A court in Vietnam has freed the writer and pro-democracy activist, Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, after more than nine months in prison. Thuy was chosen by Human Rights Watch in 2006 as a co-recipient of its annual awards for "courage in the face of political persecution." But according to the New York-based rights group the dissident writer's release is a rare bright spot.
Presenter - Sen Lam Speaker - Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch deputy director for Asia.
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RICHARDSON: We certainly do welcome her release but of course we're also of the view that like dozens of other peaceful dissidents who've been imprisoned in Vietnam she should never have been arrested in the first place.
LAM: And why was she arrested?
RICHARDSON: She was sentenced on charges of supposedly causing public disorder under Article 245 of Vietnam's penal code.
LAM: And is she well known in Vietnam?
RICHARDSON: She actually is, she's quite a well known author, poet and journalist. She's written quite a few novels, satirical essays and political essays criticising the regime. And she was a practicing journalist for quite some time.
LAM: So what signals do you think the Vietnamese authorities are sending by releasing Tran Khai Thanh Thuy?
RICHARDSON: Well it's a little bit hard to say what exactly this means because it's so recent and there had been really no announcement that this was going to happen. I wouldn't want to suggest yet that it's a trend; we'd be pleased if it was. No I think the Vietnamese government is somewhat sensitive to international public criticism. We and other organisations have repeatedly pointed out that in the last year and a half, essentially since the APEC meeting in November 2006; the Vietnamese government has been cracking down quite harshly on dissidents.
LAM: Indeed on the one hand you say the Vietnamese government is sensitive to international opinion, but on the other hand Human Rights Watch seems to think that since joining the World Trade Organisation in late 2006 that Vietnam has actually been emboldened to make more arrests. Why is that?
RICHARDSON: Well I think it's because by granting Vietnam that trade status the world has really given away some of the most effective means of leverage it had over the Vietnamese government.
LAM: Nonetheless though there are still dissenters, the Bloc 8406 democracy group for example, do you think challengers to the Communist Party are still growing or are they being controlled through arrests and detentions?
RICHARDSON: You know this is sort of the 64-thousand dollar question, of the nearly 40 dissidents who've been arrested since the crackdowns began more than 20 were sentenced to prison in 2007, primarily for conducting anti-government propaganda. At the same time I think the quite diverse membership of Bloc 8406, that it's older people and younger people, white collar, blue collar, rural, urban, real dissidents and former party members, suggests that opposition to the government is now sufficiently widespread. That it's going to be much more challenging for the government to shut it down entirely.
LAM: Two-thousand people turned out last week to demand the return of land seized from the Catholic Church in the 1950s. That's an interesting development isn't it, that these Catholic Church members turned out en masse to protest against the authorities?
RICHARDSON: Absolutely, I mean for Catholics to publicly demonstrate any dissatisfaction with the regime, particularly through such public demonstrations is quite rare in Vietnam, especially because relative to other religious denominations Catholics have been afforded more space to govern their own affairs. I think over the last five years the government has been gradually warming to the idea of normalising relations with the Vatican and a Papal visit to Vietnam. I think it's not insignificant that the one church President Bush visited in Hanoi was a Catholic church, and that last February Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited the Pope in Rome.
Presenter - Sen Lam Speaker - Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch deputy director for Asia.
listen windows media > http://www.abc.net.au/ra/connectasia/stories/m1535796.asx
RICHARDSON: We certainly do welcome her release but of course we're also of the view that like dozens of other peaceful dissidents who've been imprisoned in Vietnam she should never have been arrested in the first place.
LAM: And why was she arrested?
RICHARDSON: She was sentenced on charges of supposedly causing public disorder under Article 245 of Vietnam's penal code.
LAM: And is she well known in Vietnam?
RICHARDSON: She actually is, she's quite a well known author, poet and journalist. She's written quite a few novels, satirical essays and political essays criticising the regime. And she was a practicing journalist for quite some time.
LAM: So what signals do you think the Vietnamese authorities are sending by releasing Tran Khai Thanh Thuy?
RICHARDSON: Well it's a little bit hard to say what exactly this means because it's so recent and there had been really no announcement that this was going to happen. I wouldn't want to suggest yet that it's a trend; we'd be pleased if it was. No I think the Vietnamese government is somewhat sensitive to international public criticism. We and other organisations have repeatedly pointed out that in the last year and a half, essentially since the APEC meeting in November 2006; the Vietnamese government has been cracking down quite harshly on dissidents.
LAM: Indeed on the one hand you say the Vietnamese government is sensitive to international opinion, but on the other hand Human Rights Watch seems to think that since joining the World Trade Organisation in late 2006 that Vietnam has actually been emboldened to make more arrests. Why is that?
RICHARDSON: Well I think it's because by granting Vietnam that trade status the world has really given away some of the most effective means of leverage it had over the Vietnamese government.
LAM: Nonetheless though there are still dissenters, the Bloc 8406 democracy group for example, do you think challengers to the Communist Party are still growing or are they being controlled through arrests and detentions?
RICHARDSON: You know this is sort of the 64-thousand dollar question, of the nearly 40 dissidents who've been arrested since the crackdowns began more than 20 were sentenced to prison in 2007, primarily for conducting anti-government propaganda. At the same time I think the quite diverse membership of Bloc 8406, that it's older people and younger people, white collar, blue collar, rural, urban, real dissidents and former party members, suggests that opposition to the government is now sufficiently widespread. That it's going to be much more challenging for the government to shut it down entirely.
LAM: Two-thousand people turned out last week to demand the return of land seized from the Catholic Church in the 1950s. That's an interesting development isn't it, that these Catholic Church members turned out en masse to protest against the authorities?
RICHARDSON: Absolutely, I mean for Catholics to publicly demonstrate any dissatisfaction with the regime, particularly through such public demonstrations is quite rare in Vietnam, especially because relative to other religious denominations Catholics have been afforded more space to govern their own affairs. I think over the last five years the government has been gradually warming to the idea of normalising relations with the Vatican and a Papal visit to Vietnam. I think it's not insignificant that the one church President Bush visited in Hanoi was a Catholic church, and that last February Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited the Pope in Rome.