'Vietnam trials send zero-tolerance message'

By Staff
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Hanoi, May 6: Vietnam's Communist rulers want to send a zero-tolerance message to advocates of a multiparty system by putting several political activists on trial this week, analysts and diplomats say.

They note the trials come as the ruling party prepares for elections on May 20 of 500 delegates to the National Assembly, which has been a driver of economic and legal reforms.

The Communist Party of Vietnam is the only legal political party in the country of 84 million people and the defendants face criminal charges for forming political groups and anti-government propaganda.

''The security authorities have moved to prevent any activity that would detract from these elections,'' said Carl Thayer of the University of New South Wales in Canberra.

Longtime Vietnam-watcher Thayer said that despite ''measurable improvement'' for tolerance of political criticism, there were ''three no's -- no political pluralism, no multiparty system and no political opposition''.

A Hanoi government spokesman rejected accusations by Western human rights groups of a crackdown on dissidents this year and said the six people in the dock at three separate trials on May 10, May 11 and May 15 have broken the law.

Two lawyers -- part of a new generation of largely Internet-based activists with supporters overseas -- have been cited by prosecutors for possessing documents ''intended to incite acts of sabotage of the upcoming National Assembly election''.

The United States and several European countries have called for the release of lawyers Nguyen Van Dai, 38, Le Thi Cong Nhan, 28, and others.

Dai founded the outlawed Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam and Nhan is a spokeswoman for the outlawed Progressive Party.

They were arrested on March 6 and go on trial in Hanoi People's Court on Friday on charges of ''spreading propaganda against the State of Vietnam'', a criminal offence under article 88 of the penal code.

Peaceful Expression US

Ambassador Michael Marine says Vietnam's laws should be changed ''so that the peaceful expression of one's view(s), even if they are critical to the state, is no longer illegal''.

Two other trials are scheduled, but in Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, on Thursday and on May 15 with a total of four defendants facing charges similar to the lawyers'.

''Clearly there is a message in all of this for would-be protesters,'' says Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic Studies think-tank.

''It remains to be seen how harsh the punishment will be.

That will make the message clearer.'' In March, outspoken Catholic priest Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly was sentenced to eight years in prison. He was jailed along with four others after a four-and-a-half hour trial in the central city of Hue.

Ly and some of the other defendants facing trial this month are members of ''Bloc 8406'', named after the April 8, 2006 date it revealed itself with a ''Manifesto for Freedom and Democracy''.

Diplomats and analysts describe the bloc as the closest Vietnam comes to having a dissident movement because it is nationwide and has attracted professionals, teachers and lawyers.

Amnesty International and other groups have recorded more than 20 arrests since November, when Hanoi hosted an Asia-Pacific summit, won approval to join the World Trade Organisation and was removed from a US religious rights blacklist.

Farm worker organisers, lawyers, writers and religious people are among those detained.

Hanoi rejects accusations it cynically cracked down on the tiny dissident community after winning international praise and recognition last year.

''No one in Vietnam is arrested due to their political views or religion; only those who violate our country's laws, and in turn we process them in line with our laws,'' Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Dung said in a statement.

Vietnam's average annual per capita income is about 720 dollars, although years of economic reforms by the Communist government have improved the standard of living for many.

Reuters>

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