[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
VN News (Apr 2, 1997)
Lao woman eaten by tiger on the Vietnam-Lao border
Vietnamese boat people are stranded in East Java
Vietnam Prime Minister Hints He May Seek Re-election
Vietnam Top Communists: President Criticizes Corruption
China proposes maritime dispute talks with Vietnam next week: official
Vietnam's Anh in surprise appearance after stroke
US-Vietnam : Senate set to confirm Peterson as ambassador to Vietnam
Vietnamese Newspaper Highlights - April 1, 1997
Wednesday - Apr 02, 1997 ... Back to headlines
[INLINE] Lao woman eaten by tiger on the Vietnam-Lao border
Hanoi (dpa) - A Lao woman was eaten alive by a tiger while fishing in
a jungle river that runs along the Lao- Vietnam border, a local
newspaper reported Wednesday.
The 60-year old woman was killed in Sepon River, which at one stretch
forms the border between the two countries. Three other women suffered
injuries.
The incident occurred March 28 in Vietnam's central province of Quang
Tri, the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper reported.
It was the first such incident in the jungle-covered area since a
Vietnamese man was eaten by a tiger in 1990, the paper said.
___________________________________
Wednesday - Apr 02, 1997 ... Back to headlines
[INLINE] Vietnamese boat people are stranded in East Java
Jakarta (dpa) - A motorized boat carrying 44 people who claim to be
from Vietnam has stranded at a tiny island off east Java after
experiencing engine trouble, it was reported Wednesday.
An official of east Java's Gresik harbor said the wooden vessel,
carrying 31 male and 13 female passengers - seven of them children
aged between one to six years old - stranded Monday afternoon at
Sembilangan island, some three miles off east Java.
Officials of the military, police and the prosecutors office as well
as immigration staff searched the stranded boat but found only
foodstuffs and belongings.
The state-run Antara news agency quoted local authorities as saying
the boat people would be brought to Surabaya, the provincial capital
of East Java, because their presence at Gresik harbour hampered
activity there.
The boat people told local authorities they were come from Hanoi,
Vietnam and heading for Australia. It still not clear whether any of
the boat people were carrying legal papers identifying their origin.
A spokesman for the boat people said they left Hanoi on March 10,
after being expelled by local authorities. After a voyage lasting 13
days the boat stranded in West Kalaimantan. On March 27 the boat
people left Kalimantan before arriving in East Java.
___________________________________
Wednesday - Apr 02, 1997 ... Back to headlines
[INLINE] Vietnam Prime Minister Hints He May Seek Re-election
Hanoi (AP) -- Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet Wednesday hinted
that he might seek re-election later this year.
'I believe I can continue to contribute to the country for several
years more since my health is quite good despite my old age,' Kiet,
74, told reporters at the opening of the month-long spring session of
the national legislature.
A new national legislature will be elected July 20 and is expected to
meet in September to choose a new prime minister and president.
Speculation has begun to swirl in Hanoi as to whether Kiet will
continue at his post or retire.
President Le Duc Anh, however, is generally expected to retire. He is
76 and suffered what is believed to have been a stroke in November.
While the National Assembly holds formal responsibility for electing
the prime minister and president, the decision is actually made at the
highest levels of the ruling Communist Party.
Echoing a comment made a year ago by Communist Party General Secretary
Do Muoi, who was re-elected last June, Kiet also said, 'I will do
whatever the people need me to do.'
Given the complex balancing of regional, ideological and institutional
forces involved in choosing Vietnamese leadership, the Kiet's
continuation as prime minister would have implications for who could
be considered to succeed Anh.
Kiet is regarded as the most reform-oriented of the triumvirate
leading the nation, while Anh is seen as the most conservative of the
three and Communist Party General Secretary Muoi is regarded as
striding the middle.
___________________________________
Wednesday - Apr 02, 1997 ... Back to headlines
[INLINE] Vietnam Top Communists: President Criticizes Corruption
Hanoi (AP) -- To many foreign ears in Vietnam's National Assembly hall
Wednesday, President Le Duc Anh's rebuke of 'individualism' sounded
like a questioning of the country's economic reform and the private
enterprise that has accompanied it. But top Communist Party leaders
interviewed after the speech appeared to indicate Anh was attacking
corruption, not the overall reform process.
In his speech at the opening of the one-month spring session of the
national legislature, President Anh lashed out against
'individualism,' a trend that he said erodes confidence in the
government and undermines socialism.
'In the words of our great leader President Ho Chi Minh, individualism
is the enemy of the cause of socialism,' Anh said.
'We cannot allow selfish individual interests interfere with the
interests of the community,' he added.
Individualism, Anh said, must be driven out of the Communist Party,
the government and state companies.
The remarks on individualism carried the sharpest tone of either Anh's
speech or the other two main presentations of the morning, by Prime
Minister Vo Van Kiet and National Assembly Chairman Nong Duc Manh.
'Individualism' also is a term that hasn't surfaced in public
recently.
In a nation like Vietnam where many things are said indirectly and, as
a result of the Communist political system there is a profusion of
rhetorical phrasing, the meaning of which isn't immediately clear, the
use of the term 'individualism' thus raised eyebrows among the
diplomats and international journalists seated in the Ba Dinh Hall
balcony.
Was it a criticism of the reform process?
No, but it was a criticism of corruption, three top Party leaders said
immediately afterwards.
'Corruption and individualism are very closely related,' Le Kha Phieu,
a member of the Politburo standing committee, told a pack of reporters
during a tea break after Anh's speech.
'We don't eliminate individual initiatives contributing to the common
goal of the nation,' said Phieu, who is regarded as a contender to
become either the next president or general secretary of the Communist
Party.
'If the director of a company, state-owned or private, has good
initiatives and good management... that help to bring profit,
benefiting the country and the enterprise or the company and the
workers, we welcome him,' Phieu said. 'But if he does business
contrary to the law, we oppose him. And that is individualism.'
Separately, Truong Tan Sang, a Politburo member and the Communist
Party chief in Ho Chi Minh City, characterized 'individualism' as an
affliction of some Party cadres who have lost their willingness to
work toward the cause of national development and, instead, have been
focusing on personal enrichment.
'Among (the cadres) there are some who are bad,' Sang told a group of
reporters.
Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet linked 'individualism' to Party and
government officials who break ranks with official consensus.
'Individualism is something (that) lies in the state machinery, in the
state leadership. We try very hard to eliminate, to reduce the
individualism, to devote all our energy and heart to the nation, to
the people.'
___________________________________
Wednesday - Apr 02, 1997 ... Back to headlines
[INLINE] China proposes maritime dispute talks with Vietnam next week:
official
Hanoi (AFP) - China has proposed expert level talks for next week on
the maritime dispute triggered by a Chinese oil rig outside the Gulf
of Tonkin, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam said Wednesday.
"We have asked for a meeting of experts between the two countries as
soon soon as possible but China suggested meeting next week," Manh
told reporters.
"We need to discuss a location, and we have requested to meet in
Hanoi. But if they propose Beijing, we will accept that," he said.
Manh said China had communicated through diplomatic channels, and he
had not had direct contact with his Chinese counterpart, Qian Qichen.
In Beijing Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Shen Guofang
said China still had "problems to resolve like maritime borders and
the exploitation of oil resources."
The dispute flared on March 7 when a Chinese oil rig moved into the
contested area prompting Hanoi to demand China cease exploration and
move the rig.
Vietnam and China both lay claim to territory where the rig is located
in a potentially gas rich area 64.5 nautical miles (119 kilometres)
from Vietnam's coast and 71 nautical miles (130 kilometres) from
China's Hainan Island.
Since normalizing relations in 1991 Vietnam and China have set up
forums to negotiate three areas of disputed claims.
One deals exclusively with land border disputes, a second deals with
joint claims over the Gulf of Tonkin, and the third deals with
overlapping claims to the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands.
However, no existing mechanism for talks covers the contested area.
___________________________________
Wednesday - Apr 02, 1997 ... Back to headlines
[INLINE] Vietnam's Anh in surprise appearance after stroke
Hanoi (Reuter) - Vietnamese President Le Duc Anh, looking frail and
unsteady on his feet after suffering a stroke late last year, made an
unexpected speech at the opening of the National Assembly's spring
session on Wednesday.
The 76-year-old army general walked unaided onto the stage, where he
spoke for about 15 minutes in a deliberate but booming voice about the
victories of economic reform and dangers that lie ahead.
``In the last few years we have defeated all the schemes and actions
of sabotage of all enemies to maintain and reinforce political
stability and further reinforce the country's defence capability,'' he
said.
However, he warned that ``individualism'' had emerged as a new and
overarching threat to the Communist country.
He said individualism went beyond the ``four dangers'' which were
agreed by the party in 1994 -- economic backwardness, political
sabotage by enemies of the regime, deviation from socialism and
bureaucracy and corruption.
``Individualism.. shows up in many ways in enterprises and in state
offices, causing damage to unity and state property, restraining
economic development and reducing popular confidence in the party and
state, and frustrating some foreign investors,'' Anh said.
He quoted the founding father of modern-day Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, as
saying that individualism was a ``cruel enemy'' of socialism and
revolutionaries should strive to wipe it out.
Anh spoke in two pre-recorded addresses on television during the lunar
new year festival two months ago, when he declared that his illness
was over.
However, his address to the National Assembly marked the first time
that he had given a live speech in public since falling ill last
November.
The most powerful military figure in Vietnam, Anh is a member of the
nation's leadership triumvirate alongside Communist Party Secretary
General Do Muoi and Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet.
Political analysts believe that Anh may be replaced when his five-year
term of office expires in September.
___________________________________
Tuesday - Apr 01, 1997 ... Back to headlines
[INLINE] US-Vietnam : Senate set to confirm Peterson as ambassador to
Vietnam
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The State Department voiced hope Tuesday that the
Senate would soon confirm former congressman Douglas "Pete" Peterson
as the first US ambassador to Vietnam.
"We hope it's this week or the next," spokesman Nicholas Burns said.
Peterson, a former pilot who spent six and a half years as a prisoner
of war, was first nominated eight months ago but his approval was
delayed by constitutional wranglings.
"He is a great American," Burns said. "He is a man of great principle.
He is ideally suited to be the American ambassador to try to help
normalize our relationship with Vietnam."
A former member of the House of Representatives, Peterson was shot
down while flying an Air Force combat mission in 1966 and released in
1973. He has twice returned to Vietnam.
"After having waited throughout the fall, he ought to be confirmed at
the earliest possible moment," Burns said.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved Peterson's
nomination on March 4, after a lengthy delay during which Republican
legislators questioned the constitutionality of his appointment.
With those legal issues now resolved, officials say Republican Senator
Bob Smith, a staunch opponent of President Bill Clinton's 1995
decision to normalize relations with Vietnam, remains the major
obstacle to Peterson's approval by the full Senate.
Smith's opposition notwithstanding, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott
has said he plans to move forward on the nomination on April 8 or 9,
when Congress reconvenes after its two-week Easter recess.
Peterson's nomination must be confirmed by the Senate in what is
usually considered a rubber-stamp procedure.
He was the 66th American taken prisoner of war (POW) during the bitter
conflict that ended in communist victory in 1975. An estimated three
million Vietnamese and nearly 60,000 Americans died in the war.
___________________________________
Tuesday - Apr 01, 1997 ... Back to headlines
[INLINE] Vietnamese Newspaper Highlights - April 1, 1997
Hanoi (VNA) - Highlights of Vietnam's daily newspapers today:
NHAN DAN:
1. The Vietnam Rubber Corporation this year plans to increase its
output to 140,000 tonnes, of which 80 percent twill be exported.
2. some areas in Vietnam are restoring and developing production of
arts and crafts articles for export.
QUAN DOI NHAN DAN:
1. 350 businesses including 200 Vietnamese and 150 foreigners have
registered to take part in the 7th International Trade Fair - Vietnam
EXPO '97 - to be held in Hanoi from April 3-7.
Vietnam NEWS:
1. Party Secretary General Do Muoi has reaffirmed Vietnam's firm
determination to pursue a multi-sector economy managed by the State
and in accordance with socialist philosophy.
___________________________________