What Happened to them?

The Vietnamese Pastor Nguyen Lap Ma, former superintendent of the Protestant Church of South-Vietnam, emigrated to the USA together with his wife after years of persecution in Vietnam. The Vietnamese State Security had an eye on him since 1976 because he protested against the expropriation of church buildings and property. He was first arrested in 1976, forced to resettle twice, additionally he and his family were victims of numerous repressions. Since 1982 the whole family lived in banishment in the small village of Long-My in the province Can-Tho.

Wang Wanxing, supporter of the Chinese democracy movement, was born on October 10th 1949. He was imprisoned for a month for the first time in 1976 for criticism on Mao Zedong's politics. In 1977 Wang was imprisoned again, this time for 17 months, for criticising authorities after they broke up a protest. After publicly demanding the reassessment of the Tiananmen-Square massacre of 1989, he was arrested on June 3rd 1992 because of "counter-revolutionary agitation". On June 30th 1992 he was brought to Ankang hospital, a mental institution, in Beijing's suburb Fangshan. After 13 years of prison he was released on August 16th 2005 und currently lives in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. This picture shows him at ISHR headquarters in Frankfurt/Main, shortly after being released.

The nurse Xu Youlin, born on February 11th 1954, was arrested on Beijing's streets because she was distributing flyers about the persecution of members of the Buddhist meditation school Falun Gong. No charge was filed and a trial never took place. Mrs. Xu Youlin was subject to forced labour in Beijing's women's camp for re-education, she was restricted legal advice. Her husband was only allowed to visit her once a month maximum. After numerous appeals she was released from Xinan forced labour camp on December 26th 2004, after one and a half years of detainment.

Nguyen Van Ly, Vietnamese pastor and civil rights defender, was born in 1946. Since 1977 he was arrested 21 times in total. From 1983 to 1992 he was imprisoned in the prison of Bao Sao in North-Vietnam because of "leading a pilgrimage" to La-Vang. Because of his public advocacy for freedom of religion he was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment and 5 years of house arrest for "sabotage of the solidarity policy" and "breaking the administrative house arrest" on October 19, 2001. Released from Bao Sao prison on February 1, 2005. Detained again on March 29, 2007 and sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment with following 5 years of house arrest.

Nguyen Ding Huy, Professor for English, free lance journalist and director of the "Movement for People's Conciliation and Democratic Organisation", was sentenced to 15 years in prison on August 12th 1995 because of "preparing an international conference for building up Vietnam". In 2003 Prof. Huy was asked to hand in a request for amnesty but he denied. Since 1975 Huy spent in total 22 years in prison, he was released on February 1st 2005.