{"id":98206,"date":"2020-12-02T21:04:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T15:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/bloggers-activists-stage-hunger-strike-over-vietnam-prison-conditions\/"},"modified":"2020-12-03T08:26:48","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T02:26:48","slug":"bloggers-activists-stage-hunger-strike-over-vietnam-prison-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/bloggers-activists-stage-hunger-strike-over-vietnam-prison-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloggers, Activists Stage Hunger Strike Over Vietnam Prison Conditions \u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
A blogger jailed after filming protests over a toxic spill has gone on a hunger strike over unjust treatment in Vietnam\u2019s An Diem prison, alongside two other prisoners of conscience.<\/p>\n
Nguyen Van Hoa, 25, a blogger and contributor to Radio Free Asia (RFA) Vietnam Service, is protesting prison conditions with human rights defender Nguyen Bac Truyen and blogger and activist Pham Van Diep.<\/p>\n
In a call to his home, Truyen said he began his hunger strike in November and would continue until prison conditions and treatment improved, his wife, Bui Thi Kim Phuong, told VOA Vietnamese on November 28.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me the reasons for the hunger strike were unjust treatments by the prison officials. They have protested about lack of access to medical care and confiscation of letters from prisoners to their families without explanation,\u201d Phuong said.<\/p>\n
Truyen tried to send two letters home in April, but prison authorities blocked them, Phuong said, without detailing the content of the letters.<\/p>\n
In 2019, Truyen filed a request to prison authorities in An Diem, which falls under the Ministry of Public Security\u2019s supervision, for a health checkup and examination by medical specialists, but the request was ignored, Phuong said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been more than three years since his arrest, and he has not been granted the health checkup,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Several prisoners also requested transfers to prisons closer to their families. Prisoners of conscience are often imprisoned far from their homes, which makes it difficult for their families to visit.<\/p>\n
Truyen\u2019s parents and his wife live in Ho Chi Minh City. His parents are unable to make the 900 km trip to the prison to see him, and Phuong says she falls sick after every visit because of the long travel, with the journey taking 14 to 16 hours if going by rail or car.<\/p>\n
Declining health<\/strong><\/p>\n Blogger Hoa\u2019s health is extremely poor, his sister Nguyen Thi Hue said. When she spoke with RFA\u2019s Vietnamese Service on November 27, the day after she last saw her brother, he had been on the hunger strike for at least eight days.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it was him because he looked so ill and tired, and he had to be supported by someone who helped him walk to the visiting booth because he was too weak to walk by himself,\u201d Hue said. \u201cThis was the first time in the past four years that I saw my brother\u2019s health so badly broken down.\u201d<\/p>\n Hue said her brother told her that prison guards had seized letters he was going to send to her and prohibited him from sharing information about official wrongdoing and conditions at the camp with outside contacts.<\/p>\n The Ministry of Public Security did not respond to VOA Vietnamese\u2019s email requesting comment about the hunger strike.<\/p>\n Phuong told VOA Vietnamese that her husband and the other prisoners understand the health risks of a prolonged hunger strike but said it was a last resort because they believe they have no other way to demand improved conditions.<\/p>\n Demands for rights<\/strong><\/p>\n Truyen has previously been on a hunger strike. In May 2019, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a U.K.-based freedom of religion or belief organization, reported\u202fthat Truyen and three others coordinated a hunger strike to protest ill treatment of Hoa.<\/p>\n In a statement last week, the organization\u2019s founder, Mervyn Thomas, said, \u201cThe fact that Nguyen Bac Truyen and others have been forced to go on a hunger strike as the only way of having their demands heard reflects the sad reality of the situation of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam.\u201d<\/p>\n