Vietnam: Social media activists arrested, ethnic minorities jailed while protests against development projects crushed

The state of civic space in Vietnam is still rated ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. Among ongoing concerns documented are systematic attempts to silence human rights defenders, journalists and bloggers, including their jailing under national security laws, restrictions on their freedom of movement, and torture and ill-treatment in detention. There are also strict controls on the media, online censorship and controls on social media as well as ongoing restrictions on peaceful protests.

In January 2024, Human Rights Watch said that the Vietnamese government had broadly repressed fundamental civil and political rights over the year, and severely punished those who challenged the Communist Party of Vietnam’s monopoly on power. The authorities also continued to prohibit the formation of independent labour unions and human rights organisations, and outlawed independent religious groups.

International human rights groups in February 2024 were alarmed by Vietnam's intention to run again for re-election as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council in the 2026-2028 term despite its poor human rights record.

A broad-ranging secret directive from the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) was exposed in a report by human rights group The 88 Project in March 2024, calling for further restrictions against the activities of civil society groups, including trade unions, and increasing scrutiny of foreign organisations and Vietnamese nationals travelling abroad. The document, known as Directive 24, was reportedly issued in July 2023 and includes nine orders for implementation by the state party and organisations to contain and manage the supposed threat posed to Vietnam’s national security and the country’s economic opening.

In recent months, a number of activists were arrested and charged including Nguyen Chi Tuyen, Nguyen Vu Binh and Hoang Viet Khanh. Khmer Krom activists were jailed as well as an ethnic minority Christian activist. Jailed blogger Nguyen Nhu Phuong was beaten, while the wives of jailed activists faced harassment. UN experts raise concerns about the treatment of human rights defender Dang Dinh Bách, while a land development protest in Nghe An and a protest at a port construction site in Thanh Hoa were crushed.

Expression

Human rights and social media activist Nguyen Chi Tuyen detained

On 29th February 2024, the police arrested Nguyen Chi Tuyen (also known as Anh Chi), 49, in Hanoi. He is a human rights campaigner who uses social media, including YouTube and Facebook, to comment on social and political issues.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that police and plainclothes officials seized a Nokia mobile phone, a laptop and documents during the arrest. He faces charges of “propagandising against the state” under Article 117 of the penal code and will be detained for four months pending investigations.

According to Human Rights Watch, Nguyen Chi Tuyen was a founding member of the now closed No-U FC (No U-line Football Club), a soccer team whose members were outspoken against China’s territorial claims on maritime areas claimed by Vietnam. He helped organise and participated in many anti-China protests in the early 2010s, and pro-environmental protests in the mid-2010s. He joined fellow activists to provide humanitarian assistance to impoverished people in rural areas and the victims of natural disasters. He also openly supported imprisoned rights activists.

HRW said that Nguyen Chi Tuyen has repeatedly faced police intimidation, harassment, house arrest, bans on international travel, arbitrary detention and interrogations.

Journalist and critic Nguyen Vu Binh detained

Authorities in Hanoi detained Nguyen Vu Binh, a journalist and long-time critic of the government.

According to Radio Free Asia, police took Nguyen Vu Binh, 55, into custody on 29th February 2024. He was then briefly brought home to pack some clothes and his house searched on the basis of a warrant. His family was informed that he was being arrested but was not provided with any documents, before Binh departed with the police.

Binh worked for 10 years as a reporter with the official Tap Chi Cong San, or Communist Review, before becoming a prominent activist in Hanoi. In December 2000, he resigned and attempted to form an independent political party. He was also one of several dissidents who attempted to form an anti-corruption association in 2001.

In December 2003, the Hanoi People’s Court sentenced him to seven years in jail for “espionage,” accusing him of collecting and composing documents “distorting” the democratic and human rights situation in Vietnam and sending them to “reactionary organisations” overseas. He was released in early 2007 as part of an amnesty order, after which he continued to participate in peaceful activities promoting human rights. Between 2015 and 2024, Nguyen Vu Binh has published more than 300 entries on the Radio Free Asia Blog.

in January 2024, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), released their 2023 census on jailed journalists worldwide. Vietnam ranked the fifth worst jailer of journalists, with a total of 19 journalists in prison.

Facebook activist Hoang Viet Khanh arrested

On 1st March 2024, police arrested Hoang Viet Khanh, 41, in Lam Dong province, in the Central Highlands region.

Police accused him of using his Facebook page to “post, share and disseminate [information with] contents that bend the truth, distort and twist the actual situation, attack the guidelines and policies of the party and the state, distort history, defame and insult President Ho Chi Minh, [and] smear high-ranking leaders of the party and the state.”

The Security Investigation Agency decided to prosecute Hoang Viet Khanh for “making, storing, distributing or propagating information and documents aimed against the state” under the controversial Article 117 of Vietnam’s criminal law.

According to HRW, Hoang Viet Khanh started using Facebook to express his opinions on various socio-political issues in Vietnam in 2018. He denounced police brutality and raised concerns about confessions extracted under torture in police custody. He publicly voiced support for political prisoners. When Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh first took office in 2021, Hoang Viet Khanh published his 10-point opinion, urging the prime minister to consider abolishing article 4 of Vietnam’s Constitution, which confirms the Communist Party’s leadership over the country.

Association

Khmer Krom activists jailed

Two ethnic Khmer Krom activists who were arrested in 2023 on suspicion of distributing books about indigenous people’s rights were sentenced to prison on 20th March 2024.

According to RFA, the Cau Ngang District People’s Court in southern Vietnam’s Tra Vinh province convicted To Hoang Chuong, 38, and Thach Cuong, 37, of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331, a section of the penal code used by the government to silence dissenting voices. Chuong received a 4-year sentence and Cuong was given 3.5 years in prison, state media reported.

Previously, in February 2024, a court in Soc Trang province sentenced an ethnic Khmer Krom man to 3.5 years in prison for “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of the country’s criminal code. Prosecutors said that Danh Minh Quang, 34, used his personal Facebook account to post comments and live-stream videos which “violated Vietnam laws.”

As previously documented, the 1.3-million strong Khmer Krom - ethnic Khmer who live in what was historically southeastern Cambodia, but now controlled by Vietnam - face serious restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, association, information and movement in Vietnam, despite being recognised as one of 53 ethnic minorities in the country. The Vietnamese government has banned Khmer Krom human rights publications and tightly controls the practice of Theravada Buddhism by the minority group, which sees the religion as a foundation of their distinct culture and ethnic identity.

Ethnic minority activist sentenced

On 26th January 2024, a Vietnam court in Phu Yen Province, sentenced Nay Y Blang, a Rhade religious activist, to four and a half years in prison on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” for allegedly holding unauthorised spiritual services in his home. Blang did not have a lawyer defending him.

According to The Vietnamese, Blang, 48, was arrested in May 2023 for his alleged engagement in the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ, an indigenous religious organisation that the Vietnamese government has banned.

The Communist authorities in Vietnam have called this Protestant group a “foreign-based reactionary organization” that purportedly seeks to “incite ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands and the surrounding areas to erode the national solidarity bloc, trigger secession, and promote the establishment of a separate state.”

Jailed blogger Nguyen Nhu Phuong beaten

Political prisoner and blogger Nguyen Nhu Phuong claimed in January 2024 that he was beaten by detention centre guards after getting into a row with the warden over a missing gift from his family.

According to RFA, his family went to a detention centre in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in November 2023, bringing two shirts for Phuong. However, he didn’t receive the shirts even though they were listed on his receipt record. When he complained to the warden, Phuong said he was sworn at and beaten by several guards until he coughed blood.

As previously documented, in December 2022, Phuong, a Vietnamese blogger, was sentenced to a five-year imprisonment and three-year probation by the An Giang Provincial People’s Court on charges of “making, storing and distributing anti-State materials” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. He regularly used his personal Facebook account as a platform to raise concerns about multiple political and social issues in Vietnam.

Wives of jailed activists face harassment

The wives of jailed activists Bui Van Thuan and Bui Tuan Lam say they face constant harassment by local authorities.

According to RFA, on 16th February 2024, Trinh Thi Nhung, wife of Bui Van Thuan, said she was questioned by police in Thanh Hoa province about a Facebook account which used her husband’s photo as her profile picture. Her husband was arrested at the end of August 2021 for a series of Facebook posts in which he wrote about the internal fighting of state officials. Thuan is serving an eight-year prison sentence for “propaganda against the State.”

Le Thanh Lam, the wife of Bui Tuan Lam, known as “Onion Bae” - who was jailed for five years for making a satirical video imitating a celebrity chef and mocking Vietnam’s public security minister – has also been targeted. She sells foodstuffs including seaweed, dried jackfruit and soy sauce. The labels are printed with the slogan, “Supporting Bui Tuan Lam.”

On 2nd February, the Da Nang city police and market officials seized her goods and accused Lam of selling contraband. She was fined for the “crime.” She said she believes she is being victimised because on the day of her husband’s trial a police officer pointed at her and said, “I will not leave you and your mother alone.”

UN experts raise concerns about treatment of human rights defender Dang Dinh Bách

On 14th February 2024, UN experts urged the government to stop targeting, convicting and mistreating human rights defenders, after environmental human rights defender Dang Dinh Bách began his third hunger strike to protest against his detention conditions.

Dang Dinh Bách is a human rights defender and community lawyer who has been a leader of the climate change movement in Vietnam, seeking a just transition from fossil fuels. He was arrested on 24th June 2021 and sentenced to five years in prison for “tax evasion pursuant to article 200 of the Criminal Code.” His sentence was confirmed by the Appeal Court on 11th August 2022.

The experts said they were “extremely concerned about the safety and well-being of environmental human rights defender and lawyer Mr Bách. On top of discrimination and differentiated treatment in detention, there are reports that Mr Bách was being attacked and beaten up in custody.”

In its Opinion 22/2023, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Dang Dinh Bách’s deprivation of liberty is arbitrary. He was kept incommunicado during his pretrial detention and following his sentencing, prosecuted in a closed trial, and not permitted adequate access to his lawyer. Dang Dinh Bách is currently being detained eight hours away from his family in Prison No. 6 in Nghe An Province, in a wing reserved for political prisoners. Dang Dinh Bách depends on his family’s supplies to eat, per his vegetarian diet, and is also being denied access to hot water and traditional medicines. Communication and visits from his family and his lawyer are also restricted.

Peaceful Assembly

Security forces use force to crush land development protest in Nghe An

At least three people have been hospitalised following a protest at a land development project in Nghe An province.

According to RFA, about 200 demonstrators living in Phong Yen tried to stop construction workers levelling land around a shrimp pond for the Urban Area and Social Housing, or Eco Central Park Vinh, a project run by the Viet-Laos Economic Cooperation Joint Stock Company.

In response hundreds of police, soldiers and thugs were mobilised to force them to leave the area. Videos showed police with shields and batons and plainclothes people wearing red helmets dragging protesters out of the construction area. Some were punched and kicked. Most of the injured were elderly, some over 80 years old. Police also ordered people to delete social media posts and video clips of the incident.

Police crackdown on protesters at port construction site in Thanh Hoa

Hundreds of police officers broke up a construction site protest in northern Vietnam by beating several demonstrators with batons and arresting them.

According to RFA, the Long Son Container Port Project revolves around building a 250-metre dock by 2025 in the Hai Ha commune in the northern province of Thanh Hoa, home to nearly 3,000 households, about 400 of which rely on fishing to make a living.

Residents held several consecutive days of protests at the end of October 2023, with some taking to the streets and occupying the beach to stop Long Son from working. The residents said they wanted satisfactory compensation and resettlement plans.

Videos of the protest on 31st October 2023 taken by residents show that hundreds of police officers were sent to the scene equipped with batons and shields. They used batons to hit the protesters, with many suffering injuries on their heads and limbs. They also arrested 16 people and took them to the Nghi Son Town Police Station.

Authorities also jammed mobile phone signals to prevent residents from spreading the images and videos of the crackdown. The police also prohibited residents from filming the incident.