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Vietnam frees ailing dissident priest: lawyer (15 March 2010)

Vietnam on Monday freed a Catholic priest who has been an outspoken democracy advocate after he suffered debilitating strokes in his nearly three years in prison, his lawyer said.

Vietnam has been on the receiving end of international appeals to release Nguyen Van Ly, who was sentenced in March 2007 to eight years in prison after prosecutors said he helped start a banned pro-democracy coalition.

Ly's sister had been visiting the priest at his prison near Hanoi when guards told her to wait, Maran Turner, the dissident's Washington-based counsel.

"She didn't know why and she waited for quite some time. Then all of a sudden they brought out Father Ly at 4 am and said, 'He's been released,'" Turner told AFP.

Turner, the executive director of Freedom Now, which supports political prisoners, said that Ly returned to his hometown of Hue where he is surrounded by family.

Ly, 63, is partially paralyzed from two strokes he suffered while in prison, Turner said.

"He's getting better," she said. "He's able to move around and to walk with the help of a cane."

Thirty-seven US senators -- or more than one-third of the chamber -- in July last year sent Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet an appeal for Ly's freedom. The European Union had also sought his release.

"There's been a rise in attention on his case," Turner said. "And we can only assume that at least in some measure, his health was the impetus for going ahead and releasing him."

While voicing delight over Ly's release, Turner cautioned that others remained in prison.

In an annual report, the State Department last week found that Vietnam held at least 60 political prisoners at the end of 2009 including lawyers, activists and bloggers.

Leonard Leo, the chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government advisory body, welcomed Ly's release and urged the US ambassador to Vietnam to meet the freed priest.

"While this is good news for Father Ly, we continue to have grave concerns about Vietnam's deteriorating human rights situation," Leo said.

Earlier this month, Vietnam released lawyer and dissident Le Thi Cong Nhan, 30, who had also spent three years in prison for challenging the communist authorities. AFP

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US sees 'spike' in Vietnam human rights issues (3 February 2010)

There has been a spike in human rights issues in Vietnam but dialogue, not harsher measures, is the way to respond, the United States ambassador said Wednesday.

"I think we have a spike in issues of concern on human rights," ambassador Michael Michalak told reporters in a Lunar New Year press conference.

"Is this the beginning of a trend? We don't know but we certainly hope not and that's one of the reasons why we continue to have the dialogue that we have."

Over the past year the US embassy has issued statements of concern at Vietnam's jailing of dissidents, efforts to restrict the media, and treatment of a Buddhist group.

The US also holds a regular human rights dialogue with the Vietnamese government, Michalak said.

"In our discussions with the government of Vietnam we have noted that without a free media and functioning civil society it will be difficult for Vietnam to tackle many of the issues it faces such as education reform, corruption and environmental degradation," Michalak said.

Asked whether the US would consider stronger action such as a curtailment of aid, he said that "at this point I think we want to continue those dialogues, to see if we can't make some progress."

At the beginning of the year Vietnam took over the rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-nation regional bloc whose charter commits members to "promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms."

"We view this as a good year for Vietnam to demonstrate its leadership in ASEAN, including all parts of ASEAN," Michalak said.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the US and Vietnam, which fought a war that lasted several years and ended with the country's reunification in 1975.

Bilateral ties are now "very broad and deep", and the US last year became the largest foreign investor in the communist nation, Michalak said. International The News

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