ANOTHER HCMC ACTIVIST ARRESTED; BUI KIM THANH UPDATE

UNCLAS HO CHI MINH CITY 000333 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM SOCI PREL PGOV KIRF PREF VM SUBJECT: ANOTHER HCMC ACTIVIST ARRESTED; BUI KIM THANH UPDATE REF: A. ORONA/SILBERSTEIN 3/30 EMAIL; B) HCMC 248 AND ¶B. PREVIOUS; C) 06 HANOI 2077 AND PREVIOUS; D) HCMC 232 AND ¶C. PREVIOUS; E) 06 HCMC 218 ¶1. (SBU) On April 3 we met with the sister of lawyer Tran Thi Thuy Trang to confirm ref A reports that Ms. Trang was arrested in HCMC on March 7. Trang is an associate of Le Quoc Quan, a National Endowment for Democracy fellow, who was arrested on March 8 in northern Vietnam shortly after his return from the United States. Quan was charged with "participation in activities to overthrow the People's Government," under Article 79 of the Vietnamese penal code. ¶2. (SBU) The sister told us that Trang has been in charge of the HCMC office of the law firm "Quan and Associates" for over a year. Located near HCMC's Tan Binh Industrial Park, the firm specialized in commercial law and in providing services to firms in the industrial zone. However, following the outbreak of labor unrest in HCMC and neighboring provinces in early 2006 (ref E),Trang became increasingly involved in defending workers involved in labor disputes. The sister did not know how Trang, who graduated from law school in HCMC in 1999, began her association with the Hanoi-based Le Quoc Quan. ¶3. (SBU) Trang's sister told us that the family was unaware of Trang undertaking any anti-GVN activities or efforts to promote independent labor. Nonetheless, when police came to their house to arrest Trang on March 7, the one arrest warrant they were allowed to see stated that Trang "stored anti-Communist Party and anti-GVN materials." Police refused to divulge what the other charges were. Police thus far also have refused to allow the family visitation rights or to allow the defense lawyer they hired access to Trang. Bui Kim Thanh -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Separately, we spoke by phone on April 2 with a relative of Bui Kim Thanh, the land rights activist involuntarily committed to a mental institution since November 2006 (ref D). The relative told us that she was able to visit and speak with Thanh in the mental institution in late March. At that time, Thanh reportedly said that she believed that she would be forced to remain in the mental institution for at least another few months. However, Thanh's husband said that she would have to spend a year in the mental institution and would only be eligible for release at the end of October 2007. The relative added that one of Bui Kim Thanh's brothers confronted Thanh's sons about their refusal to intervene more forcefully on their mother's behalf. The sons reportedly replied that ?she is in there because she refuses to admit that she is ill. If she admits it, we could get her out in no time.? Comment -------------- ¶5. (SBU) The detention of Tran Thi Thuy Trang brings to 24 the number of dissidents and activists in the HCMC Consular District that have been imprisoned or detained since late ¶2006. Trang's involvement, however peripheral, in organizing workers and protecting their rights outside Party-controlled structures would have been more than enough to trigger her arrest. Pressure by the authorities on Bui Kim Thanh to acknowledge that she is mentally ill is a standard tactic in the MPS repertoire to discredit activists. Her case increasingly parallels that of Baptist pastor Than Van Truong, who was forced to acknowledge that he was mentally ill before being released from the same mental institution in 2005. Truong was involuntarily committed to the mental institution by police for a year. WINNICK