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Category: commune

  • Vietnam frees 2 people arrested during the 2020 commune raid

    More than four years after the 2020 violent police raid on Hanoi’s Dong Tam commune, two more people that were arrested that night were released from prison for good behavior.

    Le Dinh Quan, 48, and Bui Van Tien, 45, had been in the fourth year of their five-year sentences, but were allowed to return home ahead of schedule. 

    Quan told Radio Free Asia that during interrogations after his arrest, he was beaten into signing an inaccurate confession.

    “They beat me a lot, breaking all of my front teeth,” he told RFA Vietnamese over the phone. “They used their limbs and batons to hit me. They knew how to torture, leaving no trace, but the victims still suffer. Now I still endure the pain and I am not healthy at all.”   

    The two men were among 29 who were arrested on Jan. 9, 2020, during the attack on land rights protesters in the commune by 3,000 riot police.

    The raid resulted in the death of Le Dinh Kinh, the commune’s elderly spiritual leader, and three officers. Of these, 19 were initially charged with murder, though for some, the charges were lowered to resisting police officers on duty.

    Three others were released early in April.

    Forced confessions

    Two days before the attack, Quan had returned home from a distant province where he worked to celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, with his family. 

    When the police started to attack the village, he got out of his home to sound the alarm and then was arrested on the way to Kinh’s home.

    Quan said that at the detention facility, he was forced to admit that he was a member of the protesting faction and in charge of defending the land that was central to the dispute.

    Investigators also coerced him into stating that Kinh had received money from overseas which he had shared with others, including himself.   

    He said he did not know the names of the investigators beating him but said that almost all defendants in this case were beaten and forced to make statements. He saw others return to their cells with bruises and other signs of torture.

    ENG_VTN_DONG TAM_05132024.2.jpg
    This picture taken and released by the Vietnam News Agency on September 14, 2020 shows defendants involved in a land dispute attending a court trial in Hanoi. – Two villagers were sentenced to death for murder on September 14 by a Vietnam court, after a long-running land dispute spiralled into rare violence which left three police officers and a villager dead. (Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam News Agency/AFP)

    During his trial, he denounced the police’s use of physical violence against him but the presiding judge ignored the accusations.   

    Quan said that both he and his lawyers had strongly opposed the indictment. On the fifth day, his charges were surprisingly changed from “murder” to “resisting officers on official duty.”   

    RFA called Hanoi Police and its Security Investigation Agency, using the numbers provided on their website to seek their comments on the allegations but no one answered the phone.   

    In a recent interview with RFA, Dang Dinh Manh, one of the defense attorneys for the Dong Tam case, said that numerous defendants reported being tortured and forced to give coerced confessions during their pre-trial detention but the judging panel did not pay attention to their allegations.

    In addition, Quan said, throughout his stay in prison, he was forced to do hard labor continuously without pay or adequate food.

    He was released eight months early  for working diligently and adhering to prison rules, he said.

    Six others who were initially charged with murder remain in prison. Of these, Le Dinh Cong and Le Dinh Chuc were sentenced to death.

    Le Dinh Doanh has a life sentence. Bui Viet Hieu was sentenced to 16 years. Bui Quoc Tien was given 13 years and Nguyen Van Tuyen 12 years.

    Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese Service.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Vietnam frees 2 people arrested during the 2020 commune raid

    More than four years after the 2020 violent police raid on Hanoi’s Dong Tam commune, two more people that were arrested that night were released from prison for good behavior.

    Le Dinh Quan, 48, and Bui Van Tien, 45, had been in the fourth year of their five-year sentences, but were allowed to return home ahead of schedule. 

    Quan told Radio Free Asia that during interrogations after his arrest, he was beaten into signing an inaccurate confession.

    “They beat me a lot, breaking all of my front teeth,” he told RFA Vietnamese over the phone. “They used their limbs and batons to hit me. They knew how to torture, leaving no trace, but the victims still suffer. Now I still endure the pain and I am not healthy at all.”   

    The two men were among 29 who were arrested on Jan. 9, 2020, during the attack on land rights protesters in the commune by 3,000 riot police.

    The raid resulted in the death of Le Dinh Kinh, the commune’s elderly spiritual leader, and three officers. Of these, 19 were initially charged with murder, though for some, the charges were lowered to resisting police officers on duty.

    Three others were released early in April.

    Forced confessions

    Two days before the attack, Quan had returned home from a distant province where he worked to celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, with his family. 

    When the police started to attack the village, he got out of his home to sound the alarm and then was arrested on the way to Kinh’s home.

    Quan said that at the detention facility, he was forced to admit that he was a member of the protesting faction and in charge of defending the land that was central to the dispute.

    Investigators also coerced him into stating that Kinh had received money from overseas which he had shared with others, including himself.   

    He said he did not know the names of the investigators beating him but said that almost all defendants in this case were beaten and forced to make statements. He saw others return to their cells with bruises and other signs of torture.

    ENG_VTN_DONG TAM_05132024.2.jpg
    This picture taken and released by the Vietnam News Agency on September 14, 2020 shows defendants involved in a land dispute attending a court trial in Hanoi. – Two villagers were sentenced to death for murder on September 14 by a Vietnam court, after a long-running land dispute spiralled into rare violence which left three police officers and a villager dead. (Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam News Agency/AFP)

    During his trial, he denounced the police’s use of physical violence against him but the presiding judge ignored the accusations.   

    Quan said that both he and his lawyers had strongly opposed the indictment. On the fifth day, his charges were surprisingly changed from “murder” to “resisting officers on official duty.”   

    RFA called Hanoi Police and its Security Investigation Agency, using the numbers provided on their website to seek their comments on the allegations but no one answered the phone.   

    In a recent interview with RFA, Dang Dinh Manh, one of the defense attorneys for the Dong Tam case, said that numerous defendants reported being tortured and forced to give coerced confessions during their pre-trial detention but the judging panel did not pay attention to their allegations.

    In addition, Quan said, throughout his stay in prison, he was forced to do hard labor continuously without pay or adequate food.

    He was released eight months early  for working diligently and adhering to prison rules, he said.

    Six others who were initially charged with murder remain in prison. Of these, Le Dinh Cong and Le Dinh Chuc were sentenced to death.

    Le Dinh Doanh has a life sentence. Bui Viet Hieu was sentenced to 16 years. Bui Quoc Tien was given 13 years and Nguyen Van Tuyen 12 years.

    Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese Service.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Analysis finds inconsistencies during Cambodia’s 2022 commune election

    A report from Human Rights Watch released Monday found numerous irregularities during the 2022 local commune elections that suggest widespread vote tampering and improper counting, raising concerns about whether Cambodia can hold a fair parliamentary election later this month.

    The irregularities, which include vote tampering and improper vote counting and reporting, “call into question the credibility of Cambodia’s National Election Committee,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. 

    “While it’s already clear that the national election in July will be a mockery of the democratic process, a toothless and incompetent National Election Committee only makes matters worse,” he said.

    The report comes as Cambodia’s Constitutional Council approved – as expected – an amendment to the election law that prohibits those who don’t vote in the July 23 election from running for office in future elections. It now goes to King Norodom Sihamoni for his signature.

    The election change appears to be aimed at preventing a large-scale boycott of the vote by supporters of the main opposition Candlelight Party, the only one that could have mounted a serious challenge to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

    ENG_KHM_CambodiaElectionLaw_07032023_02.jpg
    Im Chhun Lim, President of the Constitutional Council of Cambodia, announces the election disqualification of the Candlelight Party for the upcoming election in May 2023. Credit: Cindy Liu/Reuters

    A boycott would be a way of expressing public anger over the committee’s decision in May to ban the Candlelight Party from running in the election. The committee blamed inadequate paperwork, but opposition activists have said the decision was politically motivated.

    Anyone who doesn’t vote next month won’t be able to run as a candidate in next year’s Senate, district and commune elections, and also won’t be able to run in the next general election scheduled for 2027.

    The amendment also allows for the prosecution of individuals and parties who discourage people from voting.

    Human Rights Watch’s report cites a joint statement issued last week by a coalition of civil society organizations, associations and trade unions that was critical of the amendment’s “impact on free democracy, voter freedom of expression, voting rights, and to stand for candidates.”

    It said the amendment “was made hastily and without consultation with stakeholders, including civil society organizations” in keeping with democratic standards. 

    Fraud and tampering

    Human Rights Watch’s report also noted that the Candlelight Party reported widespread intimidation of its polling place observers in Phnom Penh during last year’s commune elections.

    In at least five Phnom Penh polling places, officials counted votes behind closed doors, the organization said. Limiting observation of ballot counting wasn’t widely seen or reported during the previous commune election in 2017, it said.

    Election officials were required last year to submit a results form – called an “1102 form” – after ballots were counted at each site.

    ENG_KHM_CambodiaElectionLaw_07032023_03.jpg
    A police officer casts his vote at a polling station during a general election in Phnom Penh, in 2018. Credit: Darren Whiteside/Reuters

    Human Rights Watch said it looked at the Phnom Penh forms because the 2022 results in the capital were so different from previous elections. 

    In 2017, for example, the CPP won in 690 of 2,080 polling places, or 33 percent. But last year, the CPP won 99.9 percent – or all but one – of the 2,155 polling places in Phnom Penh for which Human Rights Watch examined the 1102 forms.

    Additionally, vote numbers didn’t correctly add up on the 1102 form in 19 percent of total stations, and “corrections, correction fluid or crossed-out sections were found in key sections” on 1102 forms in 15 percent of polling stations.

    “The irregularities in the 1102 forms are especially important because the commune elections are often seen as a testing ground for the national elections,” Human Rights Watch said.

    Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

  • Vietnamese police arrest more than 50 in attacks on commune offices

    Vietnamese security forces have arrested more than 50 people accused of being involved in last weekend’s deadly attacks on two commune offices in central Dak Lak province, a Ministry of Public Security spokesman told state media on Friday. 

    The June 11 attack left nine people dead.

    Those involved in the attacks were young people who harbored delusions and extremist attitudes and had been incited and abetted by the ringleaders via the internet, according to the ministry.  

    But officials didn’t say who or which organizations had incited or assisted the attackers.

    The attacks occurred in an area that is home to about 30 tribes of indigenous peoples known collectively as Montagnards. 

    Vietnamese state media have reported that the attackers were Montagnards, but the ministry did not identify those arrested as such. 

    Religious and civil organizations advocating for the Montagnard people told Radio Free Asia in an earlier report that they weren’t involved in the armed attacks and condemned the violence.

    Anger and frustration in the Central Highlands has built up after decades of government surveillance, land disputes and economic hardship, RFA reported earlier. In recent months, there have been a number of land revocation incidents by local authorities, police and military forces.

    Sought to steal weapons

    In the ministry’s description of what transpired, about 40 people wearing camouflage vests and equipped with knives and guns split into two groups for a dawn attack on the offices in Ea Tieu and Ea Ktur communes.

    Members of the two groups also had broken into Special Forces Brigade No. 198’s barracks in Hoa Dong commune in Dak Lak province to steal weapons, but failed, the ministry told state media.   

    Those arrested said they sought to steal weapons so as to make news headlines, which they hoped would give them the opportunity to immigrate to other countries, according to the ministry. In their preliminary statements, those arrested said they had been incited by others to kill police officers.

    Four police officers, two commune officials and three civilians were killed.

    The attackers also kidnapped three civilians, though one of them managed to escape, and the others were rescued later, the ministry said. 

    The ministry said it would “use all necessary measures” to hunt down and arrest all suspects still in hiding and seize their weapons and explosives. 

    Vietnamese police officers escort a suspect arrested in Dak Lak province. Credit: Vietnamese State media
    Vietnamese police officers escort a suspect arrested in Dak Lak province. Credit: Vietnamese State media

    Vietnam’s one-party government has strictly controlled news about the shootings, heightening people’s curiosity about the incident, but Channel VTV1 of Vietnam Television and many newspapers have published the statements and photos of some of those arrested.

    Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hun Sen of neighboring Cambodia ordered armed forces in Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri and Kratie provinces to increase security along the border to prevent fugitives involved in the attacks from crossing the border illegally, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. 

    Hun Sen said that anyone arrested would be returned to Vietnam if discovered. 

    Slapping social media

    In the past days, police have fined people who share news about Dak Lak shootings via social media. 

    At least five Facebook users have been slapped with administrative fines for sharing the news and their comments, deemed to be harmful to the state. 

    Police in Dak Lak as well as authorities in Kontum and Binh Phuoc — two other provinces in the country’s Central Highlands — have fined businesses that sell imitation camouflage military outfits.   

    Two human rights lawyers told RFA on Thursday that state media should not have publicly disclosed information from the suspects’ statements to police or their photos, though authorities often take advantage of their power and privilege to provide news organizations with unappealing photos of suspects.

    “Publishing citizens’ photos without their permission or without blurring their faces, even if they are suspects or defendants, is a violation of their rights in terms of their image and could cause many consequences, especially when they are in high positions or are influential people,” said one attorney from Ho Chi Minh City, who asked not to be identified.

    A human rights lawyer from Hanoi said the Penal Code or the Criminal Procedure Code clearly states that statements from suspects should be kept secret.

    Attorney Ha Huy Son, a member of the Hanoi Bar Association, said the country’s 2015 Civil Code contains a provision on the rights of an individual with respect to his image, stipulating that he must give his consent for its public use. 

    But he also pointed to another article stating that a person’s photo can be used without consent from the individual or his legal representative in cases where it serves national or public interest.  

    The attorneys also said those arrested should be given immediate access to lawyers to ensure fairness and avoid injustice.

    Neither the Ministry of Public Security nor Dak Lak provincial police have opened cases against the suspects, or provided information about their charges.

    Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.