One More Vietnamese Activist Beaten by Thugs After U.S. Urges Hanoi to Improve Human Rights Record

dinh quang tuyen
Mr. Tuyen, who has posted articles calling for multi-party democracy in Vietnam and firmer response to China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea, recognized that two of the thugs are plainclothes agents who have followed him for months. He also managed to picture one attacker.
 Being informed, his friends came to bring him to a hospital where he received urgent treatment to stop bleeding.

By Vu Quoc Ngu | May 19, 2015

Vietnam’s plainclothes agents on May 19 severely attacked a Saigon-based activist, several days after the U.S. called on the communist government in Hanoi to improve its human rights records.

In early morning of Tuesday [May 19], Mr. Dinh Quang Tuyen, a pro-democracy and human rights activist in Vietnam’s biggest economic hub, was assaulted by two thugs when he was cycling in Dong Dieu in District 8.

The attackers stopped his bike, beat him at his face and caused continuous bleeding in his face, according to his friends.

Mr. Tuyen, who has posted articles calling for multi-party democracy in Vietnam and firmer response to China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea, recognized that two of the thugs are plainclothes agents who have followed him for months. He also managed to picture one attacker.

Being informed, his friends came to bring him to a hospital where he received urgent treatment to stop bleeding.

Tuyen has been one of many Vietnamese victims of brutal attacks conducted by hired thugs or uncover policemen in recent weeks.

On May 11, Hanoi-based political dissident and environmentalist Nguyen Chi Tuyen was brutally assaulted by a group of five thugs who used iron bars to attack him at his head and body near his private house in Long Bien district.

Many diplomats visited Mr. Tuyen to share deep sympathy while California Senator Janet Nguyen urged U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius and the New York-based Human Rights Watch to take measures to bring the attackers to court.

In April, Hanoi-based plainclothes agents also attacked Nguyen Anh Tuan (aka Gio Lang Thang) who is one of leading figures of a campaign to protest Hanoi’s plan to chop down 6,700 healthy centenary trees in city’s main streets.

Last nights, two Vietnamese activists Nguyen Van De and Bui Tien Hung were beaten by thugs in front of police in the Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport when they were waiting for blogger Mai Van Dung, who was shortly detained by security forces after attending a cyber security training course in Singapore.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has called on Vietnam to improve its human rights records if it wants to join 11 other nations in TPP.

After co-chairing the 19th Vietnam-U.S. Human Rights Dialogue in Hanoi last week, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Tom Malinowski urged Vietnam to unconditionally release 100 prisoners of conscience.

Many U.S. Congressmen and human rights activists said the U.S.’s Parliament will not allow Vietnam’s participation to the TPP given the bad human rights situation in the communist nation.