May 5, 2013, a large number of youths, bloggers, and internet users gathered for picnics in public parks held across 4 urban cities of Vietnam: Saigon, Hanoi, Hai Phong and Nha Trang. As per their open call on social media and blogs, the purpose of these picnic gatherings is to enjoy outdoor weather, meet old friends and make new ones, and to discuss universal human rights, but above all, to have fun with friends and families.
For the past weeks, facebook was buzzing with the news that there would be Talk About Human Rights Picnics on May 5, with instructions to direct interested citizens to specific parks on certain date and times, from the North to the South.
Unfortunately, instead of encouraging open discussion about universal human rights during the time when the Vietnamese government is calling for citizens' input for its constitutional amendments, as early as 6:30 am on the morning of May 5, the authorities made its presence known with hundreds of security police, both in uniforms and plain clothes. They used various tactics to stop people from participating in these picnics, including violent means. Barbed wires were set up around the perimeters of all the parks, and police used metal sticks, batons, to strike at participants. Cameras and cell phones were also confiscated.
Blogger Nguyen Hoang Vi, her sister (Nguyen Thao Chi) and her mother were all beaten up severely. With her mother's existing poor heart condition, when a security police jabbed his lit cigarette into her face, her mother fainted. Her sister was punched continually in the face, and 3 of her front teeth were knocked out. The security police did not stop even when her shirt was soaked in blood.
Blogger and poet Vu Sy Hoang (pen name Hanh Nhan) was also arrested at the same time as Nguyen Hoang Vi, and was taken to a different police station.
Blogger Quoc Anh was also arrested and subjected to torture during his 9-hour detention. He blacked out when the security police used an electric stick to shock him. They wanted to force him to confess to charges that were drawn up for him to sign. When he refused to plead guilty to their trumped-up charges, they continued beating him savagely, to the point that he fainted again. The police then had to take him to the police station for more beatings and interrogation until they finally released him.
Blogger Me Nam and other well-known bloggers were also under heavy surveillance to stop them from leaving their houses and attending the Human Rights Discussion Picnic in the parks. Their internet as well as phone services were also cut off to stop them from sending out messages via their mobile phones or other social media tools.
Together with other participants, these courageous bloggers were seen distributing booklets and fliers of the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights to other pedestrians and even to the police.
Ms. Pham Thanh Nghien in Hai Phong city, who was recently been released from 4 years of imprisonment, and was still under house arrest, decided to show support by having a picnic with her mother on the frontyard of their house since she was not allowed to leave her residence. She called on others who were in similar situation like her (being under house arrest) to have a picnic with their loved ones right in front of their homes. She was seen reading to her mother the universal human rights from the UN declaration when she and her mother were harassed by hostile and brutal police guards. (Please log on to the links below for more photographs of her and her mother partaking in the picnic at the front of their home). Concerned friends and visitors who wanted to see her, were turned away by the crowd of police posting around her house and neighbourhood. Since her recent release from prison, Pham Thanh Nghien has been suffering from severe migraine headache, dizziness, and poor vision.
Please help us alert the international human rights community for timely intervention and to raise concerns with embassies in Vietnam to make formal inquiries with the Vietnamese authorities about these arrests and beatings of cititizens who only wanted to exercise their rights of assembly and freedom of expression at peaceful picnics in public parks.
Thank you all for your continued support for peace, democracy and human rights in Vietnam,
More links to danlambao news blogsite for more details:
At around 9:30 am, when the crowd started to gather and booklets about The United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights were distributed by a few bloggers, the police sprung into action. They had already detained various bloggers and writers as soon as they left their houses earlier and forced them to have a picnic somewhere else, under the supervision of the police! Back at the main gathering points, the police were seen harassing people, threatening them with violence, snatching their cameras and cell phones to actually beating and making arrests.
A witness reported that he saw 3 to 4 guards beating up a young student, forcing him against the side of a police car then kicking, kneeing and punching him in the face. The uniformed policemen actually formed a circle around the guards and the student, preventing people from jumping in to help the poor victim. The beating went on for more than 20 minutes. When concerned passer-bys inquired as to why he was beaten up so savagely, the police bluntly told lies that he was a drug seller then bundled him up into a sedan and sped off.
Another student complained that as soon as he sat down on a bench with a group, trying to make friends and to start a conversation about human rights, the police ordered a park cleaner to spray them with dirty, stinky water so that they had to leave. This happened to several people. A friend of mine who attended the event later told me that he himself was surrounded and threatened by 4 policemen. One of them raised his hand to punch him while the other tried to snatch his camera. Quick thinking, he screamed “ Robbers ! Help me ! Help me “. At that the police backed off and let him run away.
That was not all, there were also reports that the police had already harrassed several well known bloggers like Me Nam, Pham Thanh Nghien the day before... by guarding their places of residence 24/24, preventing them from leaving the house and disconnecting their cell phone service. Mrs Thuy Nga Tran, a mother with 2 young children aged 3 years and 5 months old, were last night ordered by the police to leave the hotel where they were staying, forcing them to spend the night out on the street in the cold, just because they were on their way to attend the picnic this morning.
Later in the day the police arrested blogger Nguyen Hoang Vi , just for distributing fliers printed with the UN Declaration of Human Rights to the passer-bys. She and several others were bundled up into police cars and taken away.
Despite the massive effort by the police to sabotage the event, many people gathered to chat among themselves, to march around holding placards announcing that the ability to gather in public parks is their right and that the Communist Government should respect the people 's freedom of expression. Many pictures and stories were posted on Facebook and other public media.
The photograph below shows an elderly woman kneeling down on the pavement to sign her name on a sheet that read “I protest against the government 's violation of its citizens' human rights".
On the placards held by the participants, there are several mentions of the words TU DO, which means freedom. The one at the forefront reads: "Freedom of Assembly is Cititizens' Right".
