Ministry of Public Security (Vietnam) explained

Agency Name:Ministry of Public Security
Nativename:Bộ Công an
Seal:Vietnam People's Insignia emblem.svg
Formed:19 August 1945 (de facto)
29 August 1953 (official)
Preceding1:Bureau of Integrity in Northern Vietnam (1945–1946)
  • Bureau of Scout in Central Vietnam (1945–1946)
  • Bureau of National Self-Defence Force in Southern Vietnam (1945–1946)
  • Office of Public Security of Ministry of Home Affairs (1946–1953)
  • Deputy Ministry of Public Security (1953)
  • Ministry of Public Security (1953–1975)
  • Ministry of Home Affairs (1975–1998)
Jurisdiction:Government of Vietnam
Headquarters:47 Pham Van Dong Street, Mai Dich Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi
Employees:
  • Regular force: Not disclosed.
  • Semi-specialized force: 2,000,000 persons
  • Number of generals on payroll: 199 (2019)
Budget:4.19 billion USD (2021)
Minister1 Name:Col. Gen Lương Tam Quang
Deputyminister1 Name:Col. Gen Trần Quốc Tỏ
Lt. Gen Nguyễn Duy Ngọc
Lt. Gen Lê Quốc Hùng
Maj. Gen Lê Văn Tuyến
Maj. Gen Nguyễn Văn Long
Child1 Agency:People's Public Security
Website:bocongan.gov.vn
Chief3 Name:Minister of Public Security

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS, Vietnamese: Bộ Công an (BCA))[1] is a public agency directly under the Government of Vietnam, performing the function of state management of security, order and social safety; counterintelligence; crime prevention investigation; fire prevention and rescue; execution of criminal judgments, judgment enforcement not subject to imprisonment, custody or temporary detention; legal protection and support; State management of public services in sectors and fields under the Ministry's state management. It is headed by the Minister of Public Security.

The Ministry of Public Security is the agency that manages the Vietnam People's Public Security, the Vietnamese uniformed police forces - while also responsible for domestic civilian administrative management, similar to the role of a standard Ministry of Interior (however, not to be confused with the Vietnam Ministry of Home Affairs).

Col. Gen Lương Tam Quang is the current head of the Vietnamese MPS.[2]

History

The foundation of the MPS started on August 19, 1945 when the Indochinese Communist Party formed three departments, consisting of the Security Service Bureau in Northern Vietnam, the Surveillance Service in central Vietnam and the National Self-Defense Force Bureau in southern Vietnam.[3] [4] The three departments provided protection for Ho Chi Minh and other CPV leaders in time for September 2, 1945 when independence was declared for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.[4] On February 21, 1945, Ho Chi Minh signed Decree 23, which unified the three bureaus into the Vietnam People’s Police Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.[3] Le Gian served as the first head of the MIA.[3]

The Sub-Ministry of Public Security was established in February 1953 when it was under North Vietnamese control[5] after Ho Chi Minh signed Decree 141/SL.[4] At the time of establishment, it formally had seven departments and divisions.[4] After the Government Council was presided from August 27 to 29 of 1953, the Sub-Ministry was updated to the Ministry of Public Security.[4]

In 1957, it first made official connections to the Stasi, the secret police of the German Democratic Republic.[5] From 1972, Stasi head Erich Mielke provided technical assistance to the MPS in improving its intelligence and surveillance state operations throughout Vietnam, particularly after selected MPS personnel were sent to East Germany for further training.[5]

On 12 June 1981, Decree 250/CP was signed, which defined the mandate of the Ministry of Interior. The Interior Minister then signed Decision 12-QD/BNV to prescribe the powers of the General Department of Police (GDP) with 12 subordinate units.[4]

The Ministry of Public Security received many titles such as Hero of the People's Armed Forces 13 times, Gold Star Order (Vietnam) and 88 Ho Chi Minh Orders.[3]

Controversies

[6] Following the Fall of Saigon, the MPS imprisoned at least 200,000 to 300,000 former South Vietnamese military officers, government employees, and supporters of the former government of South Vietnam in re-education camps,[7] [8] where both physical torture and mental abuse were common.[9] The MPS has also played a role in the surveillance and persecution of dissident poets, writers, and political prisoners, and in the ongoing efforts to repress the Vietnamese democracy movement, especially since the 2006 foundation of Bloc 8406. For example, lawyer and labor union activist Trần Quốc Hiền was sentenced in 2007 to five years imprisonment for "endangering state security", membership in Bloc 8406, and writing online articles titled, "The Tail", which critically described life under MPS surveillance.[10]

Structure

The MPS is structured according to the following as of 2018:

Notes and References

  1. http://www.sice.oas.org/tpd/tpp/Final_Texts/English/VNM_Annex15A.pdf
  2. Web site: Vietnam appoints new public security minister . VnExpress.
  3. Web site: News.
  4. Web site: The Office of Investigation Police Agency Ministry of Public Security Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.
  5. Web site: Stasi Aid and the Modernization of the Vietnamese Secret Police | Wilson Center.
  6. https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/3794136/Nguyen-Quoc-Tan-Trung.pdf
  7. Gareth Porter. Porter. Gareth. Roberts. James. Creating a Bloodbath by Statistical Manipulation: A Review of A Methodology for Estimating Political Executions in Vietnam, 1975–1983, Jacqueline Desbarats; Karl D. Jackson.. 2759306. Pacific Affairs. 61. 2. Summer 1988. 303–310. 10.2307/2759306. At this point, Desbarats and Jackson make a major factual error which makes it even more difficult to make sense of their methodology. They assert that there were one million Vietnamese who experienced incarceration in reeducation camps, based primarily on an alleged admission by then Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, quoted in their unpublished preliminary draft as 'in over three years, I released over a million prisoners from the camps.' But what Dong actually said was rather different, as Desbarats and Jackson confirm in a different version of the article: 'In over three years, we returned to civilian life and to their families more than a million persons who in one way or another had collaborated with the enemy.' The difference between the two translations is important, because Dong was clearly referring to those who were released after only a few days of reeducation in their own home towns—not released from longterm reeducation in distant camps. The actual number of Re-education cam internees, according to both official communist sources and former officials of the regime who later fled to the West, was between 200,000 and 300,000..
  8. Web site: Sagan. Ginetta. Denney. Stephen. Re-education in Unliberated Vietnam: Loneliness, Suffering and Death. The Indochina Newsletter. October–November 1982. 2016-09-01.
  9. From Reeducation Camps to Little Saigons: Historicizing Vietnamese Diasporic Anticommunism. August 1, 2016. Tuan. Hoang. Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 11 . 2 . 43–95 . 10.1525/jvs.2016.11.2.43 . August 18, 2022.
  10. Book: Not yet a workers' paradise: Vietnam's suppression of the independent workers' movement . 2009 . Human Rights Watch . 9781564324764. 24 . 18 January 2012.

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