Vietnamese police detained blogger Mẹ Nấm because they think Human Rights are “a sensitive issue”

Danlambao - To commemorate the International Human Rights Day (December 10), blogger Mẹ Nấm (Ms. Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh) and a number of members of the Vietnam Bloggers Network (VBN) have accepted the invitation to participate in the ‘Human Rights Challenge’* sponsored by the German Embassy. This is one of many activities that VBN plans to do to simultaneously celebrate its first anniversary.

The ‘Human Rights Challenge’ invites people to express their views by completing the expression starting with “I support Human Rights because…”
Mr. Felix Schwarz: Consul and Political Counselor, German Embassy Ms. Jutta Frasch: German Ambassador to Vietnam  Mr. Christoph Strässer: Human Rights Envoy, German Embassy
In Nha Trang, as citizens of a country that has become a member of the UN Human Rights Committee, blogger Mẹ Nấm together with VBM members and her friends carried out activities to express their support for human rights. This right of expression is protected by Vietnam’s Constitution and declared by the international conventions on human rights of which Vietnam is signatory.
Blogger Mẹ Nấm had chosen Vĩnh Thạnh Market to be the location where she would express her support for human rights with two placards with the following messages in Vietnamese and English:
- Tôi ủng hộ Nhân quyền bởi vì nếu không có NHÂN QUYỀN sẽ không có TỰ DO và DÂN CHỦ sẽ không tồn tại.
- I support Human Rights because only Human Rights enable us to empower our own people and our communities.


After Vĩnh Thạnh Market, while blogger Mẹ Nấm, her five friends and a 27-month old girl were having breakfast in a cafe, more than 20 plain-clothes police appeared and forced them to go to the district police station nearby. Outside the café there were nearly 100 more security agents deployed from the province to document the incident thoroughly using cameras and camcorders.
At the police station, having threatened the whole group, the police singled out blogger Mẹ Nấm for questioning. The police then wrote a report, which is summarised as follows:
“Acting on people’s reports, district police found a group of people holding placards with the expression “I support HUMAN RIGHTS because without them there will be no FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY will not survive” and taking photographs in public. Considering these actions suspicious, the district police have detained them and confiscated their belongings.”
All five people who were detained objected to police’s accusations and refused to sign police false report. Because of this all of them, including the 27-month old girl, were taken to the city police headquarter for further interrogations till 4pm.
During the interrogations, the police said taking pictures with human rights expressions in a public place without permits was wrong and therefore we would be charged with “causing public disorder”.
Following is a dialogue between Mẹ Nấm and a policewoman:

Besides questioning Mẹ Nấm’s friends to see if she promised to pay them, the police also told them not support and to deal with Mẹ Nấm or risk imprisonment.
It is known that Mẹ Nấm was detained while being unwell as she had just been through a severe flu. When asked how she felt, she said:
“I’m not well today having suffered a bad flu. I felt rather tired and didn’t want to debate with the police.”
“Leaving the police station and saying goodbye to my friends to take my kids to mass, I felt what happened today weighing heavily on me.”
“Why human rights have become such a sensitive issue in Vietnam?”
“Police accused me for receiving money and paying my friends to help me taking the photos”
“Why did Vietnamese government bother to become a member of the UN Committee on Human Rights and then treats a group of citizens openly displaying support for human rights like common criminals?”
“Is that freedom?”
One year after Vietnam became a member of the UN Committee on Human Rights, the Vietnamese government has ‘improved’ its human right records by harassing a group of people because they stood in the market holding up a placard with an expression of support for human rights: “I support HUMAN RIGHTS because without them there will be no FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY will not survive”
Why does the government of a country that always loudly declares its motto “Independence – Freedom – Happiness” become so touchy about such an expression?

Tranlated by Hanh Tran

Link: http://danlambaovn.blogspot.com/2014/12/blogger-me-nam-bi-bat-giu-vi-cong-cho.html

(*) http://www.humanrightslogo.net/en/download-types/human-rights-challenge