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VN News (May 23, 1997)
May 23: Vietnam calls on Hong Kong to repatriate all boat people before...
May 23: 300th voluntary return flight of Vietnamese from Hong Kong
May 23: China, Hong Kong invited to Vietnamese refugee meeting next week
May 23: German parliamentary group arrives in Vietnamese capital
May 23: Vietnam orders crackdown on trafficking of women abroad
May 23: Survey: Vietnamese teen-agers in the dark on sex
May 23: Burma media hail visit of Vietnam party chief
May 23: Vietnam urges speed on Hong Kong boatpeople return
May 23: MIA hunt 'no bar to better ties'
Friday - May 23, 1997
Vietnam calls on Hong Kong to repatriate all boat people before
Hanoi (AFP) - The Vietnamese government called on the
Hong Kong administration to complete the repatriation of the
remaining Vietnamese boat people prior to the handover, reports
said Friday.
<p>
Speaking to local journalists in Hanoi on Thursday, a foreign
ministry spokesman called on Hong Kong to make active arrangements
for the complete repatriation of Vietnamese boat people before the
British colony returns to China on July 1, the official Nhan Dan
daily reported.
<P>There are now 4,598 Vietnamese still stranded in Hong Kong
camps.
<P>Some 1,630 of them are scheduled to return to Vietnam before
June 30th under a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) repatriation program, a UNHCR representative in Hanoi said
Friday.
<P>But out of this total there are 300 to 400 people whom Vietnam
does not want to accept as it claims they are not Vietnamese
nationals but native Chinese.
<P>Another 1,300 still in camps are political refugees who arrived
in Hong Kong before January 1989 and who would need resettlement in
third countries. The remainder arrived in the colony after June 95
and are regarded as economic migrants.
<P>Beijing has said it does not wish to inherit the boat people
problem when it takes power over Hong Kong on July 1. But the UNHCR
has already admitted it did not expect all Vietnamese boat people
to be resettled by July 1st.
Friday - May 23, 1997
300th voluntary return flight of Vietnamese from Hong Kong
HONG KONG (AFP) - The 300th voluntary repatriation
flight from Hong Kong to Vietnam was carried out on Friday, taking
153 Vietnamese boat people home from detention centres here, the UN
refugee agency said.
<p>
The UNHCR's voluntary return programme began in March 1989,
since when 56,983 Vietnamese. deemed economic migrants and
therefore not eligible for resettlement, have been sent back.
<P>The voluntary programme runs alongside regular forced returns.
<P>The Vietnamese population in detention centres here, which stood
at over 60,000 at the height of the problem. There are now fewer
than 4,500 Vietnamese, including those accepted as refugees, in
Hong Kong.
<P>China has called on the Hong Kong Government to empty the camps
before they resume sovereignty here on July 1, a task which is now
virtually impossible as there are hundreds of boat people whom
Hanoi, for various reasons has refused to accept back.
<P>There are also those accepted for resettlement abroad whom no
country has accepted, due to drug problems or mental or physical
problems.
Friday - May 23, 1997
China, Hong Kong invited to Vietnamese refugee meeting next week
GENEVA (AFP) - A UN meeting aimed at persuading
resettlement countries to accept around 300 Vietnamese refugees
stranded in Hong Kong will be held in Geneva on Monday, a UNHCR
spokeswoman said here Friday.
<P>These so-called "most deserving" cases are part of a larger
community of 1,300 Vietnamese who have been classified as political
refugees but who have been unable to find countries willing to take
them in.
<p>
Many of the refugees have criminal records and drug addiction
problems, according to aid workers.
<P>China has been invited to the meeting, along with Hong Kong's
refugee coordinator, Sally Wong, spokeswoman Pamela O'Toole said.
<P>Invitees also include a score of western countries, including
the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland.
<P>Several nations, including Australia, Canada and Japan were
already "considering, or reconsidering" a number of cases put
forward for resettlement by the UNHCR, O'Toole said.
<P>Assistant secretary-general Siergio Vieira de Mello will chair
the session.
<P>The Vietnmamese government called Friday on the Hong Kong
administration to complete repatriation of the remaining boat
people prior to the British colony's return to China on July 1.
<P>A total of 4,598 Vietnamese are still stuck in Hong Kong camps.
<P>Some 1,630 Vietnamese categorized as economic migrants are
scheduled to return to Vietnam before June 30th under a UNHCR
repatriation program, a representative said in Hanoi.
<P>Beijing has made clear it does not wish to inherit the boat
problem when it resumes sovereignty over Hong Kong.
<P>Some 214,000 Vietnamese fleeing their country have passed
through Hong Kong since 1975, according to the UHCR.
Friday - May 23, 1997
German parliamentary group arrives in Vietnamese capital
Hanoi (dpa) - A seven-member German parliamentarian group arrived in
the Vietnamese capital Friday for a five-day visit aimed at improving
bilateral ties and possibly developing links between the two
legislatures, embassy officials said.
<P>The visitors, representatives of the German-ASEAN parliamentary group
in the Bundestag, are on a regional tour that took them to Thailand and
will see them visit Malaysia before returning home.
<p>
In Hanoi they are expected to meet deputy foreign minister Nguyen Dy
Nien and chairman of the National Assembly, Nong Duc Manh, who also
ranks number four in the Political Bureau, the Communist Party's top
policy-making body, among other officials.
<P>``This is just an information visit,'' said one embassy official,
although some members of the delegation have been to Vietnam in the
past.
<P>The group will be traveling to southern Ho Chi Minh, the former
Saigon, for a couple of days on Monday evening, the official said.
Friday - May 23, 1997
Vietnam orders crackdown on trafficking of women abroad
Hanoi (dpa) - Vietnamese authorities have promised a crackdown against
trafficking of Vietnamese women and children abroad for prostitution,
according to official reports Friday.
<P>Deputy Prime Minster Nguyen Khanh, who handles social matters, ordered
the crackdown at a recent inter-ministerial meeting involving officials
from the police, culture and information, defence and social affairs and
the foreign ministries, they said.
<p>
Targeted in the crackdown would be organizations arranging marriages
between Vietnamese women and foreigners, and prostitution procurement
rings posing as tourist agencies, reported the Vietnam News.
<P>Last year an estimated 10,000 Vietnamese woemn went to marry in China,
but many were duped into prostitution or became trapped in marriages
that are really another form of bondage, according to one recent
Vietnamese study.
<P>Taiwan has also become a magnet for thousands of arranged marriages
with young, and generally poor and ill-prepared Vietnamese women, many
of whom are desperate to return after a few months.
<P> Vietnamese women dominate the prostitution industry in neighboring
Cambodia and many are underaged girls tricked into going there.
<P>According to one study an estimated 17,000 Vietnaemse women work as
prostitutes in Cambodia.
Friday - May 23, 1997
Survey: Vietnamese teen-agers in the dark on sex
Hanoi (AP) - Some 92 percent of Vietnamese teens know
nothing about contraception, a survey published Friday has found.<p>
About 90 percent of the nearly 1,500 respondents knew that
AIDS
and other diseases can be spread through sex, according to the
survey published in the state-run newspaper Vietnam News.<p>
The survey by Hung Vuong Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City is
among
the first to study sexual awareness among Vietnamese teens. The
report did not give a margin of error.<p>
It found that most parents and schools didn't teach youngsters
about sex. Children find out about sex from movies, books and
talking with older friends, it said.<p>
About 3 percent of the female students have had abortions,
the
survey said.<p>
Sex is considered a private topic rarely discussed among
Vietnamese. Parents were also afraid that talking about sex may
encourage experimentation.<p>
The survey's respondents were between the ages of 14 and
17, and
two-thirds were female, it said.<p>
The results will be used to develop a new health project to
improve sexual awareness, the report said.
Friday - May 23, 1997
Burma media hail visit of Vietnam party chief
RANGOON (Reuter) - Burma's official newspapers on Friday hailed the goodwill
visit of Vietnamese Communist Party chief Do Muoi, saying it would
contribute to bilateral friendship and regional peace.
<p>
``The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, now already an ASEAN member and a
strong advocate of regional cooperation and co-prosperity, was quick to
respond when the U.S. started threatening sanctions and moved to block
Myanmar's (Burma's) entry into the regional organisation,'' the New Light of
Myanmar said.
<p>
Vietnam, the newest member of the seven-nation Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN), lashed out at Washington last month when it announced
economic sanctions against Burma because of alleged human rights abuses.
<p>
The United States is lobbying ASEAN, which also includes Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Sinapore and Thailand, not to accept Burma as a
full member of the grouping this year as planned because of its rights record.
<p>
ASEAN foreign ministers are due to meet on May 31 and will discuss Burma's
entry into the organisation.
<p>
The state-run newspapers thanked Vietnam for supporting Burma's entry into
ASEAN.
<p>
``The current visit of Mr Do Muoi...will certainly contribute not only
towards bilateral goodwill and cooperation but also towards regional
peace,'' said an editorial in the two official Burmese-language dailies.
<p>
Muoi's 65-member delegation during a four-day visit that began on Thursday
includes 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.
Friday - May 23, 1997
Vietnam urges speed on Hong Kong boatpeople return
Hanoi (Reuter) - Vietnam called on Friday for the repatriation of boatpeople
from Hong Kong to be speeded up ahead of the British colony's return to
China at midnight on June 30.
<p>
``Vietnam has said it hoped that U.K.-Hong Kong authorities would accelerate
the repatriation of Vietnamese boatpeople so that the last of them could go
home before the crown colony's reversion to China...'' the official daily
Vietnam News said.
<p>
Diplomats said Vietnam's message appeared to be aimed at clearing itself of
blame in advance for the inevitable failure to meet Beijing's deadline for
clearing Hong Kong's detention camps.
<p>
``The Vietnamese are in a hurry to get the problem cleared before China
takes over,'' said one diplomat. ``They don't want anyone to put them in the
dock if any boatpeople are left.''
<p>
The diplomat said Hanoi, which has in the past been accused of dragging its
feet on repatriation, had been working energetically as of late to bring
home those cleared for return.
<p>
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Hanoi
said 153 migrants were flown back to Vietnam on Friday, which took the
number of non-refugees still in Hong Kong down to 1,630.
<p>
Assistant High Commissioner Sergio Vieira de Mello said earlier this month
that about 500 non-refugees would still be in Hong Kong after the handover,
most of them non-nationals whose identity or places of origin remain to be
determined.
<p>
He said there would also be about 1,000 genuine refugees, some of whom have
been living in Hong Kong camps for as long as a decade.
<p>
The UNHCR will urge traditional resettlement countries at a meeting in
Geneva on Monday to receive some of the refugees.
<p>
De Mello has called on countries such as the United States, Canada and
Australia to make an eleventh-hour display of ``humanity and charity''
towards the refugees.
<p>
``Everyone is waiting for other countries to make the first move,'' said one
diplomat.
<p>
Members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council's Security Panel have suggested
that Britain, as the current colonial power, should take all boatpeople and
refugees remaining after the handover. However, one source said he
understood that Britain was considering taking only 19 refugees.
<p>
The boatpeople are the last of a human tide of hundreds of thousands who
fled their homeland after the communist victory in the Vietnam War in 1975.
About 1.4 million migrants have now been resettled in third countries or
returned home.
Friday - May 23, 1997
MIA hunt 'no bar to better ties'
Hanoi (Reuter) - The United States' first ambassador, who proclaimed a new
era of relations
between the two former enemies when he arrived two weeks ago, unveiled an
agenda yesterday
that had little new to offer.<P>
Douglas "Pete" Peterson, a fighter pilot and prisoner for 6.5 years during
the Vietnam War, stressed the importance Washington attached to accounting
for the 2,124
Americans still listed as missing in action 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," he told a news conference.<P>
He said the hunt for remains would not necessarily prevent the two countries
moving ahead in other areas. But he declined to say if Washington was ready
to make concessions to make a trade treaty less elusive.<P>
He also was vague on when President Bill Clinton would waive an amendment
blocking Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trading status for communist countries
that deny their citizens the right to emigrate.<P>
Vietnam says it is anxious to win MFN status, but argues that, despite a
decade of reform along market lines, its economy is not ready for the
liberalisation on which Washington insists.