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VNSA-L digest 298
VNSA-L Digest 298
Topics covered in this issue include:
1) Ha` No^.i Mua` Va('ng Nhu+~ng Co+n Mu+a (fwd)
by AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>
2) [avsl-l] Vietnam National University Hanoi website (fwd)
by AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>
3) Ti'nh ca'ch ngu+o+`i ... ta
by Bui Duy Thanh <etc59651@ait.ac.th>
4) VN News (Mar. 22-23/1997)
by Vu Thanh Ca <vuca@envi.env.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp>
5) VN News (Mar. 20-21/1997)
by Vu Thanh Ca <vuca@envi.env.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic No. 1
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 04:00:35 -0800 (PST)
From: AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>
To: vnsa-l@csd.uwm.edu
Subject: Ha` No^.i Mua` Va('ng Nhu+~ng Co+n Mu+a (fwd)
Message-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.93.970323035856.8744T-100000@june.cs.washington.edu>
>From VKS:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 14:21:19 -0600
From: Nguyen Quang Kim
Xin gui toi moi nguoi mot bai hat ve Ha noi duoc gioi tre ua thich gan day.
Bai hat do mot nhac sy khong chuyen nghiep, Mr. Truong Quy Hai, pho tho
cua mot nguoi chua tung mot lan den Ha noi, Mr. Bui Thanh Tua^'n. Nhac sy
Truong Quy Hai tot nghiep Dai hoc Mo? Di.a Cha^'t, hien dang lam cong tac
Doan tai Dai Hoc Kinh Te Quoc Dan Ha noi.
Ha` No^.i Mua` Va('ng Nhu+~ng Co+n Mu+a
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(Tho+ Bu`i Thanh Tua^'n)
Ha` no^.i mua` na`y va('ng nhu+~ng co+n mu+a
Ca'i re't dda^`u ddo^ng
Kha(n em bay
Hu+u hu+u gio' la.nh
Hoa su+~a tho^i ro+i
Em be^n to^i mo^.t chie^`u tan lo+'p
DDu+o+`ng Co^? ngu+ xu+a
cha^`m cha^.m bu+o+'c ta ve^`
Ha` no^.i mua` na`y chie^`u kho^ng buo^ng na('ng
Pho^' va('ng nghie^ng nghie^ng ca`nh ca^y kho^
Qua'n co'c lie^u xie^u mo^.t ca^u tho+
Ho^` Ta^y
Ho^` Ta^y ti'm mo+`
Ha` no^.i mua` na`y lo`ng bao no^~i nho+'
Ta nho+' dde^m nao la.nh ddo^i tay
Ho+i a^'m trao em tuo^?i tho+ nga^y
Tu+o+?ng nhu+
Tu+o+?ng nhu+ Co`n dda^y
(Note: Ca'ch nghi co the khong chuan vi toi tu chep ra chu khong biet ban
goc)
------------------------------
Topic No. 2
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 04:04:07 -0800 (PST)
From: AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>
To: vnsa-l@csd.uwm.edu
Subject: [avsl-l] Vietnam National University Hanoi website (fwd)
Message-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.93.970323040338.8744U-100000@june.cs.washington.edu>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 13:50:16 +1100
From: Vern Weitzel
Nghiem Van Ngo, now researchingat Deakin University
has prepared a very useful website giving details
of Vietnam National University Hanoi. The location:
http://www2.deakin.edu.au/htmltrn3/vanngo/vnu.html
Nghiem Van Ngo's personal web page is:
http://www2.deakin.edu.au/htmltrn3/vanngo/default.html.
------------------------------
Topic No. 3
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 21:43:02 +0700 (GMT+0700)
From: Bui Duy Thanh <etc59651@ait.ac.th>
To: Multiple recipients of list <vnsa-l@csd.uwm.edu>
Subject: Ti'nh ca'ch ngu+o+`i ... ta
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.94.970323212009.20535A-100000@alphaserv.ait.ac.th>
Hi all,
Tha^'y ca'c ba'c ba`n lua^.n ve^` "Ti'nh ca'ch ngu+o+`i VN mi`nh" to^i
cu+' lie^n tu+o+?ng to+'i truye^.n Chi' Phe`o cu?a Nam Cao. Gi'a ma` nho+'
-du+o+.c truye^.n a^'y tu+` -da^`u chi' cuo^'i, post le^n -da^y ta -do.c
cho+i ro^`i nga^~m tu+`ng ca^u mo^.t cu~ng tha^'y -du+o+.c nhie^`u -die^`u
ve^` ti'nh ca'ch ngu+o+`i ...ta.
Vi' nhu+ ca'i khu'c mo+? -da^`u:
"Ha<'n vu+`a -di vu+`a chu+?i, ho^m na`o cu~ng va^.y, cu+' ru+o+.i xong
la` ha<'n chu+?\ -Da^`u tie^n ha<'n chu+?i Tro+`i, Tro+`i cha<?ng cu?a
rie^ng ai\Sau ro^`i ha<'n chu+?i -Do+`i, -Do+`i cu~ng cha<?ng cu?a rie^ng
nha` na`o..... ha<'n chu+?i ca? la`ng Vu~ -da.i, cu~ng cha<?ng ai ra
tie^'ng vi` ai cu~ng nghi~ cha<'c no' tru+` mi`nh ra...."
Rie^ng ca'i ca^u cuo^'i cu`ng "cha<'c no' tru+` mi`nh ra..." na`y -dem ap'
du.ng va`o tho+`i ba^y gio+` cha<'c va^~n ho+.p\
O+? cho^~ to^i ca'ch -da^y ma^'y ho^m, tre^n ba?ng tin co' ca'i tho^ng
ba'o: " _Du'ng gi+o` X nga`y Y, m+o`i to`an the^? ca'c anh chi. to+'i
-di.a -die^?m Z -de^? ho.p...."
Mo.i ngu+o+`i (-du'ng ho+n la` ra^'t nhie^`u ngu+o+`i) -di qua ba?ng tin,
du+`ng cha^n. -do.c cha<m chu', xong bu.ng ba?o da., "cha<'c ca'i tho^ng
ba'o na`y no' tru+` mi`nh ra..."
Tha`nh ra cuo^.c ho.p kha' va<'ng ve?
Tu+o+ng tu+. nhu+ Chi' Phe`o cu?a Nam Cao, Truye^n Kie^`u cu?a Nguye^~n Du
cu~ng chu='a ca? 1 kho ta`ng ve^` -du? ca'c thu+', trong -do' co' "ti'nh
ca'ch ngu+o+i` ta"
Quan sa't, to^i tha^'y ca'c ba'c hay du`ng TOP-DOWN APPROACH, (thua^.t
ngu+~ chuye^n nga`nh cu?a bo.n to^i), nghi~a la` -du+a ra 1 chu? -de^`
ro^`i ti`m ca'ch ly' gia?i\
Ga^`n -da^y anh Hoa`ng -da~ chuye^?ng sang BOTTOM-UP APPROACH, kie^?u nhu+
du+.a va`o ca dao, tho+ -de^? ti`m hie^?u "Ti'nh ca'ch ngu+o+`i ... ta"
No'i va^.y kho^ng bie^'t ca'c ba'c co' -do^`ng y' kho^ng.
Tha^n cha`o,
Bu`i Duy Tha`nh
------------------------------
Topic No. 4
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 10:12:07 +0900
From: Vu Thanh Ca <vuca@envi.env.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp>
To: viet-khsv@is.aist-nara.ac.jp, vnsa-l@csd.uwm.edu
Subject: VN News (Mar. 22-23/1997)
Message-ID: <9703240110.AA02707@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.
------------------------------
Topic No. 5
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 10:30:40 +0900
From: Vu Thanh Ca <vuca@envi.env.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp>
To: viet-khsv@is.aist-nara.ac.jp, vnsa-l@csd.uwm.edu
Subject: VN News (Mar. 20-21/1997)
Message-ID: <9703240129.AA02717@envi.env.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp>
Mar 21: Vietnam-China: Oil Search Fuels Rising Tension in South China Sea
Mar 21: Chinese NPC Vice-Chairman Meets Vietnamese Guests
Mar 21: Peterson confirmation set in Senate
Mar 21: Vietnamese woman claims 32 years without
Mar 21: Vietnam to set up anti-drug police
Mar 21: Vietnam woman dies in flames after marital
Mar 21: Vietnam and U.S. could exchange military training shortly
Mar 21: Hong Kong to send back 259 Vietnamese boat people next week
Mar 21: Vietnam wins ASEAN support in row with China
Mar 21: Vietnam sentences ``Godmother'' and gang to jail
Mar 20: Vietnam and China agree to try to settle oil-drilling
Friday - Mar 21, 1997
Vietnam-China: Oil Search Fuels Rising Tension in South China Sea
By Nguyen Phan Phuong
Hanoi, Mar. 21 (IPS) -- Vietnam and China are once again
sparring over disputed territory in the South China Sea, this time
as a result of Beijing's ongoing exploration for oil in waters that
Hanoi says are within its jurisdiction.
Prior to this incident, China and Vietnam, two communist
countries that have nevertheless had a long history of hostility,
had been stepping up efforts to settle long-standing territorial
differences through negotiations.
The official Vietnam News Agency reported this week that on
March 10, the Vietnamese government sent a formal protest to
Chinese ambassador about the incursion by a Chinese oil rig into
Vietnamese waters.
Supported by two tugboats, the oil rig reportedly started
drilling in the area on March 7. At first Vietnam did not publicize
the protest, but its state news agency did so after Chinese ships
"ignored the warning."
The Chinese Kantan-3 oil rig was drilling near the Spratly
Islands, in an area Vietnam calls Block 113 some 64 nautical miles
off Chan May cape halfway down the country's coast. Near Da Nang,
it is some 71 nautical miles off China's Hainan island.
Vietnam insisted on its sovereignty over the offshore block and
demanded China stop drilling and start negotiations.
"The offshore area, where the Chinese Kantan-3 oil rig is
operating, definitely lies within continental shelf," a
spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hanoi told a
news conference yesterday. He said the drilling "seriously violates
Vietnamese sovereignty."
A foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing retorted that the rig
was inside Chinese waters and that its operations were "normal."
Analysts say this is the first time that Vietnam has protested
exploration activity in this area. During the past three years,
Vietnamese officials themselves have carried out seismic surveys
in Block 113. Hanoi has plans to explore there later, either on its
own or in partnership with foreign companies.
The foreign ministry spokesperson also said Hanoi wanted a
long-term and peaceful solution to disputes in the South China Sea,
and called on "all parties" to exercise self-restraint and not to
resort to force or threats to use force.
Observers say that with this drilling operation, Beijing may be
putting at risk its heretofore improving relations with Hanoi in
order to demonstrate the consistency of China's foreign policy
following the February death of paramount leader Deng Xiao Ping.
But Vietnam is unlikely to appreciate that kind of consistency.
After all, it was Deng who in early 1979 launched a brief border
war "to teach Vietnam a lesson" for its invasion of Cambodia in
1978.
Going on diplomatic offensive this week, Vietnam also called in
ambassadors from the seven-nation Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) for a briefing on China's oil drilling.
Though Vietnam's entry in ASEAN in July 1995 was interpreted by
some as signaling a closing of ranks against China's expansionist
moves in the South China Sea, diplomatic sources here say the
regional grouping is "reluctant" to be drawn into a bilateral
dispute.
The flap over China's oil exploitation is just the latest in a
list of disputes between Hanoi and Beijing, which did not normalize
relations until 1991.
Apart from the dispute over the continental shelf, Vietnam and
China are in a bitter row over the Spratly Islands and the Paracel
archipelago in the South China Sea. They also have competing claims
on areas along their mountainous, 1,300-kilometer-long land border,
and in areas in the Tonkin Gulf.
The Spratlys and Paracels are two groups of several hundred
islets and atolls that are largely uninhabitable, but that are
abundant in fisheries and are thought to be rich in natural gas and
oil.
A Vietnamese foreign ministry official maintained that Hanoi has
"sufficient historical evidence and legal basis to re-affirm its
sovereignty over the Paracel islands." But in 1974, the Paracels
were occupied by Chinese troops, he added.
The Spratly Islands, which lie south of the offshore area where
the Chinese oil rig is operating, are often called a potential
flashpoint of conflict in Southeast Asia. Apart from China and
Vietnam, the Spratlys are also claimed wholly or in part by Taiwan,
the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia. China and Vietnam fought a
brief naval battle in the area in March 1988, during which Hanoi
lost one vessel and 77 sailors.
But in recent years, tension in the South China Sea has more
often taken the form of tit-for-tat exploration activities by China
and Vietnam and efforts to foil each other's plans.
In May 1992, China signed a contract with the U.S. firm Crestone
Energy Corp. to scout for oil in area near the Spratlys that
Vietnam said was in its continental shelf. Hanoi later leased a
block to a consortium that included Mobil Corp.
In April 1996, Vietnam leased two oil exploration blocks in a
disputed area to the American oil giant Conoco. Known as Blocks 133
and 134, they total more than 14,000 square kilometers and cover
half the zone leased by Beijing to Crestone.
When China in May 1996 reaffirmed a national law claiming a vast
expanse of the South China Sea, Vietnam called it "a blatant
violation of international laws."
The two countries have also made conflicting historical claims,
though none of their supposed archaeological finds have been
independently confirmed.
In 1996, a Vietnamese archaeological mission said it found
Vietnamese ceramic items on several islands in the Spratlys, dating
back to the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. Earlier, Chinese
archaeologists reported finding medieval Chinese artifacts in the
Paracels.
The South China Sea is also home to strategic waterways and
shipping lanes crucial to international commerce, a key reason for
continued presence by the U.S. military in Asia.
It is probably no surprise that Admiral Joseph Prueher,
commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, is visiting Hanoi
this week. Two of Prueher's predecessors have visited the
Vietnamese capital in the past three years, saying the U.S. cannot
ignore potential troublespots like the South China Sea.
Friday - Mar 21, 1997
Chinese NPC Vice-Chairman Meets Vietnamese Guests
BEIJING (Xinhua News) - Wang Guangying, Vice-Chairman of the
Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) met with a
delegation of the Vietnamese National Assembly's Vietnamese-Chinese
Friendship Group led by Nguyen Van Tu, at the Great Hall of the People
this afternoon.
In welcoming the delegation, Wang said that the Chinese government and
the Communist Party of China attach great importance to developing
friendly relations with Vietnam, and that the NPC is willing to improve
relations with the National Assembly of Vietnam.
Wang said he believes that Nguyen Van Tu's current visit will increase
understanding and help improve friendly ties between the two countries'
legislatures.
Nguyen Van Tu, who is a member of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Vietnam, praised the friendly and cooperative
relations between the NPG and the National Assembly of Vietnam.
Wang also briefed the guests on China's domestic situation since the
reforms and opening up and on the Fifth Session of the Eighth National
People's Congress that adjourned recently.
Nguyen Van Tu and his party arrived here today as the guests of the NPC
Standing Committee.
Friday - Mar 21, 1997
Peterson confirmation set in Senate
WASHINGTON (Reuter) -- The long-delayed Senate confirmation of former
congressman
Douglas ``Pete'' Peterson as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam will take place
early next
month, Republican Leader Trent Lott has told the Senate.
The nomination has been held up by Republican Sen Bob Smith of New Hampshire
since it cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 4.
But Lott said Thursday that he intended, barring unforeseen complications, to
bring up the nomination on April 8 or 9, after Congress returns from a
two-week recess.
``I do not think it would be appropriate to hold it up beyond that,'' Lott said.
Smith had said it was premature to send an ambassador to Hanoi while
investigations
continued into whether U.S. policy toward Vietnam had been influenced by
illegal
contributions to President Bill Clinton's election campaign last year.
Smith, long a critic of Vietnam's efforts to account for Americans lost in
action in the Vietnam War, said he would do everything he could to block the
nomination.
Peterson, a former Air Force pilot held prisoner by Vietnam for six-and-a-half
years, was nominated for the ambassador's post last May.
Friday - Mar 21, 1997
Vietnamese woman claims 32 years without sleep
by Pascale Trouillaud
HO CHI MINH CITY (AFP) - After two failed suicide
attempts, Nguyen Thi Le Hang has resigned herself to her
condition -- she claims not to have slept for 32 years.
Her case has been greeted with both astonishment and
cynicism by medics in southern Ho Chi Minh City.
"All the doctors are mystified," said Le Hang, 55, who says
she has not slept since 1965, when her last son was born.
"They do not know what I have, and have sent my medical
files on to medical professors in Russia and Singapore,"
she said in her small house in a modest suburb of the
former Saigon.
She has tried traditional Chinese medicine, laser
acupuncture as well as potions made from red beans, none of
which worked. Even massive doses of sleeping pills have
only allowed her one or two hours of sleep on a few nights
over the years.
"The funny thing is I don't feel too bad, I work normally
in the house," said Le Hang, who achieved local fame after
telling her story to a newspaper.
On paper, Le Hang is only mildly diabetic with a little
rheumatism, and despite shadows under her eyes, she is a
well built woman who looks well and does exercises every
morning.
But the strain shows through.
"I still want to die," she said in a tired voice. She has
already tried to kill herself twice.
"At night I come and I go, I think of death while everybody
else sleeps."
Professor Phan Thanh Hai, who has been treating Le Hang,
says that his patient could have suffered "a psychological
shock that has led to her loss of sleep."
Le Hang agrees.
"After the birth of my son, I had to share a room with a
leper in the maternity ward. I panicked and stopped
sleeping because I was afraid of catching leprosy," she
said.
She has never seen a psychiatrist because, as she says with
an embarassed smile: "It wouldn't work."
She has donated her body to science "so that no on suffers
from the same misfortune" and she receives free treatment
as a result.
At Ho Chi Minh's City's Pasteur Institute, Professor Tran
Cong Duyet also confessed to complete mystification at the
case, although he did admit he had never observed this
strange patient at night.
"All that we know is only based on her claims," he said.
"There has been no monitoring, so we do not know whether
she sleeps one or two hours a night, or not at all, as she
claims."
The Guiness Book of Records has no listing for the longest
period of time a human has survived without sleep, but says
victims of a very rare condition known as chronic
colestites have been known to go without definable sleep
for many years.
"It is absurd to believe her story without any scientific
verification," said a western doctor practising in Hanoi.<p>
"One would have to observe the patient at night, by video
or encephalogram, before determining that she never slept,"
he added.
"It could be a simple case of the patient pretending to
suffer from this condition to draw attention to herself, or
a case of hysteria in the psychiatric sense of the term,"
the doctor said.
"She could just have persuaded herself she suffers from
pathological symptoms and presents them as such."
Friday - Mar 21, 1997
Vietnam to set up anti-drug police
HANOI (AFP) - Vietnam's Interior Ministry will
set up a special anti-drug force to tackle the country's
rapidly worsening drug problems, a press report said
Friday.
Interior Minister Le Minh Huong signed the decision to
create the anti-drug police force based on merging all
units currently in charge of drug fighting, the Tuoi Tre
newspaper reported.
The new force will report to the General Department of
People's Police (GDPP).
An interior ministry official contacted by telephone,
declined to confirm the newspaper report, saying it was too
early to comment on the decision.
Vietnam has experienced an alarming growth in drug use
recently, especially among urban youth for whom a low-grade
intraveneously consumed liquid residue of opium known as
"black water" is the drug of choice in "shooting
galleries."
According to UN figures, there are 200,000 drug users in
Vietnam.
The Interior Minister has also decided to set up an
anti-terrorism special police force, the tri-weekly
reported.
The newspaper quoted a General Department official as
saying that "the establishment of this unit lies in the
anti-criminals program of the GDPP in the new situation, in
order to actively cope with terrorism acts such as
hijacking, hostage-taking".
Huong reportedly also signed a decision creating a separate
maritime transport police unit. Maritime surveillance is
currently conducted by the Order Transport Police Force.
Friday - Mar 21, 1997
Vietnam woman dies in flames after marital row
Hanoi (Reuter) - A Vietnamese woman committed suicide last week by setting
herself on fire after quarrelling with her drunken husband, an official in
Ho Chi Minh City said on Friday.
The 37-year-old woman, whose name was given as Thanh, was taken to hospital
on March 15 after pouring kerosene on her body and setting it alight, but
died of her injuries the next day.
The official said the husband and wife had argued many times in the past
over his habit of staying out late and drinking.
Friday - Mar 21, 1997
Vietnam and U.S. could exchange military training shortly
Hanoi (dpa) - Vietnam and the United States could begin training of
each other's military personnel as early as next year, a senior U.S.
military officer said Friday.
Speaking to reporters during his current three-day trip to the
Vietnamese capital Hanoi, Admiral Joseph W. Prueher suggested that the
U.S. would be interested in receiving jungle warfare training from
Hanoi.
``It's probably a year away, something like that,'' said Prueher,
commander in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command. ``It may not evolve that
fast [but] I am always optimistic about how fast things could move
along.''
Prueher said his current trip was a very preliminary step in
developing a ``nascent military-to-military relationship'' and that
nothing specific had been discussed during his meetings in the last two
days of talks with senior military and civilan leaders in Hanoi.
``I think it is important to keep in mind that the
military-to-military relationship should not get out ahead of the
diplomatic or the economic relationship,'' he added during a briefing
for a small group of reporters.
Prueher's past two predecessors also visited Vietnam at the invitation
of Hanoi's foreign ministry, but this trip was hosted by Vietnam's
ministry of defence and it was the first by a senior U.S. military
officer whose main purpose was to explore developing the
military-to-military relationship.
Previous trips were more exclusively devoted to reviewing progress on
the joint effort to account for U.S. servicemen missing from the
`` Vietnam War.''
A meeting of colonel-level officers from the two countries is expected
to take place in Hanoi sometime during the summer to chart out the first
``modest initiatives'' to be developed between the former adversaries,
Prueher said.
The two countries exchanged defence attaches over a year ago -although
the Hanoi defence attache only took up his post in Washington a few
weeks ago - and six senior Vietnamese colonels paid a two-week visit to
the U.S. in mid-February.
Prueher said two Vietnamese officers had been invited to attend the
next session of a strategic studies centre in Hawaii, where the U.S.
Pacific Command is headquartered.
Other areas of cooperation between the two sides could include
tactical discussions, sales and ``equipment exchanges'', said Prueher.
``We can envision a lot of things to do,'' said the former naval
aviator who flew bombing missions over North Vietnam, including Hanoi,
in 1967-8.
In his first visist to the country since 1968 Prueher met with Defence
Minister Doan Khue, his deputy Pham Van Tra, Foreign Minister Nguyen
Manh Cam, and was scheuled to meet with Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet late
Friday afternoon.
``Other nations for example do a great job of jungle warfare training,
we send our people to their courses to participate because they do it
better, perhaps better than we do,'' observed Prueher in discussing the
types of training that could be exchanged.
Jane's Defence Weekly reported last year that Hanoi was providing
special forces training to Cuba which could be useful in amphibious
landings.
On the MIA (missing in action) issue Prueher said the Vietnamese were
providing ``full cooperation'' but that more could be done.
Friday - Mar 21, 1997
Hong Kong to send back 259 Vietnamese boat people next week
HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong is to send home another
group of 259 Vietnamese boat people next week, a government
spokesman said Friday.
The boat people were transferred from the High Island detention
centre -- the last camp continuing to hold Vietnamese boat people
here -- to a security unit in preparation for their return to
Vietnam on Tuesday and April 3, respectively, he said.
The group will go through pre-flight documentation and medical
checks before the repatriation as part of a stepped up government
program to clear Hong Kong of Vietnamese boat-people by July 1 when
the territory returns to Chinese rule.
The number of boat people being forced home has started to
dwindle, compared to 1,000 a month in the past.
There are 4,500 remaining Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong,
2,627 of whom have been accepted by Hanoi to return home.
China has told Hong Kong to clear its detention camps by July 1.
Friday - Mar 21, 1997
Vietnam wins ASEAN support in row with China
HANOI (Reuter) - Members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) support Vietnam's call for China
to stop drilling in a disputed offshore area and solve the row
through negotiations, ASEAN ambassadors in Hanoi said on Friday.
``We feel that they must stop because...there are three to
four miles of pipeline in the economic zone of Vietnam,'' said
one ASEAN country ambassador after a briefing on the issue by
Deputy Foreign Ministry Vu Khoan on Thursday.
``So far the feeling...among the ASEAN ambassadors is that
Vietnam is right,'' he added.
ASEAN groups Vietnam with Burnei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Vietnam joined the formerly
non-communist group in July 1995, a move analysts saw as giving
Hanoi a strengthened hand in a clutch of territorial disputes
with Beijing.
Another of the ASEAN embassies in Hanoi released a statement
that said China should stop drilling exploration activities in
the area which Vietnam calls Block 113 for an early and peaceful
resolution of the problem.
``While it was observed that the subject incident is
internal to Vietnam and China, it poses...a threat to the peace
and stability of the region,'' it said. ``Consequently, there is
a need for Vietnam and China to come to the negotiating table
with a view to providing a diplomatic solution to the problem
based on the principles of international law.''
Vietnam said last weekend it had protested to China over the
positioning of the Kan Tan III rig off its central coast. It
said coastguards had repeatedly sent warnings after the rig and
accompanying vessels arrived in the area on March 7.
Beijing responded that the drilling rig was in Chinese
waters and that its activities were above reproach.
ASEAN ambassadors said their understanding was that China
had so far not responded to Vietnam's call for negotiations over
the issue.
The Foreign Ministry said it may have a response on Friday
to questions about a report in the Asia Times that China had
agreed to talks.
An official at the state oil and gas firm Petrovietnam said
the semi-submersible rig was still drilling in the potentially
gas-rich area, which is 64.5 nautical miles off Vietnam's
coastline.
``They are continuing to drill,'' he said. ``If they find
gas reserves it belongs to Vietnam because they are Vietnamese
waters.''
The ambassadors said they had been shown an aerial
photograph of the rig and a map with territorial base lines
drawn between islands off the Vietnamese coast and along the
edge of China's Hainan island.
The position of the Chinese rig was marked on the Vietnamese
side of a median between those two lines.
A coastguard on Con Co island, a marker for Vietnam's base
line, said he had seen no naval movements in recent days, but
noted an increase in activity of fishing boats.
Friday - Mar 21, 1997
Vietnam sentences ``Godmother'' and gang to jail
Hanoi (AP) -- Vietnam's ``Godmother'' of crime was sentenced to
more than nine years in jail on a string of fraud, robbery
and kidnapping charges, official media reported Friday.
Nguyen Thi Phuc, who earned her nickname for her leading
role in
Vietnam's organized crime scene was sentenced along with 23 of her
associates, the Communist Party newspaper, The People, reported.
Phuc and members of her syndicate were convicted Thursday by
Hanoi's People's Court. She was found guilty on a series of
criminal charges stemming back to 1994, The People reported.
Phuc's 23 co-defendants were sent to jail for terms
ranging from
three months to six years, The People reported.
From 1994 to 1996, Phuc pulled together a network of
criminals
that robbed, swindled and extorted more than 251 million dong (dlrs
22,000) from workers, merchants and other victims in Hanoi's
downtown district.
Phuc was notorious for extorting money from shop-owners in the
form of protection money. Merchants who refused to pay inevitably
were robbed or attacked by Phuc's gang members, The People said.
In addition to the prison terms, Phuc and her accomplices
were
order to pay the state and their victims for compensatory damages.
Phuc's arrest in 1996 was heralded as a major breakthrough in
Hanoi's fight against organized crime.
Thursday - Mar 20, 1997
Vietnam and China agree to try to settle oil-drilling dispute
Hanoi (dpa) - Vietnam and China have agreed to hold talks later this
month to try to resolve the latest flare-up in the long-standing
maritime dispute caused by China's recent drilling for oil in an area of
the South China Sea claimed by both countries, according to diplomatic
sources.
The previously unscheduled meeting will be held in Hanoi at a
higher-than-normal expert level, probably at the level of
director-general, said ASEAN diplomatic sources.
The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry would not confirm the agreement, but
Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Khoan called in ambassadors from the
southeast Asian member states of ASEAN for urgent briefing on the matter
Thursday afternoon.
The sources said that Vietnam did not ask for a new expression of
support for Hanoi on this particular dispute.
``They are concerned about this ... there was no new information (and)
they just hoped we would pass the information along to our capitals,''
said one ASEAN diplomat.
China and Vietnam have been at loggerheads since late Saturday when
Vietnam demanded that China withdraw an oil exploration rig operating in
a disputed area of the South China Sea.
On Monday China said its boats were conducting ``normal exploration''
in an area Beijing insists is within its exclusive economic zone granted
under the International Law of the Sea.
Vietnam, also a signatory of the 1983 Law of the Sea, claims the same
rights in the same area.
At an unscheduled press briefing Thursday Vietnam repeated its demand
that China ``immediately withdraw'' its vessels but additional comments
Thursday apparently reflected heightened concern about the matter.
``It is our desire that for the sake of the friendship between the two
countries and the atmosphere of peace and cooperation in the region that
our legitimate demand will be positively responded (to) and we seek the
consent of public opinion in the region and the world at large,'' said a
foreign ministry spokesman.
Vietnam said the Chinese rig, accompanied by two tugboats, had been
operating in the region between China's Hainan Island and Vietnam's
central coast since March 7.
Hanoi says they are active 103 kilometres off the Vietnamese coast and
88 kilometres from the nearest point of the country's ``territorial sea
base line''.
At Thursday's briefing the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said that
Vietnam had conducted seismic surveys in the same area since 1983 and
declared that ``when it is necessary Vietnam will, on its own, or in
joint venture with foreign partners carry out exploration in its
exclusive economic zone and on the continental shelf.''
The spokesman insisted that `` Vietnam possesses adequate legal and
practical basis to confirm this.''
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End of VNSA-L Digest 298
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