Vietnam’s security forces in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang and other localities on Sunday [June 5] arrested nearly one hundred of environmental activists during peaceful demonstrations which aimed to demand the government to be transparent in a serious environmental disaster in the central coastal region which has killed hundreds of tons of marine species since April 6.
By Vu Quoc Ngu, June 5, 2016
Vietnam’s security forces in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang and other localities on Sunday [June 5] arrested nearly one hundred of environmental activists during peaceful demonstrations which aimed to demand the government to be transparent in a serious environmental disaster in the central coastal region which has killed hundreds of tons of marine species since April 6.
A number of activists were severely beaten by police officers during the detentions and in police’s custody. Among victims of the police abuse are Pham Nam Hai in Hanoi, Nguyen Van Thanh in the central province of Danang, and Nguyen Van Do and facebooker Huy Truong Le in Saigon. The tortured activists said they suffered from serious injuries on their bodies.
Hanoi’s authorities arrested around 70 activists and released all detainees on afternoon while the police in HCMC still hold many activists, including Mr. Luu Van Vinh, Ms. Tran Thi Nguyet, Mr. Truong Huy Le, and Mr. Khanh Le Hoang in the social rehabilitation facility No. 463 in No Trang Long street which is used for holding sex workers, criminals and drug addicts, for interrogation. In this facility in mid-May, the police in the city held hundreds of activists for several days and many detainees said they were beaten by electrical batons during questioning.
Many activists in Hanoi and HCMC said they have been de facto under house arrest during weekends as local authorities deploy many police officers to patrol near their private residences, not allowing them to go out.
Authorities in major cities have tightened control and arrested all political dissidents, social activists and human rights when they appear in public places in cities’ centers on Sunday after environmental groups called for nationwide demonstrations during the weekend to demand the government to release the results of investigation on the massive death of millions of fish in the four central province of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue. Two months after the environmental catastrophe, Vietnam’s government has yet to publicize the results although the investigation was completed.
Many believe that the fish en-mass death in the central coastal region as water was polluted with heavy chemicals which came from improperly-treated waste discharged by the Taiwanese Formosa Plastic Group which has a $10 billion steel project in Ha Tinh province. The Taiwanese company admitted to imported 300 tons of very toxic chemicals such as CYC-VPrefilm900, CYC-Vprefilm400, CYC-Vclosetrol360, and CYC-VMA 796 for cleaning their machineries in the project and discharge waste into the sea through a meter-wide and kilometer-long tunnel about 15 meters below the sea surface.
Many Vietnamese have angered as the government has no urgent actions to cope with the disaster in the central coast as well as refused to announce the real causes of the incident. Since May 1, thousands of Vietnamese activists have rallied across the nation to protest Formosa and the slow reactions of the government.
Instead of warning people about serious contamination of sea water in the central coast, local authorities have launched campaign to encourage people to buy seafood harvested by the local fishermen, and come to the local beaches. A number of divers were reported to die in water near the place where Formosa discharges waste and many people died and suffered seriously from consuming seafood from the affected areas.
In May, police violently suppressed many peaceful environmental demonstrations, detaining and torturing many activists.
The Office of UN High Commission for Human Rights and many international human rights organizations have condemned Vietnam’s recent suppression against local activists, calling on the communist government respect its Constitutions and its international obligations on human rights.
Vietnam has prioritized high growth rate of the country’s gross domestic products (GDP) and encouraged foreign investors to set up industrial projects nationwide without paying special attention to environmental consequences, said experts.
The contamination of sea water in Vietnam’s central coast may affect the region’s economy for decades, especially in local fisheries, tourism, fish sauce and salt production. The livelihood of tens of millions of local residents is threatened, experts said