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AFP Photo: Vietnamese cyber-dissident Pham Hong Son in Hanoi, 19 October 2007. The prominent Vietnamese dissident has...

by Aude Genet Mon Oct 22, 12:50 AM ET

HANOI (AFP) - A prominent Vietnamese dissident has said the country's UN Security Council seat could be good news for human rights, but urged the West to keep up the pressure for democratic change.

Pham Hong Son, 38, speaking from house arrest after communist-ruled Vietnam last week won a two-year council seat, warned that the diplomatic milestone could be a mixed blessing for people like him.

Son urged the United States, France and Britain, three of the five permanent council members, not to soften their stance on Vietnam's human rights record in return for Hanoi's support on key resolutions.

"Some pro-democracy activists protested against Vietnam's candidature," Son told AFP in an interview in his Hanoi home, where he has been under official house arrest and surveillance since he was freed from jail last year.

But he defended the idea of his country joining "any international organisation," especially the UN, as it would further expose Vietnam's leaders to "the concerns and the warnings of the international community."

Vietnam has this year come under fire from the United States and European Union for the arrests and trials of political dissidents in a sweep that started shortly after it joined the World Trade Organisation in January.

"Since June, July, after the trials of (prominent human rights lawyers) Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, the situation seems to have relaxed somewhat," said Son, a trained medical doctor.

Vietnam's leaders had already "had to consider (international concern) in their wish to become a non-permanent member of the Security Council," he said.

Son, one of Vietnam's "cyber-dissidents," was sentenced to 13 years' jail on espionage charges in 2003 for his pro-democracy activism and Internet writings, including a translation of a US State Department essay on democracy.

His sentence was reduced to five years on appeal and he was released in mid-2006, but ordered to stay under house arrest for three more years in his family home near the capital city's West Lake.

The activist said he did not want to see another clampdown after Vietnam's latest diplomatic success and urged the world to "keep up the pressure."

"When a country becomes a (UN Security Council) member, it acquires a strong voice," he said. "When big countries like France, the United Kingdom and the United States want to pass a resolution, they have to lobby to get support."

Son said he hoped these countries would not "put aside their concerns about the domestic situation in Vietnam in order to reach a key resolution."

Vietnam's pro-democracy activists, he said, "must raise their voice and say that (UN Security Council membership) does not mean that Vietnam meets international standards in terms of its political system."

"We must keep up the pace... without violence," he said, adding that the next crucial step in Vietnam's development would be a multi-party system.

"Pluralism is the first factor for sustainable development," he said, adding that the constitution should be amended to end the Communist Party's role as the sole political organisation allowed in the country of 84 million people.

"We want to end the terror people feel when they talk about politics," he said, adding however that he did not expect change to come quickly.

"Democracy will not come overnight," he said. "It's a long process, a continuous process, which requires work, wisdom and determination."