23 March 1999
DISSIDENT WRITER'S ARREST PROVOKES FEARS OF CRACKDOWN
The arrest and detention of dissident writer Nguyen Thanh Giang in Vietnam has provoked fears of a widespread crackdown on dissidents, report the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of International PEN, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Giang, a prominent geologist whose articles on corruption within the Communist Party have frequently been published on the Internet and in newspapers published by Vietnamese living in exile, was arrested by police on 4 March in Hanoi. HRW says Giang may be sentenced for "crimes against national security" under Article 82 of the Criminal Code, reportedly for possessing "anti-socialist propaganda," which could incur a long prison term. His whereabouts remain unknown and there is concern for his safety. Giang, whose writings include "Human Rights, the Thousand Year Aspiration" (1996), was forced to resign from his job in 1995, summoned for questioning repeatedly by the police and was detained for three days in March 1998.
International PEN is "deeply concerned about reports of an imminent government crackdown on leading dissident writers in Vietnam." It reports that "senior authorities in the Vietnamese Communist Party have issued an order for the arrest of dozens of dissidents in Vietnam, whose writings alleging government corruption and calling for democracy in Vietnam have been widely circulated in the domestic underground press and overseas." This blacklist includes writer Hoang Tien and journalist Vu Huy Cuong. CPJ notes that press freedom has deteriorated in Vietnam in the past year as the Communist Party has tightened its control over the media. CPJ says, "Despite official constitutional guarantees of free speech and the press, the reality in Vietnam is that almost all aspects of the media are under heavy state and party control." "Dissident writers in Vietnam face tight government control and repression in Vietnam," says HRW, continuing, "Despite amnesties in October and November 1998 of several well-known political prisoners, dozens of dissidents remain under surveillance or threat of arrest, or held in 'administrative detainment' under Directive 31/CP, which authorizes detention without trial for up to two years by the Ministry of Interior."
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