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Tag: In the Press

  • Pham Doan Trang in Voice of America: Rights Groups Deplore Arrest of Vietnam Writer and Activist Pham Doan Trang

    Several human rights groups voiced their dismay over the arrest of Luat Khoa and The Vietnamese co-founder, Pham Doan Trang just hours after annual U.S.-Vietnam human rights talks.  Human Rights Watch calls the arrest a “scorched earth response” to political dissent in the country.

    Excerpt:

    Outspoken Vietnamese democracy activist and author Pham Doan Trang has been arrested on anti-state propaganda charges, police and state media said Wednesday, as rights groups condemned her apprehension just hours after annual U.S.-Vietnam human rights talks and warned that the blogger faced the risk of torture in custody.

    Pham Doan Trang was arrested at an apartment in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday night and charged under article 117 of the Vietnamese Penal Code, accused of “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” To An Xo, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security, said. Trang, described by state media as a blogger who used to work for various publications in Vietnam, was transferred to Hanoi.

    If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison, Amnesty International said, warning that she faced serious danger in official custody.

    “Pham Dan Trang faces an imminent risk of torture and other-ill treatment at the hands of the Vietnamese authorities. She must be immediately and unconditionally released,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns, Ming Yu Hah, in a statement.

    “The arrest of Pham Doan Trang is reprehensible. She is a leading figure in the struggle for human rights in Viet Nam. She has inspired countless young activists to speak up for a more just, inclusive, and free Vietnam,” said Hah.

    ‘Scorched earth response’

    Human Rights Watch noted that her arrest occurred “just a few hours after the annual human rights dialogue between the United States and Vietnam” and that she was immediately charged.

    “Vietnam’s scorched earth response to political dissent is on display for all to see with the arrest of prominent blogger and author Pham Doan Trang,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

    “Every day she spends behind bars is a grave injustice that violates Vietnam’s international human rights commitments and brings dishonor to the government,” he said in a statement.

    “Governments around the world and the UN must prioritize her case, speak out loudly and consistently on her behalf, and demand her immediate and unconditional release,” added Robertson.

    Rachael Chen, spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, said the mission was concerned about the reported arrest and “monitoring the situation closely.”

    “We urge the Vietnamese government to ensure its actions and laws are consistent with Vietnam’s international obligations and commitments,” she said in an e-mailed comment.

    “Authors, bloggers, and journalists often do their work at great risk, and it is the duty of governments and citizens worldwide to speak out for their protection,” said Chen.

    Spate of arrests

    Following Trang’s arrest, her friends posted a message they said was written by her in advance, that read: “Nobody wants to go to jail, but if prison is the place for those who fight for freedom, and if it is the place to carry out set goals, then we should go to prison.”

    Human Rights Watch noted that last month Trang had published the third edition of a report of a violent clash at Dong Tam commune outside Hanoi in January. The publication of the first edition of that report one week after the incident led to the arrest in June three out of five authors of the report, Can Thi Theu and her sons Trinh Ba Phuong and Trinh Ba Tu. They were also charged with for anti-state propaganda.

    Amid a spate of arrests and abuse of independent journalists this year in Vietnam, Trang told RFA in May that toleration of dissent was deteriorating and likely to get worse in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party congress in January.

    “Freedom has always been restricted, but nowadays it seems to be narrower, and there’s more and more violence,” she said at the time. “From now until the party congress, the scope of freedom can be tightened more and more, and the suppression will increase.”

    Trang, who released a well-regarded book titled Politics for Everyone, was awarded the Reporters Without Borders 2019 Press Freedom Prize. She founded the online legal magazine Luat Khoa and edits another web-based rights journal called thevietnamese.

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    Rights Groups Deplore Arrest of Vietnam Writer and Activist Pham Doan Trang
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  • Pham Doan Trang in The Guardian: Vietnam arrests prominent journalist as state cracks down on free speech online

    The arrest of Pham Doan Trang- regarded as one of Vietnam’s prominent journalist and a critic of the authorities, is part of the government’s repressive tactics to silence dissidents.  The one-party state is also preparing a cybersecurity law that will require internet companies like Facebook and Google to remove content deemed ‘anti-state’.

    Excerpt:

    Vietnamese authorities have arrested Pham Doan Trang – one of the nation’s most prominent independent journalists.

    Trang was detained on Tuesday evening in Ho Chi Minh City, the same day Vietnam and the US held the 24th annual US-Vietnam human rights dialogue, which included talks on issues such as the right to freedom of expression.

    Analysts say her arrest is part of a crackdown on activists ahead of Vietnam’s five-yearly national congress in January, while Facebook is facing criticism for growing increasingly complicit in suppressing freedom of speech.

    Vietnamese authorities confirmed on Wednesday that they had charged Trang with “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items” that aim to oppose the Vietnamese state. The harshest sentence for this crime is 20 years in jail.

    Trang is the author of numerous books whose work covers everything from women’s rights and LGBT issues to environmental concerns, activism and land rights. In 2019, Reporters Without Borders awarded her a Press Freedom Prize in recognition of her impact.

    Most recently, she spoke out online about a highly sensitive land rights clash in Dong Tam Village – related to the construction of a military airport on farmland claimed by villagers on the outskirts of Hanoi – in which one villager and three policemen lost their lives.

    Phil Robertson at Human Rights Watch said: “Despite suffering years of systemic government harassment, including severe physical attacks, she has remained faithful to her principles of peaceful advocacy for human rights and democracy. Her thoughtful approach to reforms, and demands for people’s real participation in their governance, are messages the Vietnam government should listen to and respect, not repress.”

    Ming Yu Hah at Amnesty International said: “This is an outrageous arrest. Pham Doan Trang is a leading figure in the struggle for human rights in Vietnam. She has inspired countless young activists to speak up for a more just, inclusive and free Vietnam.”

    Hah told the Guardian Facebook’s decision to cave into Vietnamese authorities’ demands for censorship earlier this year makes them complicit in the country’s harsh repression of freedom of expression.

    “We have documented a persistent rise in the censorship of legitimate commentary on social and political affairs on the platform since 2018, with a particularly sharp increase in 2020,” she added. “Merely sharing information about Vietnam’s many serious human rights problems, from land disputes to the death penalty, now regularly leads to arbitrary censorship on Facebook.”

    In March this year, a Reuters report revealed how Facebook faced intense pressure from the Vietnamese government. State-run telecommunications companies took the social media site’s local servers offline, which slowed local traffic on the site to a crawl. Consequently, the company began allowing censorship in Vietnam of content deemed “anti-state”, including those by activists like Trang.

    Vietnam is in the process of finalising guidelines for its highly controversial cybersecurity law, which requires internet companies like Facebook and Google to remove content deemed “anti-state” and says the US tech giants will have to set up local offices and servers in Vietnam if they wish to continue operating – a request the organisations have refused to carry out.

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    Vietnam arrests prominent journalist as state cracks down on free speech online Vietnam The Guardian
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  • Pham Doan Trang in The Washington Post: A dissident jailed in Vietnam shares her message: Don’t free me, free my country

    Foreshadowing a possible arrest by the Vietnam authorities, journalist and human rights defender Pham Doan Trang wrote a letter accepting her fate and the risk of being incarcerated.  

    In the letter, the strong willed and courageous freedom fighter clearly expressed what everyone’s priority should be and that is fighting for a democratic, free Vietnam.

    Excerpt:

    “JUST IN CASE I AM IMPRISONED,” Pham Doan Trang wrote across the top of a letter she gave to a fellow dissident for safekeeping last year. Vietnam’s most prominent democracy activist anticipated her arrest, which came Tuesday, when she was accused of “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” Her letter was made public, and it contained a remarkable appeal.

    “No one wants to sit in prison,” she said. “But if prison is inevitable for freedom fighters, if prison can serve a pre-determined purpose, then we should happily accept it.”

    “I don’t want freedom for just myself; that’s too easy,” she wrote. “I want something greater: freedom for Vietnam.”

    She urged people not to campaign for her release, but instead to seek democratic reforms, including free and fair elections for the National Assembly, and to focus on her writings and books about political rights, with titles such as “Politics for the Common People,” “Politics of a Police State,” “Citizen Journalism,” “A Handbook for Families of Prisoners” and others. If interrogated by the authorities, she vowed that she “will not admit guilt, confess, or beg for leniency,” but “will always assert that I want to abolish dictatorship in Vietnam.”

    She also wrote: “Please take care of my mother.”

    Ms. Trang’s arrest is the latest and one of the most flagrant in Vietnam’s long practice of squelching freedom of expression and political dissent, including arrests of bloggers and independent journalists. The repression appears to be intensifying ahead of a Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, held every five years, expected in January. Ms. Trang is being held incommunicado, a common practice in such cases. Article 117 of the Vietnamese penal code, under which Ms. Trang and others have been charged, carries a potential 20-year prison term. She told Radio Free Asia in May, “Freedom has always been restricted, but nowadays it seems to be narrower, and there’s more and more violence. From now until the party congress, the scope of freedom can be tightened more and more, and the suppression will increase.”

    In her letter, Ms. Trang recalled Vietnam’s practice of jailing dissidents, then releasing them under conditions of immediate expulsion, as with Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, the blogger known as Mother Mushroom, who was released from a Vietnamese jail and expelled to the United States in 2018. Ms. Trang rejected that fate. “Focus less on freeing me,” she wrote, and more on advancing her cause, including “free and fair elections.” These are the words of a selfless and courageous champion of democracy.

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    Opinion A dissident jailed in Vietnam shares her message Dont free me free my country The Washington Post
    Opinion _ A dissident jailed in Vietnam shares her message_ Don’t free me, free my country – The Washington Post.pdf
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  • Pham Doan Trang in CPJ: Journalist Pham Doan Trang arrested on anti-state charges in Vietnam

    The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Vietnamese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release journalist Pham Doan Trang and drop anti-state charges against her.

    Excerpt:

    Trang, a prominent journalist who contributes regularly to several independent news sites, was arrested just before midnight yesterday in Ho Chi Minh City, according to news reports.

    She was charged with “propaganda against the State” under Article 117 of the penal code, according to a statement posted on the Ministry of Public Security’s website today. Convictions under Article 117 carry maximum jail terms of 20 years. Vietnam has detained and threatened several journalists under the charge in recent months, as CPJ has documented.

    “Authorities should immediately release journalist Pham Doan Trang, drop the charges against her, and cease their decade-long campaign of harassing her,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Vietnam must stop treating independent journalists like criminals.”

    CPJ could not independently verify where Trang was being detained and under what conditions.

    Reuters reported that Trang was arrested just hours after an annual U.S.-Vietnam human rights dialogue meeting was concluded.

    Trang, who reports widely on human rights-related issues including cases of police abuse, founded the local Luat Khoa legal magazine and edits and writes for the independent English-language The Vietnamese news site, according to news reports.

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    Journalist Pham Doan Trang arrested on anti state charges in Vietnam Committee to Protect Journalists
    Journalist Pham Doan Trang arrested on anti-state charges in Vietnam – Committee to Protect Journalists.pdf
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  • Pham Doan Trang in Radio Free Asia: Acclaimed Vietnam Journalist Pham Doan Trang Quits Publishing House After Harassment

    With mounting pressures from authorities that included abduction and abuses suffered by her colleagues, author, publisher and journalist Pham Doan Trang decided to step away from Liberal Publishing House.  

    Excerpt:

    Outspoken Vietnamese journalist and author Pham Doan Trang has withdrawn from an independent publisher of books on politics because of intense harassment by police over her work and the abduction and abuse of colleagues, she told RFA on Friday.

    The Liberal Publishing House was founded in Ho Chi Minh City in February 2019 by a group of dissidents who wanted to challenge the authoritarian, one-party government’s control of the publishing industry. Later that year, the government launched a targeted campaign aimed at shutting down the publisher and intimidating its writers and associates.

    s part of the campaign, public security forces questioned at least 100 people across the country, and searched the homes of at least a dozen, confiscating books on democracy and public policy printed by the publishing house, according to Amnesty International.

    Police also began abducting, detaining, and abusing people associated with the publisher, said Trang, a spokesperson and prominent author at the Liberal Publishing House with many titles under her name.

    “There are many reasons, but one important reason is because Liberal Publishing House’s members must endure much suffering,” she said.

    “Someone told me that our struggle is like suicide,” she added. “We only publish books, but Vietnamese authorities call it a crime and have directly confronted us, using force and causing much damage.”

    Whenever authorities have arrested and beaten the publishing house members, they have been seriously injured, she said, citing the case of Phung Thuy, who was abducted and beaten by authorities in early May and is now almost physically disabled.

    “He cannot move his hands or foot, and he shows signs of kidney failure and stomach bleeding,” she said.

    His case was the focus of an appeal by London-based Amnesty International on May 14 to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

    ‘More and more violence’

    Trang wrote on her Facebook account that police have been harassing her for the past year, increasing their repression in September 2019 through this February, when they paused for the COVID-19 pandemic. They later resumed their activities with ferocity, she said.

    “They arrested and tortured a shipper who delivered books published by Liberal Publishing House in Saigon on May 8,” she wrote, referring to Phung Thuy. “Since then, all members of LPH have been hunted down and abducted by police.”

    Amid a spate of arrests and abuse of independent journalists this year in Vietnam, Trang told RFA in May that toleration of dissent was deteriorating and likely to get worse in the run-up to the ruling party congress next January.

    “Freedom has always been restricted, but nowadays it seems to be narrower, and there’s more and more violence,” she said at the time. “From now until the party congress, the scope of freedom can be tightened more and more, and the suppression will increase.”

    Trang, who released a well-regarded book titled Politics for Everyone under LPH, was awarded the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2019 Press Freedom Prize. She founded the online legal magazine Luat Khoa and edits another web-based rights journal called thevietnamese.

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    Acclaimed Vietnam Journalist Pham Doan Trang Quits Publishing House After Harassment Radio Free Asia
    Acclaimed Vietnam Journalist Pham Doan Trang Quits Publishing House After Harassment — Radio Free Asia.pdf
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  • Pham Doan Trang in Amnesty International – Viet Nam: Human rights champion arrested, at grave risk of torture

    Amnesty International is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of internationally acclaimed writer and human rights defender Pham Doan Trang after her arrest yesterday.  

    Excerpt:

    Responding to the arrest of Pham Doan Trang, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns, Ming Yu Hah, said:
    “The arrest of Pham Doan Trang is reprehensible. She is a leading figure in the struggle for human rights in Viet Nam. She has inspired countless young activists to speak up for a more just, inclusive, and free Viet Nam.

    She has inspired countless young activists to speak up for a more just, inclusive, and free Viet Nam.Ming Yu Hah, Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns

    “Pham Doan Trang faces an imminent risk of torture and other-ill treatment at the hands of the Vietnamese authorities. She must be immediately and unconditionally released.

    “Pham Doan Trang has faced persecution due to her work as a woman human rights defender since her return to Viet Nam in 2015.  She previously required hospitalization after being subjected to torture and gender-based violence following her arbitrary arrest in 2018.”

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    Viet Nam Human rights champion arrested at grave risk of torture Amnesty International
    Viet Nam_ Human rights champion arrested, at grave risk of torture – Amnesty International.pdf
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  • Pham Doan Trang in BBC News – Pham Doan Trang: Vietnam arrests leading pro-democracy blogger

    A few hours after The 24th annual US-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue, Vietnamese authorities arrested journalist Pham Doan Trang on grounds of “anti-state propaganda.”  The acclaimed activist is a known advocate of democracy, press freedom and the rule of law in Vietnam.

    Excerpt:

    Pham Doan Trang was detained in Ho Chi Minh city late on Tuesday and accused of carrying out anti-state activities.

    Ms Trang has been detained before and is an advocate for democracy, press freedom and the rule of law in Vietnam.

    Vietnam’s one-party communist state frequently jails its critics. There was no immediate comment from the US.

    Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have demanded her immediate release.

    Ms Trang has been charged with “making, storing, disseminating or propagandising information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”, state media report.

    Such charges carrying jail terms of up to 20 years.

    “There will be more arrests of dissidents and human rights activists before the Communist Party’s 13th Congress early next year,” fellow dissident Pham Thanh Nghien told BBC Vietnamese. “It turns out Doan Trang is first in line.”

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    Pham Doan Trang Vietnam arrests leading pro democracy blogger BBC News
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  • Pham Doan Trang in the Coalition For Women In Journalism – Vietnam: Leading Democracy Activist And Award Winning Journalist Pham Doan Trang Arrested

    The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists.  The organization calls the attacks, harassment and arrest made by the Vietnam authorities against acclaimed journalist, Luat Khoa  and The Vietnamese co-founder Pham Doan Trang “despicable.”

    Excerpt:

    RSF’s 2019 Press Freedom Prize winner journalist turned activist Pham Doan Trang was arrested today during a raid at her room that she rented. Due to constantly being chased out by police Pham is deprived of her right to a permanent residence.

    Pham had won the “Prize for Impact” last year, which is given to journalists whose work has led to concrete improvements in journalistic freedom, independence and pluralism, or to an increase in awareness of these matters. She is the founder of Luât Khoa, an online magazine that specializes in providing information about legal issues, and she edits another, thevietnamese, which also helps Vietnamese citizens to defend their rights and resist the Communist Party’s arbitrary rule.

    Pham covers a wide range of issues including LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, the environment, and democratic activism. She is also known for her on-the-ground activism, taking part in rallies in support of imprisoned dissidents. Pham has been beaten by the police because of her work and was detained arbitrarily twice for several days in 2018. She was also detained and harassed in 2016 after her meeting with the then US President Barack Obama and in 2017 after she met with the European Union delegation to talk about the stifling of human rights in Vietnam.

    Her arrest came hours after a bilateral meeting between Vietnam and US State Department. The meeting ironically touched on many important human rights issues including “continued progress and bilateral cooperation on the rule of law, freedom of expression and association, religious freedom and labor rights”.

    The Coalition For Women In Journalism finds targeted attacks and legal harassment against Pham Doan Trang utterly despicable. If Vietnam authorities don’t want its journalists to “complain” about human rights issues to foreign officials they should prove that the country is respecting fundamental rights starting with freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

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    Vietnam Leading Democracy Activist And Award Winning Journalist Pham Doan Trang Arrested Coalition For Women in Journalism
    Vietnam_ Leading Democracy Activist And Award Winning Journalist Pham Doan Trang Arrested — Coalition For Women in Journalism.pdf
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  • Pham Doan Trang in International Publishers Association: Publishing Books in Vietnam

    Pham Doan Trang, co-founder and former spokesperson for Liberal Publishing House, presents the difficulties for independent publishers in Vietnam and the risks they take to publish books.

    Title: Publishing Books in Vietnam
    Publish Date: October 6, 2020
    Publisher: International Publishers Association (IPA)

    Video:

  • Pham Doan Trang in SBS Tiếng Việt: NXB Tự Do và sách mới ra đánh thẳng vào việc trừng phạt những kẻ vi phạm nhân quyền và tham nhũng

    Freedom Publishing House and a new book hit directly at punishing human rights violators and corruption.  

    Article in English:

    Note:  Original texts in Vietnamese.  

    Amidst arrests and searches by the authorities, Freedom Publishing House released its latest book ‘Crime Must Be Punished’. In the campaign to promote the book on social networking sites, Tu Do Publishing House declared “A democratic Vietnam with true justice is too long to wait. This publication will teach you how to use a legal tool. special sanctions to punish human rights violators or corruption in Vietnam.” What legal tools and how to use them?

    The Free Publishing House’s new book, “Crime Must Be Punished,” discusses the use of Magnisky’s law in the United States, Canada and other countries to denounce corrupt officials for human rights violations. rights in Vietnam.

    How can ordinary people report corrupt officials to the US Congress so that they can freeze their assets in the US and ban their entry into the US?

    That is the content presented in detail, simple and easy to understand of this new book, Ms. Pham Doan Trang- Representative of Freedom Publishing House told SBS.

    When asked how there can be a crime when Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is said to have said that Vietnam is stable and safe to the point of “The US electricity pole wants to return to Vietnam”; not only Prime Minister Phuc said, but also Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said a few days later, quoted by Vietnam’s national media agency VOV, that “Vietnamese life today is the dream of many people”. Ms. Pham Doan Trang cited the case of Dong Tam and recently Duong Noi to demonstrate the crimes of the authorities.

    “The fact that at midnight in the morning the authorities mobilized 3,000 troops to round up and kill people, killed Mr. Kinh and took away nearly 30 people in Hoanh village was a horrible event. Up to 25 out of 29 people were arrested. accused of murder and could face the death penalty, as the authorities mentioned when naming them in the newspaper recently.”

    “Recently, on June 24, the authorities arrested four Duong Noi residents: Mrs. Can Thi Theu, and two children Trinh Ba Phuong and Trinh Ba Tu, and another person, Ms. Nguyen Thi Tam, all Both are important witnesses who reported on the Dong Tam case.”

    “After arresting the people of Duong Noi and quelling strong voices about the Dong Tam case, I am concerned that the authorities are preparing to execute at least a few Dong Tam residents to silence them.”

    “The typical Dong Tam case is a robbery, murder, silence of the authorities,” said Ms. Pham Doan Trang.

    When asked if the book was released in the midst of an intense hunt and was publicly advertised on social networks, why did Tu Do Publishing House choose this way, without fear that they were angering the security forces?

    Ms. Pham Doan Trang said that she and the people in Tu Doan Publishing House for a long time could not appear outside, did not meet and gather, did not use the phone, did not visit family and mentally prepared for the future. arrested at any time. When caught, they will be tortured and beaten and will be sentenced to 20 years according to Vietnamese law for their work. However, even if they do nothing, even withdraw, the authorities will still not spare them, will still pursue and arrest them, will still face the same bad things as mentioned above, so what else is there? to be afraid, but to be silent.”

    Ms. Pham Doan Trang also said that she and the Publishing House were surprised at such a situation of arrest, but the newly published book had received many emails and messages asking to buy or ask.

    How is it possible to buy a good book “Crime Must Be Punished” by Liberal Publishing House in such a state of persecution?

    Download article in Vietnamese:

    SBS Language NXB Tu Do va sach moi ra anh thang vao viec trung phat nhung ke vi pham nhan quyen va tham nhung
    SBS Language _ NXB Tự Do và sách mới ra đánh thẳng vào việc trừng phạt những kẻ vi phạm nhân quyền và tham nhũng.pdf
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    SBS Language Freedom Publishing House and a new book hit directly at punishing human rights violators and corruption
    SBS Language _ Freedom Publishing House and a new book hit directly at punishing human rights violators and corruption.pdf
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