RFA BREAKING NEWS: Vietnamese Police Attack U.S. Official

Vietnamese Police Attack U.S. Official Jan. 5, 2011 - The United States has lodged a "strong protest" with the Vietnamese government after policemen attacked an American diplomat while barring him from meeting with a dissident Catholic priest in central Vietnam. Christian Marchant, a political officer with the U.S. embassy in Hanoi, was roughed up outside the home for retired priests in Hue where Nguyen Van Ly, 63, is being held under house arrest after being released from jail on medical parole last year. "We are aware of and deeply concerned by the incident and have officially registered a strong protest with the Vietnamese government in Hanoi," a State Department official told RFA. "We plan to raise the issue with (Vietnamese) Ambassador Phung in Washington today as well," the official said. "Diplomats are entitled under international law to special protection against attack. The government of Vietnam has a responsibility to take appropriate steps to prevent any attack on the person, freedom, or dignity of diplomats," the official explained. Ly, One of Vietnam's high-profile human rights activists, told RFA that the incident Wednesday was witnessed by hundreds of people. "They all saw police's brutality toward Mr. Marchant," he said. "They reported that he was wrestled down to the ground right in the middle of the road. His clothes got dirty. He stood back up and flicked off the dust." Asked for his account of the incident, Ly said, "I saw him standing, not lying on the ground but he looked really strenuously tired." Ly, who was released from prison in March, 2010, five years before the end of his eight-year sentence for disseminating anti-government propaganda, said the six-foot tall Marchant raised his camera high to take a picture but a policeman prevented him. "I heard him say that I was a prisoner, he could not allow (the) visit." Ly said Marchant was bundled into a police car and taken away. "The embassy officer exchanged words loudly with the police and they pushed and pulled him to a police car...he yelled out very loud and resisted hard but they put him in the car, closed the doors and drove away." Citizen journalists told RFA about 30 to 40 policemen blocked the entrance to Ly's home as Marchant, accompanied by a Vietnamese interpreter, went to meet with Ly at about 10 a.m. Ly had suffered two strokes in 2009 when he was in solitary confinement that left him partly paralyzed, and Western governments had repeatedly demanded to the Vietnamese government that he be freed. Nguyen Van Ly, 63, suffered two strokes in 2009 that left him partly paralyzed, and Western governments had demanded repeatedly that he be freed. His trial grabbed world headlines as he tried to read out a poem criticizing Vietnam's communist authorities and was muzzled by police. He has spent more than 15 years in prison since 1977. His release from prison last year came after a group of US senators wrote to Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet, calling for his freedom. The Roman Catholic Father Ly, a founding member of Bloc 8406, a pro-democracy movement, was a thorn in the side of the ruling Communist Party, as he advocated greater human rights in the one-party state. Reported by Thao Dao of RFA's Vietnamese service and Richard Finney. Translated by Viet Nguyen. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org Rohit Mahajan Media Relations Manager Radio Free Asia 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC Email: mahajanr(a)rfa.org Desk: (202) 530-4976 Cell: (202) 489-8021 www.rfa.org