Nguyen Dan Que
| Nguyen Dan Que | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 1942 Hanoi, Vietnam |
| Residence | Saigon, Vietnam |
| Nationality | Vietnamese |
| Occupation | endocrinologist |
| Known for | democracy activism, repeated imprisonment |
| Awards |
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award (1995) Certificate of Distinction in Civil Courage (2004) |
Nguyen Dan Que, M.D. (Vietnamese: Nguyễn Đan Quế; born April 1942) is a Vietnamese endocrinologist and pro-democracy activist in Saigon. He was imprisoned from 1978-1988, 1990-1998, 2003–2005, and briefly in 2011 on state security charges related to his activism. In 2003, The New York Times described him as "Vietnam's most renowned dissident".
Que was born in April 1942 in Hanoi in northern Vietnam, then occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army. His family, including his mother and five siblings immigrated to Saigon after the Geneva Accords, fleeing communist rule in North Vietnam. He received an M.D. from Saigon University at age 22. In the 1960s and early 70s, he trained in Europe on a United Nations scholarship, specializing in radiotherapy.
In 1974, he joined the teaching staff at Saigon University, and the following year became the director of Cho-Ray Hospital. He had the opportunity to leave the country but chose to stay to provide medical care to the poor. However, he was removed from his post one year later for criticizing the communist regime's discriminatory health care policy. He then formed the pro-democracy group National Front for Progress. He also became Amnesty International's first member in Vietnam and began publishing two underground newspapers, "The Uprising" (Vung Day) for youth and "The People’s Uprising" (Toan Dan Vung Day) for the general public, to question the government’s violations of basic human rights and to demand that the government reduce military spending and invest in the welfare of the people. In 1978, he was arrested for his continued critique of national health care policy, along with 47 associates, and imprisoned without trial; many were tortured and five died in captivity. When Dr. Que demanded improvement in the treatment of political prisoners, he was incarcerated in a five-by-six foot cell without sanitary facilities for two months. He was sentenced for 10 years imprisonment.
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