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VN News (Mar 10-11/1997)
Mar 11: Japan, Vietnam to hold bilateral economic talks
Mar 11: Vietnam, Japan to expand defense exchanges
Mar 11: Vietnamese boat people stage sit-in protests over forced...
Mar 11: Vietnam rejects HK go-slow claim on boatpeople
Mar 11: Hanoi plots out strict control of satellite dish use
Mar 10: Thai foreign and commerce ministers to visit Vietnam
Tuesday - Mar 11, 1997
Japan, Vietnam to hold bilateral economic talks
TOKYO (Kyodo News) -- Japan and Vietnam will hold a second
round of bilateral economic talks
next Tuesday in Hanoi, a Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday.
The meeting will discuss the promotion of business cooperation and
Japan's investments in Vietnam, the official said.
Japan's delegation, comprising government officials and
representatives of private economic organizations such as the Federation
of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), will ask Vietnam to build
infrastructure to help increase Japan's investments, the official said.
The first round of talks was held in January last year in Tokyo.
Tuesday - Mar 11, 1997
Vietnam, Japan to expand defense exchanges
TOKYO -- Vietnam's Vice Minister of National Defense Lt. Gen. Tran Hanh on
Tuesday agreed with Japan's State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Masahiko
Komura to promote exchanges between defense officials of the two
countries, a Foreign Ministry official said.
Hanh, who is on a weeklong visit to Japan from Monday, also asked that
Vietnamese trainees be accepted for training at Japan's Defense Academy
and other educational organizations.
Hanh will meet with Defense Agency chief Fumio Kyuma on Wednesday to
discuss promotion of bilateral dialogue among defense officials, the
official said.
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto extended the invitation for Hanh's
visit to Japan when he visited Vietnam in January as part of a
five-nation tour of Association of Southeast Asian Nations member
states. -- Japan Economic Newswire
Tuesday - Mar 11, 1997
Vietnamese boat people stage sit-in protests over forced...
HONG KONG (AFP) - Around 100 Vietnamese boatpeople in
Hong Kong's only remaining detention camp staged a sit-in protest
Tuesday but failed to prevent the forced return of 102 fellow
asylum-seekers, sources said.
The Vietnamese protested against Hong Kong's forced repatriation
programme and demanded that UN refugee chief Sadako Ogata, making
her first visit to the territory, inspect their camp, witnesses
said.
They climbed on to the roof of their dormitories in Whitehead
detention centre shortly after midnight, but climbed down after two
hours, a government spokesman said.
There was no violence but prison guards and police officers
beefed up security, he said.
Hours later, a group of 102 Vietnamese boat people, comprising
71 men, 16 women and 15 children, was flown to Hanoi under a
government's forced repatriation programme.
The latest group brought to 9,802 the total number of Vietnamese
asylum-seekers forced home since the programme was launched in
November 1991 with the aim of returning boatpeople deemed economic
migrants.
China is demanding Hong Kong be cleared of all illegal
immigrants before the British colony returns to Chinese sovereignty
on July 1.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ogata left Hong
Kong Tuesday after a two-day visit, the UNHCR said.
She visited an open camp housing boatpeople who have refugee
status, but did not go to Whitehead, where conditions have been
strongly criticised by non-government organisations helping to care
for the migrants.
On Sunday, the New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch
issued a report accusing the Hong Kong government and the UNHCR of
making living conditions in the camps virtually intolerable in
order to meet the Chinese deadline.
The allegations were strongly denied Monday by a Hong Kong
government spokesman.
Of the 214,000 Vietnamese who have arrived in Hong Kong since
the exodus started, 143,000 had been resettled in third countries,
and 65,000 had returned to Vietnam, Ogata said Monday.
That left about "about 4,000" in detention camps, who are
considered non-refugees, and 1,300 in open camps who have refugee
status and are awaiting resettlement, she said.
Hong Kong immigration officials gave a provisional estimate that
after Tuesday's repatriation, there were 4,436 boatpeople still
detained.
The Vietnamese boatpeople have a negative image in Hong Kong,
generated by reports of crime and occasional clashes between camp
residents and guards.
Tuesday - Mar 11, 1997
Vietnam rejects HK go-slow claim on boatpeople
Hanoi (Reuter) - Vietnam rejected suggestions on Tuesday it was dragging its
heels over plans to repatriate the last boatpeople from Hong Kong, but said
it would only accept returnees of proven Vietnamese nationality.
A foreign ministry spokesman said about half the 4,500 remaining boatpeople
in Hong Kong were either non-Vietnamese or people whose links with Vietnam
were unclear.
``From the past until now, Vietnam has made clear its consistent attitude
to resolving the boatpeople issue, which is that Vietnam will only accept
the repatriation of those who hold Vietnamese nationality,'' he said,
reading from a statement.
He added that Hanoi has asked Hong Kong for further details of boatpeople
whose nationality was uncertain.
``Until now the repatriation of those accepted by the Vietnamese side
absolutely depends on the arrangements of the Hong Kong and British
authorities. Vietnam has always expressed its readiness to receive
those people in large numbers.''
Hong Kong's boatpeople are among the last of a vast exodus
which began fleeing their homeland in the 1970s following the
communist victory in the Vietnam war.
However, complicating matters is the fact that some are ethnic
Chinese-Vietnamese
who left Vietnam following a bloody 1979 border war with China.
Both China and Vietnam have appeared unwilling so far to accept these people
as their own.
The foreign ministry official said Vietnam was in the process of seeking a
meeting with Hong Kong officials and the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees aimed at speeding up the repatriation process.
Hong Kong is due to revert to Chinese rule at midnight on June 30 and the
British colony's government has been under pressure to ensure its vast
refugee detention camps are emptied ahead of this date.
Tuesday - Mar 11, 1997
Hanoi plots out strict control of satellite dish use
HANOI (AFP) - Hanoi has mapped out its strategy
for strictly controlling use of satellite dishes
countrywide that will come into force on April 1, a
government official said Tuesday.
An official from the Hanoi Information and Culture Service
(HICS) told AFP that his office will team up with local
police to pull down illegal satellite dishes and impose
fines.
The official explained the crackdown will be enforced
because "there are unequal levels of education among people
and information is from many directions."
Other government leaders have spoken out against unlimited
access to the airwaves as a potentially destabilizing force
in Vietnamese society.
Fines of up to 50 dollars or more will be levied against
illegal users, he said.
Only senior officials, government bodies, foreign press
agencies, non governmental agencies, licenced foreign
businesses, diplomats and hotels rated at two or more stars
will be authorised to use satellite dishes, he said.
The ban on illegal satellite use will come into effect on
April 1 following a decree passed by the government's
office on January 1.
The official was unable to provide an estimate of the
number of illegal satellite dishes, but a cursory glance of
Hanoi rooftops reveals that their use is widespread.
Monday - Mar 10, 1997
Thai foreign and commerce ministers to visit Vietnam
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thai foreign minister Prachuab Chaiyasarn and commerce
minister Narongchai Akrasenee will visit Vietnam March 12-14
to discuss bilateral cooperation, a foreign ministry spokesman
said here Monday.
The major topics under discussion will be resolving disputes
over fishing territorial waters and a highway project connecting
northeastern Thailand with the Vietnamese coast through Laos,
spokesman Surapong Jayanama said.
Thailand will also discuss issues related to overlapping claims
in the Gulf of Thailand.
"During the visit, Thailand and Vietnam will sign an agreement
on visa exemptions for government officials and diplomats and an
agreement on scientific cooperation," he said.
The Thai delegation will include deputy transportation and
communications minister Pinit Charusombat, and Somboon Rahong,
advisor to the Prime Minister on security affairs.
They will pay courtesy calls on communist party secretary
general Do Muoi and Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, Surapong said.
Narongchai was expected to ask for support for Thai businessmen
during meetings with his counterpart, Le Van Triet, and the
secretary of the Vietnam Trade and Industry Association.
Thai Prime Minister Chaowalit Yongchaiyydh is to visit Vietnam
March 30-31.