What’s at stake: the readoption of Father Ly (Reverend Nguyen Van Ly) of Viet Nam by Group 19, Amnesty International USA. Amnesty International Group 19 in Palo Alto, California, is the re-adoption campaign manager for Father Nguyen Van Ly, imprisoned in Viet Nam after an infamous trial on March 30, 2007, in which his mouth was muzzled by a Security Officer in the courtroom when he tried to speak. Father Ly is once again a Prisoner of Conscience in the Individuals at Risk program of Amnesty International USA in Atlanta, Georgia, while he begins his 17th year in totality of imprisonment since 1977. He has been in solitary confinement at BaSao prison for the past two years. Father Ly is one of the organizers of the online petition calling for Constitutional reform and free elections signed first by 118 Vietnamese citizens on April 08, 2006. Many of the signators, known as Bloc 8406, are in prison in Viet Nam since that internet publication. Father Ly is an editor of an internet newspaper, “Tu Do Ngon Luan” (Free Speech). Four others who assisted him were also accused of 'propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam'. Nguyen Phong and Nguyen Binh Thanh were given prison sentences of five and six years and the remaining two, both women, were given eighteen months suspended jail terms with house arrest. At least 30 dissidents have been handed down long prison sentences since the most recent wave of arrests began in 2006. An unknown number of others are held in pre-trial detention. The authorities also use administrative detention to place restrictions on the peaceful activities of religious and political dissidents such as the Venerable Thich Quang Do, Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist church of Viet Nam, under house arrest at the monastery for more than twenty-five years. In a trial in the city of Hue on 30 March 2007, Father Nguyen Van Ly was sentenced to eight years in prison for "conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" under Article 88 (1a-c) of the Penal Code. Human rights conditions in Viet Nam are under periodic (every four years) review by the United Nations Human Relations Council on May 8, 2009. The United States is not a member of this body, having been rejected for re-election to the predecessor organization, the UN Human Rights Commission, in 2001. At the same time, well-known repressive states such as Sudan and Uganda, were elected. This caused so much criticism worldwide over the effectiveness of the UN Human Rights Commission that it was scrapped in 2006, with the implementation of the U.N. Human Relations Council which has periodic reviews of the member states. The United States voted against the resolution forming the Council in 2006. The Obama administration announced on April 1, 2009 that it is seeking election to a seat on the UNHRC on the grounds of inclusion as the best means of solution to international issues of human rights. Amnesty International plays an active role in the deliberations of the UNHRC as an NGO which submits reviews of human rights records of member states. The review of Viet Nam is addressed by a group of NGO (NonGovernmental Organizations) from submission made by procedural rules in November 2008. Amnesty International is one of these organizations, who are called 'stakeholders' in United Nations protocol. Conditions in Viet Nam expressed by Amnesty International are excerpted here: OPEN ARTICLE FOR FULL TEXT ************************************************************************************* Other stakeholders who submitted reports on human rights in Viet Nam include Human Rights Watch, the International Federation of Human Rights and Viet Nam Committee on Human Rights (FIDH and VCHR), and International PEN. HISTORY: In September 1977, Father Ly was arrested for distributing two essays by Archbishop Nguyen Kim Dien critical of the government’s religious repression. He was given a 20 year sentence and sent to a labor camp near Hue. Several months later, authorities released Father Ly, but prohibited him from engaging in religious activities. Again from 1983-1992 he was in prison for his activism in support of freedom of expression and religion, leading a pilgrimage. In October 2001, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his online publication of an essay on human rights violations in Vietnam and was a Prisoner of Conscience of Amnesty International and International PEN. He was released under amnesty in February 2005. In a trial in the city of Hue on 30 March 2007, Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, aged 60, was sentenced to eight years in prison for “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam” under Article 88 of the Penal Code. Accusations leveled against him included involvement in the pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406 and taking part in the establishment of banned political groups. Group 19 in California welcomed a former Prisoner of Conscience who was released by the Vietnamese authorities in 1991 after an international writing campaign, the dissident poet Nguyen Chi Thien. His final imprisonment was at Ba Sao Camp, in a communal cell with Father Nguyen Van Ly. The two were imprisoned on the same charge: ‘conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.’ Nguyen Chi Thien’s propaganda was poetry, which he composed in his memory while incarcerated for a total of twenty-seven years beginning in 1961 in North Vietnam. During a brief period of release in 1979 he ran into the British Embassy in Hanoi with a manuscript which he asked to have published “in the Free World.” Although he was not given asylum by the Embassy, the diplomats sent the manuscript of 400 poems to the Foreign Office in London, where it was given to Professor Patrick Honey of the School of Oriental and African Studies. In 1984 a translation of “Flowers From Hell” by Huynh Sanh Thong was published in bilingual text by the Yale Council on Southeast Asia Studies. In 1985 the volume won the International Poetry Prize in Rotterdam while the author was in prison in Hanoi (the ‘Hanoi Hilton’). It was not known whether the author were alive or dead. The poet Nguyen Chi Thien, who immigrated to the United States in 1995 and is now an American citizen, has this statement for Amnesty International on March 27, 2009: “To Amnesty International for what they have done to save political dissidents from jail! My profoundest gratitude.” And to the government of Viet Nam on the occasion of United Nations Human Relations Council Review on May 8, 2009: “If a country respects human rights and liberty it will become stronger and more powerful in prestige and international relations. Therefore, the Vietnamese government had better release Father Ly and other political prisoners. There are many examples to prove this viewpoint: the United States of America, France, England, the Netherlands, and Japan all developed peacefully and rapidly. Prison is not a good solution to consolidate the Regime. Almost all dictatorships collapsed, which is a good history lesson.” Nguyen Chi Thien http://vietamreview.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2009/4/5/4144621.html *********************************************** Jean Libby, editor VietAm Review Member, Amnesty International USA Group 19 Case coordinator for Individual at Risk Reverend Nguyen Van Ly   more »