CORRESPONDENCE - 85A COMBINED REPORTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN VIETNAM 2012

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Viet Tan Party, etc... continued to be tracked down. Most recent was the arrest of 14 people belonging in the "H6i dong Cling luat Cling an Bia Son" (translation uncertain) by the Phu Yen provincial police in February 2012. The group is accused of "abusing freedom and democratic rights to violate state interests." As for civil society groups, especially labor unions, the CPV firmly maintains its monopoly of leadership (See section "The workers in the Tricky Hands of the State and Business Bosses" in this report). To be brief, until now absolutely no political assemblies are allowed to operate except the CPV and its subsidiaries such as the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Fatherland Front, and the Vietnam Women's Union... The year 2011 was also marked with unusual people's political activities in the streets triggered by China's invasions of Vietnam's land and territorial waters causing serious harm to Vietnamese fishermen and their boats, and by China's defiant claim of its sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly Islands. In June, possibly for diplomatic purposes, the government closed its eyes and might even have given its secret support to these politicized assemblies. However, when these demonstrations were determined to get out of hand, threatening the CPV leadership, and perhaps accommodating the Chinese authorities, security forces both in uniform and plain clothes were mobilized to the maximum to obstruct and mercilessly suppress the demonstrators. Besides anti -China demonstrations, other assemblies of victims of land injustice continued to take place all year round in many localities from North to South, which underwent harsh repression by the government (See section "Victims of Land Injustice "). Related to this question of freedom of demonstration was the Vietnam Human Rights Network * Annual Report 2011 sentencing of Legal Doctor Cu Huy Ha Vu to 7 years of imprisonment for filing a suit against Premier Nguyen Tan Dung who in 2006 had signed Decree 136 "prohibiting class - action petitions." Under international pressure, Premier Nguyen Tan Dung suggested in November 2011 to the National Assembly that a demonstration bill be considered in its legislative agenda. But, ironically, when a demonstration was called on 27 November 2011 to support his proposal it was ruthlessly suppressed by the police with many arrests. 3. Oppression against Dissidents The 11th CPV National Congress met in January 2011 but it was preceded by a wave of arrests of dissidents from the mid of 2010 to the early days of 2011. This was an indication of the communists' determination not tolerate any challenge to their single - party rule and its government. This round of suppression was especially aimed at Net bloggers, typically the following: - In August 2010, Mr. Pham Minh Hoang, a French - Vietnamese national and lecturer in mathematics at the Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic Institute, was arrested. He blogged on critical issues under the pen -name of Phan Kien Quoc, and made public other writings on the bauxit.com web page, managed by Messrs. Nguyen Hue Chi, Pham Toan, and Nguyen The Hung. - In October 2010, blogger Dieu Cay continued to be kept in prison even after his fabricated tax - evasion sentence term had expired. He was then orally charged with spreading "anti -state propaganda" for writing articles for the Free Journalists Club but was not brought to trial. For 9