Network of Vietnamese Bloggers - On Saturday 1, March 2014 at 9:00 in the morning, as planned, several members of the MLBVN opened the Human Rights Café discussion focussing on “The Rights to Freedom of Movement”.
Around 30 bloggers were present, amongst them were human rights activists like Nguyen Ho Nhat Thanh (blogger Paulo Thanh Nguyen), Luu Trong Kiet, Huynh Cong Thuan, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (Me Nam), Nguyen Hoang Vi (An Do Nguyen), Nguyen Thao Chi, Nguyen Thi Yen Trang (Mi Ruoi), Hoang Van Dung (Hoang Dung CĐVN), Bui Tuan Lam (Peter Lam Bui), and Huynh Ngoc Chenh. Visitors from abroad in attendance were Aija Salovara (Finland) and Lina Johansson (Sweden).
Notably, a dozen security officers sat at nearby tables, watching and walking around, taking pictures of and filming the group.
However, the two chairs reserved for PA 67 (Ho Chi Minh City Security Agency) and PA 72 (Immigration Department Head Office) were unoccupied. Authorities from these government departments did not appear to join the discussion. They were the officials directly responsible for arbitrarily prohibiting citizens from exiting the country and confiscating their passports.
Prior to the human rights café, the bloggers that were banned from departing the country (Paulo Thanh Nguyen, Me Nam Gau, Hoang Dung CĐVN) had sent invitation letters to PA 67 and PA 72 requesting authorities to attend the meeting. The authorities gave the group no reply; instead, many plainclothes police officers came out on that day to “monitor” the situation. Blogger An Do Nguyen recollected, as one of the foreign journalists suggested taking photos of everybody, a plainclothes police officer quickly made a call, then taking pictures of the bloggers. When the journalist took her turn to take his picture, the man hurriedly covered his face behind his hands.
Photo: Facebook user Nguyen Hoang Vi
Pham Chi Dung is a Doctor in Economics and also a journalist. He was not allowed to exit the country for Geneva last February, where the Universal Periodic Reviews conference for Vietnam took place. He was also present for the discussion.
Photo: Dr Pham Chi Dung shares his story to foreign journalists and bloggers
Opening the discussion, Paulo Thanh Nguyen, Me Nam, Peter Lam Bui, Huynh Cong Thuan, Nguyen Hoang Vi, Huynh Ngoc Chenh, and Hoang Dung shared their experiences regarding the overruling decisions by the government, prohibiting them to exit Vietnam without any prior notice.
The other young members in the group spoke of their concerns regarding the many negative effects on their time, budgets, and jobs, if no notice or explanation would be given to them informing them of the reasoning behind the orders and those responsible for it.
The only notification given to all these citizens, forbidding their right to depart the country, decreed the same reason: “For national security and public order and safety”. The notifications did not clearly dictate any definite period of time, and no individual assumed responsibility for this decision to ban the right to exit the country of these citizens.
Next, as the group discussed this issue, Huynh Ngoc Chenh and Paulo Thanh Nguyen suggested the police authorities actually enforce the law by giving citizens clear and practical information, with specific instructions. Precise decisions would be valued over vague and general statements, offering to citizens no clear directions.
Dr Pham Chi Dung suggested that they all should think about suing the officials who wrongly performed their job, especially as there is enough evidence. He also suggested everybody should bring the case to the international tribunal.
The discussion ended with an agreement to produce a shared statement from those that were denied the right to exit the country. The Network of Vietnamese Bloggers will continue to organize future meetings and will conduct suitable activities to further promote human rights.
The security officers did not want to sit at the same table as the bloggers, but they attentively followed their every word, gesture, and movement. They were quite well-mannered. Yet they intensely followed the two foreign journalists, pointed cameras straight to their faces in an aggressive manner. The journalists only shrugged their shoulders and commented the situation as “So weird, so weird!''.
The height of their rude attitude was seen as they asked the Starbucks café staff to demand the bloggers not to take any photos or film, and to ignore any questions from the foreigners. Evidently however, these plainclothes police could do as they liked.
Below is the video from the human rights café, by blogger Huynh Cong Thuan.
Some photos taken by the MLBVN's members:
Nguyen Hoan Vi, Mi Ruoi, Me Na (program MC)
Two plainclothes police monitoring the group
Two empty seats reserved for representatives from PA67 (Security department
for national political protection) and PA72 (Security department for travelling abroad)
Translated by Jasmine Tran (Danlambao)
