Hanoi - Vietnamese political dissident Nguyen Khac Toan, one of the founders of the "Bloc 8406" democracy movement, confirmed Wednesday that police and Communist Party members had subjected him to humiliation at a public denunciation session on August 31. Toan said authorities had gathered "about 250 people" at his neighbourhood police headquarters. "To general applause, they called for me to be sent to prison permanently, without trial, for having expressed dissenting views about the country," Toan said.
Several war veterans said if he were not punished, they would "ask the government's permission to go to his house and teach him a lesson."
Toan said he had ignored an official order to report to the police station, and had been forcibly escorted there from his apartment by 10 police officers.
The editor of an underground news website called Freedom and Democracy, Toan was released from prison in January 2006 after serving four years for espionage. Toan had communicated with Vietnamese exile groups in France about farmers protesting in land disputes with the government, a cause he has recently taken up again.
The international press freedom organization Reporters Sans Frontieres issued a statement Tuesday condemning the denunciation session.
Nguyen Khac Hung, a neighbour of Toan's who heads the local neighbourhood board, confirmed he had taken part in the denunciation session, but said it was aimed at persuading Toan to stop doing things which "are not his responsibility."
"The aim was to educate him to stop engaging in all these trivial activities," said Hung. "It's very uncomfortable to have to suffer someone who opposes the social order like that."
Denunciation sessions, which have no legal force, resemble those held in China under Mao Tse-Tung. They are composed of residents of the accused person's neighbourhood, usually middle-aged or older, who are instructed to attend by local Party officials. Participants are provided with negative information about the accused, and encouraged to denounce him.
Such sessions were common in Communist Vietnam until the late 1980s, when the country launched its "doi moi" process of economic and social reforms. They had largely disappeared since.
The sessions have been revived this year, however, for use against political dissidents, who became increasingly active in 2006. In February, human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai was subjected to a denunciation session, before ultimately being arrested and sentenced to five years in prison in May.
At least three other dissidents have been subjected to the denunciation sessions this year.
In recent weeks, Toan has been harshly criticized in several articles in Vietnam's government-controlled press, along with Thich Quang Do, deputy head of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam ( UBCV). In August, the UBCV launched a campaign to aid those protesting government mistreatment in land disputes.
On August 23, a UBCV monk named Thich Khong Tanh was arrested in Hanoi while taking part in the campaign. Nguyen Khac Toan had expressed support for the UBCV's efforts.
Reporters Sans Frontieres said the denunciation session may indicate that Toan will be arrested and officially charged in the near future.
