US embassy cable - 04HANOI2782

UNCLAS HANOI 002782 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, VM, HUMANR 
SUBJECT: POLITICAL PRISONERS DR. QUE AND DR. SON TRANSFERRED 
 
Reftels: A) HCMC 1184 and previous, B) Hanoi 967 and 
previous 
 
This is a joint Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City reporting cable. 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: Political prisoners Dr. Nguyen Dan Que and 
Dr. Pham Hong Son have both been transferred to a prison in 
Thanh Hoa Province in northern Vietnam.  Son is reportedly 
in poor health and may require surgery for a hernia.  Family 
members have not been able to visit Que or Son, and one 
speculated that Son was moved to the new, more remote 
facility in order to punish his wife for meeting with 
foreign diplomats and journalists.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Mrs. Tam Van, wife of imprisoned activist Dr. 
Nguyen Dan Que, reported to us that in late September she 
sought to visit her husband in his HCMC prison.  At that 
time, prison officials told her that her husband had been 
transferred to a new location that they would divulge to her 
"later."  Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Que told us that a 
contact in the HCMC branch of the Ministry of Public 
Security (MPS) informally confirmed that Dr. Que had been 
transferred to MPS Prison #5 in Yen Dinh District, Thanh Hoa 
Province (nearly 200 kilometers south of Hanoi). 
 
3. (SBU) Mrs. Que bemoaned the fact that the financial 
hardship of traveling to this relatively remote prison meant 
that she would only be able to visit her husband at best 
quarterly instead of twice a month, as would have been 
possible if he had been imprisoned in or near HCMC. 
Visitation procedures also were cumbersome: each time that 
she wanted to visit, she needed to have an application 
certified by HCMC police authorities, she explained. 
Moreover, the visitation request process could not begin 
until she received formal notification from GVN authorities 
that her husband had been transferred.  Mrs. Que's MPS 
contact indicated to her that this would come "soon." 
 
4. (SBU) Similarly, a family member of imprisoned activist 
Dr. Pham Hong Son informed Embassy that Son had also been 
moved to Prison #5 in Thanh Hoa Province.  The family member 
reported that Son's wife had traveled to the new prison on 
September 12, but was refused access to her husband as he 
was reportedly being punished for refusing to wear his 
prison uniform.  Son had apparently worn civilian clothes in 
his previous prison.  Son's family had not received any 
letters from him since the transfer.  The family member 
speculated that the transfer to a more distant prison was 
done to punish Son's wife for her frequent meetings with 
foreign diplomats and members of the international press to 
highlight his case, adding that officials had previously 
threatened this possibility in an attempt to silence her 
(Ref B). 
 
5. (SBU) Son's wife last visited him on August 16 and after 
that visit reported to Radio Free Asia that Son was 
suffering from a hernia.  Son's family member confirmed the 
report to Poloff and added that Son, who is himself a 
physician, admitted to his wife that he had had the 
condition for more than five months and said that the prison 
did not have facilities to treat it.  Son's wife apparently 
raised her concerns to the prison authorities, but was told 
his health was being "appropriately" treated.  After the RFA 
report, calls from Reporters Without Borders and inquiries 
from international journalists, the Foreign Ministry 
publicly denied on September 24 that Son was in ill health. 
However, family members indicated to us on October 11 that 
he might receive an operation "imminently." 
 
6. (SBU) Comment: Although the GVN has in the past 
incarcerated a number of political prisoners in Prison #5, 
more recently the authorities seem to have used Ba Sao (also 
known as Nam Ha) Prison in Ha Nam Province for these 
prisoners.  The transfer of these two high-profile 
individuals to the more remote Prison #5 may well be an 
attempt to distance them from their families, with the GVN 
seeking to block the flow of information about them to 
journalists, activists and foreign governments.  We will 
remain in contact with Dr. Son's family to see if he is 
indeed able to receive his operation.  End comment. 
MARINE