World Hunger Strike Day demands Freedom for Prisoners of Conscience - 25 July 2015

Photo Hoàng Ngọc Diêu

Jasmine Tran (Danlambao) – World Hunger Strike Day is a symbol of solidarity for the hardship and misery that Vietnamese human rights dissidents suffer. With hunger strikes in Vietnam as well as overseas, a strong message of solidarity is clear: “We are one”.

The Vietnam World Hunger Strike is the next step of the “We Are One” human rights movement, which is being held in many countries. They include Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, South Korea, United States, Laos, France, Finland, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, and Vietnam.

Outside Vietnam, hunger strikes have occurred successfully in many countries. But in Vietnam, under tight control, the private facilities or work places of human rights dissidents were blocked by police. Only dissidents and supporters who could escape the barrier were able to come to the planned locations to go on their hunger strike. Others had to join the event by fasting at their own homes.

Hanoi

Planned location: Bách Thảo Park Hanoi, Hoàng Hoa Thám Street, Ba Đình district, 8am to 8pm on 25 July 2015. (The park closes at 10pm; participants planned to go home and continue their hunger strike at 8am next day)

Several human rights dissidents in Hanoi and in other places resorted to staging hunger strikes in their own homes. Under strict guard of the Vietnamese police, they were unable to go to planned locations.

Teacher Đào Thu, one of the human right dissidents has announced on Facebook: “As Hanoi police PA83 and the authorities of the college where I work commanded that I must not go to Bách Thảo Park today, I declare that I will undertake a hunger strike at my house to join the World Hunger Strike. I will hold a fast from 8am 25 July 2015 to 8am 26 July 2015.”

Teacher Dao Thu

Other human rights dissidents, Lê Thiện Nhân, and Nguyễn Vũ Bình also announced their own hunger strikes at home.

On 25 July 2015, Bách Thảo Park was unexpectedly closed; a notice detailing the ‘regular application of pesticides’ was presented by authorities as an excuse. Hunger strike participants had to undertake their strike in other places, such as Lake Hồ Tây, Cổ Loa Citadel, Núi Đôi and Gióng Temple in Sóc Sơn.

A part from the hunger strikers who fasted at their own homes, in Hanoi at least three groups took part in the World Hunger Strike in other places.

Lake Hồ Tây - Photo Nguyễn Thúy Hạnh FB

Cổ Loa Citadel - Photo Trương Minh Tam FB

Núi Đôi - Photo Trương Minh Tam FB

Gióng Temple - Photo Trương Minh Tam FB

When the first group, with 21 participants, led by Sông Quê and Trương Minh Tam, a former prisoner of conscience, were unable to undertake their hunger strike in Bách Thảo Park, they fasted while travelling along, on foot and by bus, while promoting their cause to the local people and tourists.

The first group - Photo Trương Minh Tam FB

The second group in Hanoi, including the bloggers Nguyễn Thúy Hạnh, Bao Han Tran, Khang Phan, Đặng Bích Phượng, Ngọc Anh, Sơn Nguyễn Minh, Phạm Mạnh Tuấn, Phạm Thanh Sơn, Đào Thu and Ngu Vu Quoc were harassed and forced out of Bách Thảo Park. They had to find another place to go on their hunger strike.

The second group - Photo Nguyễn Thú Hanh FB

The third group including, Trịnh Bá Phương, Trịnh Bá Tư, Trương Văn Dũng, Lê Hùng, Cấn Thị Thêu, Nguyễn Tường Thuy, Nguyễn Thị Thuý, Nguyễn Thị Nhung, Mai Phương Thảo, and many victims of injustice went to prison 5 in Thanh Hoá

Cấn Thị Thêu

to welcome the release of victim of injustice Cấn Thị Thêu, who has finished her prison term. The group then joined the hunger strike in Hanoi.

The third group

Nguyễn Tường Thụy stated: “Welcoming the World Hunger Strike, we announce we will hold a fast for 24 hours to object to the Vietnamese Government for detaining prisoners of conscience unlawfully. We request that the Vietnamese Government release all Vietnamese prisoners of conscience.”

The event ended by candlelight at 9pm in Hanoi, praying for the prisoners of conscience.

Photo Đào Thu

Photo Trương Minh Tam FB

Hải Phòng

In Hải Phòng, despite being surrounded by security and still under house arrest, Phạm Thanh Nghiên and her friends went on their own hunger strike.

Nha Trang

At 9:30am, 25/7/2015, Nha Trang police forces savagely and bloodily beat four peaceful hunger strikers, Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, Trương Hoàng Anh, Võ Trường Thiện and Nguyễn Phi Tâm.

Nguyễn Phi Tâm, Trương Hoàng Anh and Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh

Photo Danlambao

Police trampled Quỳnh’s face and cruelly hit her, until her mouth and nose were bleeding. Hoàng Anh’s T-shirt was torn, as it had words supporting a prisoner of conscience. Then she, too, was hit and dragged into the car by the police. Thiện and Tâm also were viciously struck.

Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh and Trương Hoàng Anh

Photo Danlambao

These bloggers then were detained in Lộc Thọ police station (17 Yersin, Tp Nha Trang, Tel: +84 5838 16465). On release, Quỳnh and Hoàng Anh were in bad physical state, both felt dizzy, had buzzing echoes in their ears, and their mouths and nose were bleeding.

Before that activist Pham Van Hai was arrested and kept in Lộc Thọ police station from 8.00 am to 10.00 pm in the same day.

Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh

Huế

Father Phan Van Loi, who joined the hunger strike from Hue, said: “Today I unite with all Vietnamese people who are going on the hunger strike, asking for freedom for the prisoners of conscience. The World Hunger Strike shows us that sacrifice and suffering are always present in the fight for freedom. Freedom is never free. The more people will act selflessly for the democratization of the country, the faster the revolution will come to success.”

Father Phan Van Loi

Lăng Cô, Huế

Four activists in central Vietnam, bloggers Paulus Thanh Hoang, Nguyễn Thái Sơn, Nguyễn Văn Thạnh, and Lê Anh Hùng all conducted their hunger strike in Nguyễn Đức Quốc’s home in Lăng Cô. Thanh Hoang and Thái Sơn also sat in protest to demand the release of prisoners of conscience. They also objected to Khanh Hoa police’s brutal attack on Như Quỳnh, Hoàng Anh, Võ Trường Thiên, and Nguyễn Phi Tâm in Nha Trang while these people were going on their hunger strike.

Photo Paulus Thanh Hoang FB

Saigon

Planned location: Catholic Redemptorist Church, 38 Kỳ Đồng Street.

Dozens of victims of injustice from Long An, Bến Tre were blocked on the way to the Redemptorist Church in Saigon. Only a few could escape the blockade to head to the hunger strike location. Hunger strikers and supporters who could avoid the police obstruction joined the hunger strike in the Catholic Redemptorist Church without nuisance.

Photo Danlambao

By 8am, despite being prevented and surrounded by the police, over sixty people - human rights defenders, bloggers, Facebook users, and victims of injustice from many provinces - had assembled in Saviour Santa Maria Redemptorist Church in Saigon. By 10:50, seventy people had joined the hunger strike.

Photo Nguyễn Hoàng Vi FB

Photo Danlambao

Actress Kim Chi shared her thoughts: “I am here joining the hunger strike to call upon the Vietnamese Government to release all prisoners of conscience. I cannot sleep well when people are still arrested for the love of their country. Injustice still exists everywhere in this country; prisoners of conscience are the ones who make a difference, they sacrifice themselves, they accept all hardship and detention. They want a better Vietnam, and want to direct our people out of its dependence on China.”

Actress Kim Chi and Blogger Sương Quỳnh - Photo Danlambao

Priest Lê Ngọc Thanh, who also went on the hunger strike, wrote on Facebook: “I admit that I committed a sin by keeping silent when Father Nguyễn Văn Lý was arrested and unjustly sentenced by the Government. Nor did I support Tạ Phong Tần, Đặng Xuân Diệu, and composer Trần Vũ Anh Bình adequately. Today I hold a fast to repent, and to ask for God’s forgiveness in having been an accomplice to a cruel power, and in letting it accuse the innocent. I know that God will always have compassion on and will open a safe path for the authorities or the party who, have made mistakes in the past – but nowrepent and would free the prisoners of conscience in Vietnam.”

Blogger Nguyễn Hoàng Vi and former prisoner of conscience Nguyễn Phương Uyên declared that they would go on the hunger strike at their homes, as the police had surrounded their houses and did not let them leave their front gates.

Nguyễn Hoàng Vi said: “I am with the movement, asking for a release of all prisoners of conscience. Even though security forces prevented me from leaving my house to join everybody, I have started my own hunger strike from 8am 25July to 8 am 26 July 2015 at my home, to unite with everyone in the spirit of “We are one”.

Nguyễn Phương Uyên: “Undergoing the We Are One hunger strike is a way to support the prisoners of conscience who have been recently detained in communist prisons. As dissidents in jail often use hunger strikes to object the cruel prison system and the unlawful regulations of the Government, this kind of demonstration sends a message of solidarity.”

Phương Uyên

Victims of injustice joined the hunger strike as well. Trần Ngọc Anh, came late as she walked 16km through woodland at night before arriving in Saigon, explained: “I am Tran Ngoc Anh from Bà Rịa. There are over ten people in my group with me. Actually there was a lot more than that originally, but we were hindered by the government and many couldn’t come.We want to raise our voice together with other hunger strikers. We request the government to free all the prisoners of conscience. They only stand up against injustice. They also speak out for us, the victims of injustice, who have been arrested when fighting for our land. Yesterday I tried to leave at 1pm by walking through the forest, hiding from the police, but without success- they caught me and forced me back home. At 1am today, I snuck out of my house again, walking 16 km through woodland to get to Saigon.”

Trần Ngọc Anh, Ngô Thị Hạnh and Võ Thị Tuyết Lệ

Võ Thị Tuyết Lệ and Ngô Thị Hạnh spoke about their reason for joining the hunger strike:

Võ Thị Tuyết Lệ, in tears: “I only knew Tạ Phong Tần when I read about her on the internet; she was arrested because of her fight for freedom, democracy, and human rights. I love Viet Khang’s song “Who Are You?” too. I am from central Vietnam and I love the people there a lot. Vietnamese fishermen in our seas are beaten and detained by Chinese ships. In response, the Vietnamese Government does not speak out strongly enough. How can our people bear such humiliation forever? That is why I like Viet Khang’s song. I want all Vietnamese people to be able to sing his song without harassment or arrests from the Government.”

Also in Saigon, the young activist Trinh Kim Tien stated from her home: “To hold a fast for a day is not easy for a mother who eats well and has a young child like me. But this day is very meaningful when we undertake the hunger strike together with many Vietnamese all over the world, joining in one purpose - prisoners of conscience. The We Are One movement pushes us towards solidarity. The hunger strike will bring warmth and strength to prisoners of conscience, who day and night suffer torture between cold prison walls”

Activist Trinh Kim Tien

After candlelight prayers at 9pm, the hungers strikers continued the hunger strike at their homes.

Photo Danlambao

Long An:

Kim Lien, mother of Đinh Nguyên Kha, prisoner of conscience, announced: "Being a mother of two prisonners of conscience, I am a victim of the inhumane Vietnamese jungle laws. I cannot join this hunger strike as I am on medication, so I am grateful to all the people in and outside of Vietnam who are going on this hunger strike. I hope that this World Hunger Strike will be successful and will bring justice to all Vietnamese prisoners of conscience”