[AP.news] Nguyen Thanh Giang freed after 66 days.

["DiemQuynh Nguyen" <diemquynhng@hotmail.com>]

HANOI (AP, 21/8/99) -- A prominent dissident who was detained for more than 
two months this year says he went on two hunger strikes before he was 
released without charge.
Nguyen Thanh Giang, an internationally known geophysicist, also said in a 
seven-page letter faxed Friday to the Associated Press that his children had 
been punished for his activities by losing their jobs.
Giang was arrested March 4 in Hanoi for allegedly possessing anti-communist 
documents. He also had written articles on party corruption that were 
circulated on the Internet and published in newspapers put together by 
Vietnamese living in exile.

His arrest prompted international criticism. The U.S. State Department had 
called for his immediate release before he was freed in mid-May. Vietnam 
called Washington's criticism ``brazen interference'' in its internal 
affairs.

The arrest followed a number of articles in the government-run Vietnamese 
press warning about alleged threats from dissidents and ``hostile forces'' 
seeking to force unacceptable change.

It also came just a few months after several dissidents were released from 
prison as part of mass amnesties, sparking hopes that Vietnam might be 
loosening its policies.

While freedom of speech and religion supposedly are guaranteed, the 
government imposes tight restrictions on religious groups, and national 
security laws are vague enough to cover a number of perceived offenses.

Human rights groups claim Vietnam holds at least 40 political and religious 
dissidents. The government claims it has none -- only people who have broken 
the law.

Giang said in the fax that police searched his bookshelves and confiscated 
his two computers, a box of books and newspapers, and a photocopier before 
he was taken to a detention camp.

``I was so indignant that I went on a hunger strike'' that lasted six
days during which he lost 11 pounds, Giang said.

After asking for paper to write a confession, Giang said, he instead
wrote letters to government leaders that led to another six-day hunger 
strike when there was no response.

Faced with daily interrogation, Giang said he read the criminal code at 
night and told police he had done nothing wrong.

``I demanded them to free me or bring me to court,'' he said, and he was 
finally freed after 66 days.

His family was also subjected to hardship, Giang said.

``After my arrest, my son was forced to resign from the Petroleum
Institute while my daughter, who had worked as a secretary to the labor 
minister, had to shift to work for a British NGO (non-governmental 
organization),'' he said.

Meanwhile, he said he has been the subject of malicious rumors that he 
worked for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for $3,000 per month.

After Giang's release, Foreign Ministry official Phan Thuy Thanh said in a 
statement that Giang ``violated the laws of Vietnam.''


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