Dominating all Vietnamese news this past week is the imprisonment and sentencing of Roman Catholic priest Father Nguyen Van Ly to eight years in prison. I’ve already reported on this in my last Vietnamese Buzz, but the situation is escalating quite rapidly. In a televised event, we are witnessing as Father Nguyen Van Ly is brought to the Vietnamese court, silenced and then sentenced to 8 years in prison for organizing a voter boycott in the upcoming state election as well as the participation in the non-violent pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406 (name after the organizations inception on April 8th 2006). Originally signed by 118 dissidents in Vietnam, the Manifesto on Freedom and Democracy for Vietnam proposed by Bloc 8406 calls for a multi-party system in Vietnam.
The latest sentence to Father Ly (who has already been imprisoned for almost 15 years in the last 24 years of his life) is catching international attention, following the “peaceful” phases in the last months when Vietnam was the center of international attention when it hosted the APEC conference and was still applying for the WTO.
Leaders around the world condemn the sentence and maltreatment of the people of Vietnam by their own government, with BBC News summing it up very well in one of their recent programs. US Secretary of state calls this a “negative development […] that we’re going to watch very closely”, while the Wall Street Journal calls Bloc 8406 a “full-blown democracy movement”.
In response to this, the Lenduong International Vietnamese Youth Network is kicking off the “Raise your voice” campaign around the world in April, that includes a resourceful website at http://www.lenduong.net/raiseyourvoice and a photo/video blog. More “actionable” items probably will surface on this website soon. For now, please raise awareness of this sad development, contact your local government officials and ask for their support (such signing the letter of US Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas who started a letter urging the Vietnamese government to stop the crackdown of pro-Democracy activists in Vietnam.)
For more info, check out these good blogs and join the “Raise Your Voice” campaign:
http://www.lenduong.net/raiseyourvoice
http://vietnamwatch.blogspot.com/
Past Vietnamese Buzz entries: March 2007 October 2006 September 2006 July 2006 June 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006