Committee on Human Rights: Letter from Nguyen Dan Que

Below is an e-mail message sent to us on July 22, 2001, by Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, a Vietnamese medical doctor. The CHR, its correspondents, and many participants in the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies have continually intervened in Dr. Que's behalf, both during his more than 18 years in prison and since his release in August 1998. Dr. Que continues to be subjected to severe restrictions on virtually all of his fundamental rights. He is under 24-hour surveillance by security guards. His telephone has been disconnected; and his mail is intercepted. Furthermore, his personal identity papers, educational diplomas, and medical license have not been returned to him by the authorities, making it impossible for him to return to his medical practice or to move freely outside his home.

I am happy to have received your message. I would very much like to thank all the members of the Committee on Human Rights of the US National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine for your warm concerns on my situation.

Actually I am being subject to many isolation measures from the Vietnamese communist authorities, a sort of outcast from the society.

They refused to give me back my personal papers confiscated. Without them I could not respond to their requirements to run a medical cabinet or to get passport and visa just for example.
They try to restrict my movement by guarding my house, by tailing, by hinting to my wife 'not good for him to go out' , 'better for him not to have social contacts'... I don't have the right to pass even a single night in other places without their written permission.
January 15th, 2001 the political police set up a meeting to denounce me against the government, and have relations with foreigners, including diplomats and reporters. I refused to assist, then they forced my wife against her will to take part in it in order to report back to me.
My telephone, Fax machine, PC, correspondences have been and are cut off. My relatives back from abroad or any friends coming to see me always get into trouble with the local police.

Briefly, they are controlling and threatening me that I would risk to pay dearly for my Human Rights and Democracy activities. For the time being I live not a normal life of a citizen properly speaking. And in such harsh conditions I am struggling for my people. They exerce heavy pressure, harassment, intimidation by one way or another, not directly face-to-face on me but on my wife and through any human contacts I try to reach to. The only way I can now communicate to the outside is Mobilfone and from time to time Internet-cafe without letting them know.

I hope your organization would use your prestigious voice to mobilize the international opinion against Human Rights violations in Vietnam.