VN news (Apr 28)

[Dam Son <son@fermi.phys.washington.edu>]

April 28: Vietnam ideologue calls for closer police, military ties 
April 28: Hanoi Spy To Miss Reunion 
April 28: Vietnam cop vows to tell all at drugs trial
April 28: Vietnam-Nike : Employees stage work stoppage at Vietnam Nike supplier
April 28: Vietnam: Nation now major heroin exporter 
April 27: Conference on Russian-Vietnamese relations held in Moscow. 


Vietnam ideologue calls for closer police, military ties 

Hanoi (dpa) - One of Vietnam's top military officers - and its chief
political guardian - has called for closer cooperation between the
defence forces and police for the sake of maintaining security,
according to local media reports Monday.

Le Kha Phieu, a Defence Ministry political commissar, and a key member
of the ruling Politburo, made the appeal in ``fraternal talks'' with
senior interior ministry officials during celebrations connected with
the 50th anniversary of the police, the reports said.

``In order to meet the target of a prosperous and secured society, the
leaders of the [Interior] Ministry and the [Communist] Party chapter
must thoroughly comprehend all the points of view of the party and its
political tasks,'' reported the People's Police, the national police
newspaper.

``Clarifying the function of each unit and maintaining close
cooperation with the People's Army ... is the prime task of the police
force,'' the reported added.

Phieu made his appearance on behalf of the Politburo, where he has
overall responsiblity for national secuirty, including internal
political control.

There have long been tensions between the police and the military, the
two most powerful ministries, and in recent years analysts say the
military has become more powerful at the expense of the police.

Analysts say this is partly because the ruling Communist Party has
concluded, based on experiences that rocked Eastern Europe after the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, that the army is the best
guarantor for its continued rule.

The police have also suffered from more pervasive corruption in its
ranks and from widespread public resentment for street-level
harassment.

The rivalry betweeen the two uniformed services is most obviously
played out on the streets when police stop military officers for
traffic infractions, usually prompting an argument.

But in recent soldiers weilding AK-47s have been noticed mixed in with
traffic police units around the capital, apparently an attempt to ease
this fault line - as was Phieu's call for closer cooperation.
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Hanoi Spy To Miss Reunion 

NEW YORK (AP) -- A correspondent in wartime Saigon who was a spy for
Hanoi even as he was earning his peers' respect for his insight and
sources will be unable to attend a reunion of journalists and
diplomats to discuss the legacy of Vietnam, The New York Times
reported today.

The Vietnamese government has denied him an exit visa, organizers of
the reunion told the Times.

Pham Xuan An was so well-connected during the war that Time magazine,
for whom he worked for a decade, made him a full staff correspondent,
the only Vietnamese to be given such a position with a major news
organization.

When Saigon was falling in 1975, he risked his life to get his family
and Vietnamese who worked for American news organizations out on the
last helicopter from the roof of the U.S. Embassy.

Although some colleagues felt betrayed when they found out his secret
role as a colonel in the North Vietnamese army, others still regard
him as a friend and say they understand his dilemma.

``An was torn between two loyalties,'' said Stanley Karnow, a 1990
Pulitzer Prize winner for his book, ``In Our Image: America's Empire
in the Philippines.'' ``His loyalty in the case of America was to his
colleagues. His loyalty to Vietnam was to his nation.''

``It tore him up,'' said Frank McCullough, then Time's Saigon bureau
chief. ``But I've never resented it. If circumstances had been
reversed ... I'd probably have done the same thing.''

An, 69, a retired general in Ho Chi Minh city, had accepted the
invitation to today's event at the Asia Society, telling organizers in
a letter that he felt his attendance would help heal mental and
physical wounds of the war.
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Vietnam cop vows to tell all at drugs trial

Hanoi (Reuter) - A Vietnamese police captain facing trial on
drug-trafficking charges has vowed to expose some ``extremely
important people'' during the hearing this week in Hanoi, a newspaper
said on Monday.

``In the court, I will declare who has betrayed me and also I will
expose some extremely important people...'' the Lao Dong newspaper
quoted Interior Ministry Captain Vu Xuan Truong as telling
investigators ahead of the May 2 trial.

Accepting that he could face a firing squad, Truong said he would
reveal the information in exchange for an amnesty from a death
sentence for his wife and brother, who also stand accused.

Truong also said he wanted an assurance that his body would be
cremated after his death.

Twenty-two people, including 11 police officers and border guards,
will be in the dock of the Hanoi People's Court on Friday for a
hearing that is expected to last 10 days.

The scandal dates back to January 1995, when two Laotian nationals
were arrested in Vietnam after they were found in possession of 15 kg
(33 pounds) of heroin.

Drug experts say one kilogram of heroin would sell wholesale for
$50,000 in New York, one of the growing destinations for heroin
smuggled through Vietnam from the region's notorious Golden Triangle.

One of the Laotians, Sieng Pheng, earned a last-minute reprieve from
execution in return for information that led to the arrest of about 30
people.

Pheng said the heroin found under the seats and inside the doors of
his car was just part of his delivery and that more had been concealed
in a false bottom of the car's fuel tank.

Five police officers, including Truong, were charged with stealing the
drugs after the fuel tank was found to be empty.

The country's newspapers have reported widely on the case. Although
none has openly said that more senior officials were involved, many
have questioned how Truong could have acted as he did for so long with
impunity.

The Saigon Giai Phong newpaper said a Vietnamese-Canadian woman
recently sentenced to death for heroin trafficking could be linked to
the same drug-smuggling syndicate.

The trial's presiding judge said in an interview that more than 10
people may be sentenced to death.

``...if it can be fully proven during the trial process, then more
than 10 offenders may be sentenced to death,'' Dang Minh Ngoc told the
Thanh Nien newspaper.
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Vietnam-Nike : Employees stage work stoppage at Vietnam Nike
supplier 

HANOI (AFP) - About 800 employees staged a work stoppage for several
hours at a Nike supplier in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City over the
weekend to protest their contracts, a factory manager said on Monday.

Park Hyun Tae, general director at Korean-owned Sam Yang Company told
AFP that "there was some small struggle" at the plant, but denied
press reports of a massive strike involving more than 3,000 workers.

All workers had returned to work Monday, he said.

According to the Lao Dong newspaper, workers on April 25 walked off
the job to protest labour conditions and accused management of
behaving "arrogantly" in contract negotiations.

The officia labour newspaper also reported that when workers demanded
a meeting with management, they were instead locked into a dining
hall.

Park, who was reached by telephone, flatly denied the press reports,
and said that labour representatives met with management in a
boardroom to discuss their grievances.

Labour officials said Sam Yang was strong-arming employees into
signing the contracts, according to Lao Dong. Sam Yang does not have
unions, and each worker signs an individual contract.

Park acknowledged that management was negotiating new labour contracts
with workers, but denied heavy handed methods.

"Nobody here makes less than the 45 dollar a month minimum, and we
proposed an 8.6 percent wage increase after one year," he said.

Nike officials could not be reached for comment.

The incident at Sam Yang is the latest headache for Nike, whose
suppliers in Vietnam have been embroiled in a number of labour
problems.

In April 1996 Sam Yang hit the news when a Korean supervisor slapped
15 Vietnamese workers on the side of the head with a shoe upper as
punishment for poor quality.

In order to make sure its suppliers toe the line, Nike appointed a
dedicated labour practices manager in Vietnam to help oversee the
roughly 35,000 workers turning out products made exclusively for Nike.

But problems have continued. In March a Taiwanese supervisor at Nike
supplier Pou Chen Shoe Factory was suspended after forcing 56 women to
run around the factory floor.

Earlier this month Nike's director of communications for the Asia
Pacific Region Martha Benson flew into Vietnam from Hong Kong just
days after a New York-based Labour activist group highlighted low pay
and instances of corporal punishment at two of Nike's subcontracters
in Southern Vietnam.

"We have had production managers who are Nike employees working in the
factories (in Vietnam) since day one. But we recognise the need to
increase the level of oversight, especially in working conditions and
labour practices" Benson told AFP by telephone from Ho Chi Minh City
at the time.
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Vietnam: Nation now major heroin exporter 

By GREG TORODE in Hanoi

Large quantities of heroin are moving out of Vietnam to China for the
first time, in a sign of Hanoi's growing role as an international
smuggling centre.

Police and foreign diplomats are working for closer co-operation on
the border to stop the trend, which has so far seen as many as 30
Vietnamese traffickers arrested in China.

Traditionally, Vietnam's heroin has trickled in from China but the
market has now become so flooded with the drug from other sources that
traffickers have turned the country into a major exporter, police
sources said.

The new trade points to the success of routes - some assisted by
senior Vietnamese police - bringing massive quantities of heroin from
the Golden Triangle through Laos and into Vietnam by road.

The mountainous province of Quang Ninh on Vietnam's northeastern coast
is now seen as the hub for the new China trade, fuelled by a myriad of
land and sea crossings.

Traffickers have jumped on relaxed immigration rules at the Mong Cai
border gate that allow as many as 1,500 traders to cross with day
passes. Enforcement is weak and smuggling rampant but further
relaxations are planned, with Mong Cai earmarked for eventual special
economic zone status.

Like Hanoi, the streets of Quang Ninh's villages and towns are awash
with high-grade heroin cheaper than anywhere else in the world.

The headmaster of one primary school has reportedly built a large wall
around his classrooms to keep dealers, who spike candy and ice cream
with the drug, at bay.

"The heroin situation is now so active and fluid in Vietnam that we
are seeing the creation of entirely new routes and syndicates," one
source said.

"Unless firm action is taken now, these new players will be extremely
hard to break down and could become major international players in the
future."

The news comes ahead of the start this week of Vietnam's biggest-ever
drug trial - a case which could see at least 27 people sentenced to
death.

Some 40 people will appear following the arrest of several senior
federal police within Vietnam's powerful Interior Ministry for
involvement in a ring that smuggled an estimated 300 kilograms of
heroin to Hanoi.

The arrests were sparked by a "gallows confession" from a convicted
Laotian trafficker about to face a Vietnamese firing squad.

Sieng Pheng was given a reprieve by the Office of the President as
sweeping internal investigations began, and is expected to appear in
court under heavy police protection. -- SCMP

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Conference on Russian-Vietnamese relations held in Moscow.

MOSCOW (Itar-Tass) - The Russian Society for Friendship with Vietnam
held a conference "Vietnam Today. Russian-Vietnamese Relations at the
Current Stage" in Moscow on Friday.

Participants in the conference dwelt on the major events in Vietnam's
recent history and the development of the Russian- Vietnamese
relations.

Since 1991, the two countries have signed 17 new agreements, including
a treaty on the principles of the bilateral relations.

Participants in the conference expressed confidence in that
cooperation between the two states will develop successfully.
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