Recent Arrests, Physical Attacks Require Strong Diplomatic Response JUNE 19, 2013 (New York, June 20, 2013) – The Vietnamese government should unconditionally release recently arrested bloggers and end physical attacks on critics, Human Rights Watch said today. Vietnam’s donors and trading partners should publicly call on the government to end the use of the criminal law…

BY MIKE IVES ASSOCIATED PRESS HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Cu Huy Ha Vu’s books come with pages torn out by prison guards. Only some of his letters reach home. He is not allowed to access evidence from his trial or to see his wife alone. This treatment, described by Vu’s wife, has driven the Vietnamese…

Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam—Vietnamese police have arrested one of the country’s best-known bloggers for posting criticism of the communist government, intensifying a crackdown against Internet-fuelled dissent in the one-party, authoritarian state. The arrest of Pham Viet Dao, 61, indicates the level of concern in the Communist Party over the threat posed by Internet activism. Up…

Dr Cu Huy Ha Vu, a Vietnamese legal scholar, has been on hunger strike since 27 May in protest at his treatment in prison. He is serving a seven-year sentence for “conducting propaganda” against the state. He has a chronic heart condition, and his health is at risk.   Dr Cu Huy Ha Vu, a…

Published: 11 June 2013 at 13.49 Vietnam’s premier suffered a setback Tuesday after a third of lawmakers in the one-party state voted against him in a first ever confidence vote, seen as a bid to deflect growing public anger at the communist regime. One hundred and sixty of some 500 lawmakers voiced “low confidence” in Prime…

From the blog of Pham Hong Son:    On June 08, 2013, the 13th day of hunger strike, on which a prisoner of conscience, Mr Cu Huy Ha Vu, has been going in prison since May 27, 2013 to protest illegal and inhumane conduct of the authorities, Tu Linh wrote an article proposing many ideas to support Mr Cu…

Officials cavalier or ineffective in face of murder, destruction. June 7, 2013 By Our Vietnam Correspondent   (Morning Star News) – In February, sustained night-time attacks by “villagers with the hand of the government behind them” in Vietnam’s Central Highlands destroyed the homes and thousands of coffee plants of ethnic Sedang Christians. Eventually four families in Ngoc…

BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSEPOSTED ON 06/06/2013 8:42 AM  | UPDATED 06/06/2013 8:50 AM WASHINGTON DC, USA – A senior US official warned Wednesday, June 5, that Vietnam’s record on human rights was deteriorating as he faced calls from Congress to put tougher conditions on the nations’ warming partnership. Joe Yun, the acting assistant secretary of state for East…

2013-06-03 Vietnamese authorities branded anti-China protesters as “thieves and prostitutes” and brutally beat them at a weekend demonstration against the recent ramming of a Vietnamese trawler by Chinese navy vessels, an activist said Monday.  Some of the protesters at the rally in Hanoi Sunday were taken to a detention center in batches before they were…

SUNDAY JUN 02, 2013  |  THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Vietnamese authorities detain scores as anti-China protest hits capital city HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — More than 15 demonstrators were detained Sunday during a protest march in Vietnam’s capital against China’s territorial assertiveness in Southeast Asian waters. The protest showed some of the domestic pressures the Vietnamese government faces…