Interviews with Doan View Hoat

I don’t think that the democratic governments or United States government sends a message that you don’t have to open the freedom or to accept freedoms, political freedom or cultural freedoms, so that you can receive our financial aid, for example. I don’t think that they send that clear message. But they also don’t send a clear message that you have to open up politically to receive our financial aid. What I mean is they try to balance between influencing Vietnam and not pushing for changes openly. That’s what they are trying to do.

But I don’t think that is effective. At least for a short time, it is not effective. And it continues to help the dictators, the Communist dictators, to try to find a way to slow down or at least not to speed up any political or culture changes. Try to find a new way to oppress those who demand for freedom. What I mean by new ways is, I have a term for that: I think that they are trying to legalize the violation of human rights by creating laws. But through the laws, they limit the freedoms of the people, instead of open or accept it.

Even in the constitution, for example, they have a chapter of civil rights. The people have all the rights. But in each article, almost each article of that chapter, there is just some words at the end of the article: it says that, “According to the law.” That means you have a right of freedom of expression according to the law. Now, the “according to the law” is not constitutional. The constitution, as we know, must be above all the laws, not defined by the laws.

So this is the basic thing that I think the United States and democratic governments have to pressure for change. That means there is no law that can limit the constitutional rights of the people. Now, in the constitution, they should take out those words. That’s the thing I think we need to pressure for change. What I mean is legal improvements; legal system must be our focus. Lawyers must have the right to defend any prisoner, any people who are accused by the government.

Lawyers must have the right. And the legal system must be independent from the government control. And the constitution must be a real constitution. And laws must be set up so that the people’s rights must be respected instead of limited. That means now we have to focus on legal change before political change.

Doan Viet Hoat is a writer, scholar and former longtime prisoner of conscience from Vietnam. He has been called “the Sakharov of Vietnam,” a reference to Soviet dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov. Hoat protested the South Vietnamese government’s suppression of certain Buddhist religious leaders in the 1960s while still a student.

In April 1975, when North Vietnam took over South Vietnam, Hoat remained in Vietnam. He was imprisoned in 1976 when the Communist government embarked on mass arrests of South Vietnamese intellectuals.

He spent the next 12 years in a cramped cell shared with 40 other prisoners.

Upon his release, Hoat began publishing an underground magazine entitled Freedom Forum (Dien Dan Tu Do). After a few months, he was arrested and detained without trial for two years. In March 1993, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for “attempting to overthrow the people’s government.” Throughout his imprisonment, Hoat continued to issue statements on democracy and to offer criticisms of the regime that were smuggled out of prison. He was then sent to a labor camp in a remote part of the country where he spent four and a half years in solitary confinement.

In 1998, after intense international pressure, Hoat was released and sent into exile. He now lives in the United States and continues his activities to promote human rights and democratic reforms in Vietnam.

Vietnam is a country of nearly 90 million people in Southeast Asia. In 938 A.D., it achieved independence after a millennium of imperial Chinese rule. Vietnam was ruled by a series of dynasties until it was colonized by France in the mid-19th century. It was occupied by Japan in World War II. From 1945 to 1954, French colonial forces battled Vietnamese forces in the first Indochinese War. France withdrew, leading to the establishment of two Vietnamese states – communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam, allied with the west. War between the North and South began in 1954 and continued until 1975. American forces began arriving in 1955 and the U.S. military effort dramatically expanded in the 1960s.

With the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973, North Vietnam intensified its war against the South. In 1976, the country was officially reunified under communist control. Over one million South Vietnamese were sent to reeducation camps and millions left the country as refugees. In the late 1970s, Vietnam intervened in Cambodia’s civil war, leading to military conflict with China.

The economy stagnated due to communist policies and the challenges of recovery from the decades-long civil war. In 1986, the government began instituting market-oriented reforms, which allowed for greater economic freedom while maintaining strong government control. These reforms, known as doi moi, have led to dramatic economic growth. In the first part of the 21st century, Vietnam has been among the fastest growing economies in the world. The country has become increasingly integrated into the world economy, joining organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Despite the progress, issues like income inequality and corruption remain major challenges for Vietnam.

Communist political control remains firmly in place. There are no legal opposition parties or political movements. The media remains under tight state control. In recent years the Vietnamese government has devoted special attention to suppressing free expression on the Internet. Authorities have arrested and imprisoned dozens of bloggers and have blocked access to Facebook and other social networking sites.
Religious freedom remains a contentious issue. The government has targeted religious believers who worship outside officially recognized churches or protest government takings of church property. The government has lashed out against Catholic, Protestant, and Buddhist groups and activists, as well as the human rights lawyers who attempt to defend them. These and other prisoners of conscience are typically charged with crimes such as “abusing democratic freedoms,” using “freedom of religion to injure the national unity,” and “fleeing abroad to oppose the government.”

Some political or religious activists who are members of certain ethnic minority groups are subjected to particularly harsh treatment. Several hundred Montagnards, an overwhelmingly Christian ethnic minority in the Central Highlands, are currently imprisoned for their participation in protests demanding religious freedom and an end to confiscation of traditional Montagnard lands. Other targets of persecution are the Khmer Krom, ethnic Cambodians who believe the Vietnamese government is systematically suppressing their traditional culture and Theravada Buddhist religion, and the Hmong and other hill tribes in the northwestern provinces whom government officials sometimes order to renounce their evangelical Protestantism.

Freedom House’s 2013 Freedom in the World report categorized Vietnam as “not free.” The nation received a freedom rating of six overall – five in civil liberties and seven in political rights – on a scale where one is the most free and seven the least. In Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net and Freedom of the Press reports, the nation categorized as “not free.” The people of Vietnam are denied the right to change their government by peaceful means, and the government severely restricts freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and religion.