Day: July 30, 2023

Radio Free Asia interviewed 74-year-old Australian citizen and democracy activist Chau Van Kham after his release from a Vietnamese prison last week.

He was arrested in 2019, hours after he arrived in Vietnam and met with a fellow pro-democracy activist. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for “terrorism aimed at toppling the people’s administration.”

Kham was a member of Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group with members inside Vietnam and abroad. It has been described by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as a moderate activist group advocating for democratic reform. Hanoi claims it is a terrorist organization that aims to topple the government.

Kham suffers from glaucoma, high blood pressure and kidney stones, according to Viet Tan.

His release came on humanitarian grounds “in a spirit of friendship” between Canberra and Hanoi, according to Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, CNN reported. He returned home to Sydney on July 25.

RFA: You have just returned home. Please tell us your thoughts about being released?

Chau Văn Kham: My first emotion is only after leaving the Vietnam Airlines plane do I truly feel that I have freedom. My emotions were lifted when I saw my wife and my younger brother at the airport, and at the same time the reception of Mr. Chris Bowen, representative of the Australian prime minister. 

I remembered those who struggle and are still in prisons under the communist regime, especially those who fight for freedom and democracy for Vietnam.

RFA: The Vietnamese government accused you of “terrorism against the people’s government.” The government said that the activities of the Viet Tan Party were characteristic of “terrorism.” Could you tell us what you have done in Vietnam that they would accuse you of such a severe charge?

Chau Văn Kham: When I went to Vietnam through Cambodia, I had a bag in which there were only a pair of clothes and several pairs of underwear. No documents, no leaflets, no laptops. And I used a very old mobile phone. During the time I stayed in Vietnam, I didn’t do any activities that they could accuse me of being terrorism.

During the investigation process, police decided to prosecute me with “having activities to protest against the people’s government.” But after some months, the investigative agent told me that the government didn’t see any activities of me in that purpose so the government lowered the crime down to “terrorism.” 

I thought that the “terrorism” crime was heavier than “having activities to protest against the people’s government,” but I didn’t dispute what he said.

But they still couldn’t find any activities to accuse me. They told me that when I sat by the Bach Dang River, it was to investigate how to attack vessels on the river. I told them that I used to be a Navy sailor, and I went there to have coffee with my friends and to remember the past. I just laughed at such an accusation.

The investigative agents showed me online photos of the Viet Tan Front with guns. I explained to them that such photos with armed guerrillas were for propaganda purposes, not for attacking.

I myself know well that the Viet Tan Party, announced to the world its existence in 2004, had a non-violence policy that was announced in 2007. I joined the Viet Tan in 2010.

RFA: Could you tell us what you did in Vietnam, and what evidence and any grounds they used to prove that you did terrorist acts?

Chau Van Kham: In fact I didn’t do anything that could be seen as terrorism. They used an announcement on the website of the Ministry of Public Securities that said Viet Tan was a terrorist organization since 2017.

They asked me if I heard about that. I replied that I had heard but I didn’t care. They asked why. I replied to them with these reasons: Firstly, Viet Tan operates all over the world, even in Vietnam, and only Vietnam accuses Viet Tan a terrorist organization.

Secondly, the announcement on the website of the Ministry of Public Securities had not been adopted into law. If there had been a law naming the Viet Tan as a terrorist organization, the Australian government would have known and would have ended our operation.

But at court, when I explained this, the chief judge slammed his hand on the table saying that I came to Vietnam and Vietnamese law applied.

RFA: Why do you think Vietnam has accused Viet Tan of being a terrorist organization – a very severe accusation – while others have been accused as being “anti-people’s government” organizations?

Châu Văn Kham: To many Vietnamese inside the country, “terrorism” means “death, sorrows, breaking down, back to the terrible time of war.” Even me, as a war veteran, when mentioning war, I feel appalled. As a result, any organizations that would bring about such things would be avoided. 

The purpose for accusing me as a terrorist was to create the thinking of “deaths, sorrows.” It was completely wrong. The evidence was aired on state television stations at least five days a week during prime time. News about terrorism and deterioration to corruption was aired, and the Viet Tan Party was always mentioned.

In the prison, other cellmates asked me what I had done to become jailed with terrorist charges. I told them, “Look at me – a small guy with a meek personality. How could I terrorize others?” It was just the Vietnamese government’s propaganda. 

Now, in my opinion, the only force that can counter Vietnam’s government for the time being is the Viet Tan Party. So, by all means, they try to destroy our prestige, making Vietnamese people avoid us.   

I would add the purpose of my trip to Vietnam was to do fact-finding about the real human rights situation in Vietnam. I met with activists there to show support. 

RFA: The Vietnamese government always says that most Viet Tan members are war veterans who have deep hatred for the country and want to topple the government. As a war veteran who was jailed, did you experience this attitude?

Chau Van Kham: After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, I could have left the country at any time. I thought that the war ended was a good thing, and I assumed that the North Vietnam authorities wouldn’t torture a low-level army officer like me. 

So I decided to stay and hoped that the hatred between the North and the South would be minor and not a problem for me personally. But then I was put in a “re-education camp” for three years and was on probation for two years. They didn’t return my citizenship so I fled the country in 1982.

When I lived overseas, I continued to hope that the Vietnamese government would change. In 1994, I returned to Vietnam for the first time when my mother got severely sick.

I didn’t see any real changes from when I left in 1982. I knew there was corruption, red tape, bureaucracy within the regime, but I thought that was a common practice and any regime needs time for adjustment.

In 2008, I returned for the second time. I saw that the economy had changed a lot. But politics hadn’t changed. 

In 2009, I came back one more time. I saw that the only way to bring a better future for Vietnam was to join a political organization. I believed that as long as Vietnam was under the communist authoritarian regime, the anti-corruption campaign and government reforms would fail to solve current issues.

Whenever all offices are no longer under the leadership of party members, whenever they provide a healthy playing field in all domains – from politics to economics to social issues. 

In Vietnam there are many intellectuals without party membership who aren’t being put to good use. Such limitations make the country stagnant. Vietnam could get out of current situations like poverty by becoming more open. 

RFA: You just sent out a letter stating that you will continue the struggle, even after paying a high price of four years in prison. Can you tell us why? 

Chau Văn Kham: In all my replies from the time I was arrested, investigated and put in jail, I have quoted Karl Marx: “Wherever there is injustice, there is struggle.” 

So whenever there is no longer injustice in Vietnam, whenever the Vietnamese people no longer face any difficulties in life, I will no longer struggle. 

The nation needs to have democracy and freedom for full development. Vietnam’s development now has limitations, more or less depending on each person’s perception or on the general secretary of the party. 

A top rice research center headquartered in the Philippines, a country vulnerable to climate change, says it is developing varieties of this grain and staple of Asian diets that can survive droughts, temperature extremes and flooding.

Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), in the university town of Los Baños, south of Manila, say they are working around the clock because they believe that “no crop is as vulnerable to global warming as rice.”  

The institute and its partners in recent years have come up with rice varieties that can grow amid adverse weather conditions and in soil exposed to high levels of salt – a trend expected to become more frequent and extreme with climate change, experts said. 

“We do expect in the coming years, with climate change and with frequencies of typhoons and droughts, that we may be needing more of these varieties,”Alice Laborte, senior scientist at IRRI, told a small group of visiting reporters invited to the institute earlier this month. 

Rice is a main source of food for many people in Asia, which is home to five of the world’s 10 most populous countries: India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. 

“So at IRRI, what we’re doing is looking at where these varieties are needed the most,” Laborte said. 

Once these varieties are made available, farmers can do their planting in any “stress environment,” Philippine Agriculture Undersecretary Mercedita Sombilla said during the same briefing. 

“They can continue to harvest rice under different conditions and if rice is available, of course that will stabilize local production and local supply and that would sort of stabilize rice prices,” she said. 

Earlier this month, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization issued a warning about soaring temperatures as it reported that the El Niño weather phenomenon had emerged in the tropical Pacific for the first time in seven years.

At the same time, the Philippines’ state weather bureau declared the onset of El Niño and warned Filipinos that its effects could be felt toward the end of the year. 

Drought, considered the most widespread and damaging of all environmental stresses, affects 88,800 square miles of rice in South and Southeast Asia, where most rice farmers live, according to scientists. With little rain, farmers who rely on rain-fed fields or do not have irrigation facilities would fail to accumulate enough water to prepare their lands for transplanting rice. 

IRRI said drought-tolerant varieties have been released in several countries in recent years, including India (the Sahbhagi Dhan variety), the Philippines (the Sahod Ulan variety), and Nepal (the Sookha Dhan variety).

Another variety developed to withstand extreme weather conditions is the flood-tolerant rice being planted in the Philippines, which experiences an average of 20 typhoons per year, and elsewhere in Asia.

Floods – whether from flash floods or stagnant flooding – affect rice crops at any stage of growth. When crops are totally submerged, their chances of survival are “extremely low,” according to IRRI. 

Flooding leads to farmers in Bangladesh and India losing about 4 million tons of rice annually, a volume that could feed 30 million people, scientists said. 

When Super Typhoon Rai struck the Philippines in December 2021, the country lost crops and farmlands estimated at U.S. $215 million (11.7 billion pesos), with rice crops wiped out across some regions. 

Citing an IRRI experiment, Laborte said regular rice varieties were completely obliterated during flooding but the submergence-resistant varieties were “still standing up.” 

“It’s not as high yielding as hybrid rice, but in a situation where there is flooding, it’s the best bet for farmers to be able to still get income from rice production,” Laborte said. 

In low-lying Bangladesh, which is vulnerable to flooding, it was found that farmers earn an additional $92 (10,000 Bangladesh takas) per hectare by planting flood-resistant rice varieties. 

“There is immense advantage to the common man,” said Ajay Kohli, IRRI deputy director general for research. 

“For me and for IRRI, what is very interesting is to see part of the money going to child education, that’s where we actually experience transformative change. Imagine in a typical household in India and Bangladesh, where the study was conducted, if the parents are not educated but the child gets educated, within a few years the entire atmosphere of the household changes,” Kohli said. 

Temperature, salt resistance 

Global warming has a significant effect on rice. 

IRRI said it had discovered more rice varieties that were tolerant to the heat, cold and soil salinity.   

While rice originates from the tropics, extreme heat can damage yield, plant processes and grain quality. At the same time, frequently occurring low temperatures can lead to heavy losses for farmers. 

China alone has recorded rice crop losses of 3 million to 5 million tons caused by low temperatures, IRRI reported. 

In addition to extreme temperatures, rising sea levels threaten rice production as salt water moves inland. This contributes to high salinity in soil, which regular rice varieties cannot withstand. 

IRRI scientists have found ways to increase rice’s resistance to salt. They also found characteristics of salt-tolerant and flood-tolerant rice varieties that could be combined to create another variety capable of tolerating floodwaters and high salinity. 

But the challenge is for governments to convince farmers to plant new rice varieties. As Sombilla, the Philippine agriculture undersecretary, noted, many local farmers are reluctant to try new ways until they see the effect on others or after they experience a calamity.

“It’s usually wait-and-see for them,” Sombilla said. “Sometimes there is hesitancy by them adopting immediately especially if they see what they’re using now is doing well, so why do they have to change?”

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.