Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Vietnam.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Vietnam. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Vietnam U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/vietnam/
[accessed 12 August
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT Activists reported
Ministry of Public Security officials assaulted political prisoners to
extract confessions or used other means to induce written confessions,
including instructing fellow prisoners to assault them or making promises of
better treatment. Abusive treatment was not limited to activists or persons
involved in politics. Human rights monitoring groups issued multiple reports
of police using excessive force while on duty and investigators allegedly
torturing detainees. One of the Dong Tam
villagers who was detained and then released following the January 9 clash
with police (see section 1.a.) alleged that Ministry of Public Security
interrogators tortured many of the 29 defendants by a variety of methods,
including electric shock, cigarette burns to various parts of the body,
waterboarding, and other methods that would not leave physical evidence. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Prison conditions
varied substantially by prison and province. In most cases they were austere
but generally not life threatening. Insufficient diet and unclean food,
overcrowding, lack of access to potable water, and poor sanitation remained
serious problems. Authorities placed
prisoners in solitary confinement for standard periods of three months. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Pretrial Detention:
The allowable time for temporary detention during an investigation varies
from three to 16 months, depending on the offense. There were no standard legal
or administrative requirements as to when suspects must be brought before a
judicial officer. Depending on the seriousness and nature of the offenses,
these time limits vary. In cases of particularly serious crimes, including
national security cases, the law allows detention “until the completion of
the investigation.” Prison conditions
varied substantially by prison and province. In most cases they were austere
but generally not life threatening. Insufficient diet and unclean food,
overcrowding, lack of access to potable water, and poor sanitation remained
serious problems. Vietnam Publisher
Recovering From Torture, Daughter Released Radio Free Asia RFA,
18 May 2020 www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/vietnam-publisher-05182020214023.html [accessed 19 May
2020] A Vietnamese man
arrested and beaten by police for delivering books from a publishing house
targeted by authorities for putting out proscribed political books is
recovering and his daughter has been released, a writer from the group told
RFA on Monday. “While in custody,
Thuy Tuat was interrogated and brutally tortured, including
punching in the face, chest, ribs and stomach by police from 9am to 3am the
following day. Upon release, despite having serious injuries, Thuy Tuat went directly into hiding fearing that police might
re-arrest him,” Amnesty said in a letter to the prime minster. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/vietnam/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 16 May
2020] F3. IS THERE
PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR
AND INSURGENCIES? There is little
protection from the illegitimate use of force by state authorities, and
police are known to abuse suspects and prisoners, sometimes resulting in
death or serious injury. Prison conditions are poor. In May 2019, Amnesty
International reported that Nguyễn Văn Hoá, a former Radio
Free Asia blogger serving a seven-year jail sentence for reporting on
protests over a toxic waste spill, had been tortured in prison. Concluding
observations on the seventh periodic report of Viet Nam Committee against
Torture, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights
OHCHR, 14 November 2018 tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/VNM/CAT_C_VNM_CO_1_33168_E.pdf [accessed 8 December
2018] DEFINITION AND
CRIMINALIZATION OF TORTURE IN NATIONAL LEGISLATION -- 6. While noting
that the right not to be subjected to torture and various offences such as
applying corporal punishment and obtainment of testimony by duress that
amount to torture are enshrined in the Constitution and other domestic laws,
the Committee is concerned that the State party’s criminal legislation, and
in particular the amended Criminal Code, do not criminalize torture in
a separate provision
specifically prohibiting this
crime. It is
also concerned at the
absence of a
definition of torture in
national legislation. In
addition, the Committee is
concerned at reports that committing acts of torture at the instigation of or
with 3 the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person
acting in an official capacity, as outlined in article 1 of the Convention,
is not covered adequately in the laws of the State party (arts. 1, 2 and 4). New report shows
horrors faced by Vietnam’s political prisoners Logan Connor,
Southeast Asia Globe, 13 July 2016 sea-globe.com/report-vietnam-political-prisoners/ [accessed 3 August
2016] www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa41/4187/2016/en/ [accessed 3 August
2016] A former prisoner featured
in the report, named as Lu, was allegedly tortured every day for four
consecutive months. The report says guards regularly beat him until he fell
unconscious and forced him to consume food that had been left uneaten by a
dog. “On one occasion,
pens were placed between his fingers and his hands were twisted around,
causing excruciating pain,” the report says. “On another, the legs of a table
were placed on his toes and police put all their body weight on the table
resulting in unbearable pain and causing his toes to bleed”. Amnesty says in its
report, which describes isolation as a primary method of torture, that it has
documented a number of cases involving the use of solitary confinement for
prolonged periods. Dar, the pseudonym
of an ethnic Montagnard who spent the first ten
months of his sentence in solitary confinement, told Amnesty researchers that
police taunted him with threats that he would never leave the blackened cell. “When they arrested
me they threw me into a dark cell for ten months… They told me that this was
all for my crimes but all I had done was demonstrate, to ask for freedom,
land rights and religious equality,” he said. “They told me that I would die
in prison, that I would die in that cell and my family would never know.” UN experts urge
Viet Nam to stop persecution and torture of religious leaders Peter Kenny,
Ecumenical News, Geneva, 3 June 2016 [accessed 8 August
2016] U.N human rights
experts have called on Viet Nam to stop persecuting and torturing Tran Thi Hong, who has been repeatedly arrested for informing
the international community of human rights violations against her husband,
who is in prison for peaceful religious activities. Tran, spouse of
imprisoned Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, was initially
arrested on April 14, 2016. She was
tortured and warned to stop her activities promoting freedom of
religion. Since then, Tran Thi Hong has been repeatedly arrested and harassed by the
authorities, who are trying to force her to 'cooperate' with the government. "We are
concerned that the repeated arrests and the continuing detention of Ms. Tran
resulted from her peaceful human rights work and exercise of her fundamental
rights, which constitutes arbitrary detention," the experts said calling
for her unconditional release. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] VIETNAM ABUSES IN DETENTION
AND PRISON
- Police brutality, including deaths in police custody, are an increasing
source of public concern in Vietnam. In 2014, even the heavily controlled
state media frequently published reports about police abuse. In many cases,
those killed in police custody were being held for minor infractions. Police
frequently engaged in cover-ups, including by alleging the detainee’s
suicide. Many detainees said they were beaten to extract confessions,
sometimes for crimes they say they did not commit. Others said they were
beaten for criticizing police officers or trying to reason with them. Victims
of beatings included children. HRW: Vietnam police
abuse, torture Bloomberg News, 16
September 2014 www.bangkokpost.com/most-recent/432583/hrw-vietnam-police-abuse-torture [accessed 19
September 2014] Vietnamese police abuse
and sometimes torture people in custody for crimes as minor as traffic
violations and are rarely disciplined for a practice that has lead to deaths of detainees, Human Rights Watch said. "We are
revealing what is essentially a hidden human-rights crisis affecting the
ordinary people of Vietnam," he said. "This is a report about
farmers and businessmen and local merchants and students and others who ended
up in police custody for activities that you and I would not consider to be
out of the ordinary." The cases
of abuse documented in the report were compiled from news reports, social
media and independent blogs and then cross-checked. Vietnam: Torture
and Abuse of Political and Religious Prisoners
[PDF] Sara
Colm, Campaign to Abolish Torture in Vietnam, January 2014 democraticvoicevn.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/vietnam-torture-and-abuse-01-16-2014.pdf [accessed
22 Jan 2014] This report focuses
on the systematic use of torture and other ill-treatment of people who have
been detained or imprisoned in Vietnam for peacefully exercising their rights
to expression, association, assembly, religion, or political asylum. Law enforcement
officials carry out torture and other abuses at each stage of a dissident’s
arrest, detention, and imprisonment, with the harshest abuses taking place
during pre-trial detention. The harsh and at times life-threatening
conditions in Vietnam’s prisons and detention centers also amount to cruel,
inhuman, and degrading treatment, and in some cases to torture. “They blindfolded
me during interrogation and severely beat me with a rubber baton and kicked
me in the kidneys with their boots until I was bleeding inside and blood was
coming out of my mouth. My face was swollen and I could not walk. When I
passed out, they poured water on me. Some days before I left the prison they
stopped beating me in the face to let the swelling die down. “When I left, I
had to be carried out of the prison.” —Vuong, a Vietnamese democracy activist
arrested in Cambodia and forcibly returned to Vietnam, where he was
imprisoned and tortured in An Giang Prison “Sometimes they
took my head and pushed it into water until I was unconscious. Two people
held my arms on each side and pushed my head down.” —Buddhist monk Kim
Muon, describing his torture during interrogation at Soc Trang Prison. Torture in the
Name of Treatment -- Human Rights Abuses in Vietnam, China, Cambodia, and Lao
PDR Human
Rights Watch, 24 July 2012 www.hrw.org/reports/2012/07/24/torture-name-treatment [accessed
17 February 2013] More than 350,000
people identified as drug users are held in compulsory drug
"treatment" centers in China and Southeast Asia. Detainees are held
without due process for periods of months or years and may be subjected to
physical and sexual abuse, torture, and forced labor. International donors
and UN agencies have supported and funded drug detention centers, while
centers have systematically denied detainees access to evidence-based drug
dependency treatment and HIV prevention services. "Torture in the Name
of Treatment," summarizes Human Rights Watch’s findings over five years
of research in China, Cambodia, Vietnam,
and Lao PDR. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 PRISONERS OF
CONSCIENCE - BLOGGERS Long prison terms
were handed down to bloggers in an apparent attempt to silence others. They
were charged with “conducting propaganda” and aiming to “overthrow” the
government. Dissidents were held in lengthy pre-trial detention, often
incommunicado and sometimes beyond the period allowed under Vietnamese law.
Reports of beatings during interrogation emerged. Trials failed to meet
international standards of fairness, with no presumption of innocence, lack
of effective defence, and no opportunity to call
witnesses. Families of defendants were harassed by local security forces,
prevented from attending trials and sometimes lost their work and education
opportunities. Well-known popular
bloggers Nguyen Van Hai, known as Dieu Cay,
“Justice and Truth” blogger Ta Phong Tan, and Phan
Thanh Hai, known as AnhBaSaiGon, were tried in
September for “conducting propaganda” against the state. They were sentenced
to 12, 10 and four years’ imprisonment respectively, with three to five
years’ house arrest on release. The trial lasted only a few hours, and their
families were harassed and detained to prevent them from attending. Their
trial was postponed three times, the last time because the mother of Ta Phong Tan died after setting herself on fire outside
government offices in protest at her daughter’s treatment. Phan Thanh Hai’s
sentence was reduced by one year on appeal in December. Environmental
activist and blogger Dinh Dang Dinh,
was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in August after a three-hour trial.
He was charged with “conducting propaganda” against the state for initiating
a petition against bauxite mining in the Central Highlands. His wife reported
that he was in poor health and had been beaten by prison officers. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61632.htm [accessed
17 February 2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61632.htm [accessed
7 July 2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law prohibits
physical abuse; however, police sometimes physically mistreated suspects
while arresting them or holding them in custody. In mid‑September local
officials in the central highland province of Gia Lai reportedly beat two
ethnic Dao Protestants, who were subsequently hospitalized for five days.
Provincial government authorities reportedly were investigating the incident,
but at year's end no official had been reprimanded. As in previous years, a
small number of allegations were made that police, particularly in the
Northwest Highlands, beat suspects, mainly ethnic minority Protestants, to
the point of unconsciousness while also forcing them to perform acts against
their religious beliefs such as consuming alcohol. However, other sources
were not able to verify or confirm these allegations. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 7 Civil Liberties: 5 Status: Not Free 2009
Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/vietnam [accessed 17
February 2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] Vietnam’s judiciary
is subservient to the CPV, which controls courts at all levels. Defendants
have a constitutional right to counsel, but lawyers are scarce and many are
reluctant to take on human rights and other sensitive cases for fear of
harassment and retribution by the state. Defense attorneys cannot call or
question witnesses and are only infrequently permitted to request leniency
for their clients. Police can hold
individuals in administrative detention for up to two years on suspicion of
threatening national security. The police are known to abuse suspects and
prisoners, and prison conditions are poor. Many have been imprisoned for
their political and religious beliefs; though there have been fewer arrests
and more releases of religious prisoners in recent years. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century- Vietnam
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