VN News (Feb. 25-26, 1997)

[vuca@envi.env.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp (Vu Thanh Ca)]

Wednesday - Feb 26, 1997 

Senior Vietnamese party official visits southern China<

BEIJING  (AFP) -- A senior Vietnamese communist party official 
arrived in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou Wednesday for a three-day 
visit, Xinhua reported. 
   Nguyen Tan Dung, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the 
Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), met with Huang Huahua, deputy secretary of 
the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at a 
dinner in his honour, the official news agency said.
   Huang briefed the Vietnamese visitors on the economic and social growth of 
the province in recent years. They also exchanged views on strengthening 
economic cooperation and trade ties between Guangdong province, of which 
Guangzhou is the capital, and Vietnam, it said.
   Nguyen, who came here after touring Beijing and east China's Anhui Province 
and Shanghai, praised Guangdong for its progress in economic reforms and 
expressed his hope of learning from Guangdong's experiences in joint-venture 
management and pilot tests of the share system.
   His trip to the province will include visits to some pilot enterprises for 
the share system and township enterprises around the city of Shunde, it added.

Wednesday - Feb 26, 1997

Vietnam, Cambodia to disuss border dispute 

PHNOM PENH  (Reuter) -- Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam flew into
Cambodia on Wednesday for talks on festering border and immigration disputes 
among other issues, officials said.

The minister was scheduled to meet Cambodian co-premier Prince Norodom
Ranariddh and jointly chair the second meeting of a joint commission with
Cambodian foreign minister Ung Huot on Thursday.

``We will discuss a number of issues on the cooperation between Cambodia
and Vietnam,'' Ung Huot told reporters on Wednesday, citing border issues,
immigration, transport, education, agriculture and trade.

The issue of ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia has long been a source of
friction between the two countries which have experienced troubled
relations for the last 200 years.

Ranariddh, who fought against the 1979-89 Vietnamese military occupation of
Cambodia, has indicated he will take a tough stand on immigration though
the Vietnamese say most settlers in Cambodia have been there for
generations.

Ung Huot said disagreements over the demarcation of the 1,130 km (700 mile)
border could not be solved overnight.

A joint border commission was agreed on during Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo
Van Kiet's visit to Phnom Penh in April last year.

His visit followed allegations by Ranariddh of Vietnamese border violations
and counter charges by Hanoi that have fuelled tensions.

Ranariddh in January last year accused Vietnam of mounting an ``invasion''
by moving border markers hundreds of metres (yards) deeper into Khmer
territory.

Hanoi invaded Cambodia in late 1978 to oust the Khmer Rouge regime under
whose four-year rule more than a million Cambodians died from torture,
overwork, starvation, murder or disease.

The joint commission on bilateral cooperation held its first meeting in
Hanoi in September 1995.

Wednesday - Feb 26, 1997 

Vietnam: Condom shortage as birth rate swells

Population experts are warning of a serious undersupply of condoms as the
country's growth rate continues to spiral far ahead of most of the region.

Latest government figures estimate Vietnam's population at more than 77 million
this year and predict it could reach more than 80 million by the end of the 
decade.
With more than 60 per cent of people under the age of 30, numbers could reach 
between 135 and 140 million before levelling off - even if family planning 
targets are met.

United Nations Population Fund representative Erik Palstra said considerable
efforts were needed to meet Government targets, particularly in the scope and 
reach of family planning practices.
"We are working with the Government to ensure the widest possible choices
are easily available for people . . . at the moment there is not so much
out there," Mr Palstra said.<P>"There is an enormous need to mobilise more
resources for condom procurement," he said. "This is something we are
looking at in some depth."<P>The UN is helping to fund a state firm
producing about 50 million condoms annually, but Mr Palstra said he feared
supplies were not adequate.<P>Smuggling, often of inferior brands, was
rampant to meet demand, he said.<P>Abortion and the IUD (intra-uterine
device) remain the key forms of birth control.<P>In some rural districts,
abortions outnumber live births, Mr Palstra said.<P>Vietnam's birth rate
stands at more than three children on average for every woman.<P>The
Government is slowly seeking to bring the rate down to an average of about
2.1 children per woman by 2005 - at which point the population would not
grow, but merely replace itself. -- SCMP

Wednesday - Feb 26, 1997

UN refugee chief to visit HK Vietnamese boatpeople 

HONG KONG (Reuter) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Sadako Ogata will visit Hong Kong in March to look into the fate of Vietnamese
boatpeople who China wants out of the territory by July.

A spokeswoman from the local UNHCR office said Ogata would visit on March 9 and
10.

Hong Kong has had difficulty in its efforts to empty its refugee camps and 
repatriate thousands of Vietnamese who failed to win recognition as 
international refugees, as well as some who have refugee status but no offers
of resettlement elsewhere.

China is taking the British colony back at midnight on June 30 and insists
that all the Vietnamese must be gone by then.

Hong Kong government refugee coordinator Brian Bresnihan, who retires next
week, admitted to reporters that the pace of repatriating the boatpeople
had been slow.

``This was an extraordinarily difficult problem. It remains an extrememly
difficult problem. And very often the government found itself in a no-win
situation,'' Bresnihan said.

His successor, Sally Wong, said the rate of clearing Hong Kong's refugee
camps depended on Vietnam.

``A lot also depends on the rate of clearance given by the Vietnamese
government. If they provide the clearance fast enough, there's no problem
on our side to repatriate all those people before the deadline,'' she told
reporters.

Ogata also faces the long-unresolved issue of the HK$1 billion (US$129
million) the UNHCR owes to the local government for the cost of running its
refugee operations in the territory.

She is likely to encourage some boatpeople who are resisting repatriation
to return home voluntarily, local newspapers said.

About 5,500 Vietnamese boatpeople remain in Hong Kong, the last of a human
tide of tens of thousands who fled their homeland to Southeast Asian
territories, many aboard flimsy boats, since the communists won the Vietnam
War in 1975.

Most of those still here have been judged to be economic migrants, not
victims of persecution. Hong Kong sent home over 15,000 last year and
around 1,000 so far this year, some voluntarily, some forcibly.

Wednesday - Feb 26, 1997 

Hwang Jang-yop: Vietnam denies reports it was asked to give asylum 

HANOI (AFP) -- Vietnam on Wednesday categorically denied reports 
that it had been asked by Beijing to give asylum to North Korean defector 
Hwang Jang-yop, who has been in the South Korean mission there for two weeks. 

   "The information reported by Kyodo news agency in Beijing which says that 
China asked Vietnam to accept Hwang Jang-yop is totally incorrect," a 
spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

   Citing an unnamed Chinese source, the Japanese news agency reported earlier 
in the day that China had asked the United States if it could accept Hwang 
after having been refused by Hanoi.

   Kyodo also said following Hanoi's refusal the United States was said to be 
ready to accept the defector, whose continued presence in Beijing has become 
increasingly embarassing. This report has not been confirmed by Washington.

   Hwang, the chief ideologue of the Pyongyang regime, created a sensation on 
February 12 when he sought refuge in the South Korean embassy in Beijing after 
a visit to Japan. 

Wednesday - Feb 26, 1997 

Officials powerless to crack down on smuggling

VIETNAM's smuggling trade is booming despite top-level attempts to wipe 
it out, as new figures reveal enforcement authorities are virtually
powerless.
The General Department of Customs says about 95 per cent of alcohol imports
are smuggled - depriving state funds of almost US$100 million 
(HK$773 million) in taxes.

Enforcement agencies on Vietnam's key border crossing into Cambodia say
they can only catch five per cent of all booty moving from Phnom Penh to
the much more tightly controlled market in Ho Chi Minh City.<P>A booming
cigarette trade alone at the Tay Ninh crossing sees more than US$80,000 in
gold flow out of Vietnam daily.<P>"It is time for a major rethink," one
senior Customs source said."There is will from the leaders to stop
smuggling but so far enforcement action is clearly lacking."<P>The problem
is compounded by jungle areas and mountainous borders with China, Cambodia
and Laos, surging consumer demand for luxury goods and a complex tariff
system.<P>The liquor situation is particularly acute, fuelled by foreign
marketing campaigns and growing expatriate demand. Taxes can run as high as
60 per cent on imported alcohol, but just US$5 million of an estimated
US$100 million is collected annually.
-- by Greg Torode (SCMP)

Wednesday - Feb 26, 1997 

Vietnam orders defence upgrade for Saigon

Hanoi (Reuter) -- Authorities in southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, formerly
Saigon, have ordered tightened defence measures, including the demolition 
of houses close to military compounds.

Wednesday's official Saigon Giai Phong newspaper gave no explanation for 
the move but said the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee had detailed 
the measures in instructions sent to local district authorities and 
government agencies.

The newspaper said houses illegally occupying land near military bases 
would be demolished, defence controls upgraded in outlying city districts,
and military service recruitment programmes reorganised to better meet 
conscription targets.

Defence education programmes for schoolchildren and students would also be
expanded and junior cadet programmes launched in military academies, it
said.

Other details were not immediately available.

Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam's economic hub and was the capital of
U.S.-backed South Vietnam prior to the communist victory at the end of the
Vietnam War in 1975.

Hanoi has traditionally viewed the city with suspicion. In June last year,
Vietnam's Communist Party chief, Do Muoi, warned that the freewheeeling
southern metropolis was fertile ground for forces intent on undermining the
communist government.

``The city is...the place hostile forces consider prime ground for peaceful
evolution, causing political disorder, sabotaging the economy, causing
social and cultural pollution, aiming to overthrow the regime established
by great personal sacrifices,'' he said.

Ho Chi Minh City is home to more than four million people.

Tuesday - Feb 25, 1997 

Vietnam plans San Francisco consulate 

SAN JOSE, Calif. (UPI) -- A published report says Vietnam
could open its only American consulate in San Francisco as early as this
summer.

           The San Jose Mercury News reports today (Tuesday) that an
agreementwould allow the United States to open a consulate in Ho Chi Minh
Cityand Vietnam to open one in San Francisco.
           The newspaper quotes an unnamed State Department official as
sayingthe deal is nearly completed.
           Vietnam already has appointed diplomat Nguyen Xuan Phong, a
strongsupporter of Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet's reformist policies, to be
itsconsul general.
           The San Francisco consulate and Vietnam's Washington embassy
would bethe only offices allowed to operate in the United States _ aside
fromthe country's mission to the United Nations in New York.
           The consulate would serve as a liaison to Bay Area
businessesinterested in investing in Vietnam.
           Vietnamese officials promised the consulate to San Francisco in
1994when then-Mayor Frank Jordan visited the country and declared Ho
ChiMinh City a sister city.
           The agreement is not without critics.
           Barry Hung Do, vice president of the Vietnamese Community of
theUnited States, says a consulate in San Francisco will rekindle
anti-communist
feelings.

Tuesday - Feb 25, 1997 

U.S. identifies Vietnam MIAs 

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The Pentagon has identified two of five
U.S. servicemen whose remains were recently recovered in Vietnam.

           Capt. William C. Clay III, a Marine from Henderson, N.C., and
NavyLt. Cmdr. Roger G. Emrich of Miami, were shot down in separate
incidentsalmost 30 years ago, but their remains were only identified in
recentmonths. The names of three Army soldiers who were positively ID'd
havebeen withheld at their families' request.
           Clay was flying a jet over what was then South Vietnam on April
12,1967, when his jet was hit by anti-aircraft fire, exploded and
crashed.Two investigations conducted with Vietnam in 1993 and 1995
wereunsuccessful in locating his remains. But as a U.S. team was leaving
in1995, a local farmer came forward and turned over human remains
andpersonal items. DNA testing helped make a positive identification.
           Emrich, a radar intercept officer, was flying over what was
thenNorth Vietnam on Nov. 17, 1967, when enemy surface-to-air missiles
hithis F-4B Phantom. Search-and-rescue missions were unsuccessful.
Threejoint U.S.-Vietnamese investigations in 1994 and 1995 eventually
foundthe plane's wreckage and Emrich's remains.

           With the identification of these servicemen, 2,128 Americans
remainunaccounted for from the Vietnam War.

Tuesday - Feb 25, 1997 

Vietnam to Integrate With ASEAN Quality, Standards System 

HANOI (Xinhua News) --  Vietnam will further its cooperation
with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members to speed up
its integration with international quality and standards system, the
local media reported today.

Vietnam made the commitment at the ninth session of the ASEAN
Consultative Committee on Standards and Quality (ACCSQ) which convened
in Ho Chi Minh city on Monday.

Vietnamese officials said the meeting was a good opportunity for
Vietnam to further its cooperation with ASEAN members in terms of
standards and quality system.

The three-day meeting drew together the seven ASEAN members -- Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam,
and the three observers -- Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Representatives from ASEAN dialogue partners such as Japan, Australia,
New Zealand and the European Union also attended the meeting.  Enditem