Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews/HRW) Nguyen Dan Que, one of Vietnam's best known pro-democracy activists, was sentenced to two and half years in jail for "abusing democratic rights and infringing upon the interests of the State." Dr Que, a 62-year-old endocrinologist, was arrested on March 17, 2003, four days after e-mailing a document to a relative in the US in which he called for political reform and protection of human rights in Vietnam.
His arrest was announced in an official government paper in which the police explained he had sent "anti-government" documents. Since then Dr Que has been held in isolation.
Dr Nguyen Dan Que is the founder of Cao Trao Nhan Ban (High tide of Humanism Movement), a group that calls for a multiparty system in Vietnam and an end to censorship.
For his public activism Dr Que has already served 20 years in jail and endured torture. He suffers from high blood pressure, a bleeding ulcer and kidney stones and is expected to be released only in 2005.
Earlier this month, 73-year-old military historian and retired army colonel Pham Que Duong and 68-year-old Duong Tran Khue, a sociology professor at Ho Chi Minh City University, were sentenced to 19 months each. Both had come under government scrutiny in 2001 when they put forward the proposal of creating an independent anti-corruption organisation. Their legal position worsened after they signed a petition presented to the National Assembly of Vietnam demanding democratic reforms.
Vietnam is currently a member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and has ratified the International Convention on Political and Civil Rights. Article 19 of the Convention protects the individual's right to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, or through any other media of his choice."
