VN News (Mar. 22-23/1997)

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

Mar 23: Heroin wreaks havoc among Ho Chi Minh City youth 
Mar 23: ASEAN to support Vietnam in oil dispute at ASEAN-China meeting
Mar 22: Vietnam dismisses Buddhist clampdown claim
Mar 22: Vietnamese fisherman dies in bizarre attack by ``swordfish''
Mar 22: Eighteen  Vietnamese missing as Dutch dredger sinks in storm
Mar 22: Vietnam plays down maritime dispute with China
Mar 22: Rabies kills up to 500 a year in Vietnam
Mar 22: 200 Vietnamese Buddhists threaten to immolate selves: report
Mar 22: Asean May Ask China To Stop Oil Exploration Near Vietnam


Sunday - Mar 23, 1997 

Heroin wreaks havoc among Ho Chi Minh City youth

by Le Thang Long

HO CHI MINH CITY  (AFP) - Seated on the floor at
the back of a cafe in the heart of the city, seven young
men inhale the vapours rising from bubbling white powder on
a heated piece of aluminum, then recline with satisfaction
along a mat.

"All I want to do is experience that strange sensation that
I feel every time," explains one of them who would only
identify himself as Hung. 

"I'm not a heavy smoker but it's hard to imagine going out
with my friends without heroin," the 19-year-old added.

Serious drug use took root in the famous opium dens of the
former Saigon during French colonial times and flourished
during the Vietnam War among US soldiers. 

Today the use of drugs, and especially heroin, is growing
rapidly and is claiming a growing portion of Ho Chi Minh
City's youth.

The use of heroin and other narcotics have seen an
explosion among young people, who consume in cafes, bars
and even in secondary and high schools which have taken to
locking their gates at recess to prevent students from
buying drugs on the sidewalks.

In plain daylight, in public parks or along the Saigon
River, young people are injecting themselves with heroin.
The less prosperous among them smoke opium mixed with
tranquilizers or tobacco, while some even shoot it mixed
with boiling water.

"I use between 20 and 30 small hits of heroin a day, with
the price varying between 30,000 and 40,000 dong (2.60 and
3.60 dollars)," said Hiep, a secondary school student.

"I ask my parents or grandparents for money, and if they
don't give me some, I steal from them," he said.

Earlier this month, 96 people -- the majority of them boys
and girls aged between 15 and 23 -- were arrested in a
karaoke bar in a downtown district where they were caught
smoking heroin.

"It is difficult to know exactly how many addicts there
are, but it numbers at least 30,000, says Nguyen Minh
Chanh, deputy director of the city's social affairs office,
who figures that "10 percent of drug users are women,
including girls aged 12 or 13."

According to police, 70 percent of the 1,500 drug addicts
arrested in the past four months were kids from wealthy and
well-connected families. Often they are involved in cases
of theft, and even murder.

"Youth make up two types of addicts," Chanh said. "A heavy
smoker can spend up to 300 dollars per day on heroin",
while the monthly salary of an official is only about 100
dollars, he added.

Heroin, opium and other narcotics are often hidden in
chewing gum packets or cigarettes and are sold in opium
dens, bars and now in front of schools.

A city-wide anti-drug campaign has been launched in schools
where young people must promise in writing not to use
drugs.

"This evil is poisoning the young generation," said Chanh.
"But the results of the struggle against drugs aren't
encouraging because authorities are passive." 

Although possession of one kilogram (2.2 pounds) or more of
heroin is punishable by death -- a 40-year-old
Vietnamese-born Canadian received the death sentence in
Hanoi last week -- hard drug use is growing at an alarming
rate. 

As soon as one "shooting gallery" is closed, another opens
elsewhere in its place. 

"The desire to follow the trend among adolescents and the
influence of bad elements" are the principal reasons for
the alarming rise in drug use among youth, said sociologist
Nguyen Quang Vinh.

And heroin, like opium, is readibly accessible. It is
easily smuggled through Vietnam's porous border from the
"Golden Triangle", encompassing Burma, Cambodia and Laos,
but also from opium-producing areas in the northwest and
central highlands of Vietnam. 

Sunday - Mar 23, 1997

ASEAN to support Vietnam in oil dispute at ASEAN-China meeting

by Frederik Balfour

HANOI (AFP) - The Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) will throw its support behind Vietnam in
its latest maritime dispute with China at a high level
ASEAN-China meeting next month, according to ASEAN
diplomats.

"Automatically ASEAN will support Vietnam. It's all for one
and one for all," an ASEAN ambassador here told AFP.

Following an urgent meeting of ASEAN ambassadors called by
the Foreign Ministry in Hanoi Thursday, diplomats advised
their governments to throw their full support behind
Vietnam's request for a meeting with China on the latest
spat in the South China Sea. 

ASEAN wants to put the issue on the agenda for the upcoming
ASEAN-China Cooperative Meeting set for April 17-19 in
China, he said. 

Although ASEAN's charter dictates member countries settle
their territorial disputes with non-ASEAN countries
bilaterally, the regional grouping is wary of allowing
China's maritime claim to go unchallenged. 

"It's common sense (we will support Vietnam). China is like
a huge ox with a long tongue reaching all the way to the
southern tip of the South China Sea," the ambassador said.

Another ASEAN ambassador added: "I told my government we
should try to persuade China to agree to talks. I suggested
we do this either bilaterally or in the context of the
ASEAN-China meeting next month." 

The latest territorial row between Hanoi and Beijing was
triggered on March 7 when a Chinese oil rig moved into an
area 64.5 nautical miles (119 kilometres) from Vietnam's
coast and 71 nautical miles (130 kilometres) from China's
Hainan Island, prompting Hanoi to demand China cease
exploration immediately. 

On March 20 Hanoi repeated its demands and told ambassadors
it would request a special, expert-level meeting with China
to resolve the dispute. 

"We are ready at any time to talk, anywhere," said a senior
official from Vietnam's foreign affairs ministry department
of international law and treaties over the weekend.

"If they want us to go to China, we are ready."

So far Bejing has made no official response to Hanoi's
request for talks, and one ASEAN ambassador who tried to
contact his Chinese counterpart here said he refused to
discuss the issue. 

However, a Chinese military source in Hanoi intimated
Beijing might be open to dialogue. 

"The Chinese party reaffirms its claims of sovereignty, but
the two parties should solve this problem by peaceful
negotiations and base them on peaceful relations with their
neighbours," he said. 

Analysts say strong nationalist sentiments in both capitals
preclude any possibility of either side backing down. But
unlike past clashes in the South China Sea over the Spratly
or Paracel islands, the latest dispute between Bejing and
Hanoi is based on the strong potential of commercially
exploitable gas. 

"Vietnam needs energy to power itself into the lowest rung
of ASEAN and they want to stake out as big a prospective
acerage as they can," said Al Troner, managing director of
Asia Pacific Energy Consulting, an independent Kuala
Lumpur-based concern.

"In 1994 China became a net importer of oil. This adds
urgency and shows why they are less willing to comprise,"
he said. 

Vietnam and China have been negotiating since 1991 on land
boundaries, joint claims over the Gulf of Tonkin separating
Vietnam's northeast coast from the southern tip of China
and Hainan Island, and overlapping claims to the Spratly
Islands and the Paracel Islands.

However, no existing mechanism for talks cover the
contested area, which Vietnamese seismic maps list as block
113, lies about 54 nautical miles (98 kilometres) beyond
the southernmost boundary of the Gulf of Tonkin, 164
nautical miles (298 kilometres) northeast of the Paracels,
and 530 nautical miles, (960 kilometres) from the Spratlys. 


Saturday - Mar 22, 1997

Vietnam dismisses Buddhist clampdown claim  

HANOI  (Reuter) - Vietnam's state buddhist authorities on Saturday dismissed
an overseas claim that Hanoi was seeking to disband a church youth movement 
as part of an ongoing campaign of religious repression.

  An official with the Central Religious Committee said the
Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights' claim that a
decision had been taken to disband the movement was untrue.
  She said a government directive, issued in 1995, had sought
not to disband the Buddhist Youth Movement but to bring it under
the control of the officially recognised and state-sponsored
Vietnam Buddhist Church (VBC).
  She also denied a claim the VBC had passed a decision to
dissolve the organisation at a meeting on January 13 this year.
   The Paris organisation said in a statement received by
Reuters on Saturday that some 200 members of the movement were
threatening self-immolation by fire in protest against religious
intolerance in Vietnam following the decision.
  It added that the move to disband the organisation was part
of an ongoing campaign by the Vietnamese government ``to
suppress all religious movements independent of State control.''
  The Buddhist Youth Movement was originally founded by the
now-banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam as a scout and
educational movement.

Saturday - Mar 22, 1997

Vietnamese fisherman dies in bizarre attack by ``swordfish''

Hanoi (dpa) - A 72-year-old fisherman was stabbed to death by a
freshwater ``swordfish'' in the central Dak Lak province of Vietnam,
local news reports said Saturday.  

Huynh Van Tan, was stabbed repeated in the chest after he dove into a
net that held the 80 kilogram fish in order to kill it with a knife.

The incident occurred March 15 on the Serepoc River, in the central
highlands area, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported. 

Saturday - Mar 22, 1997 

Eighteen  Vietnamese missing as Dutch dredger sinks in storm 

Hanoi (dpa) - Eighteen  Vietnamese crew members were missing and
presumed dead after a brand-new Dutch dredger sank Wednesday evening
outside the northern port of Haiphong, said rescue workers Saturday.   

Eight crew members were rescued by Haiphong port vessels on Friday,
but three days after a storm sank the dredger rescue workers said they
were giving up hope of finding more survivors.

``The chance of finding anyone alive now is one in a thousand,'' said
Nguyen Quang Hai, from the Haiphong Port Resuce Team. ``But we are still
looking for the bodies of the others because it is really important for
the families of the victims.''   

The Haiphong Port-owned dredger ran into trouble soon after it left
the port on Wednesday evening when it started taking in water from
swells caused by a storm, they said.   

The dredger was traveling to work at the Cua Day Port in Ninh Binh
Province roughly 110 kilometres southwest of Haiphong, northern 
Vietnam's main port.   

Port authorities said they had two vessels searching waters roughly 17
nautical miles of the resort town of Do Son. 

Saturday - Mar 22, 1997

Vietnam plays down maritime dispute with China 

Hanoi  (Reuter) - Vietnam, apparently seeking to cool a territorial dispute 
with China, reported the visit of a senior Chinese official with only passing
reference to ``outstanding issues'' between the two countries.

Official media reports on the visit by State Council Secretary General Luo Gan,
who left Hanoi on Friday, were peppered with the words ``friendship''
and ``cooperation.''

``Prime Minister (Vo Van) Kiet hailed the visit as a vivid manifestation of 
the Chinese party and state's policy of attaching importance to consolidating 
and promoting traditional friendship with Vietnam,'' the Vietnam News Agency
said.

``He...said he wished that the Sino-Vietnamese friendship and cooperation
with China would be further expanded and that outstanding issues would be
solved in the spirit of friendship and mutual understanding,'' it added.

Luo was reported to have made similar comments, expressing pleasure at ``the
fast, stable and healthy development of friendship and cooperation'' between
the two countries.

Last weekend Hanoi announced that it had protested to Beijing over the
positioning of a drilling rig 64.5 nautical miles off central Vietnam's
coastline.

China responded that the rig, which is operating in an area analysts believe
may be rich in gas, was in Chinese waters.

Vietnam called for negotiations and also briefed envoys from members of the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the row.

Vietnam joined ASEAN, which includes Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, in mid-1995.

Several ASEAN ambassadors said on Friday that although the matter was
between Hanoi and Beijing, they sympathised with Vietnam's position and
backed its insistence on both a withdrawal of the rig and a negotiated solution.

However, the positive tone of Hanoi's reports on the meeting between Kiet
and Luo appeared to indicate an eagerness to reduce tensions.

Kiet was reported as saying the closeness of economic and trade ties had
lagged behind a warming in political ties between the two communist
countries since they normalised relations in 1991.

Although ideological allies, Hanoi and Beijing have long been at odds over
competing claims to parts of the Tonkin Gulf, their ill-defined land border
and the Paracel and Spratly island chains in the South China Sea.

They are among six regional claimants to the Spratlys.

According to one diplomat, scheduled bilateral talks on the Tonkin Gulf had
-- at China's suggestion -- been pushed back from early April to later that
month because of the latest row.

The ASEAN envoys said they were shown a map with territorial base lines
drawn between islands off the Vietnamese coast and around China's Hainan
island. The position of the rig was marked on the Vietnamese side of a
median between those two lines.

Saturday - Mar 22, 1997

Rabies kills up to 500 a year in Vietnam 

HANOI  (AFP) - Rabies claims up to 500 lives every
year in Vietnam, with most infections caused by dog bites,
the Quan Doi Nhan Dan daily reported here Saturday. 

Rabies killed between 300 and 500 people each year since
1987 and 250,000 to 400,000 people were bitten by dogs each
year in the same period, the army newspaper reported,
citing medical sources.

About half of those infected with rabies were under the age
of 16, it added.

Vietnam has between 12 and 15 million dogs, as both
domestic pets and for consumption, though only 10 to 20
percent are regularly vaccinated.

Saturday - Mar 22, 1997 

200 Vietnamese Buddhists threaten to immolate selves: report

GENEVA (AFP) - Nearly 200 Buddhists are
threatening to burn themselves alive in Vietnam to protest
against the dissolution of their movement under a
government campaign of religious repression, a human rights
body told a UN commission here Friday. 

The official Viet Nam Buddhist Church early this year
dissolved the Buddhist Youth Movement (Gia Dinh Phat tu)
which has a membership of more than 300,000 children and
adolescents aged from 6-18 along the lines of the Scouts,
Vice-President of the International Federation of Human
Rights Leagues Vo Van Ai told the United Nations Human
Rights Commission's 53rd annual session here. 

Ai, who is also president of the Vietnam Committee for
defence of Human Rights, said the measure taken on January
13 was a "crucial stage in a campaign to annihilate" the
50-year-old movement, a campaign carried out since 1955 by
the Hanoi government's religious affairs bureau. 

"The tension is currently such that the leaders of the
Buddhist Youth Movement have indicated the desire of nearly
200 of them to immolate themselves by fire in protest
against the religious persecutions and the dissolution of
their organisation," Ai said. 

He called on the 53-nation commission to intervene as a
matter of urgency to prevent such a catastrophe.

Immolation by fire has been a common means of protest by
Vietnamese Buddhists, notably during the Vietnam war.

The human rights federation accused the communist
government of conducting a campaign of repression against
all religious communities, including Buddhists, Roman
Catholics and Caodaists.

These measures were aimed especially at the bonzes of the
non-official Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam under
administrative pretexts, the non-governmental organisation
said. 

It cited a ban placed earlier this year on monks receiving
alms, a secular Buddhist tradition. The authorities said
they had carried out the move to clamp down on begging by
fake bonzes. 

The federation also charged that imprisoned bonzes of the
unofficial church had not been permitted to return to their
pagodas after being freed. It quoted the cases of Thich Hai
Tang, Thich Hanh Duc, Thich Hai Thinh and Thich Hai Chanh.

Concerning the Roman Catholic Church, the government stands
accused of systematically blocking nominations of bishops
in the dioceses of Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang and Buon Ma
Thuot, despite commitments given to the Vatican.

Saturday - Mar 22, 1997 

Asean May Ask China To Stop Oil Exploration Near Vietnam 

Hanoi (DJ)  -- Diplomats from members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations may call on China to halt oil explorations in disputed waters off 
the coast of central Vietnam.

A draft Asean statement obtained by The Associated Press Friday said the 
group plans to urge Vietnam and China to settle the dispute peacefully.

Vietnam earlier this month accused China of violating its waters in the 
South China Sea and demanded the immediate removal of a Chinese exploratory
oil rig.

'In the meanwhile, China should stop its oil exploration activities in 
the said area so as to help the early peaceful resolution of the problem,' 
the statement said.

Although not official, a diplomat from an Asean country, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, confirmed the statement represented the views of the
member countries.</p>
Asean is comprised of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.</p>
Vietnam has repeatedly charged China with incursions into waters it claims
in the contested South China Sea, where potential oil fields have raised the
stakes for control of the region.</p>
China defended its oil exploration, citing legal claims based on the United
Nations Law of the Sea.</p>
Vietnam has since been lobbying for support, discussing the dispute with
foreign dignitaries based in Hanoi.</p>
Ambassadors from Asean countries met with Foreign Ministry officials
Thursday for a briefing on the territorial waters.</p>
'The consultations were part of the ASEAN tradition of notifying each other
about situations of interest to the security and stability of the Southeast
Asian region,' the statement said.</p>
Vietnam says the Chinese oil rig is operating inside waters off its central
coast and China's Hainan island.</p>
Border and territorial water rights have been an ongoing source of tension
between China and Vietnam. They fought a brief border war in 1979.</p>
The jostling over control of the waters is part of larger dispute involving
six East Asian countries, which claim oil rights, shipping lanes and
ownership of tiny islands and atolls with potential strategic importance.