VN news (Apr 29-30)

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

April 30: 6 Vietnamese arrested for stealing motorcycles 
April 30: Anniversary of fall of Saigon passes quietly in Vietnam
April 29: Vietnamese Newspaper Highlights - April 29, 1997 
April 29: Hanoi anxious over build-up in Spratlys 
April 29: Vietnam PM Urges Cities, Private Sector On Waste Programs
April 29: 1st U.S. ambassador to Vietnam sworn in
April 29: Vietnam: N.Korea Rejects Rice Gift 
April 29: Nike Offers Pay Rise At Vietnam Factory
April 29: Vietnamese fishermen in two trawlers detained 
April 29: Seven women die in pregnancy or child birth daily in Vietnam


6 Vietnamese arrested for stealing motorcycles 

Japan Economic Newswire

CHIBA, Japan -- Six Vietnamese have been arrested on suspicion of
robbery in Chiba Prefecture and Tokyo and keeping stolen goods for the
purpose of exporting them to Vietnam, police said Wednesday.

Police said Pham Van Canh, 35, an apprentice carpenter, stole a mini
motorcycle from a parking lot in Itabashi Ward in Tokyo on April 1.

Bui Thi Thoa, 34, Canh's wife and a curio dealer, and five others
allegedly kept 58 stolen motorcycles in a warehouse in Otaki, Chiba
Prefecture on April 11, police said.

Since August last year, Thoa has allegedly exported more than 1,000
stolen motorcycles to Vietnam through a trading company run by a
Vietnamese refugee, police said.
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Anniversary of fall of Saigon passes quietly in Vietnam

HANOI (AFP) - Saigon fell 22 years ago Wednesday, but the people of
the city seemed more concerned with enjoying a public holiday than
with any outpouring of rememberances.

And in the capital Hanoi, embassy workers were scrambling to make
preparations for the arrival of Douglas "Pete" Peterson on May 9, the
first US ambassador to Hanoi.

The normally cacaphonic streets of the former Saigon, Ho Chi Minh
City, were quieter than usual on Wednesday, with all government
offices and businesses closed, and city dwellers taking advantage of
the two-day holiday to visit the countryside or the beach.

"The place is completely dead," said one Canadian expatriate.

May 1 is also a national holiday in observation of International
Labour Day.

A mass meeting was held in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday to commemerate
both holidays, attended by wartime hero General Vo Nguyen Giap and
Truong Tan Sang, secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee,
and Hoang Thi Khanh, president of the city's Federation of Labour.

A speech given by acting city mayor Vo Viet Thanh spent as much time
praising the city's economic achievements as it did on recalling the
great victory, the official Vietnam News Agency reported.

Early on Wednesday morning the military held a parade in Ho Chi Minh
city, but the streets were quiet by mid morning, observers said.

One Asian expatriate who was mistaken for a local was told by police
to put up a flag in front of her house to commemorate the two-day
holiday.

Newspapers Wednesday contained articles commemerating the end of the
Vietnam war, and featured photographs of the North Vietnamese tank
crashing through the gates of the former presidential palace in Ho Chi
Minh City marking the end of 30 years of warfare.

National television stations also carried footage of the final chaotic
days of Saigon in April 1975, and radio stations have been
broadcasting nationalistic songs.

The Quan Doi Nhan Dan newspaper carried the reminiscences of Hoang
Dan, the general responsible for the capture of Hue and Danang in
March 1975, a turning point in the war that would last only another
two months.

US forces had withdrawn from Vietnam two years earlier after the
signing of the Paris Accords but the rapidity of the war's endgame
caught the remaining American personnel by surprise.

The last US officials flew out from helicopters from the roof of the
US embassy in Saigon, their chaotic departure becoming an emblem of
their defeat. Today the building stands unused, dwarfed by spanking
new hi-rises.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnamese Newspaper Highlights - April 29, 1997 

HANOI (VNA) - Highlights of Vietnam's daily newspapers today:

NHAN DAN:

1. The National Assembly deputies yesterday passed the corporate
income tax law.

2. The Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) in coordination with Radio
'Voice of Vietnam' today are to conduct a direct broadcasting bridge
from Hanoi to Japanese people.

VIETNAM NEWS:

1. The Vietnamese government has instructed State-owned food companies
to buy one million tonnes of unhusked rice in the Mekong delta to
address falling prices which are causing many farmers financial loss.

2. The Ministry of Labour, War Invalid and Social Affairs has issued a
circular to reduce working hours to six from eight hours a day for
labourers working in polluted and dangerous industrial environments.

HANOI MOI:

1. Hanoi yesterday held a grand meeting to mark the 22nd anniversary
of the Liberation of South Vietnam (April 30) and May Day in the
presence of Party General secretary Do Muoi and President Le Duc Anh.
                 ___________________________________


Hanoi anxious over build-up in Spratlys

GREG TORODE in Hanoi
South China Morning Post

Vietnam is nervously eyeing an apparent increase in Chinese military
surveillance around the Spratly Islands.

Planes have been spotted flying low over the area, apparently working
with fleets of communication ships.

"There has been a definite build-up over the last month and we don't
know what is behind it," one official on the Vietnamese Government's
Continental Shelf Committee said.

"We can only hope this won't be the start of anything which could
threaten the peace and stability of the area."

China's presence appeared to be orchestrated through the use of fleets
of large fishing boats equipped for communications patrol work,
sources said.

A group of smaller fishing vessels was recently seized off the central
Vietnamese port of Danang and 65 Chinese sailors remain in detention
for illegal trawling. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said they would be
dealt with under international law.

Vietnam and China are the only two states to claim the entire Spratly
archipelago, in the South China Sea, which is also contested in part
by Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

Vietnam and China are understood to hold the most extensive military
presences across the group, with Hanoi occupying more islands and
reefs than any other state.

Vietnam's latest concerns were put aside during annual bilateral
meetings in Hanoi last week aimed at easing simmering tensions.

Sources close to the talks said both sides reaffirmed their rival
claims but also took the first steps to examine co-operation in
"non-threatening" areas such as the environment, navigation and
anti-piracy measures.

"Any joint efforts are frankly a long way off," one Vietnamese source
said.

"But we both made the first steps in trying to co-operate in fields
where we can . . . surely that is a good way to achieve a lasting
peace."

Vietnam also claims the Paracels group to the north, but has not held
any land there since its forces were driven out by the Chinese in
1974. However, Vietnamese naval patrols through the islands are
understood to be frequent.

Tensions escalated last month when China installed a gas exploration
rig in seas off the Paracels, 65 nautical miles off Vietnam's central
coast.

Vietnam issued shrill international protests but failed to obtain any
Chinese apology during emergency talks in Beijing earlier this month.

China removed the Kan Tan III platform shortly before the talks.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam PM Urges Cities, Private Sector On Waste Programs 

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam's Prime Minister has called on private
organisations to take part in the treatment of waste, especially in
urban areas.

Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet also requested that all cities and
provinces apply new technologies in collecting, transporting and
treating solid waste.

Lax management of solid waste in Vietnam has over the years has
increased environmental pollution, which is now threatening most large
urban areas.

The PM has instructed the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of
Science, Technology and Environment, the Ministry of Health and the
Ministry of Industry to soon issue circulars and regulations on the
management of solid waste and the disposal of noxious substances.
                 ___________________________________


1st U.S. ambassador to Vietnam sworn in 

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has sworn in
former Congressman and prisoner of war Pete Peterson as the first
American ambassador to Communist Vietnam.

U.S. officials hope the posting of Peterson, whose nomination was held
up for months by senators opposed to normalizing relations, will help
put ties on even footing and pave the way for progress on human rights
reform, trade and the search for remains of Americans missing since
the war.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns says, ``The relationship
still has a long way to go, and we think Congressman Peterson will
help a lot.

He told reporters before the ceremony, which was closed to the press,
that Vietnam needs to do ``much more'' to help in the search for
American remains. And Burns says there are ``human rights problems''
in Vietnam that ``disturb'' the Clinton administration.

The Pentagon says 2,127 U.S. soldiers are still missing from the war,
which claimed nearly 58,000 American and more than 300,000 Vietnamese
lives.

Peterson, 61, is a former Democratic House member who served in the
Air Force for 26 years. He was shot down near Hanoi on his 67th combat
mission over Vietnam and spent six years in a prisoner of war camp.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam: N.Korea Rejects Rice Gift 

By IAN STEWART
Associated Press Writer

HANOI -- Impoverished North Korea has rejected an offer of free rice
from Hanoi and also will not allow Vietnam to settle a debt with food,
a Vietnamese official said today.

Despite serious food shortages, the communist North appears to be
squandering opportunities for aid and support from one of the few
countries it has left to turn to.

North Korea, which aid officials say could face a famine in coming
months, sent Deputy Prime Minister Kong Chin-tae to Hanoi earlier in
April to appeal for 30,000 tons of rice on credit, a Finance Ministry
official said.

But Vietnam balked when Pyongyang insisted on dictating the terms of
the aid, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Vietnam then proposed paying off an earlier debt to Pyongyang with an
undisclosed amount of rice. But North Korea demanded hard currency
instead, the official said.

When those talks broke down, Hanoi offered Kong about 2,000 tons of
rice as a gift. The offer was refused, the Finance Ministry official
said.

Vietnam is trying to maintain ties to the North, an old communist
friend, while nurturing a new partnership with the South, one of
Hanoi's largest investors.
                 ___________________________________


Nike Offers Pay Rise At Vietnam Factory 

The Asian Wall Street Journal

Hanoi -- Labor leaders at a factory in southern Vietnam that makes
apparel and footwear for Nike Inc. of the U.S. have negotiated a 5%
pay increase in a new contract that awaits full staff approval, Nike
said.

Employees at the South Korean-owned Sam Yang Co. factory have until
the end of the week to ratify the new one-year contract, which aims to
avert further labor action by the factory's trade-union
representatives. Sam Yang is one of five Nike subcontractors in
Vietnam.

As many as 3,000 employees walked out for one day last week to protest
attempts to force them to sign an unratified contract.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnamese fishermen in two trawlers detained

The New Straits Times

KUCHING, Mon. - Marine police detained 21 Vietnamese fishermen for
allegedly fishing in the 320km Exclusive Economic Zone on Saturday.

The two trawlers were also seized from them. The fishermen were aged
between 19 and 50.

Police are awaiting instructions from the Immigration Department for
further action.

Sergeant Major Lau Pang Sang, who led a team of eight personnel for
the operation codenamed "Operasi Datu", told reporters today that the
two boats were spotted at 23 nautical miles off the coast of Tanjung
Datu in Lundu district.

Among the items seized from the two boats were sharks, dried fish and
a 1.5m-long dolphin.
Caption: Big haul ... Lau and Sergeant Abdul Kadir with the dolphin
seized from one of the trawlers.
                 ___________________________________


Seven women die in pregnancy or child birth daily in Vietnam

Hanoi (dpa) - Seven Vietnamese women a day or around 2,500 a year are
dying in maternal-related deaths every year, according to the United
Nations, which told the Hanoi government Tuesday it was high time to
step up efforts to reduce the high rate.

Despite socialist Vietnam's widespread reputation of having built up
an impressive health care system, the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) noted that 75 per cent of the country's women still do not
receive maternal care.

The Vietnamese government declared in 1990 that the maternal mortality
rate should be reduced from 160 to 70 deaths per 100,000 live births
by the year 2000.

``Despite the lack of official data, it seems that no progress has
been made in seven years,'' noted an unusually blunt UNICEF press
release.

``It is time for the government to give much stronger priority, in
terms of human and financial investments, on safe motherhood if the
target is to be reached,'' it added.

The release, which was based on findings presented at a recent
national workshop on the isue said the problem was particularly acute
in mountainous areas where most of the country's 12 million ethnic
minorities live.

At least 80 per cent of minority women deliver their babies at home,
where there are inadequate facilities.

UNICEF said haemorrhage, unsafe abortions and sepsis (toxins in the
blood) were the immediate causes of the high rate of maternal deaths.

UNICEF said it was concentrating its efforts on basic training of
midwives and ethnic minority women.

``What we need today are not words but actions,'' said UNICEF's
representative Rima Salah told the conference attended by 100
representativs from around the country.
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