Exiled dissident Dr. Cù Huy Hà Vũs speech to the NED. My comments at the very end. Below is my brief bio of Dr. Vu. Dr. Cù Huy Hà Vũ comes from revolutionary pedigree. His father was a revolutionary poet, a minister in the first DRV government, and a contemporary of Ho Chi Minh. Despite that, Dr. Vu always chose his own path. He achieved national fame in June 2009 by filing a suit against Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung for granting a Chinese mining company rights to a bauxite deposit in the Central Highlands. The suit was dismissed by the court, but he was undeterred. In September and October 2010, Dr. Vũ filed suits against PM Dũng for signing Decision No. 136, which banned citizens from filing lawsuits or complaints against the national government. That year he began the defense of a Catholic parish in Da Nang that was involved in a land dispute. Dr. Vu called for the abolishment of Article 4 in 2012-13 during the drafting of the current Constitution of Vietnam. Article 4 states that the VCP is the only legal party, as well as a vanguard, which ostensibly puts it above the law. He was arrested in November 2010. The December 2010 indictment stated that Vus articles contain propaganda against Vietnam. They distort the Communist Party and statess positions and policies, defame state institutions, distort the resistance of the Vietnamese people, urge the elimination of the Communist Party, and call for a pluralist, multi-party system. These acts facilitate a reactionary sabotage against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. On 4 April 2011, Vu was sentenced to seven years in prison for spreading anti-state propaganda, (Article 258 of the Criminal Code). He was released on 6 April 2014 and flown with his wife, Nguyen Thi Duong Ha, herself a lawyer and well known human rights advocate, to the United States.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 02:16:41 +0000