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III. Arrests and Imprisonment of Central Highlanders

The Vietnamese government continues to criminalize peaceful dissent, unsanctioned religious activity, and efforts to seek sanctuary in Cambodia by arresting and imprisoning Central Highlanders for their religious or political beliefs. Human Rights Watch has documented prison sentences for at least 355 Central Highlanders who have been imprisoned since 2001, largely for peaceful political or religious activities.⁶⁴

The arrests and sentencing of Central Highlanders to long prison terms continue. During 2005, more than seventy highlanders were arrested in Gia Lai province alone.⁶⁵ It is not yet known how many were subsequently released and how many are awaiting trial and sentencing.

During 2005, at least 142 (from all five provinces) were sentenced to prison terms, more than double the previous year.⁶⁶ At least thirty of those sentenced in 2005 had been arrested in Cambodia or near the border areas, trying to seek asylum.⁶⁷ They were apprehended by Cambodian police and turned over to Vietnamese authorities without having a chance to make an asylum claim with UNHCR.

Of the 355 people who are currently serving prison sentences, only 159 trials have been reported in the Vietnamese state media or by foreign wire services.⁶⁸ For those for whom charges are known, most have been charged under Vietnam’s Penal Code with vaguely-worded national security crimes. These include “undermining the unity policy” (article 87), “disrupting security” (article 89) or “causing public disorder” (article 245).

Of the total currently serving prison sentences, more than sixty were imprisoned after Vietnamese or Cambodian police or border guards arrested them in Cambodia or near the border areas when they attempted to flee to Cambodia to seek asylum. They were sentenced to prison, the majority on charges of “fleeing abroad or defecting to stay overseas with a view to opposing the people’s administration” (article 91).⁶⁹ The forced return of asylum seekers is in violation of Cambodia’s obligations as a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol not to return people to a place where their lives or liberty are at risk, or where they face the possibility of being tortured. It also violates the rights to leave one’s country and to seek asylum outside one’s country that are recognized in articles 13 and 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.⁷⁰

Among those imprisoned for attempting to seek asylum is Rahlan Tuan, 26, from Cu Se district, Gia Lai. He was arrested on November 19, 2003 by Cambodian security officials after crossing into Cambodia to seek asylum. Following his forced return to Vietnam, Tuan and four others from his district who had been arrested trying to seek asylum in Cambodia were tried on September 20, 2004. Despite the fact that the government’s daily newspaper reported that the five men had been arrested in Cambodia by Cambodian police and border guards in an effort to seek asylum, the five were sentenced to prison terms on charges of “undermining national unity.” ⁷¹ According to Vietnamese state media, subversive activities committed by the five included using telephones to communicate with “exiled reactionaries” in the U.S., gathering for “closed door meetings” to discuss the “Dega Protestant Church,” tricking others to “illegally move to other countries,” and collecting money and rice to feed people hiding in the forest.⁷² Rahlan Tuan is currently serving a seven-year sentence.

Like the 2005 Ordinance on Religion, Vietnam’s Penal Code criminalizes non-violent activities that are deemed to threaten national security, public order, and national unity. Many of these provisions disregard fundamental rights and Vietnam’s own treaty commitments, for example, by making peaceful dissent or unsanctioned religious acts a crime. Some are so vaguely worded that they invite abusive application.⁷³ Invoking “national security” or “national unity” allows the state to assert comprehensive control over political and religious matters and to penalize, arrest, and imprison out-of-favor political and religious leaders and their followers at will. The Penal Code has no exemption for peaceful dissent or expression that does not incite violent acts, thereby jeopardizing those who merely exercise their legitimate rights to freedom of opinion or expression.⁷⁴ By criminalizing peaceful dissent, the Penal Code contradicts the basic right to free expression found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, acceded to by Vietnam in 1982.⁷⁵

A full listing of Central Highland prisoners is included in the Appendix.