VN News (Mar. 14-1997)

[vuca@envi.env.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp (Vu Thanh Ca)]

Mar 14: Vietnamese gang and woman leader on trial
Mar 14: Rare Burmese bear gives birth in Vietnam  
Mar 14: Vietnamese Refugees: A Bitter Legacy 
Mar 14: Mass wartime grave discovered in Vietnam  
Mar 14: HIV Cases on Rise in Vietnam
Mar 14: Drugs trial for mother, daughter opens in Vietnam
Mar 14: Vietnam union accuses Taiwan firm of labour abuse

Friday - Mar 14, 1997 

Vietnamese gang and woman leader on trial

HANOI  (AFP) - A Vietnamese woman who heads a
notorious gang of criminals went on trial here Friday with
her accomplices on charges of stealing individuals'
properties, a court official said.

Nguyen Thi Phuc also known as Phuc Bo, and 23 out of 30
criminals in her 'Phuc Bo' gang appeared in court Friday
for a trial which is expected to last one week, the
official from the Hanoi Supreme People's Court said.

Phuc and her accomplices were accused of appropriating
citizens' houses and land and causing public disorder.

The 40-year-old woman, who has been convicted of crimes six
times, led a gang of 31 muggers and rogues operating in the
area around Dong Xuan market in the centre of the
Vietnamese capital.

Seven of Phuc's gang members are not on trial as they fled
when the gang was arrested late last year. 

Friday - Mar 14, 1997 

Rare Burmese bear gives birth in Vietnam  

HANOI  (AFP) - A rare Burmese bear has produced
twins to become the first bear to give birth in captivity
in Vietnam, the Vietnam News Agency reported Friday. 

The twin baby bears, both weighing 0.3 kilograms (0.7
pounds) at birth, have grown to four kilograms in the 75
days since their birth at the National husbandry Institute
in Ha Tay province, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of
Hanoi, the official agency said.

The mother bear is one of 151 rare species Vietnam imported
from Burma last year. The other endangered animals,
including types of deer, cattle and peacocks have settled
well into their new environment, the agency said.

Friday - Mar 14, 1997

Vietnamese Refugees: A Bitter Legacy

HONG KONG (WSJ) --The first Vietnamese refugees arrived in Hong Kong in May
1975, immediately after the communist takeover of Saigon. A Danish
container ship docked with several thousand who were picked up at sea as
they fled what they feared would be a bloodbath.

Others followed in waves, crossing the often-turbulent South China Sea
in all sorts of flimsy and unsafe vessels. Altogether, 214,000 boat people
found shelter in the British territory.

Today, the government is still trying to clear the last Vietnamese
before Hong Kong's handover to China on June 30. Beijing is insisting that
it doesn't want to inherit the headache when it resumes sovereignty.

While the deadline won't be met, there is no great cause for concern. An
end is in sight to a painful and complex saga that has dragged on for
almost 22 years.

Statistically, 98% of the problem has been resolved, though experience
elsewhere warns that the remaining 2% will be disproportionately difficult.
The situation requires all sides to show patience, flexibility and
compassion to avoid one final round of argument and recrimination.

Hong Kong is just one of half a dozen places where large numbers of boat
people washed up during the exodus, which at its height in 1979 reached
biblical proportions. A million or more Vietnamese took to the water.

What distinguished this mass movement from others was the presumption
that everyone who joined the outflow was a refugee, and that usually meant
automatic resettlement in the West. It was only in 1988-89 that so-called
first-asylum ports began screening to determine who really had a
well-founded fear of going home, and who was merely looking for a better
life abroad.

Unlike the countries of Southeast Asia that periodically slammed their
doors, Hong Kong granted unbroken asylum over the years. Although its
record was marred by controversy over the treatment and forced repatriation
of some camp inmates, Hong Kong alone allowed every one to land safely.

When the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ran
out of funds in the late 1980s, the government began paying for the care
and maintenance of the Vietnamese, on paper an advance to the UNHCR. The
agency hasn't been able to repay about $142 million.

Stirred by a few politicians, sections of the public turned on the boat
people, demanding their removal and the "return" of the money by the UNHCR.
Protests have subsided in the past year or so, as the caseload has fallen
and political attention has focused on Hong Kong's reunion with China.

the countries of Southeast Asia that periodically slammed their doors, Hong
Kong granted unbroken asylum over the years.

With 143,239 boat people resettled overseas, 65,035 returned to Vietnam
and 668 settled locally, this is the picture now in Hong Kong: 1,356
refugees seek resettlement places while 3,873 non-refugees await
repatriation.p>

About 700 of the refugees live in Pillar Point open camp in the New
Territories bordering China, the vast majority of them with jobs in Hong
Kong. The others live outside the camp, though in some cases they send
their children to school inside.

But while many of the 1,356 refugees are self-supporting, they aren't
judged to be first-class material for citizenship by refugee-receiving
countries. For a start, most are de facto refugees, obtaining their status
only because they arrived before the date when screening began. Indeed,
some have been in Hong Kong for up to 16 years.

In addition, many of them have criminal backgrounds or are drug addicts.
The UNHCR has identified a couple of hundred refugees, including
well-adjusted families and "women at risk" with their children, who might
still be able to find new homes abroad, if developed countries can summon a
little more generosity. But the rest, perhaps 1,000, aren't going anywhere
soon.
As for the 3,873 non-refugees, almost 2,000 have been cleared by Vietnam
for return. Most of the others still have to be checked by Vietnamese
authorities. More worrying, about 200--most of them ethnic Chinese--have
been rejected by Hanoi on the ground that they aren't Vietnamese nationals.
Come July 1, they could be technically stateless.

When U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata visited Hong Kong
this week, she was met by a small group of noisy demonstrators. They
shouted, "shame, shame," and insisted that the agency give the money back
to the government.

At a meeting with Tung Chee-hwa, who will replace Governor Chris Patten
after the handover, Mrs. Ogata sought an assurance that the Special
Administration Region of China will maintain Hong Kong's tradition of
asylum. That was misinterpreted by some Chinese- language papers as asking
for asylum for Vietnamese who arrive in future.

In fact, Vietnamese landing after June 15, 1995--and there have been
almost 1,500 of them--aren't handled by the UNHCR and few have sought
asylum. They are mostly illegal workers--some arrested on construction
sites--like millions of others in Asia moving across national borders in
pursuit of jobs.

For the record, Mr. Tung didn't respond directly to Mrs. Ogata's
request, according to officials. He explained that his priority is to take
care of the hundreds of thousands of legal arrivals from China, who are
finding it hard to adjust to Hong Kong conditions.

What remains of the Vietnamese boat people issue offers Mr. Tung a
golden opportunity to win influential friends around the world. His
incoming administration could do wonders for its image at the outset, at
very little cost.

First, Mr. Tung should write off the $142 million debt. For a government
that expects a budget surplus this year of about $4 billion in the year
beginning April 1, the refugee tab is loose change. Besides, the reality is
that UNHCR, totally dependent on donations from the international community
it serves, is never going to be able to repay the money.

When insensitive critics start to complain, Mr. Tung should point out
that the UNHCR didn't take Hong Kong funds and squander them. Rather, the
government paid directly for the upkeep of Vietnamese. Overall, the UNHCR
has spent more than the government on Vietnamese in Hong Kong, and it has
plowed millions of dollars into Vietnam to create conditions that would
stop unwanted boat people turning up on Hong Kong's doorstep.</p>

<p>Next, Mr. Tung should close Pillar Point, an expensive camp that doesn't
help the cause of resettlement and is a blight on Hong Kong. It is the only
camp run by the UNHCR, as the non-refugees are interned by the Correctional
Services Department.</p>

<p>Pillar Point tends to increase dependency, while its culture of drugs
and tension has proved impossible to reform. The burden of additional
security produces an average annual cost of $2,208 per refugee, probably
the highest in the world.

The UNHCR could still provide educational, health and social services to
the refugees outside a camp environment. Resettlement efforts would
continue, presumably with better prospects.

Finally, Mr. Tung should use the quiet diplomacy he favors to secure
Beijing's cooperation, especially in negotiating with Vietnam over the fate
of any stateless persons and for the return of refugees nobody else
wants.

Friday - Mar 14, 1997

Mass wartime grave discovered in Vietnam 

HANOI  (Reuter) - The remains of at least 30 North
Vietnamese servicemen who were killed in the Tet Offensive of
1968 have been discovered in the central highlands province of
Kon Tum, a local official said on Friday.
``We have found so many remains that we cannot identify
anyone,'' said Le Thuan Hiep, an administrator at the local
Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs department.
Local residents had long known that a group of soldiers were
killed and buried nearby. But the grave's exact whereabouts had
remained a mystery until this week, when a family dug under
their house to make a water well.
Scattered among the remains were personal effects such as
water canteens, belts, rubber sandals, coins, razor blades and
bullets for Chinese-made pistols.
The Tet Offensive was one of the most bloody campaigns of
the Vietnam War, which ended with a communist victory over
U.S.-backed South Vietnam in 1975.
More than three million Vietnamese people died in the war
and some 300,000 are still counted as missing in action.

Friday - Mar 14, 1997

HIV Cases on Rise in Vietnam

HANOI (Xinhua News)  - The number of people infected with HIV
virus in Vietnam is growing by about 1,000 a year, local press reported
today.

As many as 4,811 people have been tested HIV positive and another 618
have developed full-blown AIDS since 1991 when the first case of the
disease was found in the country.

The report said 373 people had died of AIDS or AIDS-related
complications in the past six years.

Roughly half of Vietnam's HIV cases were found in Ho Chi Minh City in
the south.

Men account for over 82 percent of the victims while 90 percent are
listed as being of employment age.

Out of the total, 26 were foreigners from Thailand and Cambodia. Most
of the country's HIV cases are related to drug addiction and
prostitution.

In an effort to raise awareness about AIDS, more than 33,000 officials
from national AIDS prevention centers took part in various AIDS
prevention programs in 1996, the report said.

Educational programs also targeted 11,000 female prostitutes and 8,742
drug-addicts.

Friday - Mar 14, 1997 

Drugs trial for mother, daughter opens in Vietnam

HANOI (Reuter) - A Canadian national and her 70-year-old Vietnamese 
mother went on trial in Hanoi on Friday charged with possession of heroin.

Sources said the Hanoi People's Court hearing, which foreign
journalists were not allowed to attend, was expected to last one
day.
Nguyen Thi Hiep, 40, of Montreal, and Tran Thi Cam were
arrested last April at Hanoi airport as they checked in for a
flight to Hong Kong.
Under Vietnamese law, trafficking in as little as one kg
(2.2 lb) of heroin is punishable by death.
A Canadian diplomat said Hiep, who is reported to have left
Vietnam in 1982 and gained Canadian nationality in 1985, was
still considered by Hanoi as a Vietnamese citizen.
Canadian officials were allowed to visit her last July, but
have not been granted access since then.
The trial of the two women coincided with the start of a new
campaign on Friday by authorities in Ho Chi Minh City to stamp
out drug abuse and trafficking in the freewheeling southern
city.
``Criminals involved in heroin rings, no matter if the
quantity is large or small, will be prosecuted with the highest
penalty under criminal law,'' acting mayor Vo Viet Thanh told
the official Sai Gon Giai Phong daily newspaper in an interview.
He said police raids last week on suspected heroin dens in
Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, that led to the
arrest of 96 youths were a good start.
Drugs experts say Vietnam is both a growing market and a
transit route for narcotics from the notorious Golden Triangle
opium-poppy growing area, which straddles the borders of Laos,
Burma and Thailand. Heroin is derived from opium.

Friday - Mar 14, 1997

Vietnam union accuses Taiwan firm of labour abuse

HANOI (Reuter) - Labour union officials in southern Vietnam said on Friday
that they were urging criminal charges over alleged worker abuse by a
Taiwanese supervisor at a factory making sports shoes.

They said the woman had ordered some 56 Vietnamese workers
to run twice around the two-km (1.2-mile) factory perimeter as
punishment for failing to wear regulation company workshoes.
``We want to bring this to the criminal court as soon as
possible,'' said Nguyen Minh Quang, chairman of the labour union
at Pou Chen Vietnam Enterprises Limited in Dong Nai province.
An official at the company, a unit of Taiwan's Pou Chen
Corp, said the supervisor involved had been suspended and added
that the firm was working to resolve the matter.
A Pou Chen Corp official in Taiwan told Reuters that the
company manufactured various world-renowned shoe brands,
including Nike. She declined to comment on the incident in
Vietnam.
Vietnam has accused foreign managers of labour abuse on
several occasions. A Korean woman manager was given a
three-month suspended jail term last year for hitting local
workers on the head with a shoe.