Huynh Thuc Vy - Translated by BuiQuan (Danlambao) - Last week, an officer from the American consulate notified me that a political affair officer from the consulate will pay our family a visit.
I let them know that the police would find out right away if the notification was done via telephone, and that they would make it very difficult for the visit. I know this because last year, when I was notified by phone, immediately the connection between me and the consulate got disconnected for days afterward. I could not call the consulate back to set up a meeting location as I had promised. On the day of the meeting, the security agents and the traffic police of QuangNam province blocked all routes leading to my house. So, the visit could not be carried out.
After thinking about the information I had given them, the officer from the consulate responded to me indicating that the visit had been canceled, and that they would see us at another time. The wiretapping agents did not know this because we were communicating by emails; therefore, today, local police and civil service agents are still watching my house.
My younger sister, Huynh Khanh Vy. just gave birth 20 days ago. The baby was born pre-matured, and, therefore was very weak and having infection. Two days ago, my family took the baby back to the hospital to get admitted for the second time because the baby was suffering from anemia, infection, and yellow skin. My sister and her husband needed to come back to Danang to take care of their baby.
While we all were worried about the health of the baby and my sister, the police were carrying out dirty tricks. This morning, the Danang police came into my sister’s hotel room demanding Khanh Vy, Hieu, and Minh Duc to show their Identifications. My sisters and brothers did not let the police into the room because my sister was still in her early postpartum period; she was still very weak, and prone to catch infection. The police yelled loudly and threatened to arrest my sisters and brothers for resisting police order.
This harassment of the security police had put a big impact in my sister’s health. Now, Khanh Vy is being held in the hotel room and cannot come to the hospital to see her baby. As of this writing, Danang police is working with the hotel owner. For the coming days, I don’t know where they are going to stay. If they are not allowed to temporarily stay in Danang, how Khanh Vy is going to see her baby in the hospital? These despicable acts of suppression aiming at a new mother and her newborn baby showed the extreme inhumanity of the Vietnamese Communist government.
A few days ago, Khanh Vy wrote an article to tell how she and her husband were being harassed. Today, these despicable acts were aiming directly toward my younger sister. This shows that this dictatorial government is being very revengeful; they want to stamp out my sister’s voice from the start. For the Right to Freedom of Expression, I would ask for your support of my sister’s effort to speak out.
My father, Huynh Ngoc Tuan and I, Huynh Thuc Vy, have not been harassed as much as before because we have the protection of public opinions; however, instead of openly attacking us, they surreptitiously hack our Gmail accounts. After obtaining our email accounts, they sent misleading information to the media and our friends causing concerns and loss of time to those we respect.
And, a few times, both male and female security officers, appeared in the front of our house pretending that they were watching us, with the purpose of preventing from us going to sleep, and of disturbing the peace of our family. Our home is in the country side, and does not tall walls; there are only bushy fences. A neighbor of ours, who acts as an informer, has regularly and intrusively been coming over to our house saying that he came over to “shoot birds”, but in reality he came over to listen our conversations. After one year, his daughter, a teacher in a remote country side, got promoted to a position in a large school in the city while many of her friends are still unable to find work.
The problems we have been going through from this dictatorial government are so many that I cannot list them all here without wasting the readers’ time. These untold, little acts of harassment have been causing extreme difficulties in our lives. Our lives are no longer the lives of ordinary people but the lives of those who are constantly on guard from the unexpected attacks of the government, and always taking a ready stand to “fight”. We do not back off because of this, but this is not the kind life we are looking forward to have, especially we have just added to our family a little new member who was recently born. I asked myself that how the next generations of our family were going to live and grow up in an environment with continuous acts of harassment such as this?
My telling about my family’s situation is to expose the ugliness of the communist government, not to mean to cause fears to those who wish to speak up. My younger sister, who is a quiet, good natured person, has finally spoken up. Like someone has said in Facebook, “There must be enough sacrifice and a price to pay before we can succeed in any fight for any advancement in any country and any era." A brighter future for Vietnam requires the efforts of all Vietnamese of all ages, professions, genders, and education levels. The price we pay today will bring a brighter future for our children. And it is well worth it.
Tam Ky, March 3, 2013
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Vietnamese version - bản tiếng Việt: Những sách nhiễu bẩn thỉu
Bài liên quan đã đăng: Cái “tội” vì là con gái của người bất đồng chính kiến?!
Bài liên quan đã đăng: Cái “tội” vì là con gái của người bất đồng chính kiến?!
