URGENT REPORT NO. 2

of Citizen Hoang Minh Chinh

To: Secretary General Nong Duc Manh

      President Tran Duc Luong

      Prime Minister Phan Van Khai

      National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Van An

      Director, Hanoi Public Security Office

      Hanoi People’s Court

      Hanoi People’s Inspectorate

Cc: Mrs. Louise Arbour, UN Human Rights Commissioner

      International Human Rights Organizations

      Parliaments and Governments of Democratic Countries

      National and international press agencies

      Compatriots both inside and outside Vietnam and other people concerned

Ladies and Gentlemen,

      I am Citizen Hoang Minh Chinh, born on 16 November 1922, former Secretary General of the Vietnam Democracy Party and former Director of the Vietnam Institute of Philosophy, and I would like to report to you on the following urgent matter.

      On Thursday, 1 December 2005, myself, my wife Le Thi Hong Ngoc and a son-in-law, went by plane from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi on the 9:30 a.m. flight. At around 12:30, when we just reached the alley No. 26 of Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, we met with a group of some dozens of people who were there ahead of time. They surrounded us and yelled and shouted provocative and offensive slogans such as: “You scum, the Party and government generously let you go to the U.S. for medical care, yet while there you badmouthed the Party and state. Traitor you are, traitor to the country and to the people... We are here to inquire about your crime...” The crowd became ferocious as it went on, they thoroughly surrounded our party making it difficult for us to cover the few dozens of meters from the front of the alley to my house; they threw what looked like a rain of tomatoes on us, one of them grabbed the front of my shirt and knocked some pure water bottles on my head, they pushed and shoved my children and grandchildren shouting curses and threats because they were trying to protect and cover me. All of this was covered by six cameras of all sizes which the bullies had set up at various angles to take in the whole scene.

      Thanks to our children and grandchildren’s protecting us, my wife and I managed to get inside our home; a daughter-in-law who was waiting for us inside immediately bolted the door. A couple of dozen people who managed to invade our front courtyard went on shouting in an increasingly loud pandemonium. They insisted that they be allowed to come inside and interrogate us. Our children and grandchildren immediately formed a ring in front of the door so as to prevent them from breaking into the house. The whole aggressive melee went on until nearly 3 p.m. The mad crowd never ceased cursing and threatening my children and grandchildren. They took hold of some of the latter by their collars, pulled on their shirts and hit them in the stomach, grabbed the women’s hair and pulled them to the ground, all the while pointing fingers at their faces and threatening: “If you don’t let us in, we will knock it down. For this door is nothing, all it takes is a few kicks. By then your heads will be out of shape.”

      My children and grandchildren, though, remained very patient and bore it all. They only said: “He is a sick man and he just came home from a long trip, he cannot answer your questions right now. If Mr. Hoang Minh Chinh is guilty he can be tried in a court of law. You are trespassing on our home without our consent, which is illegal.” But the others kept on shouting and cursing: “The hell with the law, we don’t care. The government has jailed him for one year already, yet he persisted in telling lies while abroad.” At that time there must have been about thirty of them in our courtyard shoving and pushing, in the meantime the video cameras went on filming all that. Outside the iron gate of our house, almost a hundred persons were there covering every exit. They climbed onto the iron railings and shouted provocations encouraging one another with obscenities that one cannot possibly put on paper: “... break down that door, ... call him out..., let’s go in and make him account for his crime...”

      In this extremely tense situation, my wife called for the police at every level, from the ward up to the district, to the main police station and to other responsible parties, but they all were said to be away on missions or to have been retired and therefore could not intervene. Finally there was only the emergency office at number 113 which, after several pleas from our family, did send three police officers (we managed to read the name of one on the breast of his uniform, Quoc, who was a deputy police commissioner, and Ngoc on the breast of another). After witnessing the whole thing for a while, they declared to us: “This is a consequence of what Mr. Chinh has brought upon himself while he was in the States. We came but saw no violence, so there is no need to intervene.” Then they left.

      By about 2:30 in the afternoon, after the crowd had been worked to a frenzy, one of them told my children and ordered: “We give you five more minutes for you to open the door. If you don’t we will break it down and enter by force.” But my children went on enduring the pressure. Afterwards, someone using his crutches, knocked on our window and broke it into pieces. Others tried to kick in the door, break open the windows, then threw [foul-smelling] shrimp paste inside our home, through the broken glass. The atmosphere was dreadfully tense, terrible. Then a minute went by and suddenly they told one another to “withdraw.” The whole crowd joined in saying: “Enough, we don’t even want to see his face; you can invite us in and we won’t do it.” After they had received the instruction to withdraw, it took them less than five minutes to disperse, all of them. My children had to stay outside on watch for a long time before they could feel safe enough to open the door and enter our home.

      According to what some neighbors who were there at the time told us and who witnessed it all, out in the street during the whole time of the encounter there were nearly ten uniformed ward-level policemen present. This clearly shows that the police had tolerated and agreed with the violent and vicious behavior of the agitators who were violating the civil rights of my whole family.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

      All the above occurrences clearly were part of a delberate plan.

      1/ During the whole time I was undergoing medical treatment in the U.S., a whole spate of newspapers inside Vietnam had continuously and arbitrarily come up with lies to smear and slander me, citizen Hoang Minh Chinh, from 14 October thru 30 October 2005, as I have described in my application, dated 31 October 2005, to sue seven newspapers, which was submitted to the Hanoi Court and Inspectorate. I have not so far received a response to my application.

      2/ When I got home and took temporary residence at my daughter’s place in Ho Chi Minh City, she had been submitted to violence and terrorism. I have written an Urgent Report No. 1 regarding this matter and I have addressed it to various Vietnam government and international organizations on 21 November 2005.

      3/ When I got back to Hanoi on 1 December 2005, the police has organized and led the above described incident.

      4/ Such terrorist and slandering behavior of the Vietnamese newspapers and of the police are clearly meant to cause me and my honor serious damage. They have flouted Article 71 of the [Vietnamese] Constitution which stipulates in no uncertain terms: “A citizen has habeas corpus and the protection of the law regarding his life, health, honor and dignity. It is strictly forbidden to oppress, impugn the honor and dignity of a citizen.” The above organs have also violated Article 121 of the Penal Code regarding The crime of demeaning others as well as Article 122 regarding The crime of slandering.

      In view of Articles 69, 71, 72 and 74 of the Constitution and Articles 121 and 122 of the Penal Code, we request that the government agencies review and implement the above articles of the Constitution and of the Penal Code so as to safeguard the sanctity of the state laws.

      We also urgently suggest that international public opinion press Hanoi to respect the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Vietnam is a signatory.

      With sincere thanks,

                                    Hanoi, 2 December 2005

                                    Citizen Hoang Minh Chinh

 

(Translated by Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bich)