"Vietnam: Crackdown on Peaceful Environmental Protesters"

Vietnam’s government should immediately stop all harassment, intimidation, and persecution of environmental activists, said Human Rights Watch…The government should respect their right to peaceful protest and release anyone still wrongfully held.

On the last three Sundays – May 1, 8, and 15 – thousands of people in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Vung Tau, Da Nang, Hue, and Nghe An publicly demonstrated to demand a transparent government investigation into the recent mass fish kills off the coast of Ha Tinh province. While the authorities only subjected the protests on May 1 to light harassment, police and other security forces used unnecessary and excessive force to end demonstrations on the following two Sundays…

The protests erupted in response to the government’s slow reaction to the abrupt appearance of hundreds of thousands of dead fish along the shore of the Vung Ang industrial zone in Ha Tinh province…