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JANUARY 2012 <br />Vietnam <br />COUNTRY SUMMARY <br />The Vietnamese government systematically suppresses freedom of expression, <br />association, and peaceful assembly. Independent writers, bloggers, and rights activists <br />who question government policies, expose official corruption, or call for democratic <br />alternatives to one -party rule are routinely subject to police harassment and intrusive <br />surveillance, detained incommunicado for long periods of time without access to legal <br />counsel, and sentenced to increasingly long terms in prison for violating vague national <br />security laws. <br />Police frequently torture suspects to elicit confessions and, in several cases, have <br />responded to public protests over evictions, confiscation of land, and police brutality with <br />excessive use of force. Anti -China protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in 2011 were <br />dispersed and protesters were intimidated, harassed, and in some cases detained for <br />several days. <br />The 11t" Vietnam Communist Party Congress in January 2011 and the stage- managed <br />National Assembly election in May determined the leadership of the party and government <br />for the next five years. During both, there was no sign of any serious commitment to <br />improve Vietnam's abysmal human rights record. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung began <br />his second term in July, enjoying strong support from the Ministry of Public Security and <br />other hard - liners. <br />Repression of Dissent <br />2011 saw a steady stream of political trials and arrests, likely spurred in part by Vietnamese <br />government concerns that pro- democracy Arab Spring movement might reach Asia. <br />During the first 10 months of 2011, the authorities sent at least 24 rights activists to prison. <br />All but one were convicted of "conducting propaganda against the state" (penal code <br />article 88), "undermining national unity" (article 87), or "subversion of the administration" <br />(article 79). These three vaguely defined articles have been employed to imprison <br />hundreds of peaceful activists in the last decade. In addition, the police arrested at least <br />27 political and religious advocates in 2011. Blogger Nguyen Van Hai, known by his pen <br />