of universities and other high education institutions, while the whereabouts of one person in police custody remains unknown, representatives said Friday, September 1.
Last week, August 23, police in Vietnam’s Gialai province summoned 24-year-old Rahlan Lu from the village of Plei Tao Ur to "bring his mobile cell phone to their office," said the Montagnard Foundation Incorporated (MFI) which investigates reports of persecution.
"Rahlan Lu brought the hand phone to the police but by 5 a clock that evening he had not returned. His wife Siu H’Phin and sister in-law, Rahlan H’Hien went to the police station at Ia Hru commune [region] to find him" and were told there was a "problem with the mobile phone monitoring agency."
The next day Rahlan Lu’s family went back to the police station "but he was not there and [his] whereabouts are unknown," MFI added. Human rights investigators fear he may have been tortured as was allegedly the case with Y-Chui Hdok, 30, Y-Tao Eban, 27, and Y-Ku Mlo, 22, who were taken to a police station Daklak province on August 17.
MONTAGNARDS BEATEN
"Police from Buonmathuot [region] arrested" the three Montagnards and "beat them at repeated intervals [at the police station] throughout the day for possessing mobile cell phones," MFI told BosNewsLife.
The three Montagnards from Buon Dung village of Daklak’s Buonmathuot City were later that day forced to participate in a "photograph session" alleged "staged" by police. "The staged, smiling photographs are what the police said they will show to the international community if they dare say they were tortured. The police then released the three Montagnards threatening to kill them if they use mobile phones again," MFI
said.
Students have also been targeted by the Communist authorities, the human rights group claimed. In one of the latest incidents Tuesday, August 29, "two more Montagnard Degar students" H’Yon Buonya, 25, and her sister H’Dion Buonya, 21, "were kicked out of school for possessing mobile cell phones," MFI said.
ECONOMICS STUDY
The students from Daklak’s village of Buon Tara Puor in the Krong Pac District area had been attending the school of Truong Dai Hoc Kinh Te, in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. They were» majoring in economics but were sent back home for having used a mobile cell phone," MFI added.
Earlier on August 16, a Montagnard student, identified as 21-year-old Lieng Jrang Ha Vinh from the village Thon in Lam Dong Province "was kicked out of university by authorities because he had a cell phone in his possession. He was a student of electrical engineering "at the college of Truong Lam Nghiep so 2, Tinh Dong Nai" in Ho Chi Minh City "and was sent home because he used a mobile cell phone."
Vietnamese officials have not commented on the latest claims. However several other investigators, including Reporters Without Borders (RWB), a leading press freedom group, have confirmed that authorities have stepped up surveillance of phone calls of dissidents and Christians.
SILVER BULLET
RWB said it "has learned that a British company, Silver Bullet, and a US company, Verint Systems (a subsidiary of Comverse Technology), sold equipment for intercepting mobile phone calls to the Vietnamese intelligence services. The source of this information, the UK-based Jane’s Defence Weekly, said a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries acted as intermediary in some of the sales."
The group said last month it was "appalled to learn that our phone calls with Vietnamese cyber-dissidents have been monitored with equipment provided by European and US companies.” It noted that the move comes a year after it emerged that Internet giant Yahoo! cooperated with the Chinese police, leading to the arrest of at least one Internet journalist.
The Communist government has increased control over the Internet and wireless communications, including mobile phones, to ensure it will not lose its grip on power, rights investigators and commentators say.
SINGLED OUT
MFI says especially groups such as the indigenous Montagnard Degar Peoples have been singled out for persecution because of their Christian faith and alleged support for the United States during the Vietnam War.
"To date over 350 Degar prisoners remain in Vietnamese prisons for charges involving merely standing up for human rights, for spreading Christianity or for fleeing to Cambodia." It was not expected that many, if anyone, would be released during Vietnam’s National Day of amnesty Saturday, September 2, when over 5,000 detainees are expected to be released.
MFI has urged the international community to intervene. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Vietnam).
