Thailand Denies Entry To Vietnam Activists

[webfact]

Thailand denies entry to Vietnam activists: media group

BANGKOK (AFP) -- Thailand has refused entry to two human rights campaigners due to speak at a Bangkok press conference Monday about alleged abuses in neighbouring Vietnam, a journalists' organisation said.

The move forced the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), a long-time critic of the country's communist regime, to cancel the event at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT), the media group said.

The FCCT said on Sunday it had been asked by Thailand's Foreign Ministry not to allow its premises to be used for the news conference "as it might contain information detrimental to a neighbouring country."

Thai and Vietnamese authorities were not immediately available to comment.

The exile rights group was to present a report alleging that rights abuses have continued unabated during Vietnam's presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a group that also includes Thailand.

"Both civil and political rights as well as economic and social rights are being flagrantly violated in Vietnam," according to a summary of the report, which alleges at least 258 "prisoners of conscience" are languishing in Vietnam's jails.

"Economic liberalisation under a one-party system with no independent judicial oversight has resulted in endemic corruption," it added.

One of the speakers, Vo Van Ai, was contacted by the Thai embassy in Paris the day before he was due to fly to Bangkok and informed that he would not be allowed to enter the country, following a request by Vietnam, VCHR said.

The other, Penelope Faulkner, was told at a Paris airport that she would not be allowed to board her flight.

"This is frightening: it illustrates that it is impossible to speak about Vietnam's human rights record not only in Vietnam, but also in neighbouring countries", Souhayr Belhassen, president of the International Federation for Human Rights, which co-authored the report, said in a statement.

Critics say Thailand's record on freedom of expression -- already controversial because of Internet censorship driven by strict rules over insulting the monarchy -- has worsened since deadly protests in April and May.

Authorities have used emergency powers to arrest hundreds of people suspected of involvement in two months of mass opposition demonstrations in Bangkok and to silence anti-government media.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2010-09-13

[random]

They will be arresting the lone woman that protests opposite the Chinese embassy in Bangkok next

[webfact]

Rights activists banned from talking here

By The Nation

The Foreign Ministry has banned two French activists from launching a report in Bangkok today on human rights abuses in Vietnam.

The ministry pressed the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT) to cancel the event scheduled for this morning, but it asked the government to reconsider its request, the club said in a note to members yesterday.

Vo Van Ai, president of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, and Penelope Faulkner, from the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, both based in Paris, were due to launch the report, "From Rhetoric to Reality: Human Rights in Vietnam", at the FCCT.

But it is understood the two opted not to fly after being warned by the Thai embassy in France they would be refused permission to enter Thailand.

Deputy director of the Foreign Ministry's Information Depart-ment Thani Thongpakdi wrote to the club on Friday, asking it to cancel the event.

He suggesting the report may contain information detrimental to a neighbouring country.

The FCCT pointed out the press conference was not one organised by the club, but was paid for by the activists. The club declined a ministry request to tell the activists they would be denied entry visas.

"We feel it is unfortunate that the Thai government has chosen to apply pressure on us in this way. We would appreciate if the government reconsiders the wisdom of such pressure," the FCCT said in its note.

The activists sent a note last night saying they were forced to cancel their press conference.

-- The Nation 2010-09-13

[dogleg]

Whatever gave them the idea that they would be welcomed in Free Speech Thailand?

[rubl]

Isn't this the same group which wanted to have a session with K. Thaksin in Paris earlier this year. That time the French government told them not to invite Thaksin, and told Thaksin he wasn't welcome to talk about politics. Shopping as private citizen is OK of course

[rubl]

Whatever gave them the idea that they would be welcomed in Free Speech Thailand?

The countries in ASEAN have a rather strict idea about non-interference. Probably item 1 in the charter

[TAWP]

Whatever gave them the idea that they would be welcomed in Free Speech Thailand?

They cannot allow them or others might get the idea that they can use Free Speech too...and we cannot have that.

[OzMick]

Step back a little and take a wider view. Both organizations would be aware that under the ASEAN charter member countries avoid criticism of other members, but they announce that they are coming to Thailand specifically to hold a press conference and launch a critical report, at their own expense, knowing that they will probably be refused an entry visa.

Why? Because if they launched their report in Paris where they are based, the interest would be almost zero. By being refused a visa, they have become newsworthy (on a quiet day) and may even generate some interest in what they have to say. In short PUBLICITY STUNT!

And to those deploring the restriction of the right to free speech - why do you expect foreign visitors to have rights? Do you allow your home to be used as a forum to criticize your neighbours, by strangers expressing views with which you do not agree (at least publicly)?

[TAWP]

Do you allow your home to be used as a forum to criticize your neighbours, by strangers expressing views with which you do not agree (at least publicly)?

Yes, I do.

But I am a strange person, since I have values and ideals that doesn't change with the weather or depending on whom it benefits.

[whybother]

Whatever gave them the idea that they would be welcomed in Free Speech Thailand?

Having been rejected entry here, maybe they can try to organise their shindig in another Asian country. Which one do you think might let them in?

[Humphrey Bear]

And in a country of 84 million, there may be a couple of hundred jailed for offences against the political system in VN.

Now the South doesn't like the North, and vice versa. It has been this way for hundreds of years - before the French colonisation, before the Vietnam war.

The people of the South used to be known as Cham, rather than Viet - and are as different from the Northerners as Germans from Sicilians (say).

So of course there are undercurrents and some agitators. But that is normal in any country. If they want to look at human rights in an SE Asian country - try Burma.

[Puccini]

...Why? Because if they launched their report in Paris where they are based, the interest would be almost zero. By being refused a visa, they have become newsworthy (on a quiet day) and may even generate some interest in what they have to say. In short PUBLICITY STUNT!...

I agree. Rabble-rousing for the purpose of fund raising.

[Puccini]

Isn't this the same group which wanted to have a session with K. Thaksin in Paris earlier this year. That time the French government told them not to invite Thaksin, and told Thaksin he wasn't welcome to talk about politics...

No. That event was "organised by the little-known Centre of Political and Foreign Affairs"

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_529109.html

[RickBradford]

And in a country of 84 million, there may be a couple of hundred jailed for offences against the political system in VN.

Now the South doesn't like the North, and vice versa. It has been this way for hundreds of years - before the French colonisation, before the Vietnam war.

The people of the South used to be known as Cham, rather than Viet - and are as different from the Northerners as Germans from Sicilians (say).

So of course there are undercurrents and some agitators. But that is normal in any country. If they want to look at human rights in an SE Asian country - try Burma.

Perhaps I could clarify this post a bit.

The cradle of the Vietnamese nation is the North (Hanoi) and the perennially aggressive Viets moved down the coast, eliminating what opposition they found. This medieval ethnic cleansing included the annihilation of the Cham kingdom (15th Century) , followed by the expulsion of the Khmer from modern Saigon and the Mekong Delta (18/19th Century).

So, from a purist Hanoi perspective, these new southern lands were akin to the Wild West, made even worse by the inevitable ethnic mixing. Hanoians are much closer to Chinese, Saigonites are a mix of Vietnamese, Indian, Khmer, French and who knows what else. The DMZ split at the 17th parallel was cultural as well as political.

They don't like each other; the Northerners think the Southerners are greedy and dishonest chancers (true) and the Southerners think the Northerners are priggish grasping feudalists (also true). The analogy between Germans and Italians is apt.

The dialects in the two areas are quite distinct -- even if you cannot understand a word of Vietnamese, you can quickly tell the guttural Hanoi accent from the fluid Saigon speech.

Hanoi needs Saigon, because foreign investors are much more comfortable dealing with the free-wheeling Saigonese than the stiff Hanoians. But Hanoi still doesn't totally trust these ethnically impure people.

There are millions of Vietnamese who dislike the Communist regime; it is usually only those privileged to live outside the country who have the chance to complain.

This amusing book explains much of what I have said above: http://www.amazon.com/Forward-O-Peasant-Maclean-Storer/dp/0980514908

[asiawatcher]

Just more politics and variations of it!