Pham Van Tuong UNHCR # IC 610

Sandgatan 1 E
331 34 VÄRNAMO
SWEDEN
July 20, 2009
tamnguyentriluc@gmail.co
m
Tel. + 46 73- 742 91 56

UNHCR Phnom Penh, Cambodia

# 2 Street 352
Khan Chamcar Morn
P.O Box 539
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am Pham Van Tuong (aka Thich Tri Luc, UNHCR # 610 IC, former Buddhist monk
and political prisoner, now a refugee in Sweden), a member of the Unified Buddhist
Church of Vietnam (UBCV), the traditional, independent Buddhist organization which
was established over 2000-years ago in Vietnam. After the Communist regime took
power in South Vietnam in 1975, they launched a brutal campaign of repression
against the UBCV. Virtually all the UBCV leadership were arrested, imprisoned or
sent into internal exile, including the Patriarch Thich Quang Do, who are both still in
detention today, held under most harsh conditions.

My story begins in 1992, when the UBCV’s former Patriarch, Venerable Thich Don
Hau died at Linh Mu pagoda in the central city of Hue. In his testament, he chose
Thich Huyen Quang to succeed him as the new Buddhist Patriarch. This was a
challenge to the Communist authorities, because Thich Huyen Quang was a political
prisoner, detained under house arrest at his pagoda for his advocacy of religious
freedom and human rights. From that time onwards, tensions escalated between the
government and the banned UBCV. I was arrested on 2nd October 1992 along with
another Buddhist monk, Thich Khong Tanh and other Buddhist followers simply
because I possessed copies of speeches and letters by the new Patriarch Thich Huyen
Quang. I was released after a few months, but Security Police placed me under
indefinite detention without charge at the Gia Lam monastery and then the Phap Van
pagoda in Saigon.

On 6th November 1994, I was arrested again after I joined a rescue mission organised
by Venerable Thich Quang Do to bring relief aid to the victims of severe flooding in
the Mekong Delta, led by Venerable Thich Quang Do. This was a purely humanitarian
mission, but Security Police arrested us because they said that only the government
had the right to distribute relief aid. On 15th August, I was sentenced to 30 months in
prison and 5 years probationary detention at an unfair trial in Saigon on charges of

1
“sabotaging the government’s policy of solidarity” and “abusing democratic freedoms
to encroach upon the interests of the State”.

After spending 30 months performing hard labour in Z30A re-education camp in

Xuan Loc district, Dong Nai province, on 13th February 1997 I was released from the
camp and placed under probationary detention. I had to report every month to the
Security Police, and was subjected to continuous harassments and interrogations.
When I finished my 5 years’ probationary detention on 13 February 2002, I thought
that at last I was free. However, the Security Police kept me under house arrest
without any explanation, subjecting me to all kinds of threats, surveillance and strict
controls. I can say truthfully that I did not enjoy one single day of freedom during
those last ten years. Finally, I had no other choice but to flee to Cambodia to seek
political asylum. I crossed the Cambodia border on 19th April 2002, and applied for
refugee status at the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR) in
Phnom Penh. The UNHCR recognized me as a victim of religious and political
repression. On 28th June, they granted me refugee status and placed me under UN
protection.
At approximately 7:00 p.m. on July 25, 2002, I was walking down Street 185 opposite
Russey Market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to buy my evening meal. Suddenly, some
strangers accosted me, encircled me, abducted me by force and threw me into a
vehicle waiting nearby. They handcuffed me, and then the man sitting next to me
grabbed my throat and throttled me so hard that I was unable to cry out for help. The
men behind me leaned forward and beat me brutally on my face and head. They
emptied my pockets and confiscated my belongings, money and refugee card. Some
of the men in the car were Vietnamese.

One man questioned me in Vietnamese, with the fluency of a true Vietnamese

speaking in his mother tongue: “Did you have a visa to come here?” I answered him
without hesitation: “I am a political refugee. I was granted refugee status by the
UNHCR. I have the right to live in Cambodia under U.N. protection. I have never
broken Cambodian laws, so why have you kidnapped me and beaten me like this?”

The men remained silent. They kept on beating me relentlessly. I cannot tell you how
panic-stricken I felt!

The car drove on for about half an hour before stopping outside a building…. They
put me into another car, and we set off again. The vehicle with the men who
kidnapped me drove in front.… We drove to another building near the roundabout at
the foot of the Saigon Bridge in Phnom Penh. The men locked me in a meeting hall
which had a large insignia of the Cambodian Security Police painted on the wall. I
was kept in handcuffs all night. No one came to question me, so I had no opportunity
to explain my situation nor contact the UNHCR to seek their help.

Around 4.00 a.m. the next day, July 26, 2002, I was put in a vehicle and driven to the
Moc Bai border [crossing] in Ben Cau district, Tay Ninh province. On the Vietnamese
side of the border, Vietnamese Security officials were waiting. I saw the Cambodian
and the Vietnamese Security Police shaking hands, smiling and talking to each other.
After that, they took me to the Security Police Detention Centre B34/A24 [in Ho Chi

2
Minh City]. The Ministry of Public Security issued a temporary detention warrant,
and charged me with “fleeing abroad or defecting to stay overseas with a view to
opposing the people’s administration,” under Article 91 of the Criminal Code of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam. On March 12, 2004, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s
Court sentenced me to 20 months in prison. I was released after completing this
sentence on March 26, 2004.

However, whilst I was waiting for resettlement, at 7.00 in the evening on 25 th July
2002, as I was walking down 185th street, just opposite Ourussey market in Phnom
Penh, a group of Vietnamese and Cambodian under-cover Security agents kidnapped
me and took me away in their car. They held me in custody for the night. The next
day, they drove me to the Vietnamese border post at Moc Bai in Tay Ninh province.
Several Vietnamese Security Police officers were waiting for me there. The
confiscated my UN refugee card and all my personal papers, and drove me directly to
the B34 prison at 237, Nguyen Van Cu street in Saigon. This prison belongs to the
A24 Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security.

For the next 13 months, I was detained in secret, under extremely harsh conditions.
My family were not informed of my whereabouts. They did not know if I was dead or
alive. Even after I was released, the Security Police never admitted kidnapping me,
and continued to claim that they had arrested me inside Vietnamese territory. If this
had been the case, how could I have obtained refugee status from the UNHCR in
Phnom Penh?

On 12th March 2004, I was put on trial at the Ho Chi Minh People’s Tribunal. Police
warned me to keep silent during the trial, and especially not mention that I had been
kidnapped and detained in secret, otherwise I would be given a very heavy sentence.

I was sentenced to 20 months in prison on charges of “fleeing overseas with the intent
to oppose the people’s government”. I had already served more than 19 months, so I
was released shortly afterwards. The UN confirmed that I was still entitled to refugee
status. I was accepted for resettlement by Sweden, where I arrived on 22nd June 2004.

Since I arrived in Sweden, I have really tasted my first breaths of freedom, after so
many dark years of fear and repression under the Vietnamese Communist regime.

I am writing today to confirm that I have been kidnapped in the downtown of Phnom
Penh by some Khmer police and some Vietnamese secret agents and spies acting in
Cambodia for the government of Vietnam and its interests. Among the kidnappers
who kidnapped me that day, there was a Vietnamese refugee named Nguyen Cam
Cong UNHCR IC# 241 (Aka Nguyen Cong Cam), who, previously tried to approach
me several times, enticing me to hand over to him all my documents, saying that he
could help translate all my document into English before submitting them to UNHCR.
I have reported this kidnapping in details at the European Parliament, Subcommittee
on Human Rights-Hearing on Human Rights in Cambodia, Laos & Vietnam –
Brussels, 12 September 2005)

I know firsthand that in order to stop UNHCR from supporting or protecting a

refugee, the Ministries of the public security of both Vietnam and Cambodia as well

3
as Nguyen Cong Cam and other Vietnamese Security Police officers have supplied
UNHCR with false information against him.

As mentioned above, on 12th March 2004, I was put on trial at the Ho Chi Minh
People’s Tribunal. Police warned me to keep silent during the trial, and especially not
mention that I had been kidnapped and detained in secret, otherwise I would be given
a very heavy sentence.

I strongly believe that they have also supplied UNHCR in Cambodia and UNHCR in
Bangkok, Thailand with false information against Pastor Ngo Dac Luy NI # 22813
and Elder Nguyen Phung Phong, partly to sow discontent among Vietnamese
refugees, partly, to stop UNHCR from supporting these two victims of the
communism of Vietnam and I am afraid that the trick of Nguyen Cam Cong, of the
Ministry of Cambodia and Vietnam took both UNHCR in Cambodia and UNHCR in
Thailand in completely:

For this reason, I am writing today to urgently and kindly request UNHCR in both
Cambodia and Thailand to reconsider their decision not to recognize Pastor Ngo Dac
Luy and Elder Nguyen Phung Phong as refugees in Thailand or not to refer them to a
third safer country for resettlement.

If Pastor Ngo Dac Luy and Elder Nguyen Phung Phong return to Cambodia, they are
bound to be killed by Nguyen Cam Cong and other Vietnamese Secret agents. Hence,
I would like to request UNHCR to consider these cases carefully and help refer Pastor
Ngo Dac Luy UNHCR Bangkok, Thailand NI# 22813 and Elder Nguyen Phung
Phong UNHCR Bangkok, Thailand NI# 22812 for resettlement on the humanitarian
and compassionate ground, but not try to kill them by forcibly deporting them back to
Cambodia where they are bound to lose their life

Thank you for your re-consideration

Pham Van Tuong (aka Thich Tri Luc)

Sandgatan 1 E
331 34 VÄRNAMO
SWEDEN
Tel. +46 73 742 91 56
Email: tamnguyentriluc@gmail.com