Thank you for giving me the honour of addressing the Subcommittee on International Human Rights about the human rights situation in Vietnam today.

On the day I left Vietnam on October 21, 2014, as the plane took off I looked back at my own country, where I had spent so many days of hardship in communist prison and where many of my friends still continued their constant search for the freedom of my country, and I knew that I still had to continue the fight for many years so that I could one day return to my free and democratic native land.

I realized from that day that what I do will no longer be for me but for my fellow prisoners. I have to help them tell the world how the rights of Vietnamese citizens, especially in prison, are violated. I have to work so that everybody in my native land will enjoy the human rights specified in so many international conventions and agreements to which Vietnam itself has been a signatory.

Over the last six months I have met with many American personalities, from the Department of State to Senator Durbin, members of the House of Representatives, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and members of the media to ask them for help to gain the freedom of my friends and to let the world know about the extent of human rights violations in Vietnam.

Recently, on World Press Freedom Day I had the honour of meeting with President Obama, and I presented him with my wishes for press freedom in Vietnam. I also urged him to ask Vietnam to release all prisoners of conscience and to abrogate the ambiguous legislation that Vietnam has used to take away the rights to freedom of the Vietnamese people.

Ladies and gentlemen, today I would like to present three issues related to the human rights situation in Vietnam: one, freedom of the press and freedom of speech; two, prisoners of conscience; and three, labour unions in Vietnam and freedom of association.

In a totalitarian dictatorship like Vietnam, all municipal communications are under the control of the Communist authority. People would not dare express their political opinions for fear of arrest without trial, such as in the case of the Nhan Van Giai Pham affair, the anti-party revisionists, and many others resulting in an ever-increasing number of victims of illegal convictions.

Specifically in the case of the Free Journalists Club of Vietnam, to which I am a witness, we only expressed our opinions in a moderate manner on the Internet, yet we were arrested and condemned to prison sentences exceeding 10 years.

The Vietnam authority is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but they never implement it. They promulgate laws with ambiguous articles, such as article 258, article 88, article 79, and implement decree 72 for the purpose of convicting the dissenters and the people who fight for human rights. This is a blatant violation of article 19 of the ICCPR.

A state dictatorship governed by interest groups for individual gains, with rampant corruption, weakens the economy and causes discontent among the people, yet when the people voice their dissatisfaction, the state uses all its various means and brutal tricks to silence them.

It is these ambiguous articles that the authority has used to arrest whoever expresses dissenting views and to protect the existence of the dictatorial regime. Only when the people can freely express their righteous views, without fear of suppression and imprisonment, can we have a society in which a life of freedom and happiness for all is guaranteed.

Vietnam has been integrating into the world. The first thing it must do is to abolish those ambiguous articles and return to the people the rights of freedom of expression and free press. Only then can Vietnam have true democracy.

Now I would like to address the second issue, which is the issue of the prisoners of conscience. Wherever there is power, there is a need for a mechanism to supervise power, but that mechanism is absent in Vietnam. In other words, Vietnam is truly a police state.

The police make arrests, manage detention centres, do investigations, assess evidence, and manage prisons. It is this absence of supervision that gives the police a free hand to make wrongful convictions, to force confessions, to use inhumane, barbaric, brutal torture in their investigations, causing death to hundreds of people. They usually say to the victims, “Your death only cost us one piece of paper.” This shows the life and death power they have over the victims, because it is also the police who do the investigation, and the conclusion is always death by suicide. Indeed, it only cost them a piece of paper.

After six years, six months, and 11 days in communist prison, I realized that the communist brutality is even more horrible than I thought. To punish the prisoners of conscience, they will stop at nothing: public slander, prison cells with a slit only 30 cm. long for ventilation, and isolation cells with iron bars and corrugated iron roofs exposed to the scorching sun. This cell is an area of only 1.8 metres by 2 metres, including the toilet. On hot days we had to cover our faces with wet towels to survive the heat.

I learned that the more we comply with their orders, the more they make life harder for us. All rights of prisoners specified in the criminal law are ignored, specifically the right to counsel and the right to appeal. When we appeal to the procurator's office, it has to be done through the prison wardens, who naturally never forward the appeal. The prisoners are completely at the mercy of the wardens.

These rights are denied simply by the issuance of circulation 37 of the Ministry of Public Security, whose contents nobody knows. With this circulation, Vietnam security openly set up prisons within prisons for the prisoners of conscience, imposing isolation with no outside contacts.

This has prompted many prisoners to protest by hunger strikes. I went on a hunger strike twice, once for 28 days in camp B34 and the other for 33 days in camp number six of the Ministry of Public Security. This is the most barbaric prison system in Vietnam.

The latest news, which I just received a few moments ago, is about a friend of mine who was imprisoned in camp number five in Thanh Hoa. She has been on a hunger strike for 31 days and her health is deteriorating very quickly.

The Vietnam authority must immediately abolish circulation 37 of the Ministry of Public Security and amend the implementation legislation in accordance with the international covenant to which Vietnam is a signatory.

On the issues of labour union and freedom of association in Vietnam, my friend Dr. Thang Nguyen has just made a very good presentation, so there is no need for me to go into more detail. All I would like to know and to say right now is that we request that members of Parliaments and labour unions all over the world voice their concern so that workers in Vietnam can form unions to protect their interests.

We request that all of you condemn and demand the Vietnamese authority to abolish ambiguous articles 258, 88 and 79, decree 72, as well as circulation 37, according to the international covenant, and to release all prisoners of conscience in Vietnam.

I want to present to you a list of the prisoners of conscience requiring urgent assistance. At the head of the list is Ms. Ta Phong Tan, the lady I mentioned just a few minutes ago who is on a hunger strike and in poor health. Also on the list is Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, Nguyen Huu Vinh, Bui Thi Minh Hang, Tran Vu Anh Binh, Vo Minh Tri, Nguyen Dang Minh Man, Ho Thi Bich Khuong, Doan Van Vuon, Doan Dinh Nam, Doan Huy Chuong, and Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung.

I thank you very much for your attention and your concern about the human rights situation in Vietnam, with my very best wishes for your health.

Thank you.

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