Vietnam urged to tackle "alarming" rate of police abuse
(Reuters) - Abuses by Vietnam's powerful police force are occurring at an alarming rate, a rights group said on Tuesday and it urged the government to rein-in offenders and create bodies to investigate complaints of beatings, torture and killings.
Tracking four years of alleged abuse of suspects in custody, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Vietnam's Communist government needed to recognise the scale of the problem and urgently initiate police reforms."
Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang last week said during a hearing of the justice committee of Vietnam's parliament that action was being taken against policemen accused of abuses and cases had risen from 2011 to the end of last year.
Quang said that of the 828 police accused of "infringing upon judicial activities", 23 were charged with using corporal punishment. Quang did not disclose if any had been jailed.
Robertson described the hearing as remarkable but said far more needed to be done.
"For now, it's clear that the Vietnam police are mostly getting away with these abuses," he said. "
At least we aren't alone.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/09/16/vietnam-police-idINKBN0HB0VI20140916
