Vietnam's government calls dissidents' actions "unacceptable"

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Thursday October 12, 2006

Hanoi- Vietnam's government made its first public comments Thursday on the country's internet-driven dissident movement known as Bloc 8406, calling its actions "unacceptable." "Some people are acting against the legitimate expectations of the community of Vietnamese peoples and arousing opposition to Vietnam and this is unacceptable," government spokesman Le Dzung said at the twice-monthly news conference.

Until this month, the Vietnamese government had denied the existence of a homegrown dissident movement, but that stance has become increasingly difficult to sustain because the activists use the internet to spread their messages.

The Vietnamese dissident movement is relatively small and divided into different groups. However, Bloc 8406 said the petition called a Manifesto on Freedom and Democracy for Vietnam - which it published on April 8, the date from which the group takes its name - has now been signed by 2,000 people inside the country.

At the news conference, Le Dzung dismissed the groups call for multiparty democracy in Vietnam.

"Some people have taken advantage of the label of 'democracy' to put forward wrongful and distorted arguments about the situation in Vietnam," he said.

Dissidents said their next step would be to launch a political alliance that would bring together Bloc 8406 with at least two illegal political parties; a dissident Buddhist organization, the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV); and others.

The deputy leader of the UBCV, Thich Quang Do, 78, was scathing in reacting to Le Dzung's comments.

"Firstly, there is no democracy here for us to take advantage of," said Thich Quang Do, who is currently banned from leaving his monastery in Ho Chi Minh City. "Over the last 60 years, under the communist regime, there has never been any freedom and democracy here."

Dissidents said they were taking advantage of the impending Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which is to be held in Hanoi in mid-November, to raise their demands.

They said they believe the government won't want to be seen arresting large numbers of activists shortly before the visit of so many political leaders, including US President George W Bush.

However, they added that some of them have already been warned by local security officials that after the summit is over, the police would take a very different approach to their activities.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency