscated his UN
Refugee Card (no. 610 IC, delivered by Elizabeth Kirton, UN High
Commissioner for Refugees,
Phnom Penh Office, June 28th 2002).
He was then driven to a Cambodian Police Station, interrogated for
over one hour, then thrown into jail for the night, still wearing
handcuffs. The next morning (26th July) at
4.30 am, he was taken in the same car across the Cambodia-Vietnam
border to Ben Cau district in Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam, where
Vietnamese Security officials were
waiting for him. The Cambodian Police handed over all his papers to
the Vietnamese, including his UNHCR Refugee Card. Vietnamese Security
Police then drove him to the
Security Investigation Centre (B34/A24 Prison at 237 Nguyen Van Cu
Street, Ho Chi Minh City), where he remained in custody for the next
20 months. He was held in
secret, denied all contacts with the outside, and not allowed to see
his family until August 22, 2003.
Action requested:
Please write to the Vietnamese authorities urging them to:
i. Ensure the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Pham Van
Tuong;
ii. Ensure that he be granted access to UNHCR, that he be immediately
placed under UN protection and that his refugee status be maintained;
iii. Conform with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted
by the United Nations’ General Assembly on 9 December 1998, in
particular its article 1, which
states that " everyone has the right, individually and in association
with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and
realization of human rights and fundamental
freedoms at the national and international levels ";
iv. Conform with the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human
Rights, and with the regional and international instruments which
bound the Republic of Vietnam.
Addresses:
– Tran Duc Luong, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,
Office of the State, 1 Bach Thao, Hanoi, Socialist Republic of
Vietnam. Fax : (+84) 4199 2682
– Phan Van Khai, Prime Minister, Office of the Prime Minister, 1 Bach
Thao Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Fax : (+84) 4823 1872
– M. Nong Duc Manh, Secretary General of the Communist Party of
Vietnam, Hanoi. Fax: (+84) 48 23514
– M. Nguyen Nang Tien, Permanent Mission of the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam to the United Nations in Geneva, Fax : (+ 41 22) 798 24 69 ;
(+ 41 22) 798 07 24
e-mail : mission.vietnam@ties.itu.int
Paris, Geneva, 29 March 2003
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this
appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a joint FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the
protection of Human Rights Defenders, and aims to offer them concrete
support in their time of need.
To contact the Observatory, call the Emergency Line:
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch
Tel and Fax: FIDH: +33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / 01 43 55 18 80
OMCT: +41 22 809 49 39 / 41 22 809 49 29