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TimkinMS
Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 86
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 Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 5:14 pm Post subject: More Organized Criminals Rounded Up |
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It looks like more criminals have been rounded up. Thank you for protecting us, TPTB (The Powers That Be).
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Vietnam's new breed of dissident
By Nga Pham
BBC Vietnamese Service
Le Cong Dinh is not an ordinary Vietnamese dissident.
He is not a veteran communist, disillusioned with party ideology. He did not experience the full extent of the brutality of the Vietnam War nor the harshness of the economic impoverishment in the years following it.
Soft-spoken and charismatic, Dinh was also a successful lawyer, well-known for representing Vietnam in a number of high-profile international court cases.
He is married to one of the country's most beautiful women, Miss Vietnam 1998, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Khanh.
Neither do the other three defendants in Wednesday's high-profile trial really fit the mould. All of them are well-educated, eloquent, successful. "They are real intellectuals," said Nguyen Thanh Giang, another dissident in Hanoi.
As a lawyer, Dinh defended other activists and bloggers
But Le Cong Dinh, Nguyen Tien Trung, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc and Le Thang Long represent a new class of democracy campaigner - and could pose a serious threat to the regime for those exact personal attributes, as well as their connections with the West.
In Wednesday's trial, all four men were accused, and found guilty, of affiliation with "reactionary forces" overseas.
Two of them, Dinh and Trung, were educated in the United States and France, where friends and colleagues have been campaigning in their support.
Testifying before the court, Dinh said: "I have been influenced by Western ideas of democracy, freedom and human rights during my studies abroad."
'Peaceful evolution'
The one-day trial also showed a glimpse of Vietnam's attitude to the outside world.
As well as charges of subversion - including promoting ideas and plotting to overthrow the government - the defendants were accused of promoting "peaceful evolution".
This post-Cold War terminology is generally used to describe Western strategy to undermine socialist systems, and the use of it will send a loud and clear message to foreign governments.
It may be opening up its economy to the outside world, but the Vietnamese government insists it will manage social liberalisation at its own pace.
Tran Huynh Duy Thuc was given the toughest sentence - 16 years in jail
Yet critics of the regime say tightening control over democratic freedoms only pushes Vietnam further away from the global community at a time when it needs more friends and allies - especially in light of China's increasing dominance in the region.
Some analysts also believe that the trial reflects an internal struggle within the ruling Communist Party, with the conservatives looking to seize the higher ground, especially in the run-up to the next party congress in January 2011.
"This is seen by the conservatives as an opportunity to pre-empt those in the party who would push for greater party democratisation and political liberalisation in society," says Carl Thayer, a prominent Vietnam expert in Australia.
Balancing act
The trial verdicts have drawn criticism from some Western governments.
British Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis said he was "deeply concerned".
"Nobody should be imprisoned for peacefully expressing their opinions. Verdicts like these only serve to harm Vietnam's international standing," he said.
US consul-general Kenneth Fairfax called for the dissidents' release.
Vietnamese newspapers, meanwhile, hailed the trail as just and fair.
Three of the defendants could have faced the death penalty, but all were given jail terms instead - the toughest sentence going to Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, who received a term of 16 years, the harshest sentence given to a Vietnamese dissident for some time.
Le Cong Dinh, who confessed to his wrongdoings in court, only received a five year sentence - which was seen in local media as demonstrating the humanity of the people's court.
But what remains unsaid is that among the four accused, Dinh holds the highest profile in the West.
Giving him the lowest jail term may be an attempted balancing act, suggesting that the Vietnamese leadership is only too aware of the controversy surrounding this trial. |
Source - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8471723.stm |
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Zembekiko1Aegean
Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 28
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| Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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| The concept of the Yin and the Yang strikes fear in any government. |
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The Fat Rabbit
Joined: 19 Jan 2010
Posts: 61
Location: Vietnam
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| Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 3:53 am Post subject: |
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| does anyone know if this article can be read in vietnamese? if so, where? |
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inky
Joined: 05 Jan 2009
Posts: 283
Location: Hanoi
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| Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:03 am Post subject: |
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Forget about translating it into Vietnamese, get someone to help the BBC with their spelling!
"Neither do the other three defendants in Wednesday's high-profile trial really fit the mould." |
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Porlestone
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 95
Location: Asia
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| Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:34 am Post subject: |
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| inky wrote: |
| Forget about translating it into Vietnamese... |
I'd say translating the article into Vietnamese is a great idea. Unless of course if you're a person that wouldn't want information and truth to be disseminated. |
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winthorpe
Joined: 21 Oct 2009
Posts: 21
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| Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:28 am Post subject: |
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| inky wrote: |
Forget about translating it into Vietnamese, get someone to help the BBC with their spelling!
"Neither do the other three defendants in Wednesday's high-profile trial really fit the mould." |
Which words do you consider misspelled? "Mould" is the British spelling, and I don't see any other possibilities. |
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