Do Van Phuc - Thu Hien

(Ha Noi - Vietnam) An Exile group, Vietland’s underground sources in Ha Noi reported that the Communist Vietnamese Authorities have been poisoning Novelist and journalist Tran Khai Thanh Thuy (pen names Nguyen Thai Hoang and Nguyen Thi Hien)  by adding little amount of poison to her meals in order to gradually kill the  human rights activist instead of bringing her to the court. For several months Thuy has been coughing up blood.

Aminopterin , a rat poison chemical have been found in her prison meal lately. According to Doctor Thuy Trang, Aminopterin is illegal to use as rat poison in the United States but is used as a cancer-fighting drug, Leukemia, etc. China has been using this substance to produce rat poison in the form of small colorful balls that look like candies. In the Northern part of Vietnam, villages near China border, many Vietnamese children have been killed by eating this poison . Aminopterin is poisonous, and surely any man who consumes daily amount of it shall fall ill and die. Information on this poison can be found in the site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aminopterin.

Thuy was among eight Vietnamese writers who received the prestigious Hellman/Hammett award in February  from Human Rights Watch, which recognizes courage in the face of political persecution. According to PEN  Canada: Tran Khai Thanh Thuy was apparently briefly detained on 2 September 2006 for her Internet writings,  followed by three weeks of daily interrogation sessions. She was again briefly detained on 11 October 2006 and  interrogated about the essays 'The Grotto', 'Self-Narration' and 'Dialogue' written after her detention in  September. She was also reportedly brought to an open ‘People’s Court’, in which members of the public are  forced to participate in the abuse and humiliation of those accused.

Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups say Vietnam's Communist authorities are involved in the  most severe crackdown in decades apparently for fear of losing their power base at a time when people,  emboldened by economic reforms, are searching for alternatives to the Communist ideology.

Tran Khai thanh Thuy was arrested again on April 21, 2007 after a warrant was obtained accusing her of "violation of  Article 88 of the Penal Code, which makes it criminal to spread propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Viet  Nam". The Vietnamese Security Police said that Ms. Tran Khai Thanh Thuy is a member of the Bloc 8406, a  Pro-Democratic Movement that recently broadcasted their articles demanding the Human Rights for the people.  Police also accused Ms. Tran of organizing an independent Labor League and supporting a Human Rights Committee that consists of many anti-government figures.

Mr. Do Ba Tan, Thuy’s husband, reported that his wife was arrested and hand cuffed at an Internet-Café not far from their house while she was purchasing medicine to treat her tuberculosis and diabetes. The police then took her home and read the warrant then thorough searched the house. Until April 23, 2007, three days after her arrest, the husband did not know her status and whereabouts. Ms. Tran Khai Thanh Thuy shouted the anti-communist slogan and protested the anti-constitutional arrest.

On March, 21, 2007, before the arrest, she was brought to hospital for her serious tuberculosis. In jail, she has been terrorized and poisoned. It has been 6 months since then; the authorities jailed her without due process and trial. At the Hanoi Police interrogation house, 87 Tran Hung Dao Street- Hanoi, the police tried adding more crimes to her case. They accused her of receiving the fund from anti-communist Vietnamese exiles, and cheating on the people whom she  had helped.  Hanoi Police has continuously tried many times to force her to admit more crimes in order to bring her to the court.  Ms. Tran is now believed being detained at 84 Tran Hung Dao Street, Hanoi, a short distance from the interrogation house, an old prison that was built in 1953. Ms. Tran's health has been deteriorating badly.