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[Viet-Khsv: 4326] VN News (mar. 16-17, 1997)
Mar 17: Police find arms hidden in central Vietnam home
Mar 17: Analysts puzzled as China moves into territorial fray with Vietnam
Mar 17: Canadian woman sentenced to death in Vietnam
Mar 17: Vietnam lowers threshold for death penalty in corruption cases
Mar 17: More than 200 Vietnamese fall ill, five die, eating diseased cows
Mar 17: Investigators cast net wider in Vietnam's biggest corruption case
Mar 17: Beijing says oil ship near Vietnam in China waters
Mar 17: Hanoi says China drilling in block it claims as own
Mar 16: Vietnam to Hold National Sports and Art Competition for Disabled
Mar 16: German Coach Of Vietnamese Football Team
Monday - Mar 17, 1997
Police find arms hidden in central Vietnam home
HANOI, (AP) - Police in central Vietnam have discovered
a cache of hand grenades, artillery shells and other explosives
hidden in a man's home, official media reported Monday.
Police found the weapons in a raid on the home of Le
Dinh Tu inQuang Ninh district of the central province of Quang
Binh, 488kilometers (303 miles) south of the capital, Hanoi.
They found 817 hand grenades, 60 artillery shells, 51
explosivefuses and 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of explosives hidden in
hishome, the state-controlled newspaper The Reporter and Public Opinion
reported.
The report did not say where Tu got the weapons, nor why
he was
hiding them in his house.
The newspaper also reported that Quang Ninh police also
arrested
four laborers from a forestry farm in a separate incident for
possession of military weapons. It was not clear whether the two
cases were related.
Private ownership of weapons is illegal in Vietnam.
Monday - Mar 17, 1997
Analysts puzzled as China moves into territorial fray with Vietnam
by Frederik Balfour
HANOI (AFP) - Analysts Monday said they were
puzzled by China's moves to begin oil exploration in
territory also claimed by Vietnam, with one academic
specialising in such disputes saying it could be a bid to
reassert Beijing's territorial claims in the post-Deng
Xiaoping era.
China's decision on March 7 to set up a rig off the
disputed Paracel Islands, some 103 kilometers (65 nautical
miles) from Vietnam's coast, drew a strong protest from
Hanoi Sunday.
But Beijing dismissed the protest Monday and insisted the
exploration was being conducted in Chinese territorial
waters.
"With the rise of nationalism and the fact that in the
post-Deng situation.....it is possible that the so-called
hawks could be gaining more influence and this is one way
to exert their right to protect national sovereignty," said
Lee Lai To, a professor of political science specialising
in South China Sea disputes at the National University of
Singapore. Chinese patriarch Deng died in Beijing aged 92
on February 19.
It was "a calculated move to test the water," Lee said by
telephone from Singapore, noting both countries had in the
past awarded exploration contracts in the disputed area to
foreign partners but in this case China was going it alone.
"This is something quite new, China doing it on their own,"
Lee said.
"Maybe they are testing the waters to see how strongly the
other claimants react."
Lee also noted China had chosen an area contested only by
Vietnam and said China had no desire to strain relations
with other member countries of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN groups Vietnam, Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand.
"The overall view is that China does not want to strain
relations but it cannot really give up its claims on the
Spratly's or the Paracels," Lee added, referring to claims
in whole or part on both chains of islands by a number of
countries.
Other analysts were surprised at China's decision at a time
when relations between the two countries are at their
strongest in more than 20 years.
"It doesn't make any sense in the context of closer
Vietnamese-Chinese relations," one western diplomat said.
"Maybe it is a feint," he added, noting the Chinese barge
rig could be quickly and easily moved.
A foreign military source in Hanoi noted China had
carefully chosen a spot that is nearly equidistant from
Vietnam's coastline and from China's Hainan island.
"This area is disputable and maybe this could be a Chinese
move where the two sides are in the process of negotiating
territorial waters in this zone," he said.
The source added China's move was "surprising" at a time
when China and Vietnam have been engaged in negotiations
over maritime border disputes since 1993.
Vietnam's protest Sunday, in the form of a note, said the
drilling was "going against the development trend of
friendship."
"Vietnam demands that the Chinese side immediately stops
the operation of the Kantan-03 oil rig and withdraws it
from the exclusive zone and the continental shelf of
Vietnam," it said.
But a Chinese foreign ministry rebuffed the Vietnamese
protest Monday, saying "the area where the Chinese
prospecting vessel is operating is located within the
sphere of (China's) continental shelf and exclusive
economic zone in the northern part of the South China Sea."
China's move is the latest of several attempts by Beijing
and Hanoi to award oil exploration concessions to make de
facto claims on disputed territories.
In 1992 Beijing signed a contract with the US firm Crestone
Energy Corp. to explore an area around the Spratly Islands,
about 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of Ho Chi Minh
City.
Last April Vietnam awarded a production sharing contract to
US-based Conoco in an area claimed by both countries, but
so far no drilling has taken place.
Vietnam and China have clashed twice over the Spratlys, in
1988 and 1992.
Monday - Mar 17, 1997
Canadian woman sentenced to death in Vietnam
by Frederik Balfour
HANOI (AFP) - A Canadian woman was sentenced to
death and fined one billion dong (90,000 dollars) here
Monday after being convicted of transporting heroin, a
Canadian embassy source said.
Nguyen Thi Hiep, a 40-year-old naturalized Canadian who
fled Vietnam in 1981, was arrested with her 70-year-old
mother, Vietnamese national Tran Thi Cam, at Hanoi's
international airport on April 25, 1996.
They were detained after police found 5.45 kilograms (12
pounds) of heroin hidden inside five lacquer paintings they
were carrying as they tried to board a flight to Hong Kong.
Cam was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined 500
million dong after being convicted of the same offence.
Hiep, who was visiting Vietnam on a one-month visa last
April, listed her address as Montreal, Quebec on her
passport.
She is the first Canadian to ever receive the death
sentence in Vietnam, the embassy said.
A spokesman for the embassy said it would not take any
official action until after Hiep decided whether to appeal.
He said Hiep had 15 days to appeal her sentence and that
appeals often took up to several months to be heard.
"Our line is that anything the Canadian government will do
must await the final sentence," he said.
The embassy said it had only been granted consular access
to Hiep once, last July, since her arrest.
"Our official reaction is that we have a request in for
consular access as soon as possible. This is an outstanding
request. The only visit was July last year," the source
said.
The reason for the fines was not immediately clear, an
embassy spokesman said, adding only that it roughly
corresponded to the value of the seized heroin.
Possession or transporting more than one kilogram (2.2
pounds) of heroin is punishable by death in Vietnam.
The embassy, whose representative was allowed to attend the
three-day trial, did not give any other details.
Canada abolished the death penalty more than 2O years ago.
Hiep is the fourth foreigner to receive the death sentence
for drug-related crimes in Vietnam.
In 1993 Wong Chi-Shing, a holder of a Hong Kong British
National passport was executed in Ho Chi Minh City for
trafficking after he was caught smuggling five kilogrammes
of heroin into the country.
Two Laotians, Sieng Pheng and Sieng Nhong, received the
death sentence in 1995 for having imported 15 kilogrammes
of heroin, the largest amount ever seized in Vietnam. The
two have not yet been reportedly executed.
Hiep's conviction on Monday came during a concerted
campaign by Hanoi to stamp out illegal drug use and drug
related crimes.
According to the United Nations Drug Control Programme,
(UNDCP) Vietnam has more than 200,000 drug users, most of
whom are addicted to opium.
However authorities have noted an alarming rise in the use
of an unrefined heroin-based drug called "black water" that
is popular among young, middle class Vietnamese.
More than 100 people in Ho Chi Minh City were arrested in
the city's biggest ever drug bust, spearheading a
government drive to fight drug abuse, a Ho Chi Minh City
police official said Monday.
Monday - Mar 17, 1997
Vietnam lowers threshold for death penalty in corruption cases
Hanoi (dpa) - Vietnamese officials are preparing a new anti-corruption
law that will allow courts to impose the death sentence for fraud of
less than 27,000 dollars, according to a local report Monday.
Capital punishment can then be imposed for these lower amounts of
fraud when the offence is ``serious enough'',officials explained.
The change means that the new bill will not be ready in time for the
April session of the National Assembly but will have to wait until
October, the Vietnam Investment Review weekly reported Monday.
The 27,000-dollar threshold - which had itself not yet become law -
was established at the behest of Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, as part of
the government's - and ruling Communist Party's - drive to combat
corruption.
``If someone steals VND100 million (8,650 dollars) from a fund for
victims of flood or serious disease, he would face the death penalty,
but someone who earns one billion Vietnamese dong by using his power in
land purchasing would not necessarily receive the same sentence,'' the
paper quoted an official as explaining.
<P>Under the current draft officials will also have to declare their
property and income and ``thoroughly investigate all rumours of
corruption'', said the report.
Another news report Monday said investigators have summoned four
additional officials to appear in court, including a deputy governor of
the state bank, in connection with Vietnam's largest corruption case.
Le Thi Van, a former vice-chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh People's
Committee, and her son, Nguyen Tri Dung, have also been summoned by the
court in what seems a significant expansion of the case that has already
resulted in four death sentences.
The five have been are to ordered to appear March 24 when an appeals
court in Ho CHi Minh City reconsiders initial verdicts in the so-called
TAMEXCO case.
The week-long trial ended January 31 with four death sentences and
jail terms between life and three years suspended for 16 other
defendants.
The case, which centered around a party-affiliated trading company,
TAMEXCO, involved financial misdeeds that resulted in the losses of an
estimated 40 million dollars.
A majority of the original 20 defendants were believed to have been
Communist Party members and the four officials more recently issued
summons appeared to be party officials as well.
They include Chu Van Nguyen, deputy state bank governor, Pham Van Hoa,
former deputy chief of the Tan Binh District Party Unit, and Pham Ngoc
Suong, deputy chief of the Financial Management Board of Ho Chi Minh
City Party Unit, the Saigon Times Daily reported Monday.
Monday - Mar 17, 1997
More than 200 Vietnamese fall ill, five die, eating diseased cows
Hanoi (dpa) - More than 230 people have fallen ill - and five are
reported already dead - from eating diseased cows in Vietnam's
south-central coastal province of Phu Yen, officials said Monday.
An official in the Song Hinh district said the outbreak had affected
several villages but that many doctors had been mobilized to contain the
problem.
The victims, including two childen, suffered from acute diaorrhea,
leading some health experts to warn about a possible outbreak of
cholera.
But the district official, who asked that his name not be used, said
the problem seemed to be under control.
He said it was unclear how much contaminated stream water had
contributed to the problem.
Monday - Mar 17, 1997
Investigators cast net wider in Vietnam's biggest corruption case
Hanoi (dpa) - Investigators have summoned four additional officials to
appear in court, including a deputy governor of the state bank, in
connection with Vietnam's largest corruption, a local press report said
Monday.
Le Thi Van, a former vice-chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh People's
Committee, and her son, Nguyen Tri Dung, have also been summoned by the
court in what seems a significant expansion of the case that has already
resulted in four death sentences.
The five have been are to ordered to appear March 24 when an appeals
court in Ho CHi Minh City reconsiders initial verdicts in the so-called
TAMEXCO case.
The week-long trial ended January 31 with four death sentences and
jail terms between life and three years suspended for 16 other
defendants.
The case, which centered around a party-affiliated trading company,
TAMEXCO, involved financial misdeeds that resulted in the losses of an
estimated 40 million dollars.
A majority of the original 20 defendants were believed to have been
Communist Party members and the four officials more recently issued
summons appeared to be party officials as well.
They include Chu Van Nguyen, deputy state bank governor, Pham Van Hoa,
former deputy chief of the Tan Binh District Party Unit, and Pham Ngoc
Suong, deputy chief of the Financial Management Board of Ho Chi Minh
City Party Unit, the Saigon Times Daily reported Monday.
Van gave testimony during the first trial but she was not considered
to be under investigation at the time.
This time she has been ``summoned as a person with rights and
obligations related to the lawsuit,'' reported the paper. It was unclear
whether the others summoned by the court are considered liable to
prosecution at this time.
Monday - Mar 17, 1997
Beijing says oil ship near Vietnam in China waters
BEIJING (Reuter) - China said on Monday that an oil exploration ship operating
near Vietnam was in Chinese waters and its activities were above reproach
from Hanoi.
``The seas where the Chinese exploration vessel is carrying out its
operation are...within the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone
of China,'' said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.
``The normal operations being carried out by the Chinese side in this area
are above reproach,'' the spokesman told Reuters.
The area is northwest of the potentially oil-rich Spratly Islands chain, of
which China and Vietnam are among six regional claimants.
Vietnam said on Sunday the rig had been drilling for oil off its central
coast and had seriously violated Hanoi's sovereignty over an exclusive
economic zone and continental shelf.
The official Vietnam News Agency said the oil rig, tugboat and accompanying
vessels moved on March 7 into a South China Sea area 64.5 nautical miles off
Chan Nay Dong cape, halfway down the Vietnamese coast.
Repeated warnings had been ignored and a letter of protest had been lodged
with the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi on March 10, the news agency said.
``Vietnam demands the Chinese side stop the operation of the Kan Tan III oil
rig and withdraw it from the exclusive zone and the continental shelf of
Vietnam,'' the agency said.
A Chinese oil official confirmed that the seismic exploration ship Kan Tan
III had been operating in seas near Vietnam, but said sovereignty over the
area was ill-defined.
``The problem is the border has not been mutually agreed on,'' the official
said.
The protest has revived a festering dispute between the two nations over
maritime sovereignty after several years of careful manoeuvring to settle
the issue through peaceful negotiation.
Warships from the two countries clashed briefly in the Spratlys in the late
1980s.
But the two sides set up working groups to thrash out land and sea border
disputes -- which include competing claims for the Paracel Islands
archipelago -- after they normalised relations in 1991.
The problem surfaced again last year when Hanoi granted an oil exploration
and production contract near the Spratlys to the U.S. firm Conoco Inc, a
unit of Dupont Co.
A month later, China announced that it was expanding the area of sea under
its jurisdiction by more than 2.5 million sq km (965,000 sq miles), and said
the move ensured it abided by a United Nations convention on maritime law.
Monday - Mar 17, 1997
Hanoi says China drilling in block it claims as own
Hanoi (Reuter) - A Chinese oil exploration ship is operating in an unexploited
area off the coast of central Vietnam that Hanoi claims as its own, a senior
official at state-owned Petrovietnam said on Monday.
``The Chinese are now drilling in our block,'' said the oil and gas company
official, who declined to be named.
Chinese oil officials in Beijing confirmed that a seismic exploration ship
was operating in waters near Vietnam, but said sovereignty over the area was
ill-defined.
``This is our vessel,'' said an official. ``The problem is the border has
not been mutually agreed on.''
Vietnam said on Sunday that it had complained to Beijing after the Kan Tan
III oil rig was moved to the area 10 days ago.
The official Vietnam News Agency said coastguards had repeatedly warned
vessels accompanying the rig that they were encroaching on foreign
territorial waters.
``The operation of the Chinese oil rig has seriously violated Vietnam's
sovereignty over its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf,'' VNA
said, quoting a letter which was sent to the Chinese embassy in Hanoi on
March 10.
``Vietnam demands the Chinese side stop the operation of the Kan Tan III oil
rig and withdraw it from the exclusive zone and the continental shelf of
Vietnam,'' it added.
The Petrovietnam official said the area concerned was block 113, where
Vietnam had previously carried out a survey and concluded that it may have
reserves of oil and associated gas.
Foreign oil industry executives said the dispute over the area, which VNA
said was 64.5 nautical miles from the nearest point of Vietnam's coast, had
arisen because there were differences over the two countries' territorial
sea base lines.
One source said China had drawn its base line on the assumption that it has
sovereignty over the Paracel Islands chain to the east, which is also
claimed by Vietnam.
Vietnam and China are also among six regional claimants to the Spratly
Islands, which lie further to the south and closer to most of Vietnam's
oilfields.
``There has been very limited exploration there,'' said one source,
referring to the block in which the Petrovietnam official said China was
drilling. ``It's likely to be a gas prone area, but that's a guess. It could
be an oil play.''
Vietnam and China, which share a long history of mutual suspicion, have
discussed land and maritime border disputes since they normalised relations
in 1991.
However, they have made little progress over the South China Sea. The
Spratlys dispute bubbled to the surface again last year when Hanoi granted
an oil exploration and production contract near the archipelago to the U.S.
firm Conoco.
A month later, China announced that it was expanding the area of sea under
its jurisdiction by more than 2.5 million sq km (965,000 sq miles), and said
the move ensured it abided by a United Nations convention on maritime law.
Sunday - Mar 16, 1997
Vietnam to Hold National Sports and Art Competition for Disabled
HANOI (Xinhua News) - Disabled athletes and artists will get a
chance to show their sporting prowess and artistic talent at Vietnam's
first national sports and art competitions for the disabled at the end
of next month in Central Quang Tri Province.
Over 600 disabled people have registered for the four-day competitions
from April 28.
Disabled athletes have a choice of events including 100-meter,
3-kilometer and 10km wheelchari races, air rifle shooting, table
tennis, badminton.
Art performance competitions will cover solo and group singing, and
solo musical instrument performance.
Vietnam now has four million invalids, or five per cent of the
population.
Every Year, a considerable sum from the state budget is allocated to
assist war invalids and disabled people.
Many functional rehalibitation centers have been built for the disabled
who also receive soft loans to develop the household economy.
A number of disabled people have overcome their difficulties and gained
high positions in society and higher education certificates.
Sports clubs for disabled people are also effectively operating in
Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh city and other cities.
As for the Hanoi Sports Club for Disabled People, after only one year
of its establishment in 1989 sent its members to international sports
competitions in Japan and Singapore with eight of them winning medals.
Quang Tri was specifically chosen to host the four-day competitions
from April 28 because it suffered more than any Vietnamese Province
during the anti-U.S. war.
Wars have left a terrible legacy on Quang Tri with many thousands
injured, and the tragic problem of deformed children due to enoumous
quantities of toxic chemicals, particularly retorious agent orange,
that saturated the area.
Sunday - Mar 16, 1997
German Coach Of Vietnamese Football Team
By Ken Stier
Hanoi (dpa) - To go or not to go? That's the question millions of
ardent Vietnamese football fans are wondering about the German coach of
their national team.
Adored for bringing new respectability to the national squad, Karl
Heinz Weigang has also seen his star dimmed with the team's abysmal
performance at the recent Dunhill Cup tournament in Malaysia, when it
came last.
Ever since he arrived two years ago, Weigang has been on something of
an emotional rollercoaster in this country of football fanatics.
With Vietnam's increasing international integration, the national team
has become a critical symbol of this virile nation's high ambitions.
But now it seems that Wiegang may have had enough. That at least is
the speculation sweeping schoolyards, ministry offices and fresh beer
arcades across this country of 75 million.
The tempest was kicked off by reports in Kuala Lumpur newspapers that
Weigang had agree to sign for a two-year term coaching the Malaysian
Perak state football team.
That fueled a uncharacteristic burst of journalistic enterprise from
Vietnamese papers, one of which (Thanh Nien - Young people) went so far
as to interview Malaysain reporters at The Sun newspaper - to get to the
bottom of the story.
They were not successful - and look like staying frustrated until
Weigang, who is reportedly back in Germany for medical treatment, can be
contacted.
Fans were taken aback because Weigang was thought to have gone
directly to Germany - not to Malaysia negotiating a new deal when his
contract in Vietnam still technically holds until March 1998.
Tran Bay, Vietnam Football Federation General Secretary, tried to
dampen speculation that Weigang had bolted, saying: ``Only when I
receive official information will I give my own official opinion.''
But other details emerging about Weigang's departure only stoked
speculation. Weigang apparently asked for several months salary, which
Bay insists this was ``normal''.
But then there the two letters Weigang sent to the federation just
before he left the country on March 9.
One asked for sick leave, which Weigang took anyway without waiting
for the permission his current contract apparently requires, according
to local reports.
The other reiterates long-standing complaints Weigang has had about
the lack of clarity of his authority to run the team as he sees fit.
Excessive second-guessing and meddling by Vietnamese sports officials
echo complaints made by the previous foreign coach of the Vietnam team
who left under a cloud.
The tone of Weigang's letter - parts of which Bay quoted from in the
lcoal press - was resigned. He says previous requests to alter his
present contract were never responded to.
Some fans take heart that Weigang recently rented a house in south Ho
Chi Minh City for 2,500 dollars per month - maybe where his salary
advance went to as most landlords here require large deposits.
But generally the feeling here is one of gnawing anxiety about the
fledgling team that carried so much of this young nation's pride.
``I am not happy to hear about Weigang leaving beause under him the
team has really shown its potential,'' says Tran Quoc Thang, a
third-year student at the Hanoi Polytechnic College.
``Especially now there are so many players - a new foreign coach would
take a long time to integrate himself in with the team.''
Whether his latest moves are merely a bargaining ploy or an apparent
betrayal Weigang seems to know a thing or two about finessing his way in
the region.
He coached an award-winning South Vietnam squad during the American
war and latter worked as chief coach of the Malaysian national team in
the late 1970s after Hanoi took over the south.