VN news / business news (May 2)

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

May 02: Vietnam's biggest drug trial opens 
May 02: Vietnam-accident : Four die in Vietnam shell blast 
May 02: Vietnam says sea patrol deal reached with Thailand 
May 02: Don't choke on reforms, warns Vietnam official 
May 02: Vietnam journal says foreign firms training spies
May 02: Fire guts 38 homes in Ho Chi Minh City 
May 01: Former POW Now Is First U.S. Ambassador to Modern-Day Vietnam
May 02: Hanoi Bans Some Imports To Balance Trade 


Vietnam's biggest drug trial opens 

By Frederik Balfour

HANOI (AFP) - Vietnam's biggest drugs trafficking trial opened here
Friday with eight senior police officials and 14 others in the dock at
the Hanoi People's Court, sources said.

The trial, which has garnered enormous attention, both in the media
and within a government determined to stamp out drug trafficking,
attracted close to 1,000 people hoping to listen to the proceedings
broadcast by loudspeaker outside the courthouse.

The presiding judge has said that as many as 10 people could face the
death penalty if convicted for their role in a drug trafficking
syndicate, involving more than 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of heroin.

Eight of the defendents are police officers, including an interior
ministry police captain, Vu Xuan Truong, whose wife also faces a
possible death penalty, was arrested in his home with nearly five
kilograms (11 pounds) of heroin and 80,000 dollars.

Truong has promised he would name other individuals from the security
force involved in the case in exchange for leniency for his wife and
brother, who also faces a possible death penalty for trafficking.

The death penalty can be meted out to any person convicted of
possessing at least one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of drugs.

But hundreds of Hanoi residents outside the courthouse who were hoping
to hear the revelations first hand were frustrated by their inability
to follow the proceedings.

"We want loudspeakers! We want loudspeakers!" chanted a handful of men
outside the iron grill of the French-built courthouse as hundreds more
looked on.

"We want to get inside. The National Assembly has been talking about
fighting drugs. I have children. How can I know what to tell them if I
cannot follow the proceedings?" said one of the men.

Another onlooker, a 50-year-old shopkeeper, wearing a Pierre Cardin
shirt, who watched crowd from across the street, expressed his anger
over the absence of loudspeakers to hear the proceedings.

"They said this would be a public trial. But it isn't," he said.

The case dates back to 1995 when Laotian Sieng Pheng and another
Laotian were arrested with 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of heroin. He
earned a last-minute reprieve from the firing squad in exchange for
names of those involved in a massive drugs smuggling ring.

Pheng and two other Laotians were among those on trial Friday.

The case has attracted widespread attention in the media and the need
to clampdown on traffickers in Vietnam has dominated discussions in
the National Assembly which is debating amendments to the criminal
code for tougher penalties.

Vietnam has become an important transshipment point for drugs being
moved from the Golden Triangle area of Laos, Burma and Thailand
through to the west. The Vietnamese government has increased its
efforts to stem the trade.

Presiding judge Dang Minh Ngoc said earlier this week that the case
involved the largest and most organised drug trafficking ring to
operate in Vietnam.

He alleged the group had good links with different officials within
the Ministry of Interior and among border officials and police, whose
cars were used to transport drugs from the frontier to Hanoi.

Interior Minister Le Minh Huong has promised a clean trial, according
to the Lao Dong newspaper.

"Those who have committed crimes will receive equal treatment whether
they hold in a high or low position," he was quoted as saying.

The foreign press has been barred from attending the trial. Access to
the trial held in the French-built municipal courthouse across the
street from the former "Hanoi Hilton" prison was tightly controlled by
both uniformed and plainclothed policemen, witnesses said.

The trial is expected to last 10 days. In all, 40 people have been
arrested in connection with the case, but the remaining 18 people will
go on trial at a later date pending further investigations, court
officials have said.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam-accident : Four die in Vietnam shell blast 

HANOI (AFP) - Four people were killed when a shell exploded at the
home of a scrap metal trader in central Vietnam, reports here said
Friday.

The explosion took place Tuesday in Quang Nam province as a man was
sawing through the 105-millimeter (4.2 inch) shell to remove the
explosive, the Lao Dong newspaper reported.

Police later seized 105 similar shells from the same house, the report
said.

Hundreds of people are killed here every year by explosives left over
from the Vietnam War.

Many people from poor rural areas collect the explosives for scrap and
set them off by mistake.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam says sea patrol deal reached with Thailand 

Hanoi (Reuter) - Vietnam and Thailand have agreed to form joint sea
patrols in areas of the Gulf of Thailand where the two countries have
overlapping maritime claims, the official Vietnam News Agency said on
Friday.

VNA said the agreement had been reached during recent talks in Bangkok
and was aimed at maintaining peace and order. It said full details
remain to be worked out but the patrols were expected to begin in
October.

Vietnam and Thailand hold competing claims to an area of some 6,000 sq
km (2,300-miles) in the gulf where their continental shelves overlap.
The area is believed to contain mineral riches.

Naval and fishing vessels have clashed in the area on several
occasions and fishermen and their boats have been detained.

No fishermen are currently being held, but Thai officials said in
March that Vietnam was still holding 18 fishing vessels which it
wanted returned.

The two countries failed to resolve differences over the issue during
a recent visit by the Thai Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh.

Relations between the two Southeast Asian countries have warmed since
Vietnam joined the Association of South East Asian Nations regional
grouping in 1995.
                 ___________________________________


Don't choke on reforms, warns Vietnam official 

Hanoi (Reuter) - A senior official in southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh
City warned hardline conservatives on Friday that blaming market
reform policies for the country's woes was like someone choking on a
fishbone blaming the fish.

In an unusually frank speech marking the 22nd anniversary this week of
the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War, acting Mayor Vo Viet
Thanh said people highlighting the ills of the reform process were
overlooking the importance of building Vietnam's economy.

``Of course during the process of developing a market economy there
will be some hitches in certain fields,'' he was quoted by the
official Saigon Giai Phong newspaper as saying.

``When people are enjoying rice they might choke. When eating fish,
they might swallow a bone. Should rice and fish be given up because of
that?'' he said.

Rice and fish form the basis of Vietnam's traditional diet.

Thanh said the government was right to focus on the need to stamp out
corruption, but said this should not be allowed to detract from an
issue which was as critical to Vietnam as defeating foreign aggressors
had been during the war.

``The humiliation of being poor, backward and underdeveloped in
comparison with other countries and nations is not less than the
humiliation of losing the country and becoming slaves,'' he said.

Vietnam introduced capitalist-style reforms in the late 1980s in place
of a failed command-led system, sparking a rapid economic takeoff and
bringing new wealth to many of the country's 77 million citizens.

But the past two years has been characterised by growing questioning
of the merits of the reform process as the country's communist
leadership digests some of the unpalatable side-effects of its
policies.

Thanh said development of local enterprises would depend on people
having incentives to improve their earnings. He called on Vietnamese
across the political spectrum to unite to help the country move
forward.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam journal says foreign firms training spies

Hanoi (Reuter) - An official Vietnamese journal warned on Friday that
unnamed hostile forces were seeking to turn local staff working for
foreign companies into spies.

A signed commentary in the Ho Chi Minh City Police magazine said some
Vietnamese nationals who worked for foreign firms were being sent on
overseas training courses where they were being taught
intelligence-gathering skills.

``Through relations with Vietnamese citizens they select and recruit
people with good conditions to work for them, invite them to go
abroad, seduce them with material benefits, and after they agree to
cooperate they train them with intelligence skills,'' it said.

The paper added that these trained Vietnamese staff were then being
sent back to Vietnam to open limited companies and build relationships
with officials in order to find out state secrets.

``This is one of the most dangerous tricks of the foreign hostile
forces. They try to take advantage of economic activities to sabotage
our country in both the short- and long-term,'' it said.

The commentary reflects concern among Vietnamese hardliners over
problems associated with the country's open-door policy, introduced
along with economic reforms in the late 1980s.

Vietnamese officials have warned over the past 18 months that the
country is under threat from groups seeking to undermine its communist
government through a process of peaceful evolution.

A newspaper commentary last year warned that even the backpacker
tourists that flock to Vietnam could be spies in disguise.

A number of foreign companies in Vietnam offer overseas training to
local staff, many of whom are recruited because of advanced language
and other skills.

Analysts say Vietnam's policymakers are split over the question of how
far the country's reforms should go.

A Ho Chi Minh City official warned on Friday that blaming the reforms
for the country's woes was like choking on fish and rice and then
blaming the meal.

Fish and rice form the basis of Vietnam's traditional diet.
                 ___________________________________

Fire guts 38 homes in Ho Chi Minh City 

HANOI (AP) -- A fire that burned out of control for three hours
destroyed 38 homes in a southern district of Ho Chi Minh City,
official media reported Friday.

Fifty-five firefighters and 13 engines were required to bring the fire
under control, state-run Labor newspaper reported.

Flames rising through the area could be seen for miles, the report
said. Another 20 homes were damaged from fire, smoke and water during
the Thursday blaze.

A second fire swept through another suburb of Ho Chi Minh City on
Thursday, destroying several shops and a storage building, the
newspaper said.
                 ___________________________________


Former POW Now Is First U.S. Ambassador to Modern-Day Vietnam

By Elsa Arnett, Tallahassee Democrat, Fla.
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News

WASHINGTON -- With a daunting agenda that includes reaching trade
agreements with Hanoi and clearing away lingering concerns about
missing U.S. servicemen, former prisoner of war Pete Peterson was
sworn in Tuesday to be the first U.S. ambassador to the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam.

The former Democratic congressman from Marianna, who was shot down
near Hanoi and held captive for six-and-a-half years, took part in an
emotional ceremony in the ornate Benjamin Franklin Room at the top of
the State Department.

He was joined by more than a hundred friends, including some cellmates
from Vietnam, congressional colleagues, and several lawmakers who had
vigorously opposed sending an ambassador to Vietnam.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presided over the ceremony and
said Peterson "is an outstanding person who will inaugurate a new
chapter in the history of the U.S. and Vietnam."

Though Albright said the United States still has concerns about human
rights and religious freedoms in Vietnam, she said the country has
moved steadily toward greater openness over the years through its
participation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"This is one of the best days for both of our countries," said Ha Huy
Thong, charge d'affaires for the Embassy of Vietnam in Washington, who
said he has worked on securing full diplomatic relations with the
United States for more than 16 years.

With his son Mike, a defense contractor from Jacksonville, holding the
Bible, Peterson took the oath of office and afterwards said, "Vietnam
has seen me at my very worst, and frankly I've seen them at their very
worst. Now we can reengage and see each other at our very best."

Preparing for his departure for Vietnam on Friday, Peterson said his
main objective is to secure more information about missing U.S.
servicemen in Southeast Asia.

Referring to several members of Congress who had opposed the
nomination until nearly the last moment because of doubts about
Vietnam's cooperation on those issues, Peterson said, "The work you've
done gives us a message we will never forget. I will never forget
those who fell in the battlefield in Vietnam."

Standing in the audience, Sen. Robert Smith, R-N.H., one of the most
vocal critics of normalizing relations, applauded Peterson's comments.
Smith said he ultimately supported the nomination after Peterson and
others assured him that they were committed to the POW-MIA issue.

"Ambassador Peterson has all the credentials in the world to be there
to get answers," Smith said.

Some of the sticking points in normalizing relations include
negotiating the details of trade agreements, which have proceeded
slowly.

The United States currently is awaiting Hanoi's response to a draft
agreement that proposes to reduce Vietnam's tariffs, end export
licenses and simplify government approvals. These kinds of agreements
are needed to lay the groundwork for U.S. businesses to profit from
what they predict will be a lucrative market.

Before trade deals are finalized, the United States must also address
issues such as how Vietnam will deal with the fate of boat people who
remain in surrounding Asian nations.

Though many analysts were hopeful about the improvement in relations,
they also expressed some caution about the overall climate there.

"Vietnam has showed it's trying to change its economic system, but
that doesn't mean its political system will change in the near
future," said David Brown, senior associate at the Asia Pacific Policy
Center, a Washington-based foreign policy think tank.

At the ceremony, Peterson was surrounded by many well-wishers from the
Sunshine State. Florida State University President Sandy D'Alemberte
described Peterson as an "international figure of reconciliation."

Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, who succeeded Peterson in Congress
representing the Tallahassee area, and who served a year in Vietnam as
a rifle platoon leader, said he hopes Peterson's presence in Vietnam
will help Americans think of Vietnam more as a country and less as a
war.

Tom Pyle, Peterson's neighbor in Marianna, who was also a cellmate in
Hanoi, said, "It's great to look at the POWs who have come back -- all
continue to contribute and look for challenges in their lives."
                 ___________________________________

Hanoi Bans Some Imports To Balance Trade 

Hanoi (DJ) -- The government is temporarily barring the import of some
construction materials and consumer goods in order to reduce Vietnam's
trade deficit, a state-controlled newspaper reported Friday.

Some paper products, including newsprint, steel rods, industrial glass
and cement will all be placed on the import moratorium list, the
English-language Saigon Times Daily reported.

Also included on the list are electric fans, some luxury automobiles
and motorbikes, the Ministry of Trade was quoted as saying.

Through the first four months of the year, Vietnam's trade deficit
topped about $960 million - down from about $1.4 billion during the
same period last year.

Still, Vietnam hopes to cut the trade gap by increasing exports and
promoting domestic goods at home.

More than 94% of all imports are production materials, Trade Ministry
figures show. The remaining 6% of imports are consumer goods.