Vietnam Populist Party (VNPP)

World Report 2012: Vietnam [1]

Written by Human Rights Watch

Events of 2011
The Vietnamese government systematically suppresses freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly. Independent writers, bloggers, and rights activists who question government policies, expose official corruption, or call for democratic alternatives to one-party rule are routinely subject to police harassment and intrusive surveillance, detained incommunicado for long periods of time without access to legal counsel, and sentenced to increasingly long terms in prison for violating vague national security laws.

The Vietnamese government systematically suppresses freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly. Independent writers, bloggers, and rights activists who question government policies, expose official corruption, or call for democratic alternatives to one-party rule are routinely subject to police harassment and intrusive surveillance, detained incommunicado for long periods of time without access to legal counsel, and sentenced to increasingly long terms in prison for violating vague national security laws.

Police frequently torture suspects to elicit confessions and, in several cases, have responded to public protests over evictions, confiscation of land, and police brutality with excessive use of force. Anti-China protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in 2011 were dispersed and protesters were intimidated, harassed, and in some cases detained for several days.

Royce Challenges Obama Administration on Vietnam Human Rights

Written by webmaster

New America Media, News Report, Posted: Jan 14, 2012

Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) joined several members of Congress, including the Chairman and top Democrat of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in writing to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging the State Department to substantially improve its annual human rights reporting on Vietnam.

The four-page, detailed letter notes, "Vietnamese authorities continue to monitor, systematically harass, and sometimes violently crack down on religious groups that remain outside of official, government-registered and controlled religious institutions."

Vietnam: Systematic Crackdown on Human Rights

Written by Human Rights Watch

(New York) – The Vietnam government intensified its repression of activists and dissidents during 2011, and cracked down harshly on freedom of expression, association, and assembly, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012. Bloggers, writers, human rights defenders, land rights activists, anti-corruption campaigners, and religious and democracy advocates faced harassment, intimidation, arrest, torture, and imprisonment.

Myanmar Briefing Note No. 17

Written by Derek Tonkin

Myanmar Briefing Note No. 17

24 January 2012

Constitutional Conundrums

"By 2015, we should be certain that whichever party wins the majority in parliament should decide how the government is going to be organized."

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi - interview with Ms Lally Wentworth of the Washington Post

During Lally Weymouth's high profile interviews with President Thein Sein and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi published recently in the 'Washington Post', both she and the President had to dodge questions about whether she might accept a Cabinet post if elected on 1 April. Both knew, but Lally Weymouth probably didn't, that Suu Kyi would have to resign forthwith as an elected MP in order to join the Government under the separation of powers set out in the 2008 Constitution (which is why of course the 48 by-elections are taking place). More than that, although Suu Kyi is not required to resign as a member of the National League for Democracy, under Article 232(k) of the Constitution she could no longer "take part in party activities". I doubt in the circumstances that any ministerial position would interest her. However, there are positions in Parliamentary Committees and National Conferences which could well be offered to her. Suu Kyi made the point that the reason why the National League for Democracy wants to get into Parliament "is not because we expect to do all our work in Parliament. We want to extend our activities into the Parliament". The NLD accepts the need to secure at least a toe-hold there.

China: A Year of Illegal, Politically-Motivated Disappearances

Written by Human Rights Watch

Enforced Disappearances sow Fear; Chinese Public Increasingly Asserts Rights

China: A Year of Illegal, Politically-Motivated Disappearances [1] Enforced Disappearances sow Fear; Chinese Public Increasingly Asserts Rights January 23, 2012 [2]

(New York) – The Chinese government’s use of illegal enforced disappearances to silence dissenters was just one of several ominous setbacks to human rights protections in 2011, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2012, released today.

The 676-page report assesses progress on human rights in more than 90 countries, including popular uprisings in the Arab world that few would have imagined. In its chapter on China [3], Human Rights Watch outlines the threat posed by a provision in China’s draft criminal procedure law to effectively legalize such disappearances, which remain a serious crime in international law.

A contagion of conflict in China?

Written by Adrienne Mong and Bo Gu

Dozens of police barricaded a highway entrance ramp in Haimen, where protests broke out on Tuesday.

By Adrienne Mong and Bo Gu

HAIMEN, Guangdong Province—It wouldn’t have been fair or accurate to call it a China Spring, but for a moment it was worth wondering: Was this the beginning of a Guangdong Spring?

Since September, residents in a fishing village called Wukan, in the southern coastal province of Guangdong, had been protesting against their local government over, specifically, illegal land grabs and, more generally, corruption. This was a town where one man had held sway as the Communist Party chief for four decades.

Vietnam shows a need to balance relationships between superpowers

Written by Nguyen CongBang

Despite conflicts with neighboring countries prior to the 19th century, Vietnam has been victimized by conflicts of interests between superpowers. Hard historical experience has guided the country's leadership into a kind of “check-and-balance relationship” in its foreign policy. Vietnam's recent diplomatic efforts toward the United States of America, India, and China signal its need to balance the relationships between superpowers.

Vietnam's president's trip to New Delhi in October 2011 deepened strategic and defense ties with the second-largest country in the region. It also expressed its concern about national security, especially as China keeps claiming sovereignty and control over the Eastern Sea of Vietnam. It helps to strengthen the friendship between the two countries and to reinforce, deepen, and add greater substance to bilateral strategic partnerships. With India’s support and defense ties with the U.S.A., Vietnam may have reasons to take on a better role in policy with China, since Chinese ships kept entering Vietnam’s waters and harassing Vietnamese fishermen and the state-run oil exploration projects.