Public Security Forces Continue to Repress the Family of Huỳnh Trọng Hiếu

We have numerous plans to collect information on human rights violations in Vietnam. We will continue to release such information to Western and UN political and human rights organizations. Our only goal is to help improve the human rights situation in Vietnam. We know that the government will harass and repress us. But we will press on. We will not give up our human rights. Instead, we will defend them non-violently while respecting all nationally and internationally recognized legal principles. And we shall overcome.

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Defend The Defenders |  Oct 11, 2014
Translation by [rollinglinks]Huynh Thuc Vy [/rollinglinks]
Tell the World

Plain-clothed Public Security Forces agents pretending to be gangsters attacked my rental home around midnight on October 10, 2014.

At the time of the attack, my 10-month old son, my wife and I were sleeping upstairs when a very loud noise coming from the front door woke us up. It sounded like someone threw a very big rock against it. Immediately afterward, we heard hard kicking sounds and the noises from the door coming off its hinges and crashing inside our home. Three men armed with some sort of deadly weapons then stormed into the house. A fourth one went to the back of the house and repeatedly used rocks to break down the back door.

As they smashed things inside the house, they threatened to kill all of us. They also swore heavily and loudly. The loud noises they created woke the neighboring families up. From my window, I could see the horror on their face as they witnessed and reacted to the attack on our home.

It appeared to me that they were well prepared. They came with their faces covered and on two motorcycles. They conducted a lightning attack. And they left the premise just as fast.

They came back about half an hour later. There were more of them this time around. Some went inside and broke all the glasses on our armoire. Others pushed our bike to the floor. All hit and smashed everything else in their sight. They only left when several neighbors opened the doors of their home, stepped outside to watch, and made gestures expressing their anger at the attack.

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The attack caused us a lot of material damages. While luckily none of us was physically hurt, the illegal and inhumane nature of the attack shook us up severely and mentally. My 9-month old son was so rudely yanked from his sleep that he couldn’t stop screaming in terror.

We believe that the security apparatus of the PCPV ordered these attacks. They did so because they want to intimidate human rights defenders. We protest these illegal and immoral acts of intimidation and especially those targeting our family.

There is one more detail worth mentioning. On October 10, 2014, security agents were deployed in front of my house. They openly monitored our activities. We learned later that similar agents were posted in front of the home of several veteran human rights activists.  One of these is Dr. Nguyễn Đan Quế. At the present time, Dr. Quế’s is subject to endless harassment and his activities are tightly monitored and controlled. Government security agents prevented him from going anywhere, thus grossly violating his freedom of movement.

It is also worth pointing out that the recent harassments of members of my family, such as my older sister Huỳnh Thục Vy, took place as senior US diplomats from Washington came to Vietnam. They came to work on issues related to Human Rights and especially religious freedom.

Recently we started to visit victims of human rights violations to document their situations. We plan to submit our findings on their plights directly to representatives of Western embassies in Vietnam. We believe that some initial and positive results have been achieved.

A typical example of the above is the case of Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh. Pastor Chính is a Protestant missionary. He serves his flock in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. He is a victim of severe persecution by the government.

We have numerous plans to collect information on human rights violations in Vietnam. We will continue to release such information to Western and UN political and human rights organizations. Our only goal is to help improve the human rights situation in Vietnam. We know that the government will harass and repress us. But we will press on. We will not give up our human rights. Instead, we will defend them non-violently while respecting all nationally and internationally recognized legal principles. And we shall overcome.

Huỳnh Trọng Hiếu
Saigon, October 11, 2014