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VIETNAM
[Update on Rapid Action: 4/30/08]
International PEN welcomes the release on July 11, 2008, of Bui Kim Thành, Internet writer, dissident, and lawyer, after being held for five months in psychiatric detention, apparently without any medical basis. However, PEN is deeply concerned that Bui Kim Thành’s release was apparently conditional on her going into exile, and continues to call for her unconditional release in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam is a signatory.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Bui Kim Thành, 49, is a human-rights lawyer, Internet writer, and member of the banned Democratic Party of Vietnam. She was taken to the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital by police on March 6, 2008, after they broke into her house in Ho Chi Minh City. She was released on July 11, 2008, and left Vietnam for the United States on July 21, 2008, under extreme pressure from the authorities.
This is not the first time that Bui Kim Thành has been sectioned in a psychiatric hospital by the Vietnamese authorities. She was detained on November 2, 2006, and held for eight months at the Bien Hoa Psychiatric Hospital, after being assessed by two psychiatrists who concluded that she was not suffering from mental illness. She is said to have been forcibly injected with unknown medication during her incarceration. She is believed to have been targeted for her critical online writings and dissident activities.
Bui Kim Thành is known for her reporting on issues of social injustice and human-rights violations in Vietnam, and particularly for her defense of destitute women farmers made homeless by illegal land expropriation.
>> More information
>> More information on free expression in Vietnam
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PLEASE SEND APPEALS...
• welcoming the release of Bui Kim Thành, but expressing serious concern that she has been forced into exile and is separated from her family;
• calling for her unconditional release in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam is a signatory.
SEND APPEALS TO...
President, Socialist Republic of Vietnam
His Excellency Nguyên Minh Triêt
C/O Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Hanoi
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Prime Minister
Nguyên Tân Dung
1 Hoang Hoa Tham Street
Hanoi
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Minister of Culture and Information
Lê Doan Hop
1 Hoang Hoa Tham Street
Hanoi
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Please note that there are no fax numbers available for the Vietnamese authorities, so you may wish to ask the diplomatic representative for Vietnam in your country to forward your appeals, asking them to intervene in the case.
Please send appeals immediately. Check with PEN if sending appeals after September 3, 2008: ftw@pen.org
RELATED LINKS
>> Rapid Action: 4/30/08
>> PEN's letter of appeal
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