HANOI — Vietnam is flouting its human rights commitments to its Southeast Asian neighbours, Human Rights Watch said Friday, after the controversial jailing of four democracy activists.
Their conviction, at a day-long trial in southern Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday, highlighted a climate of increasingly harsh political repression in the communist nation, the New York-based watchdog said.
"Vietnam's antipathy toward free expression and other fundamental rights does not bode well for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Vietnam now chairs," Human Rights Watch said.
At the beginning of the year Vietnam took over the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, the regional bloc whose charter commits members to "promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms."
"By locking up peaceful rights defenders, democracy activists, and cyber-dissidents, the Vietnamese government is clearly flouting its promises to ASEAN and the international community," Human Rights Watch's Asia director, Brad Adams, said in a statement.
All four activists were convicted of trying to overthrow the regime.
Internet entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, 43, was sentenced to 16 years in prison while blogger Nguyen Tien Trung, 26, received seven years. Human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh, 41, and Le Thang Long, 42, were each given five years.
The European Union delegation to Vietnam called the trial and verdicts "a major and regrettable step backwards" while US ambassador Michael Michalak expressed concern "about the apparent lack of due process" and a British minister said it harmed Vietnam's international standing.
But Vietnam late Friday responded that the arrest, investigation, trial and convictions of the accused was in accordance with Vietnamese and international laws.
"Vietnam is a law-governed state," said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga.
"It is a pity that representatives of Britain, the US and EU made comments with lack of goodwill on this issue, intervening into Vietnam's internal affairs."
The case is the most high-profile among a series over the past year.
Human Rights Watch said dozens of democracy activists linked to opposition parties, independent bloggers, land rights protesters and members of unsanctioned religious organisations were arrested and imprisoned in 2009.
"With its treatment of peaceful critics, the Vietnamese government seems determined to stand out as one of the most repressive countries in Asia," Adams said.
The EU delegation said conviction of the four, along with other recent verdicts, exemplified a "negative trend".
"While this particular case will not help Vietnam in its leadership of ASEAN, one has to, nonetheless, note Vietnam's strengths in other areas," said Shawn McHale, director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at Washington's George Washington University.
He told AFP that Vietnam is one of ASEAN's most stable countries and "it is in Vietnam's strategic interests to make ASEAN work."
The group has a principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of its members, including Myanmar, which is under US and EU sanctions because of its human rights record.
ASEAN recently inaugurated a rights commission which prescribes a "non-confrontational approach" to promote and protect human rights.
(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i_uZwQo6UhAwsO_LvRxKpYvHqD0A)
Their conviction, at a day-long trial in southern Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday, highlighted a climate of increasingly harsh political repression in the communist nation, the New York-based watchdog said.
"Vietnam's antipathy toward free expression and other fundamental rights does not bode well for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Vietnam now chairs," Human Rights Watch said.
At the beginning of the year Vietnam took over the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, the regional bloc whose charter commits members to "promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms."
"By locking up peaceful rights defenders, democracy activists, and cyber-dissidents, the Vietnamese government is clearly flouting its promises to ASEAN and the international community," Human Rights Watch's Asia director, Brad Adams, said in a statement.
All four activists were convicted of trying to overthrow the regime.
Internet entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, 43, was sentenced to 16 years in prison while blogger Nguyen Tien Trung, 26, received seven years. Human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh, 41, and Le Thang Long, 42, were each given five years.
The European Union delegation to Vietnam called the trial and verdicts "a major and regrettable step backwards" while US ambassador Michael Michalak expressed concern "about the apparent lack of due process" and a British minister said it harmed Vietnam's international standing.
But Vietnam late Friday responded that the arrest, investigation, trial and convictions of the accused was in accordance with Vietnamese and international laws.
"Vietnam is a law-governed state," said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga.
"It is a pity that representatives of Britain, the US and EU made comments with lack of goodwill on this issue, intervening into Vietnam's internal affairs."
The case is the most high-profile among a series over the past year.
Human Rights Watch said dozens of democracy activists linked to opposition parties, independent bloggers, land rights protesters and members of unsanctioned religious organisations were arrested and imprisoned in 2009.
"With its treatment of peaceful critics, the Vietnamese government seems determined to stand out as one of the most repressive countries in Asia," Adams said.
The EU delegation said conviction of the four, along with other recent verdicts, exemplified a "negative trend".
"While this particular case will not help Vietnam in its leadership of ASEAN, one has to, nonetheless, note Vietnam's strengths in other areas," said Shawn McHale, director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at Washington's George Washington University.
He told AFP that Vietnam is one of ASEAN's most stable countries and "it is in Vietnam's strategic interests to make ASEAN work."
The group has a principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of its members, including Myanmar, which is under US and EU sanctions because of its human rights record.
ASEAN recently inaugurated a rights commission which prescribes a "non-confrontational approach" to promote and protect human rights.
(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i_uZwQo6UhAwsO_LvRxKpYvHqD0A)