The last of three bloggers recently arrested in Vietnam and accused of national security violations said yesterday she has been released but ordered to give up her online writing.
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 31, said from the southern coastal city of Nha Trang that she was released from prison on Saturday, after about 10 days in custody.
“Yeah, I’m free,” Quynh said. “I’m OK.”
Two other bloggers, arrested a few days before Quynh, were released earlier.
Quynh said police told her that she must abandon her blog.
“I will do that,” she said.
Quynh had written about the sensitive topic of Vietnam-China relations, including a controversial bauxite mining project and two disputed South China Sea archipelagos, the Paracels and Spratlys, her mother said earlier.
The bauxite project in Vietnam’s Central Highlands triggered a rare public outcry, partly over security concerns.
The Paracels and Spratlys are controversial because Vietnam and China, both ideologically communist, are engaged in a boundary dispute over the islands.
Quynh said the main reason she and the two other bloggers were arrested was because of T-shirts calling for the cancelation of the bauxite project and declaring Vietnamese sovereignty over the archipelagos.
Quynh had worn one of the T-shirts in July, according to her mother, while a foreign diplomat who asked not to be named had said Quynh and the two other bloggers were planning to produce more of the shirts.
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists had called for the bloggers’ release while Human Rights Watch said the arrests were “yet another effort by the Vietnamese government to silence government critics.”
The foreign ministry has accused unnamed organizations and individuals of intentionally exaggerating and distorting the issue.
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