VIETNAM: Internet writer and dissident Bui Kim Thành (f) returned to psychiatric detention, fears of ill-treatment

30 April 2008

RAN 24/08

The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of International PEN is seriously concerned for the well-being of Bui Kim Thành, internet writer, dissident and lawyer, who has reportedly been held in psychiatric detention since 6 March 2008, apparently without any medical basis. The WiPC fears that Bui Kim Thành may be held for her writings and activism, and if so, calls for her immediate and unconditional release in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam is a signatory.

Bui Kim Thành, aged forty-nine, is a human rights lawyer, internet writer and member of the banned Democratic Party of Vietnam. She was taken to the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital by police, after they broke into her house in Ho Chi Minh City. The hospital is located about 30km north of Saigon, south of the country. Neither her relatives or human rights advocates have been allowed to visit her at the hospital, and there are serious concerns for her well-being.

Background:

This is not the first time that Bui Kim Thành has been sectioned in a psychiatric hospital by the Vietnamese authorities. She was previously detained on 2 November 2006 and held for eight months at the Bien Hoa Psychiatric Hospital, after being assessed by two psychiatrists who concluded that she was not suffering from mental illness. She is said to have been forcibly injected with unknown medication during her incarceration. She is believed to have been targeted for her critical online writings and dissident activities. After her release in July 2007, she was placed under house arrest. However, despite this, she continued reporting for various media outlets, the internet and international NGOs on issues of social injustice and human rights violations in Vietnam. She is known for her defence of destitute women farmers made homeless by illegal land expropriation.

More on Bui Kim Thành previous detention:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA41/011/2006/en/dom-ASA410112006en.html

IFEX alerts and reports on freedom of expression in Vietnam:
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/164/

For the BBC's country profile:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243338.stm