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VN News (May 22, 1997)
May 22: Ambassador to Vietnam pushes for early opening of US consulate
May 22: Vietnamese leader arrives in Burma, flouts U.S. sanctions
May 22: U.N. drug expert tells Vietnam to target youth demand
May 22: Vietnam: communist, but seeking trade
May 22: New U.S. envoy backs Vietnam's reform
May 22: U.N.: Vietnam faces uphill drug battle
May 22: Vietnam protests over slayings in Cambodia
May 22: Burma salutes Vietnam party chief
May 22: U.S. envoy to Vietnam unveils familiar agenda
May 22: U.N. urges Vietnam to act on drugs threat
May 21: Vietnam Newspaper Highlights - May 21, 1997
Thursday - May 22, 1997
Ambassador to Vietnam pushes for early opening of US consulate
Hanoi (AFP) - US ambassador to Vietnam Douglas "Pete"
Peterson said on Thursday he hopes to open the US consulate in Ho
Chi Minh City as quickly as possible.
<P>"I have asked for the reallocations of funds (from Congress) and
hopefully they will give notice at some juncture. Probably within
one month or so," the former prisoner of war (POW) told reporters.
<P>Speaking at his first press conference since officially assuming
his duties as Washington's first ambassador to Hanoi, Peterson
pointed out that at least 75 percent of US commercial interests and
70 percent of its consular activities occur in Ho Chi Minh City,
formerly known as Saigon.
<P>He noted also that more than 3,000 Americans now live in Ho Chi
Minh City and some 100,000 US tourists visit there each year.
<P>"There is a great need for us to provide American services and I
am looking forward to getting that open as quickly as possible,"
the ambassador said.
<P>Asked about the progress of a bilateral trade agreement between
Washington and Hanoi, Peterson said the United States was
"interested in moving ahead as quickly as possible."
<P>"As you know the Vietnamese have in hand a final draft and I
hope that will come to be final in the next negotiation, though we
have not determined when that will be."
<P>Neither would he commit himself to a date when a clause known as
the Jackson Vannick might be waived thus removing a major obstacle
to granting Vietnam most favoured nation status (MFN) and
unblocking US goverment export finance credits.
<P>Ideally to comply with US requirements for MFN, Vietnam should
allow free emigration of its citizens to wherever they want to
travel.
<P>But this will have to be waived for the Communist country by
Clinton.
<P>"There is no date for a Jackson-Vannick waiver. It is an
immigration issue... which depends on the kind of measure we have
on visas," Peterson said.
<P>Peterson added that the historic former US embassy to Saigon,
from which US personnel were airlifted by helicopter when the city
fell to northern forces on April 30, would not be used to house the
new consulate.
<P>"The consular facility will be on a compound adjacent to that
compound but will not involve the original US embassy that
exists,"he said.
<P>There have been rumours circulating that the existing structure
is virtually impregnable as it was build to withstand wartime
bombing and attacks and would be too difficult to demolish.
<P>"I cannot talk about the structural engineering...but at this
time there is no determination of the fate of that property and we
have no intention at this time of making that decision," he said.
Thursday - May 22, 1997
Vietnamese leader arrives in Burma, flouts U.S. sanctions
Rangoon (dpa) - Vietnamese Communist Party leader Do Muoi arrived in
Burma Thursday for three-day official visit aimed at boosting bilateral
relations the day after the United States imposed economic sanctions on
Rangoon's unpopular regime.
<P>Do Muoi was greeted at the airport by State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC) chairman Senior General Than Shwe and honoured with a 21
gun salute. The head of Vietnam's communist party was scheduled to hold
talks with SLORC's leadership Thursday afternoon.
<p>
On Friday Do Muoi and the Vietnamese delegation will visit Mandalay
and Pagan before returning to Hanoi Saturday.
<P>The Vietnamese official visit fell one day after the U.S. imposed a
ban on new American investments in Burma.
<P> Vietnam is no stranger to U.S. economic sanctions.
<P>The U.S. government imposed an economic embargo on Vietnam shortly
after its military defeat in the Southeast Asian nation in 1975 and
prohibited American companies from doing business in the country until
1992 under the Trading With the Enemy Act.
<P>U.S. President Bill Clinton announced his decision to slap similar
economic snactions on Burma on April 22 to penalize its military regime
for its poor human rights record.
<P>The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Burma hopes
to join this year, have criticized the sanctions as unproductive and
claim they will not affect their previous decision to include Burma in
their grouping along with Cambodia and Laos.
<P>Thai Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh visited Burma last week when
he reconfirmed Bangkok's support for Burma's admission into ASEAN.
<P>Ironically, the U.S. sanctions may have even forced ASEAN's hand in
going ahead with Burma's membership despite the reservations of certain
member states, Thai government sources said in Bangkok.
<P>``To save face ASEAN will have to admit Burma,'' said a Thai foireign
ministry official in a recent interview. The official noted that by
using sanctions and pressuring ASEAN not to admit Burma the U.S.
government had effectively blocked the association from postponing
Burma's admission.
<P>The U.S. government was almost alone in maintaining economic sanctions
on Vietnam for 17 years, primarily for failing to account for some 2,000
American servicement listed as missing in action (MIA) - a highly
sensitive domestic issue for U.S politicians. Clinton finally lifted the
embargo in February 1992.
<P>Rangoon's military leaders are clearly hoping that the U.S. will find
itself in a similarly solitary role by enforcing sanctions on Burma.
<P>``As the U.S. government imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar
(Burma), the result was that it did not get the international support
and suffered embarrassment and anger,'' said an editorial in the
government-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper Thursday.
Thursday - May 22, 1997
U.N. drug expert tells Vietnam to target youth demand
Hanoi (dpa) - An international drug expert Thursday praised Vietnam's
opium eradication programme as among the most successful in the world
but said it was time for the government to shift its focus to reducing
the demand for drugs among Vietnamese youth.
<P>It should also step up international cooperation, said Jorn
Kristensen, the U.N. International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP)
representative in Vietnam.
<p>
He also urged Hanoi to bolster the political clout of a national drug
control body charged with implementing a new drug control masterplan.
<P>An improved level of international drug control cooperation was needed
because Vietnam has recently become an important transit country for
heroin from the Golden Triangle to western markets.
<P>The comments were made during a one-day U.N. conference devoted to
Vietnam's efforts to get on top of a soaring drug abuse problem.
<P>Just last week, Hanoi staged its largest-ever drug trafficking trial
in which 22 defendants - half of whom were police or border guards -
were given tough sentences, including eight death and seven life
sentences.
<P>The case ``clearly underlines that, despite an active government
policy the drug problem has become very real here'', said Kristensen.
`` Vietnam is no longer immune to large-scale activities of international
drug traffickers.''
<P>Police investigators said they believed the ring was responsible for
bringing into Vietnam from Laos more than 400 kilograms of heroin and
even more opium but it was unclear how much of this was re-exported.
<P>Only a small fraction of those amounts were recovered and to date the
Vietnamese investigation is thought not to have produced any important
international leads on others involved in the ring.
<P>Diplomats say this is because the Vietnamese Interior Ministry is a
particularly insular institution and has so far stiff-armed any
operational-level cooperation with foreign police.
<P> Vietnam joined Interpol several years ago but the cooperation through
this office is very limited, formal and slow, foreigners say.
<P>``In order to keep pace with the very rapidly changing drug
trafficking routes, they will have to speed up their cooperation to a
higher gear,'' said one knowledgeable diplomat.
<P>The Vietnamese government's focus on opium eradication among minority
hilltribes has come at the expense of efforts to curb trafficking and
reduce growing demand for drugs among youth, Kristensen and other
experts suggested.
<P>Through an aggressive - and sometimes heavy-handed - eradication
programme, cultivation has been brought down in recent years to
2,000-3,000 hectares which produces an estimated 10-15 tons of opium per
annum.
<P>``(This) is a success which I believe is not match by any other
country in the world,'' said Kristensen.
<P>``Unfortunately, at the same time, trafficking of illicit drugs from
the region and into Vietnam has notably increased, fuelling corruption
and other criminal activities and introducing the very addictive high
grade heroin to the large youth population in urban areas,'' he added.
<P>For this reason, he added, ``we (in UNDCP) think the time has come to
maximize the efforts in the area of drug demand reduction, to help those
who are addicted and to keep a new generation of young people away from
the temptation of drugs.''
<P>A committee dealing with ethnic minorities hilltribes is the main
partner for a 31-million-dollar five-year drug control which ends in
2000 and is largely funded by international donors.
<P>But some say the relatively lightweight agency cannot be an effective
coordinator among several Hanoi ministries to make the plan a success
and that their prominence reflects an antiquated approach to the issue.
Thursday - May 22, 1997
Vietnam: communist, but seeking trade
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has been westernizing aspects of its
economy for a decade.
<p>
It was in 1987 that Vietnamese leaders announced economic reforms. The
United States lifted its 19-year economic embargo on trade in 1994.
<p>
Today more than half the population of Vietnam is too young to remember
the war that ended in the 1970s; 40 percent of Vietnamese are under age
15.
<p>
Vietnam has a population of 74 million. Ho Chi Minh City, the former
Saigon, is twice as big as the capital Hanoi. - UPI
Thursday - May 22, 1997
New U.S. envoy backs Vietnam's reform
Hanoi (UPI) -- Washington's new ambassador to Hanoi says he has
personally put the war behind him and the U.S. government is ''totally
supportive'' of Vietnam's reform process.
<p>
Douglas Peterson, who spent six and a half years in Hanoi as a prisoner
of war, says negotiations for a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement
provide a ''roadmap'' for future economic normalization of relations.
He said other aspects of relations are ''a little bit in transition.''
<p>
In his first news conference since arriving in the Vietnamese capital
on May 9, Peterson said, ''We will probably have to sit down and
develop somewhat of a more inclusive strategy for the future.''
<p>
Peterson says, ''In general the American government is totally
supportive and wants very much for Vietnam to succeed.''
<p>
The ambassador says it is in the American interest that Vietnam succeed
economically and he is ''very optimistic'' about U.S. business
opportunities in Vietnam. He told reporters he felt ''almost
enchanted'' by the energy and warmth of the Vietnamese people.
<p>
Peterson refused to answer a question about whether the Vietnam War had
been a mistake. He said he would like to see more U.S. scientific study
of the negative effects of Agent Orange among Vietnamese but said this
would probably require assurances from Hanoi that there would be no
interference in the work as there had been in the past.
<p>
(NOTE: Reported by John Hail in Bangkok.)
Thursday - May 22, 1997
U.N.: Vietnam faces uphill drug battle
Hanoi (AP) -- Vietnam is confronted with a worsening
drug problem fueled by regional heroin smugglers who have
discovered the country's porous borders and long coastline, a U.N.
drug expert warned Thursday.<p>
Although opium cultivation in Vietnam is on the decline, the
communist government still faces an uphill battle against drugs,
said Jorn Kristensen, Vietnam representative for the United Nations
Drug Control Program.<p>
``Vietnam has a long border and coastline, which may be easily
exploited by trafficking groups,'' Kristensen told a seminar on
narcotics enforcement in the capital, Hanoi.<p>
``Despite an active government policy, the drug problem has
become very real here,'' he said.<p>
Domestic production of opium once of staple crop in
some parts
of Vietnam has dropped significantly in recent years. But the
influx of the drugs from neighboring Laos, Cambodia and China is
undermining the government's success.<p>
The recent trial of a heroin smuggling ring that had
links to
Vietnam's Interior Ministry underscored the problems still
confronting the government.<p>
Eleven of 22 defendants in the largest-ever drug trial in
Vietnam were law enforcement officers and border guards who helped
ferry opium and refined heroin across the border from Laos.<p>
Eight of the defendants were sentenced to death. All have
filed
appeals against the sentences, official media reported Thursday.<p>
Six law enforcement officers, including former police inspector
Vu Xuan Truong, are among the eight death row convicts asking the
court for mercy, the state-run newspaper Youth reported.<p>
Criminal convicts in Vietnam are given 15 days to appeal their
conviction and sentences. They may also seek amnesty from the
president.<p>
The Hanoi-based Supreme Court is planning to hear their appeal
by mid-June.<p>
The United Nations and the Vietnamese government have been
working to coordinate efforts to curb drug smuggling across the
country's borders.<p>
``Drug trafficking control, which no longer confronts individual
nations, needs international cooperation among countries in the
region and world,'' said Hoang Duc Nghi, chairman of Vietnam's drug
control management board.<p>
The National Assembly earlier this month passed new legislation
providing tough new penalties for people convicted of drug smuggling.<p>
Caught with as little as 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of heroin, a
convicted smuggler will face the death penalty. Previously one
kilogram (2.2 pounds) of heroin was the cutoff for the death penalty.
Thursday - May 22, 1997
Vietnam protests over slayings in Cambodia
Hanoi (Reuter) - Vietnam said on Thursday that it had protested to Phnom
Penh over three attacks on Vietnamese people living in northeastern
Cambodia, which had left 12 dead and 16 injured.
<p>
The Foreign Ministry said the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh had sent
letters to two ministries and to the United Nations Human Rights office in
Cambodia, urging an investigation and steps to ensure the security of
foreigners living there.
<p>
``In late April 1997, the Khmer Rouge force carried out three attacks on
Vietnamese people living in Cambodia, killing 12 people and injuring many
others...'' the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
<p>
``We strongly condemn the Khmer Rouge's inhuman actions against Vietnamese
people living and working in Cambodia,'' it said.
<p>
The Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan quoted the Cambodia Daily as saying
that the three recent attacks were all in the Bo Keo district of Rattanakiri
province.
<p>
It said that the guerillas also destroyed fishing and other occupational
equipment belonging to the Vietnamese people.
<p>
Ethnic Vietnamese -- some living for generations in Cambodia -- have long
been the target of attacks, most believed to be at the hands of Khmer Rouge
guerillas.
<p>
In 1993 thousands of Vietnamese fled the Tonle Sap lake area following a
series of massacres in which about 100 people died.
<p>
The issue has been a recurrent source of friction between the two countries,
which have experienced troubled relations for the past 200 years.
Thursday - May 22, 1997
Burma salutes Vietnam party chief
RANGOON (Reuter) - Vietnamese Communist Party chief Do Muoi arrived to a
ceremonial welcome in Rangoon on Thursday for a four-day visit to boost
bilateral ties.
<p>
General Than Shwe, who is prime minister and chairman of the ruling State
Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), and other officials of Burma's
military government met the Vietnamese party leader.
<p>
Do Muoi, 80, was given a 21-gun salute after inspecting a guard of honour,
and thousands of children lined the streets waving flags of the two
countries as he was driven to the state guest house.
<p>
The party secretary general was expected to discuss boosting ties and
Burma's impending and controversial entry to the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN).
<p>
The group, which comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, is expected to discuss Burma's entry at a
meeting in Malaysia on May 31.
<p>
Vietnam's Communist Party daily, Nhan Dan, said in an editorial on Thursday
that ASEAN countries had defied pressure from the United States and the West
to isolate Burma.
<p>
The United States and other nations have urged ASEAN not to admit Burma
because of its political and human rights record.
<p>
``Being firm on its foreign policy of 'positive independence', Burma has won
popular sympathy from the international community,'' Nhan Dan said.
<p>
Do Muoi's 65-member delegation included Deputy Prime Minister Phan Van Khai
and Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam.
<p>
The two countries have formed a joint commission for cooperation and also
signed agreements to cooperate in narcotics control and cooperation in
forestry.
Thursday - May 22, 1997
Burma salutes Vietnam party chief
RANGOON (Reuter) - Vietnamese Communist Party chief Do Muoi arrived to a
ceremonial welcome in Rangoon on Thursday for a four-day visit to boost
bilateral ties.
<p>
General Than Shwe, who is prime minister and chairman of the ruling State
Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), and other officials of Burma's
military government met the Vietnamese party leader.
<p>
Do Muoi, 80, was given a 21-gun salute after inspecting a guard of honour,
and thousands of children lined the streets waving flags of the two
countries as he was driven to the state guest house.
<p>
The party secretary general was expected to discuss boosting ties and
Burma's impending and controversial entry to the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN).
<p>
The group, which comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, is expected to discuss Burma's entry at a
meeting in Malaysia on May 31.
<p>
Vietnam's Communist Party daily, Nhan Dan, said in an editorial on Thursday
that ASEAN countries had defied pressure from the United States and the West
to isolate Burma.
<p>
The United States and other nations have urged ASEAN not to admit Burma
because of its political and human rights record.
<p>
``Being firm on its foreign policy of 'positive independence', Burma has won
popular sympathy from the international community,'' Nhan Dan said.
<p>
Do Muoi's 65-member delegation included Deputy Prime Minister Phan Van Khai
and Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam.
<p>
The two countries have formed a joint commission for cooperation and also
signed agreements to cooperate in narcotics control and cooperation in
forestry.
Thursday - May 22, 1997
U.S. envoy to Vietnam unveils familiar agenda
By John Chalmers
<p>
Hanoi (Reuter) - The United States' first ambassador to Vietnam, who
proclaimed a new era of relations between the two former enemies when he
arrived two weeks ago, unveiled an agenda on Thursday that had little new to
offer.
<p>
Douglas ``Pete'' Peterson, a fighter pilot and prisoner for 6 1/2 years
during the Vietnam War, stressed the importance that Washington attached to
accounting for the 2,124 Americans still listed as missing-in-action (MIA)
in Indochina.
<p>
``The fact is that we still wish and desire very strongly to determine the
fate of those we lost during the war,'' Peterson told a news conference.
<p>
He said the hunt for remains, which has always been the United States'
priority in post-war Vietnam, would not necessarily prevent the two
countries moving ahead in other areas of their relationship.
<p>
However, he declined to say whether Washington was ready to make concessions
to make a bilateral trade treaty less elusive.
<p>
He also was vague on when President Bill Clinton would waive an amendment
that blocks most-favoured nation (MFN) trading status for communist
countries which deny their citizens the right to emigrate.
<p>
Vietnam says it is anxious to win the MFN status, which would follow from a
trade deal and a waiver of the so-called Jackson-Vanik amendment.
<p>
But it argues that, despite a decade of reform along market lines, its
economy is not ready for the trade and investment regime liberalisation that
Washington insists on.
<p>
Vietnam cooperates with the search for MIA remains, but sometimes expresses
irritation with the United States' insistence on the issue.
<p>
Earlier this week, while Peterson was officiating at an MIA repatriation
ceremony, the head of the Foreign Ministry's Americas Department said
Washington could do more to make up for a war which cost more than three
million Vietnamese lives.
<p>
The United States, unlike many other Western nations, does not make an
annual pledge of aid to Vietnam and Peterson said there was no question of
Washington doing so yet.
<p>
Asked if he considered the war a mistake, Peterson said he was not qualified
to decide on what was still ``instant history.''
<p>
Although the two countries normalised economic relations nearly two years
ago, mutual suspicion remains on both sides.
<p>
Domestic wrangling over Peterson's appointment, criticism of Hanoi's human
rights record and the recent establishment of a U.S.-funded radio station
which broadcasts to Indochina have angered officials -- some of whom remain
suspicious that Washington is seeking to gain in peace where it lost in war.
<p>
Peterson said human rights would be on his agenda because it was a U.S.
policy priority in its relations with all countries, but gave no details of
his strategy on the contentious issue.
<p>
Asked about the broadcasts by Radio Free Asia, he said the Congress-approved
station merely played back information already ``out on the streets.''
<p>
``Our government is not going to support anything that would in some way
attempt to overthrow any government anywhere in the world,'' he said.
Thursday - May 22, 1997
U.N. urges Vietnam to act on drugs threat
By John Chalmers
<p>
Hanoi (Reuter) - The United Nations warned Vietnam on Thursday that drug
trafficking and drug abuse would thrive during the country's social and
economic transformation if effective steps were not taken to stamp them out.
<p>
Delivering its message as the dust was still settling from the dramatic
trial and conviction of 22 heroin smugglers in Hanoi, the United Nations
said it was high time for Vietnam to create a central coordination body for
narcotics control.
<p>
``With the rapid economic and social changes...in Vietnam the risk of
increased drug problems is very real unless effective counter-measures are
put in place,'' said Joern Kristensen, head of the U.N. Drug Control
Programme (UNDCP) in Hanoi.
<p>
``A very strong central coordination body at the highest possible political
level is therefore required,'' he told a seminar for government and
provincial officials.
<p>
The Hanoi People's Court last week sentenced eight people to death and 14 to
prison terms for flooding the country with heroin from opium poppy-growing
areas of Burma and Laos over several years.
<p>
The trial shocked the nation and, because half the defendants were state
security officials and border guards, rocked the political establishment.
<p>
About 20 more people, including police officers, are under investigation for
their alleged part in the syndicate.
<p>
``Recent events...clearly underline that despite an active government
policy, the drug problem has become very real here,'' Kristensen said.
``Vietnam is no longer immune to large-scale activities of international
drug-traffickers.''
<p>
He said Vietnam had made an impressive effort in reducing opium poppy
cultivation -- the source of heroin -- to between 10 and 15 tonnes a year
compared with 2,000 tonnes or more in Burma.
<p>
``Unfortunately, over the same period of time, trafficking of illicit
drugs...into Vietnam has notably increased, fuelling corruption and other
criminal activities, and introducing the very addictive high-grade heroin to
the large youth population in urban areas,'' Kristensen said.
<p>
Vietnam's long land border and coastline make the country an easy transit
route for traffickers.
<p>
In 1991, when the problem was still in its infancy, the authorities seized
just 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) of heroin.
<p>
But by 1995 their haul was almost 31 kg (68 pounds) and in the first eight
months of last year it was 49 kg (108 pounds) -- an amount which, at
wholesale prices in New York, could sell for around $2.5 million.
<p>
Vietnam in 1995 joined a regional memorandum of understanding for
cooperation on drug control with China, Laos, Burma, Thailand and the UNDCP,
and later that year launched its own National Drug Control Masterplan.
<p>
However, Kristensen said Vietnam urgently needed to draw up and adopt new
legislation on drug control to accede to the three international treaties
now in force.
Wednesday - May 21, 1997
Vietnam Newspaper Highlights - May 21, 1997
HANOI (VNA) - Highlights of Vietnam's daily newspapers today:
<P>NHAN DAN:<p>
1. The 8th Vietnamese Women's Congress closed in Hanoi
yesterday with Madame Truong Thi My Hoa re-elected as the President of
Vietnam Women's Union.
<P>2. Sea transport, a great potential in Vietnam, needs to
be developed strongly.
<P> HANOI MOI:
<P>1. An Australian education expo opened at the Van Ho
Exhibition Centre, Hanoi, yesterday.
<P>VIETNAM NEWS:
<P>1. Vietnam's largest hydroelectric station may be built in
the northern province of Son La, about 350 km northwest of Hanoi.
<P>2. The Ho chi Minh City Investment Fund for Urban
Development officially began operations on Monday in a move to mobilise
all sources of capital to improve the local infrastructure.
<P>3. The Vietnamese government has decided to resume to
export of rubber wood products which were banned from April 1 this
year.