Dong Nai Province: Police assault and take two LaborViet members into custody

Photo: Peter Lam Bui

Update: Do Thi Minh Hanh and Truong Minh Duc left LongBinh Police station at 2:00 am. The two were immediately hospitalized at Hoan My Saigon Clinic. According to Huynh Ngoc Chenh’s Facebook, “both were beaten black and blue. So bad were Ms. Hanh’s head and body injuries that she was unable to walk; Hanh was helped to move to a vehicle though….”

Phương Thảo (Danlambao) translated - Around 20 policemen wearing uniforms and plain clothes rushed in, overpowered, beat and arrested Ms. Do Thi Minh Hanh and Mr. Truong Minh Duc while they were helping workers with legal procedures in Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Province.

Both are members of VietLabor, a prestigious organization with numerous specific activities in support of workers’ interests in Vietnam.

Hanh and Duc were reportedly arrested while they, along with a lawyer, were holding legal consultations with Yupoong Company’s workers in order to sue the business owner owing to the recent unilateral termination of labor contracts without satisfactory compensation.

On his own Facebook, Mr.Truong Minh Duc uploaded video clips of Ms.Hanh being overpowered and taken away by plain-clothes agents.

The police have also confisticated all of the workers’ legal papers in use to sue the company.

Currently, there is no way to contact Hanh and Duc.

Before, there was a fire at Loteco Industrial Park (Bien Hoa city, Dong Nai Province) on 21 September, 2015. Some employees had to stop working at Factory 1 inside Yupoong Company’s premises.

Later, the company management announced the work contract termination of nearly 2,000 workers, most of whom were long-time employees. Owing to this decision, the laborers, especially 180 females- some are pregnant- have found themselves in extremely difficult situations with the compensation of only-one-month salary.

VietLabor members were promptly present to struggle side by side with these “small-mouthed” laborers, who were almost unable to publicly voice their concerns.

Despite this, the communist authorities in Vietnam– those who always claim they are “the true representatives of the working class” not only lost touch with the workers, but also even ordered the police to heavy-handedly suppress, brutally beat and imprison the people who tried to defend these workers’ interests.

Some family members and activists are reportedly on their way to Long Binh Police station in Bien Hoa City, where the two LaborViet members are supposed to be detained, to cross-examine the police.

Saigon partners and reporter Truong Minh Duc’s wife on their way to the police station. Photo: FB Nguyen Hoang Vi.

Minh Hanh is currently detained upstairs; Minh Duc is lying on a bench downstairs. Cell phones are violently grabbed by the police and no one is allowed to approach the scene to take photos.