Harsh light shines on Vietnam's prisons

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-01-220914.html



Harsh light shines on Vietnam's prisons
By Zachary Abuza
Sep 22, '14

The Vietnamese government's continued crackdown on dissent has put the legal system under new scrutiny. Dissidents and critical bloggers are routinely charged with vague national security laws and their cases fast tracked through courts resulting in criminal convictions and harsh prison sentences. At least eight dissidents, activists and bloggers have been detained in 2014; 36 are currently imprisoned by certain estimates.

Yet it is the pervasive use of torture and abuse that has brought the harshest spotlight on the country's law enforcement. A new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report issued this week documents endemic abuse and mistreatment of prisoners, including 14 detainees whom the police admit to having killed while in detention. The report also details four unexplained but suspicious deaths, six "suicides" of suspects, four who died due to the lack of adequate medical care and countless others who were severely injured between 2010-2014.

Despite this widespread and well-documented repression, the situation is beginning to change, albeit gradually. In a break from the past, the Communist Party-dominated government has started to acknowledge the extent of police abuse in winning criminal prosecutions. Against a growing chorus of public anger, often expressed in the country's vibrant blogosphere, pervasive police brutality has become a recognized threat to the regime's legitimacy.

In two well publicized meetings in July, Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang called on state prosecutors and public security officials to end the pervasive practice of forcing false confessions through brutality and torture. Police and prosecutors are under pressure to deliver results. Economic reforms have eased total state control over parts of society, a devolution that by some estimates has unintentionally led to surging crime rates.

[merrily]

1. Shhhh. We trade with them now. Nothing to see here.