Dutch premier urged to press Vietnamese
on ailing cyber-dissident Pham Hong Son
Reporters Without
Borders today called on Dutch Prime Minister
Jan Peter Balkenende, whose
country currently holds the European Union presidency, to press the
Vietnamese authorities to free
ailing cyber-dissident Pham Hong Son
during the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) being held in Hanoi early next month.
According to his wife, Son is suffering
from an inguinal hernia that could
prove fatal if not operated on, but he has received no treatment and earlier this month he was moved to a prison far from Hanoi, where his family lives.
"We call on the Netherlands, as the European Council's current president, to be firm on the issue of human rights in order to
stress the fact that the ASEM summit
is not just about economic cooperation," Reporters Without
Borders said.
Son's wife, Vu Thuy Ha, told
the US radio station Radio Free Asia that her husband, who has been in solitary confinement for more than
a year, appeared very weak the
last time she visited him, on 16 August. She said he was using a rope to hold his hernia in, and had difficulty walking. Two weeks
after this visit, he was transferred to the Yen Dinh detention
centre, about half a day's journey from
Hanoi.
Lam Thu Van, a former surgeon in a Saigon hospital and today head of the Democracy
for Vietnam Centre in Montreal, said
Son needs an operation as soon as possible, as he could die as a result of complications from the hernia.
Son's wife travelled to Yen Dinh on 11
September with their two children but
they were denied the right to see him.
A physician and representative
of a foreign pharmaceutical
company, Son has been in prison since 27 March 2002 for translating an article from the
US embassy website called "What is democracy?" and posting it online. He also wrote many articles
about democracy and human rights that were
posted in Vietnamese discussion
forums.
The Hanoi people's court sentenced him on 18 June 2003 to 13 years in prison for "spying" and three years under
house arrest. The sentence was reduced on appeal on 26 August
2003 to five years in prison and three years under house
arrest.
The aim of the ASEM summits is to promote Asia-Europe
dialogue. They bring heads of state and government from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), plus
China, Japan and South Korea, together with their EU counterparts
and the European Commission president.
The next summit will be held in Hanoi on 8-9 October.