March 3, 2015

Vietnam Lawmakers Say No More Power to Commune-Level Police

by • [Human Rights]

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Empowering communal policemen will complicate investigations at higher levels and harbor criminals to be at large and possibly lead to wrong verdicts since the secret information could leak out because they are not well trained, said Chairman Nguyen Van Hien of the National Assembly’s Legal Committee at the 35th meeting of the parliament’s Standing Committee in Hanoi last week.
By Vu Quoc Ngu | Mar 03, 2015
Many Vietnamese lawmakers have given their thumb down to a draft law on empowering policemen at the grass-root level in the communist nation, the Nong Thon Ngay Nay newspaper reported.
According to the law submitted by the Ministry of Public Security, policemen in communes and wards across Vietnam can conduct some initial investigations to deal with rising crimes across the country.
Empowering communal policemen will complicate investigations at higher levels and harbor criminals to be at large and possibly lead to wrong verdicts since the secret information could leak out because they are not well trained, said Chairman Nguyen Van Hien of the National Assembly’s Legal Committee at the 35th meeting of the parliament’s Standing Committee in Hanoi last week.
Many communal policemen said that they are not capable of conducting new duties since they are untrained and lack of proper investigation tools.
Empowering communal policemen could harbor power abuses among the grass-root policemen after a number of deaths which have been blamed for interrogation and tortures by policemen, including the serious case in Bac Giaing, Hai Duong, Dak Lak, Binh Duong provinces and Danang city, said Hanoi-based observers.
According to human rights bodies, dozens of Vietnamese have been killed in police stations during the past five years.
Vietnam ratified the UN Convention against Torture in May.
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