Once again, we re-affirm: We are all Huỳnh Thục Vy!
[Update 1]
On June 11, 2011, I appealed to the Vietnamese Diaspora in particular and all people concerned with human rights in general to do everything within our power to support Ms. Huynh Thuc Vy, a young blogger in Tam Ky, Central Vietnam, who was threatened by the local Public Security apparatus. I wrote:
“All of us Vietnamese owe Huỳnh Thục Vy and her father Huỳnh Ngọc Tuấn a great debt of gratitude, and I hope that each one of us will support and pray for their safety and peace, and that nothing bad will happen to them. The daughter and the father from the province of Tam Kỳ are the indispensable thinkers and writers of our generation.
In this summer of 2011 and in the days to come, in her and her father’s hour of need, we are all Huỳnh Thục Vy!”
Today, the Vietnamese internet community is buzzing with the news that Ms. Huynh Thuc Vy was summoned, for a second time, by Colonel Huynh Van Long, Deputy Commander of the Tam Ky Public Security Office to meet with a member of his staff, a certain Mr. Truyen, at their office in the Nam Phu District to “discuss some issues related to you”. The summons was hand delivered by two members of the Tam Ky District Public Security forces in plain clothes as seen in the photo below.
Ms. Huynh Thuc Vy’s father, Mr. Huynh Ngoc Tuan, himself a renowned writer who was jailed for by the Public Security services for almost 10 years (1992-2002) for publishing a book overseas, told a researcher at the US-based Vietnamese website Dan Chim Viet who called him at home that Public Security officials at the Nam Phu District are well known for their rough handling and brutality toward suspects brought to their station. He feared the worse, and thus asked Ms. Huynh Thuc Vy to ignore the summon.
Below is the summon asking Ms. Huynh Thuc Vy to be there promptly at 8:00AM on Tuesday June 14, 2011 (Local time).
The summons that Colonel Huynh Van Long issued to Ms. Huynh Thuc Vy is an unbearable affront to her and all the people of Vietnam, and also to the entire civilized world. The government of Vietnam must recognize, not just in words but in deeds, that freedom of speech is a fundamental human right, and that no one should be threatened simply because she is simply expressing her thoughts and beliefs.
Once again, we re-affirm our united stand with Ms. Huynh Thuc Vy and her family. We are all Huynh Thuc Vy!
Chấn Minh
June 16, 2011.
