State Terrorism
http://www.tranbinhnam.com/binhluan/ChinhSach_KhungBo_Dan_Cua_ChinhQuyenVN.html
Tran Binh Nam
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines
terrorism as " the systematic use of violence to create a general climate
of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political
objective. Terrorism has been practiced by political organizations with both
rightist and leftist
objectives, by nationalistic and
religious groups, by revolutionaries, and even by state institutions such as
armies, intelligence services, and police."
Based on that definition, what the police did
to student Nguyen Tien Nam, writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia and schoolteacher Vu Hung
on April 29, 2008 at Dong Xuan market in Hanoi amounted to an act of deliberate
terrorism.
In an interview by
Radio Free Asia broadcasting in Vietnamese on the morning of May 1, 2008,
student Nguyen Tien Nam revealed that, at 9:30 am on April 29, 2008 he came to
the marketplace of Dong Xuan in the center of Hanoi, and found some family
members of those fishermen who were fired upon and killed by the Chinese Navy
in early 2005. They got word to come there to protest against the Chinese for
these killings and also for the Chinese annexation of two group of islands
Paracels and Spratlys of Vietnam last December. The writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia
and schoolteacher Vu Hung were supposed to be there, but Nam did not see any of
them.
Student Nguyen Tien Nam carried a banner
featuring five handcuffs instead of five rings of Olympics, the dominant sign
of the Olympic torch procession in Saigon on that day. He spoke to the crowd in
the market, urging them to participate to the peaceful protest.
The police in plainclothes converged toward
him, separated him from the crowd and beat him savagely. They then brought him
to the office of the Dong Xuan market, beating him hard on the street. There
Nguyen Tien Nam met with writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia and schoolteacher Vu Hung,
who had been apparently arrested earlier somewhere in the city and brought
there.
At the market office the plainclothes police
kept beating student Nguyen Tien Nam, causing him to vomit out the food he ate
in the morning. Writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia complained against the police
brutality toward Mr. Nam, and he himself, in turn, was silenced by blows from
the police. Teacher Vu Hung told the police that they should not beat an
elderly man such as writer Nghia who was as old as their fathers. As a
consequence, teacher Vu Hung was beaten as well.
Thereafter the police in uniform showed up and
drove them to the police station of the district of Dong Xuan for questioning.
There the police abused them with vulgarity and by midnight sent them back to
their homes for further questioning by the local police. Student Nguyen Tien
Nam was sent to Yen Bay province, writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia to the harbor city
of Hai Phong, and schoolteacher Vu
Hung to the province of Ha Nam. Back in Hai Phong, writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia
composed the following poem:
My fatherland is like the donkey skin
That shrinks each time one has a wish
A wish of prosperity: its woods lose
their trees, its seas their fish
A wish of territorial integrity: its islands and mountains were annexed
by the foreigners
I stood peacefully
with my sign, protesting Beijing
The first people to come were the
police
They looked at me as a scabrous dog
I fell down, they lift me up
Their punches again landing on my
face.
Yet, they're my compatriots
Sharing with me this arid land of
rocks and sands
This land of thousands years of
struggle and pain
To survive and to overcome
I lied on the ground
My tears swallowed
Which dynasty like this one,
Along the 4000 years of my people's
history
- Nguyen Xuan
Nghia (Hai-Phong, May 1st, 2008)
What was the meaning of the violence committed by the
police against Mr. Nguyen Tien Nam, Nguyen Xuan Nghia and Vu Hung? It could not
be seen as an act of maintaining public order. Force may be used as the last
resort to maintain public order, and not to be used to deal with a peaceful
protest. The gatherings organized by the student Nguyen Tien Nam conformed to
the terms of Vietnam's constitution and in doing so he did not violate any
current law. In fact, the Vietnamese authorities did not indict them and
released them after questioning.
As said, the use of force by the plainclothes
policemen and the intimidation by the police in uniform against Messrs. Nam,
Nghia and Hung should be seen as an act of terrorism, and those who committed
these acts must face justice according to the law by the Vietnamese
authorities. Otherwise this act of violence amounts to an act of state
terrorism condoned by the highest leaders of the civil administration of Vietnam,
namely President Nguyen Minh Triet and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. Triet
and Dung must be considered as terrorists and to be dealt with by the world
community as such. They should not be allowed to travel freely in the civilized
world until they order their security apparatus to stop to terrorize the people
of Vietnam.
The world community should have a say in this
affair to enhance the universal effort to combat terrorism under any form,
whether practiced by political organizations, by religious groups, by
revolutionaries, or even by state institutions such as the police in Vietnam
under the leadership of the Vietnam communist Party.
May 16, 2008
Trần Bình Nam
|
http://www.tranbinhnam.com |