VN news (June 7)

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

Albright to visit Vietnam and Cambodia
Laotian president ends visit to Vietnam 
Vietnam accuses Voice of America radio of "spreading hate"
HongKong man jailed for 10 years in Vietnam for selling women
Vietnam draught means power low
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Albright to visit Vietnam and Cambodia

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will visit
Vietnam on June 26-28 and Cambodia on June 28-29 before witnessing
Hongkong's transfer to China, the State Department has announced. 

Spokesman Nicholas Burns told a news conference on Wednesday that Mrs
Albright would discuss Washington's goal of getting a full accounting of
US military personnel missing since the Vietnam war. 

He said that she would discuss steps in completing the normalisation of US
bilateral economic ties with Vietnam, human-rights and other issues. She
would meet Cambodian leaders in Phnom Penh to assess "progress towards the
democratic elections scheduled for next year and discuss some of the
recent troubling events that could imperil Cambodia's democratic future".
Referring to her trip to Hongkong, Mr Burns said that her
previously-announced presence at ceremonies there on June 30 and July 1
marking the territory's handover to Beijing would show US support for
democratic freedoms. "Her visit on this historic occasion will demonstrate
the support of the United States for the maintenance of Hongkong's high
degree of autonomy ... as well as United States economic, law enforcement
and other interests in Hongkong," he said.
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Laotian president ends visit to Vietnam

HANOI (AFP) - Laotian President Nouhak Phoumsavanh ended a five-day visit
to Vietnam Saturday in which he met with his counterpart Le Duc Anh, the
press here reported. 

The two heads of state discussed the political and economic situation in
the two countries and the state of their two ruling communist parties, the
daily Vietnam Courier reported. 

Both men said they wanted to extend cooperation between their two nations,
longtime allies. 

Anh invited Nouhak to the next Francophonie summit of French-speaking
nations, to be held in Hanoi in November, which will gather some 50 heads
of state. 
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Vietnam accuses Voice of America radio of "spreading hate" 

HANOI (AFP) - Hanoi accused the Voice of America radio station Saturday of
"spreading hate" against Vietnam in a report on Ho Chi Minh City's war
museum. 

In a long article, the official Quan Doi Nhan Dan daily criticised the US
radio station for quoting tourists who said they were surprised by
material in the museum in the southern Vietnamese city, particularly
displays which showed the torture and killing of communists by US forces
or their South Vietnamese allies. 

The army journal accused the station of "spreading hate against Vietnam
among US opinion" and giving "a pretext to extremist elements in US
circles and among overseas Vietnamese to oppose Vietnam and prevent the
(US) government from forming friendly and cooperative relations with
Vietnam." 

"The communist party has told the world Vietnam has turned the page on
history to look towards the future. But that does not mean we have
forgotten the sad past and the pride of the nation in its struggle against
foreign aggressors," the journal said. 
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HongKong man jailed for 10 years in Vietnam for selling women

HANOI (AFP) - A Hong Kong man was jailed for 10 years by a Ho Chi Minh
City court for selling women in Vietnam, the union newspaper Lao Dong
reported Saturday. 

Lam Yu was sentenced Friday after he was charged with selling 11
Vietnamese women over the past year to Cambodia and Macau where they were
forced to work as prostitutes, the newspaper said. 

He was arrested in July 1996 in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, in
southern Vietnam, as he tried to "recruit" nine other Vietnamese women in
a hotel intending to send them to Cambodia. 

His main accomplice, Pham Nguyen Ngoc Tram, was jailed for eight years and
eight others also accused were given suspended jail sentences of between
14 and 24 months, the newspaper said. 
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Vietnam draught means power low

HANOI (AP)--Near drought conditions in northern Vietnam may force the
temporary shutdown of the country's largest power plant, state-run media
reported Saturday. 

Water reservoirs feeding the Hoa Binh hydroelectric plant turbines have
dropped below normal levels, official media reported Saturday. 

No rain has been reported in most of northern Vietnam since the middle of
May and none is expected for at least the next few days, the National
Weather Forecasting Service said. 

Unusually high temperatures this summer and a shortage of rainfall has set
off the power problem, the English-language Vietnam News reported. Through
most of May, temperatures have been as high as 35 C (97 F). 

During a similar situation last year, plant engineers at the Hoa Binh
facility were forced to limit power generation to about three hours a day,
the Vietnam News said. 

Electricity consumption is climbing dramatically in Vietnam, where
industrialization and market-oriented reforms are boosting the demand for
power. 

The Hoa Binh hydro plant is located on a tributary of the Red River. 

Vietnam's rainy season usually starts in late July, often causing flooding
in both the northern and southern deltas. 
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