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Vn News (Feb. 26-27/1997)
Feb 27: First US ambassador to Vietnam to arrive April 1
Feb 27: Cambodia, Vietnam progressing in resolution of disputes
Feb 27: Vietnamese woman jailed for insulting judiciary
Feb 27: Vietnam registers 5,005 HIV and AIDS cases
Feb 26: Vietnam Sets Basic Health Targets for 2000, 2020
Thursday - Feb 27, 1997
First US ambassador to Vietnam to arrive April 1: official
HANOI (AFP) -- Douglas "Pete" Peterson is likely to be confirmed as
the first ambassador to Vietnam this week and will arrive in Hanoi by April 1,
a US embassy official here said on Thursday.
"I spoke to ambassador designate Mr Peterson this morning on the telephone
and unless something unexpected happens we hope there will be a vote this week
and he told me he would be here about April 1," said Desaix Anderson, U.S.
charge d'affaires.
Anderson told US businessmen at a local American Chamber of Commerce
luncheon that Peterson was eager to get to Vietnam and start work.
Peterson, 61, was held prisoner by North Vietnam for more than six years
after his Air Force jet was shot down during the Vietnam war.
Vietnam has unofficially chosen Le Van Bang to become the first Vietnamese
ambassador to Washington where he is currently Vietnam's charge d'affaires.
Peterson, a Florida Democrat in the US House of Representatives between
1991 and last year, played a key advisory role in Clinton's decision last year
to normalize relations with Vietnam.
The two countries still have not reached a bilateral trade agreement
Washington lifted its trade embargo on Vietnam in February 1994 nearly two
decades after imposing it on the whole country in May 1975 just after South
Vietnam fell to communist forces.
Thursday - Feb 27, 1997
Cambodia, Vietnam progressing in resolution of disputes: FMs
PHNOM PENH, Feb 27 (AFP) - Cambodia and Vietnam are well on the way to
solving disputes over their shared border and addressing concerns about
illegal immigration, the foreign ministers of each country said Thursday.
Their comments came following the second annual meeting of a joint
Cambodian-Vietnamese commission on bilateral relations at which agreements
were reached to expand cooperation in several fields.
Hanoi's visiting foreign minister Nguyen Manh Cam said the two contentious
issues remained unresolved but that rapid progress was being made on both.<p>
"We have established a system to resolve the disputes," he told reporters.
"We have decided to continue these discussions and accelerate (them) to
resolve the problems."
Last year, Cambodia's First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh raised
a storm when he accused Vietnam of "invading" his country by supporting
Vietnamese peasants who have extended their farming across the often
ill-defined 1,130-kilometer (678-mile) border.
Hanoi protested the allegation bitterly but allowed that disputes existed
and agreed to set up a technical committee to investigate the problems.<p>
Cambodia's Foreign Minister Ung Huot said Thursday that committee continued
to meet and was making good progress.
Cam and Ung Huot, who signed an agreement on consular relations after the
meeting, also said there were ongoing discussions about concerns over the
thousands of ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia.
Many, some of whom have lived here for generations, remain worried about
their status under a new nationality law especially because of strong
anti-Vietnamese sentiment in Cambodia.
Cam said he was certain that a satisfactory solution to that issue would be
reached soon.
In other matters, the two ministers said they they had agreed to expand
cooperation in the fields of agriculture, education and road, railway and
water transportation.
Discussions are also under way for Vietnam to sell electricty to Cambodia
and for the two countries to increase their cooperation over development in
the Mekong River basin.
Thursday - Feb 27, 1997
Vietnamese woman jailed for insulting judiciary
HANOI (AFP) -- A Hanoi military tribunal has sentenced a Vietnamese
woman to a year in prison on the unusual charge of insulting the judiciary,
the Quan Doi Nhan Dan army newspaper reported Thursday.
The woman, who had sent several strongly worded letters to judicial
authorities, had "overstepped her rights to democratic freedoms," the paper
said.
The 50-year-old woman sent 18 letters of complaint after learning that she
would face charges linked to a brawl she had with an army officer in 1992.
The tribunal ruled Wednesday that the letters "contained insulting words"
and represented a "serious attack on the dignity and prestige of certain
officials and departments of the judiciary."
According to the newspaper report, the woman had "humiliated and physically
injured an officer" during the argument. The charges against her were dropped
in March last year.
Thursday - Feb 27, 1997
Vietnam registers 5,005 HIV and AIDS cases
HANOI (AP) -- The government says at least 5,005
Vietnamese have the virus that causes AIDS and at least 701 of
those cases have developed into full-blown AIDS, said a report
published Thursday.
The new government figures indicate a significant jump from
the
total 4,561 cases revealed in November.
The numbers reflect only those cases of HIV and AIDS that
have
been registered with the government as of February, said the
National Committee for Prevention and Control of AIDS report
published in the state-run press.
Since it was first discovered in Vietnam in 1990, at least
412
Vietnamese have died from illness related to AIDS.
More than two-thirds of the HIV and AIDS cases were
contracted
through dirty needles used by drug addicts, the report said.
So far, the human immunodeficiency virus and AIDS have
spread to
42 out of 61 provinces. The majority of the cases are found in
major tourist destinations, including Ho Chi Minh City and the
coastal province of Khanh Hoa.
Wednesday - Feb 26, 1997
Vietnam Sets Basic Health Targets for 2000, 2020
HANOI (Xinhua News) -- Vietnam has set a target to raise its
people's average life expectancy to 68 years in 2000 and 75 years 2020,
the Health Ministry announced here today.
This is one of the major basic health targets set by the Vietnamese government
for 2000 and 2020.
The Vietnamese government has decided to reduce mortality rate of infants under
one year old to 35 per 1,000 births by the year 2000 and 18 to 15 per 1,000 by
2020.
The mortality rate of children under five years old will be cut to 42 per 1,000
by the year 2000 and 20 per 1,000 by 2020, while the number of new-born
children weighing under 2,500 grams will be reduced to eight percent by the
year 2000 and five percent by 2020.
The government also set a target of 30 percent by the year 2000 and 15 percent
by 2020 for under-five-year-old child malnutrition rate.
It also planned to achieve an average height for young Vietnamese people at
1.65 meters by 2020.
Besides, the government will also stamp out diseases caused by iodine
deficiency disorders by 2005 and reduce goiter incidents in children at 8 to 12
years old to below five percent.
According to the ministry, Vietnam has 4.2 doctors, 10.6 medical workers, 6.2
nurses, 0.7 university graduate pharmacists and 1.6 college graduate
pharmacists per each 1,000 people. Each Vietnamese received 4.2 U.S. dollars
of medicines in 1995 from the state budget against 0.5 U.S. dollars in 1990.