VZCZCXRO2723
PP RUEHHM
DE RUEHHI #0668/01 1580548
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 060548Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7955
INFO RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH 4814
RHEHNSC/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000668 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS AND DRL/AWH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KIRF PREL PGOV ASEC VM
 
SUBJECT:  DRL AS KRAMER MEETS WITH FAMILY MEMBERS OF HIGH PROFILE 
POLITICAL PRISONERS 
 
REFS: 07 HANOI 1993 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) In a private meeting in Hanoi with Assistant Secretary of 
State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor David Kramer and the 
Ambassador, Mrs. Vu Minh Khanh, the wife of jailed human rights 
lawyer and Protestant activist Nguyen Van Dai and Mrs. Tran Thi Le, 
the mother of jailed human rights lawyer and labor activist Le Thi 
Cong Nhan, detailed their family members' current situations and 
health status.  Both Dai and Nhan, now in separate prisons south of 
Hanoi, are in stable health and reportedly in relatively good 
spirits.  Khanh is seeking an unlikely third legal review of her 
husband's case.  Both women complained of ongoing harassment of 
their relatives' attornies and restrictions imposed by the prisons. 
Le said the USG should continue to press Vietnam on human rights and 
"hold Vietnam responsible" for its compliance, or lack thereof, with 
international human rights conventions which it has ratified. 
According to their family members, neither prisoner is interested in 
political asylum to a third country, at this time. 
 
 
DAI AND NHAN IMPRISONED SINCE MARCH 2007 
---------------------------------------- 
 
 
¶2. (SBU) On May 29 in Hanoi, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, 
Human Rights, and Labor David Kramer and the Ambassador met 
privately with Mrs. Vu Minh Khanh, the wife of jailed human rights 
lawyer and Protestant activist Nguyen Van Dai, and Mrs. Tran Thi Le, 
the mother of jailed 28-year old human rights lawyer and labor 
activist Le Thi Cong Nhan, also a Christian.  Lawyers Dai and Nhan 
were both arrested in March 2007 and tried and sentenced by the 
Hanoi People's Court to five and four years of prison, respectively, 
for "conducting propaganda against the State," per Article 88 of the 
GVN criminal code.  At an appeal trial in November 2007, each of 
their sentences was reduced by one year, to four and three years 
respectively.  Dai is serving his four-year sentence at Ba Sao (aka 
Nam Ha) Prison in Ha Nam Province and Nhan is at Thanh Hoa Province 
Prison Number Five.  Family members are permitted monthly visits, 
per GVN regulations.  Each prisoner has been allowed access to a 
Bible, after earlier concerns expressed by the Embassy about lack of 
access. 
 
 
BOTH DAI AND NHAN IN STABLE HEALTH 
---------------------------------- 
 
 
¶3. (SBU) Both women briefly summarized for the Assistant Secretary 
and the Ambassador the trial and the government's case against their 
family members.  In terms of their current health, Mrs. Le said her 
daughter was "doing well psychologically and physically."  However, 
her allergies and sinusitis flare up when she has to do prison 
cleaning chores, including maintaining the plants and trees in the 
prison's main garden.  Mrs. Khanh said her husband's health was 
"stable," and Dai was "doing okay" psychologically.  Dai has a liver 
condition for which he takes medication. 
 
 
PRIVILEGES ONLY FOR THOSE WHO CONFESS THEIR CRIMES 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) In terms of specific complaints, Khanh said she was 
frustrated with repeated restrictions on her monthly prison visits 
and government bureaucracy.  She has had to go through a 
time-consuming police permission process before every monthly visit 
and is restricted from bringing Dai certain foods he likes.  Le said 
her daughter is denied certain prison privileges because she will 
not admit to her crime, and hence, is left off the prison's 
"benefits list." 
 
 
VIETNAM IMPLEMENTING "SUBJECTIVELY" HR CONVENTIONS 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
 
¶5. (SBU) Both women told the Assistant Secretary that the USG should 
continue to actively press Vietnam on human rights.  Le told the 
Assistant Secretary that Vietnam has "never implemented in reality" 
the Universal Declaration on Human Rights nor the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).  She said the USG 
should hold the GVN responsible under the international conventions 
it has signed onto because the GVN was only implementing them 
"subjectively" to date.  She added that her daughter was an 
 
HANOI 00000668  002 OF 002 
 
 
international human rights lawyer and knows that she has violated no 
international law. 
 
 
DAI'S WIFE PURSUING UNLIKELY LEGAL REVIEW STRATEGY 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) Khanh continues to pursue a legal strategy in pursuit of 
getting her husband released from prison.  Working with a number of 
lawyers, Khanh has petitioned the GVN Supreme People's Court (SPC) 
for a "judging panel review" on her husband's case.  After months 
without reply, the SPC recently responded to Dai's lawyers that 
there was "not sufficient grounds" for a review.  (Comment: After a 
trial and an appeal trial, Post believes it unlikely such a legal 
strategy would work in Dai or Nhan's case.  End comment.) 
 
¶7. (SBU) Khanh went on to ask three things from the USG and the 
international community.  First, she seeks protection for her 
husband's defense attornies from GVN harassment.  She says her 
husband's attornies are "risking their careers," taking on his case. 
 She told Assistant Secretary Kramer that recently agents of 
Vietnam's security services entered the home of her husband's lead 
attorney and confiscated his laptop and cellular phones, leaving 
behind cash and valuables in the house.  In addition, one agent 
visited Dai's attorney and allegedly told him that he "could be 
killed" for being "too enthusiastic" on Dai's case.  Secondly, Khanh 
seeks protection for her husband's defense witnesses, one of whom 
was allegedly beaten up and prevented from attending her husband's 
appeal trial.  Lastly, she asks for cooperation from the courts, in 
particular to get the dossiers from the trial to use in her 
husband's defense.  (Comment:  Most of what Mrs. Khanh said tracks 
with common complaints in other political cases Post is familiar 
with and the ongoing lack of defendants' rights in Vietnam.  End 
comment.) 
 
 
AMNESTY REQUEST 
--------------- 
 
 
¶8. (SBU) Assistant Secretary Kramer raised the cases of Dai and 
Nhan, along with others, directly at the May 29 USG-GVN Human Rights 
Dialogue earlier in the day with MFA Assistant Foreign Minister 
(AFM) Doan Xuan Hung (septel).  The Assistant Secretary specifically 
called for the two prisoners of conscience to be amnestied and 
released as soon as possible.  AFM Hung, who repeated the GVN line 
that there are no "political prisoners" in Vietnam - only 
"lawbreakers" - told Kramer that the GVN was "open" to considering 
cases of those eligible for amnesty and would review the specific 
cases.  Kramer summarized his relevant discussions at the Human 
Rights Dialogue for Khanh and Le and assured both of them that the 
USG would continue to press on their family members' cases. 
 
 
NEITHER PRISONER INTERESTED IN POLITICAL ASYLUM 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
 
¶9. (SBU) In a later conversation with Poloff, both women said 
requesting political asylum to a third country was not an option for 
their imprisoned family members unless the situation for them "got a 
lot worse."  Mrs. Le told us that her daughter had already been 
offered asylum in Poland but had never pursued it, as she was "very 
patriotic" and wanted to continue to fight for a stronger Vietnam in 
Vietnam.  Both women stated, however, that the future could raise 
other possibilities. 
 
¶10. (U) This cable has been cleared by the office of DRL Assistant 
Secretary David Kramer. 
 
MICHALAK