Vietnam has arrested a leading environmental activist just months after it received billions of dollars of international aid to tackle climate change, partly on the condition that the government involve grassroots activists in the effort.
SINGAPORE — Vietnam has arrested a leading environmental activist just months after it signed a deal to receive billions of dollars of international aid to tackle climate change, partly on the condition that the government would involve grass-roots activists in the effort.
The agreement signed with Vietnam states explicitly that “regular consultation” is required with “with media, NGOs and other stakeholders so as to ensure a broad social consensus.”Weeks before her detention, Hong said in an interview with The Washington Post in Ho Chi Minh City that the grass-roots climate movement in Vietnam was on the verge of being entirely disabled.
The United States,, Germany and Britain have released statements expressing “concern” over Hong’s arrest. European Union officials raised Hong’s case in meetings held with Vietnamese authorities earlier this month and intend to do so in subsequent meetings on JETP, said Tim McPhie, a climate action and energy spokesperson for the European Commission.
In Vietnam, criticism of the government has long been tightly restricted. For nearly a decade, nonprofit groups like Hong’s, which were not explicitly political and focused on specific issues, were allowed some space to operate. Now, amid a broader crackdown on civil society, that space has diminished, Hong said.
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