Writers-Fighters
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Eight Vietnamese Writers Selected
for Human Rights Awards
The US-based Human Rights Watch announced on August 03, 1998 it had chosen eight Vietnamese writers among the recipients of its 1998 Hellman - Hammett Awards. This honor is given every year to writers around the world who have been targets of political persecution. "In Vietnam, writers have faced harsh restraints for decades." Human Right Watch explained in its press release announcing the news, "This year's eight awards testify to the fact that the repressive conditions continue unabated in the context of a stalling economy, backlash over security concerns raised by improved relations with the United States, and a stalemate over political succession and liberalization within the Communist Party." The eight writers are:
PRESS RELEASE - WORLD 5 August 1998 SOURCE: Human Rights Watch The 1998 Hellman/Hammett grant recipients provide a fascinating look at the myriad ways that government repress freedom of speech. The forty-four writers who hail from nineteen countries have faced obstacles ranging from imprisonment and torture to having their works banned and their phone lines severed. The Hellman/Hammett grants are given annually by Human Rights Watch to writers around the world who have been targets of political persecution. The grant program began in 1989 when the estates of writers Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett asked Human Rights Watch to assist writers in financial need as a result of expressing their views. This year, grants totaled $170,000. Writers from Vietnam, Turkey, and Nigeria received a major portion of the 1998 grants, reflecting the especially repressive climate for free expression in those three countries. But as harsh as the situation is for writers there, conditions are equally severe in other countries where the signs of repression are less visible. Licencing policies and intimidation silence many voices before they can be heard. The suppression is just as egregious when expression is inhibited before it is put into words as when the abuse of writers is open and obvious. In Vietnam, writers have faced harsh restraints for decades. This year's eight awards testify to the fact that the repressive conditions continue unabated in the context of a stalling economy, backlash over security concerns raised by improved relations with the United States, and a stalemate over political succession and liberalization within the Communist Party. Nigeria's the use of arbitrary detention, torture, and censorship to quash writers has been an international scandal since the trial and execution of the noted playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995. The death last month of General Sani Abacha raises cautious hope for the release of political prisoners and implementation of the long stalled transition from military to civilian rule. But until Nigeria repeals the decrees that stifle free expression, writing there will remain a dangerous pursuit. The eight Turkish recipients represent the wide range of thought (Islamist, Kurdish, leftist, and mainstream) for which writers are targeted in Turkey. Persecution is common for expressing views or reporting on the Kurdish question, the role of Islam in society, and the nature of the Turkish state. At the same time, great latitude is permitted on most other topics. The writers selected to receive Hellman/Hammett grants in 1998 are a tiny portion of the many the world over whose books have been banned or who have been exiled, imprisoned, tortured, or harassed because of their work. In addition to the Vietnamese, Nigerian, and Turkish writers, this year's grant recipients include Miriam Tlali, a South African who vigorously condemned apartheid and paid the price for many years; Gordana Igric who, despite threats to her life, writes about human rights abuses in the former Yugoslavia; and Ahmad Taufik, an Indonesian journalist who has courageously covered taboo subjects like the wealth of the Soeharto family and human rights violations in East Timor. Short biographies of the 1998 recipients will be available on our website by the end of the week. Check www.hrw.org . For further information, contact or Human Rights Watch, 1522 K Street, N.W., Washington D.C. 20005-1202, U.S.A. The information contained in this press release is the sole responsibility of Human Rights Watch. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit Human Rights Watch. Short biographies of the 1998 recipients: Hoang Tien (Vietnam) has been writing short and long fiction, essays, and articles for more than forty years. He served as an officer in the communist army. In 1996, he published a series of articles condemning the arrest and trial of Ha Si Phu, a respected Vietnamese dissident in the tradition of Andrei Sakharov and Fang Lizhi. Subsequently Hoang Tien's telephone line was severed, and the police summoned him to headquarters for questioning. He is now forbidden to publish. Lu Phuong (Vietnam), free lance writer, joined the Viet Cong in 1968 and after the war worked at the Ministry of Culture until he was forced to retire for expressing dissident views. His writing is banned in Vietnam, his foreign correspondence screened by the Ministry of Interior, and he is closely followed by the Cultural Police. Nguyen Ngoc Tan (Vietnam), a novelist and journalist who wrote satirical articles denouncing the South Vietnamese government in the 1950s and 1960s, was elected to parliament and became whip for the opposition block. Arrested in 1975, he spent fourteen years in prison or in the prison hospital. After his release in 1989, he supported Ng Dinh Huy's movement to Unite the People and Build Democracy for Vietnam and helped draft a speech for an international seminar in Saigon. Arrested again, he was allowed, due to health problems, to stay home to await trial. On February 12, 1995, he was brought to court, convicted of acts to overthrow the government and sentenced to eleven years in prison. Given his age and poor health, he is likely to die before the end of his term. Pham Thai Thuy, aka Thai Thuy (Vietnam), poet and journalist, wrote and edited hundreds of articles expressing anti-communist views, perhaps influenced by memories of his father's assassination by the communists when he was ten years old. When the Saigon government fell to the North Vietnamese in 1975, Pham Thai Thuy was imprisoned, beaten, tortured, and held in a solitary cell for one year. Released in 1986, he still had the courage to join Doan Viet Hoat to edit Freedom Forum. He was arrested and imprisoned again from 1990-94. Released in poor health, he is suffering from acute vertebra pain, poor eyesight, and heart disease. He emigrated to the United States in August 1997. Thich Tri Sieu (Vietnam), a Buddhist monk with three Ph.D. degrees, has written extensively on mathematic logic, Sino-Vietnamese literature, and Buddhism. In April 1984, as part of a government crackdown on the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam, Thich Tri Sieu was arrested, held for four years, and then charged with having engaged in "activity aimed at overthrowing the people's government." At a closed three-day trial, he was sentenced to death. After an international protest campaign, the sentence was commuted to twenty years at hard labor. While in prison Thich Tri Sieu has been a constant source of support to his fellow inmates. In November 1995 at a political indoctrination session, he spoke out for democracy and human rights and was put in solitary confinement. He is now weak as a result of ill-treatment and lack of medical care. Thich Tue Si (Vietnam), a Buddhist monk, philosopher, and poet has written works that are banned in Vietnam, although they circulate clandestinely in Buddhist circles. He was arrested in April 1984 during a wave of government repression against the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam. As with Thich Tri Sieu, Thich Tue Si was held without charge or trial for four years in a solitary cell. In September 1988, he was charged with "activity aimed at overthrowing the people's government" and convicted in a closed three-day trial without access to counsel. After an international protest, his death sentence was commuted to twenty years at hard labor. In October 1994, he joined other political prisoners to protest a ban on meeting with a U.N. delegation and is now denied the right to send or receive correspondence. Despite this and other punishments, Thich Tue Si continues to speak out for better prison conditions and respect for human rights.
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