US embassy cable - 04HANOI1780

UNCLAS HANOI 001780 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PINS, VM, HUMANR 
SUBJECT:  CRITICISM LANDS TWO MORE IN JAIL 
 
1.  (U)  The Vinh Phuc provincial public security department 
confirmed media reports (initially in the June 17 "Tien 
Phong" newspaper) of the arrest of Tran Van Luong and Nguyen 
Minh Hoan on charges of writing and distributing documents 
that "distorted the economic policies" of the government and 
"slandered leaders of the party, government, and central 
bodies."  They reportedly had sent these documents to the 
Office of the National Assembly, Vietnam Fatherland Front, 
and provincial authorities.  Police confiscated more than 
ten kilograms of additional documents that had not yet been 
sent. 
 
2.  (U)  Luong was described as the retired director of the 
Center for Applied Physics of the Vietnam Institute for 
Sciences and Technologies in Hanoi, while Hoan was said to 
be a retired nurse from the Viet Bac military region.  Both 
apparently signed their criticisms as "veterans." 
 
3.  (U)  Comment:  While the exact contents of these 
documents, as well as the purpose of the two authors, remain 
unknown to us, nothing in the media accounts suggested any 
effort to incite violence or overthrow the Communist regime. 
This appears to be another case of the GVN's and CPV's 
hypersensitivity to criticism, leading to the arrest of 
citizens who have done no more than exercise their 
Constitutional right of freedom of speech.  Embassy will add 
their names to our list of prisoners of concern (for use by 
DRL Assistant Craner in his visit here later this year) and 
will also include this unfortunate development in the draft 
Human Rights Country Report for 2004. 
BOARDMAN