MORE HCMC POLITICAL ACTIVISTS DETAINED

UNCLAS HO CHI MINH CITY 001012 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV SOCI CASC DO THANH CONG PREL VM SUBJECT: MORE HCMC POLITICAL ACTIVISTS DETAINED REF: HCMC 318; B) HCMC 936 AND 925; C) HCMC 999 AND 998 ¶1. (SBU) Contacts in the HCMC dissident community confirm Internet reports that police have stepped up pressure on members of the "8406 Bloc." Dissident Do Nam Hai (aka Phuong Nam) told us that he was notified on August 30 by the HCMC authorities that they were going to seize personal assets to collect VND16.5 million (USD 1,050),the amount he had been fined earlier in the year for sending illegal information over the internet. (Ref A). (Hai also was fined another VND 20 million (USD 1,500) for "illegal publishing" when he distributed 12 copies to his colleagues of his writings on multi-party democracy.) The asset seizure order came after Hai rejected the government accusation and refused to pay the fine. Hai told us that the police have also "warned" his parents about the seizure order. Hai lives with his parents. He noted that police continue to harass his family to press him to quit his political activities. ¶2. (SBU) According to 8406 Bloc member Pham Ba Hai, on September 2, Nguyen Ngoc Quang, another 8406 Bloc member was detained in Hue after he and two other Bloc members consulted with Bloc founder Father Nguyen Van Ly. The following day, Ministry of Public Security officials from the MPS Southern Command searched Quang's house in HCMC. They seized his computer and written materials. The MPS officials also informed Quang's wife of his detention, but did not specify the charges against him. We believe that Quang remains in detention. ¶3. (SBU) Pham Ba Hai added that police subsequently summoned Quang's wife to question her about articles critical of the GVN in his computer. These are articles written by HCMC-based dissident writer Tran Manh Hao which Quang had downloaded from the Internet. Quang undoubtedly would have had to bypass GVN firewalls to download the articles. End Comment.) Hai speculated that Quang's arrest may be linked to his admission that he recorded and posted on the Internet an earlier August police interrogation session with him (Ref B). ¶4. (SBU) Do Nam Hai confirmed to us that on September 5, Bloc member Vu Hoang Hai was handcuffed and arrested at his home in HCMC on unknown charges. A report later circulated on dissident website http://www.doi-thoai.com detailed that the police seized a camera, note books and written materials. They also seized medical records that purportedly documented neck and wrist injuries that police inflicted on Hai during an interrogation session in early August. (Ref B). Following his arrest, police reportedly stepped up surveillance of his home and instructed his family to report any contact from "outsiders." ¶5. (SBU) Comment: Many of articles that Bloc member Nguyen Ngoc Quang downloaded from the Internet appear on the website linked to arrested AmCit activist Cong Thanh Do and the People's Democratic Party of Vietnam (PDP-VN). The recent arrests of the three 8406 block members brings to six the number of HCMC political activists detained with the past three weeks. (Per ref C, two other members of the PDP-VN, Nguyen Le Sang and Nguyen Huong Dao, were arrested along with AmCit Cong Thanh Do.) Do Nam Hai and the three arrested 8406 Bloc dissidents were among the 17 Bloc members who met in HCMC in early August to coordinate political activities. Other arrests may follow. WINNICK