Eight villages in Xebangfay district of Khammuan province have been submerged after the Xebangfay River burst its banks, local authorities reported on Monday.
More than 1,000 people living in 386 households in the eight villages have been affected by the flooding but no deaths or injuries were reported.
Local authorities said heavy rainfall over the past few days in the upper reaches of the Xebangfay River was probably the cause of the flooding of more than 200 hectares of farmland downstream.
It is the second time that Xebangfay district has experienced flooding this month after floods hit several weeks ago and destroyed about 200 hectares of farmland.
We are concerned by the Government of Vietnam’s decision to return long-time human rights defender Father Nguyen Van Ly to prison on July 25. We urge the Government of Vietnam to release him immediately. We welcomed the government’s decision last year to grant Father Ly humanitarian parole following a series of strokes while in solitary confinement. Father Ly suffers from a brain tumor and should continue to be allowed to seek medical treatment.
No individual should be imprisoned for expressing the right to free speech. In September 2010, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention held that Father Ly was denied a fair trial and ruled his detention was arbitrary, in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, and called for his immediate release.
Father Ly is a co-founder of Bloc 8406 and the Vietnam Progression Party. He has spent over 16 years in prison.
PRN: 2011/1243
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