Thursday 9 October 2008

An ninh VN :tái hoạt động" tại Ba Lan - Vietnamese Security Police Again Active in Poland





photo: www.orient.waw.pl
Tiếng Việt:
Nhật báo lớn của Ba Lan, tờ Wyborcza một lần nữa lên tiếng về vụ việc mà họ mô tả là biên phòng Ba Lan giúp an ninh Việt Nam bắt những người Việt bất đồng chính kiến. http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/vietnam/story/2008/10/081009_a18.shtml



Vietnamese Security Police Again Active in Poland
Grzegorz Lisicki - 2008-10-08 - wyborcza.pl
http://wyborcza.pl/1,76842,5783418,Vietnamese_Security_Police_Again_Active_in_Poland.html
Its functionaries are arresting Vietnamese dissidents in Poland. And they are again being helped in this by the Polish border police.
The Vietnamese act on the basis of a bilateral agreement signed in 2004. The readmission agreement provides for the two countries to cooperate in handing over their citizens to each other. Warsaw has taken advantage of it in just a few cases to date, for instance, to help persons who've lost their documents while on vacation. Hanoi has turned the agreement into an instrument for hunting down dissidents on emigration in Poland. It is in the regime's favour that the émigré dissidents often don't have Polish residence permits.
The first visit by the officers of Section A18 of the People's Militia, whose job is to keep Vietnamese immigrants under surveillance (Poland is an important centre of anti-regime Vietnamese opposition), took place in February. It was preceded by a round-up that the Polish Border Guard carried out in Wólka Kosowska near Warsaw. About a hundred Vietnamese nationals had been apprehended. During interrogations conducted by the A18, they were pressed to become informers under the pain of immediate deportation. In May, the A18 returned. In a detention centre in Przemyśl in south-eastern Poland, they interrogated 120 of their compatriots brought by the Polish border police from all over Poland.
The third visit has just taken place. Wioletta Paprocka, spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, says, 'Its purpose was to verify identities and issue travel documents'.
This time too the Border Guard rounded up several dozen Vietnamese. Even before the arrival of the A18, they were told to fill detailed questionnaires.
'These had been sent from Vietnam and contained typically nosy questions about addresses, contacts, and details about friends and acquaintances', says Robert Krzysztoń, a civil-liberty activist from Stowarzyszenie Wolnego Słowa, a pro-freedom of speech association.
The questionnaires are a new thing. Thanks to them, the A18 officers don't have to interrogate al the apprehended dissidents, because they know a lot from the questionnaires anyway.
'What the so called verification of identities really means is picking out dissidents sought by the A18 on the basis of lists brought from Vietnam', says Mr Krzysztoń. 'When a person whose name is on the list confirms his personal details during the interrogation, the Vietnamese Embassy immediately issues deportation documents for them. Back in Vietnam, the man immediately ends up in jail or labour camp'.
'We know that the interrogations take place in a Border Guard official's room. There's a camera there, so it's possible they're recorded', says Ton Van Anh, a Vietnamese opposition activist in Poland. 'They are conducted in an aggressive atmosphere and, which is against the law, Polish Border Guard officers are not present. Two A18 agents grill you, a third one takes it down in a computer'.
Vietnamese immigrants also report that this time the A18 has been visiting the arrested men's families in Poland. 'They promise release in return for collaboration', we hear from a Vietnamese immigrant.
'The readmission agreement is being used to get rid of unwelcome immigration. It's in the Border Guard's interest, because this way they can show they're cleansing Poland of illegal aliens', says Mr Krzysztoń. 'The Vietnamese secret police also have an interest here. And that's how the Polish democracy supports a communist regime'.
The Helsinki Foundation in Poland some time ago called for a review of the readmission agreement in terms of the benefits it offers each of the countries. Former Solidarity activist Seweryn Blumsztajn urged the government to actually renounce it, writing in Gazeta: 'It's a long time since I've been so ashamed of my country'.
But the Interior Ministry has been deaf to those appeals. The readmission agreement has already been the subject of three parliamentary questions asked by Civic Platform (PO) deputy Dariusz Lipiński. One of those was addressed to Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Grzegorz Schetyna, asking why Poland itself invites the Vietnamese security agents here; why the agreement allows foreign special services to operate in the territory of Poland; and on what terms the agreement can be renounced.
A reply was offered by Deputy Interior Minister Piotr Stachańczyk, who wrote that there are good grounds for maintaining the agreement. 'Currently many countries, including EU member states, are striving to sign readmission agreements with Vietnam. Such negotiations are being carried by the Czech Republic and France', wrote Mr Stachańczyk.
'The Interior Ministry has not answered my questions', says Mr Lipiński.
In his reply, Mr Stachańczyk says that the 'ministry will make an effort for the interrogations to be recorded'.
'This confirms that what we've heard about the detention centre in Przemyśl is true', stresses Ton Van Anh. 'It's the Vietnamese security police that rules there'.

Translated by Marcin Wawrzyńczak

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