Vietnam, one of the five countries most vulnerable to climate change, seems to have entered a phase of repression of its environmental experts and activists for two years. A wave which has just swept away the energy transition analyst and advisor Ngo Thi To Nhien, whose arrest on September 15 was finally confirmed on Sunday by Hanoi. She is accused of “appropriation of documents”.
This brings to eight the number of people working in the field of adaptation to climate change and the energy transition arrested and thrown in prison since 2021, often under opportunistic pretexts, such as “tax fraud”, denounces several international organizations.
These groups are concerned about the counterproductive nature of this repressive campaign aimed at silencing people who are key to the economic and social changes desirable to confront the climate disruption underway in Vietnam.
“We are deeply concerned about human rights violations and the repression against civil society in Vietnam,” Susanne Wong of Oil Change International (OCI), a climate think tank, said this week. A just energy transition is currently impossible in Vietnam, as long as representatives of this civil society are locked up.” And added: “Vietnam, the world is watching! You can’t be a climate leader and shut down your critics. It’s as simple as that. »
Far from being an environmental activist, Ngo Thi To Nhien was, at the time of her arrest, an internationally recognized expert in energy policy, director of the Vietnamese Energy Transition Initiative (VIET). She worked for the Vietnamese government as a technical and policy advisor in the development of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). This is an agreement worth 15.5 billion US dollars signed between Vietnam and the G7 countries, of which Canada is a member, to support the country’s transition to renewable energy sources. . The plan aims to help Hanoi achieve, among other things, its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
The government accuses him of having in his possession documents with restricted circulation relating to “political planning and the development of the EVN group’s electricity network [la société nationale électrique du Vietnam] “, state media reported on Sunday.
“Excessive and overly broad laws”
With this new indictment in the climate change sector, Hanoi continues a series of arrests begun in 2021 with the very prominent environmental activists in Vietnam Dang Dinh Bach, Mai Phan Loi and Bach Hung Duong. Last year Nguy Thi Khanh and Hoang Ngoc Giao also faced charges of “tax evasion” under article 200 of the Penal Code. Two other people involved in the world of energy transition, Duong Duc Viet and Le Quoc Anh, experts in transport and electrical system, were also arrested in September, alongside Ngo Thi To Nhien.
The Vietnamese government also finds itself under heavy criticism after last week sentencing Hoang Thi Minh Hong, a leading environmental activist and founder of the Change organization, which aims to mobilize the country’s youth, to three years in prison. to take action against climate change. She was also accused of tax fraud.
Last Thursday, the US State Department said it was “concerned” by this conviction and called on Hanoi to “release all those unjustly detained and to respect the right to freedom of expression and association of all people in Vietnam.
“NGO leaders like Hoang Thi Minh Hong play a vital role in addressing global challenges, proposing sustainable solutions in the global fight against the climate crisis and combating wildlife and timber trafficking,” added the American diplomacy. This trafficking fuels networks of corruption from which several Vietnamese leaders and senior officials benefit. In 2022, corruption in Vietnam was perceived to be less present than in Kosovo, but more than in South Africa, Senegal and Ghana, according to Transparency International.
“The Vietnamese government is using its abusive and overbroad laws to prosecute people who call for reforms,” summarized Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, last June, after the arrest of the activist anti-corruption Dang Dang Phuoc. The international organization denounced campaigns last year undermining the freedom of movement of activists in the country.
The UK reminded Hanoi of its commitment to consulting “NGOs, media and other stakeholders as part of the Just Energy Transition Partnership” and urged the Vietnamese government “to ensure that societal organizations civil society can function and participate without fear of targeting or prosecution. Canada has not made a statement on these recent arrests and convictions.
On Sunday, Hanoi denounced “information slandering” Vietnam disseminated by “foreign press agencies and exiled reactionary organizations”, in the wake of the arrest of Ngo Thi To Nhien. Vietnam does not arrest “environmental activists” and considers contrary declarations as “an act of interference in the internal affairs” of the country, insisted Lieutenant General To An Xo, voice of power, in the state press.
Despite the signs of openness of the Vietnamese regime exposed by the Doi Me [renouveau]this train of economic reforms initiated in 1986 by the Communist Party, Vietnam has been returning to the roots of its authoritarianism for several years, and more since the third mandate obtained at the head of the Vietnamese Communist Party in 2021 by the very conservative Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong.