Dear friends,
Due to police suppression, the third session of our “Human Rights Café” with the subject of discussion: "Convention against Torture and the Issue of Civilians’ Death in Police Custody," scheduled on April 19, 2014, at Swing Coffee of 20-22 Tran Phu Street, Nha Trang City, could not take place as we wished for.
The Network of Vietnamese Bloggers (NVB) would like to send our apology to those who planed or spared precious time to attend it unsuccessfully.
We, those who want to help tackle the problems of police violence against civilians, once again, have become the victims of arbitrary use of force by police as we were brutally attacked by plainclothes police of Loc Tho Ward and its security apparatus.
They used violence against peaceful members of NVB. While taking some of our members to Loc Tho police station at 17 Yersin Street, Nha Trang City, a plainclothes security agent had repeatedly beaten blogger Paul Thanh Nguyen and harshly slapped on the face of the female blogger Trinh Kim Tien.
After being held for more than 12 hours by Nha Trang Police, our members received a so-called “Report of Administrative Violations.”
“At 11:30 a.m. on April 19, 2014, at the police station of Loc Tho ward, by inspecting the property of Quynh, who is relevant to the incident of disrupting public security and order, [we] find a number of items which content documents of misrepresentation, fabrication, slander aimed to harm the reputation of the organizations and individuals, violating Decree 167/2013/ND-CP (Figure 1), and the receipt of seizure of objects (Figure 2a, 2b),” read the report issued to blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh.
By using uncivilized behavior against those who attended the third session of our “Human Rights Café,” security forces have shown a deadlock in verbal and legal arguments, prompting them to resort to the vilest behavior - that is violence.
Our members realize that violence is a last resort that the police and security apparatus are using to suppress us and to mentally terrorize us. However, it just helps us become more steadfast on our choices.
Those who wear the uniform of “People’s Public Security” and get paid from the hard earned tax money of tax payers but fail to provide the safety for civilians must be held accountable. Moreover, when those public servants directly involve in the physical assault of civilians for being incapable to engage on a peaceful debate they must face justice.
The use of violence cannot intimidate us. The use of violence will never be able to imprison our aspirations. We will continue to fight for a Vietnam, in which civilization and freedom will bear more fruits each day.
See you at the upcoming fourth session of our “Human Rights Café” as well as other events protecting and promoting human rights in Vietnam.
The Network of Vietnamese Bloggers
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