Vietnam rejects US call to release dissidents

Oct 16, 2009, 5:00 GMT

   Hanoi - The Vietnamese government rejected a US call for it to 'immediately and unconditionally' release nine dissidents sentenced to prison last week for criticizing the government, state media reported Friday.

   The Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan quoted government spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga as saying the request 'interfered in Vietnam's internal affairs.'

   Nga also said the information in a statement released Wednesday by the US embassy was 'completely incorrect,' according to the state-run Vietnam News.

   In the press release, the embassy said it was 'deeply disturbed' by the convictions of the nine democracy activists. It also expressed concern for writer Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, who it said was beaten and arrested after she publicly expressed her support for the nine activists.

   The statement further criticized the recent 'violent expulsion' of monks and nuns from the Bat Nha Monastery in central Vietnam. The monks and nuns are followers of the Western-based Zen sage Thich Nhat Hanh, who is mistrusted by elements of Vietnam's state-affiliated Buddhist church.

   The nine dissidents were sentenced last week to between two and six years in prison for violating Article 88 of Vietnam's legal code, which forbids 'spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.'

   One of the dissidents, 43-year-old high school teacher Vu Van Hung, is staging a hunger strike to protest his conviction, his wife said Thursday.

   The trials elicited protests from foreign countries and international human rights organizations.