VN News (Apr. 12, 1997)

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

Vietnam expresses "regret" over inconclusive oil rig dispute talks 
Captors look forward to another meeting - 31 years on 
Full diplomatic ties will bury legacy of war: Vietnamese ambassador
Hanoi confirms first ambassador to the US: source 


Vietnam expresses "regret" over inconclusive oil rig dispute
talks 

Hanoi (AFP) - Vietnam has expressed "regret" at failing to reach
agreement with China over competing claims to an offshore area where
China positioned an oil rig last month.

In a statement issued late Friday and received Saturday, a foreign
ministry spokesman said: "The two sides got a better understanding of
each other's positions but, regrettably, they did not come to a
general conclusion of this problem."

Vietnam and China held expert level meetings in Hanoi on April 9 and
10 at Vietnam's request to discuss competing claims to an area outside
the Gulf of Tonkin, where China began exploratory drilling last month.

The oil rig was positioned in a potentially gas-rich area 64.5
nautical miles off the Vietnamese coast and 71 nautical miles from
China's Hainan Island. The rig was removed on April 3.

The ministry called on China to refrain from repeating the incident.

"We hope that in the future there will be no such similar things which
can further complicate the situation and affect bilateral relations
and regional stability," the statement said.

Observers had not expected any concrete resolutions from the meeting,
noting nationalism on both sides would preclude either giving up its
claims of sovereignty.

Though Vietnam and China have since 1991 been conducting periodic
expert level discussions on three other competing claims in the Gulf
of Tonkin, the Paracel and Spratly islands in the South China Sea and
on their land borders, no resolutions have been reached.

Relations between China and Vietnam are at their strongest since
diplomatic ties were re-established in 1991. Interior Minister Le Minh
Huong, who is chief of the powerful body charged with internal
security, earler this week met with his counterpart in Beijing.
                 ___________________________________


Captors look forward to another meeting - 31 years on

Hanoi (SCMP) -- The residents of An Doai are waiting to meet the pilot
they rescued from a mango tree 31 years ago after his Phantom jet was
shot down as it bombed North Vietnam.

"I will be very happy if he comes back for a visit," Luong Thi Ty said
when she heard Pete Peterson would be returning to Vietnam as US
ambassador.

"Now is for friendship. He will be able to visit again the place where
he was captured, yet protected thoroughly," Mrs Ty said, reflecting on
her role as village security chief the night he crashed.

Nguyen Viet Chop, 68, was one of the first to approach Mr Peterson,
shortly after he threw away his pistol. "The only problem was we made
him frightened when we raised a knife to cut his suit open. He was so
afraid he bit my finger."

                               War of remembrance: Nguyen Danh Sinh (left)
and Nguyen Viet Chop, both
 68, perch on a knoll in a paddy field where they caught former pilot
 and newly-appointed US ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson during a
                      bombing raid 31 years ago.
                                   
Diplomats close to Mr Peterson say he will return to An Doai, but will
try to do it quietly. He has, after all, been wrestling with the past
for decades.

In 1973, when he was released from more than six years of torture and
solitary confinement, he told himself: "Thank God I won't ever have to
return to this godforsaken place."

Yet when he returns, the war that ended 22 years ago will again occupy
his thoughts.

Mr Peterson will arrive with a clear mandate from President Clinton to
keep the hunt for the remains of 1,600 missing American servicemen as
his main priority in his dealings with the Vietnamese.

Mr Peterson has stressed he has put the past behind him. "I've gotten
over that a long, long time ago. I've never been into any kind of
vendetta or anything like that. I really don't have time for hate or
recrimination."

He has never detailed the atrocities he claims were committed against
him and other pilots. The infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison where he
spent much of his incarceration is fast disappearing underneath a
22-storey office block.

Mr Peterson was shot down on his 67th bombing raid. He emerged in 1973
with a Purple Heart, a Silver Star and a Legion of Merit and stayed in
the Air Force until 1980.

It was a career that served him well when, after running his own
computer business in Florida, he entered Congress in 1990 as a
democrat.

A widower, he threw himself into health care and budget issues. He was
also an outspoken backer of moves to restore ties with Vietnam.

At the same time, he forged strong links with California's vehemently
anti-communist Vietnamese communities. He also campaigned strongly for
human rights - beliefs he will have to juggle as he seeks to represent
US interests.
                 ___________________________________


Full diplomatic ties will bury legacy of war: Vietnamese
ambassador

By Frederik Balfour

Hanoi (AFP) - Hanoi's first ambassador to Washington, whose
appointment was confirmed Saturday, said the Vietnam war was still a
"difficult issue" but pledged to work hard to restore full ties
between the two former foes.

The official confirmation of Le Van Bang as Vietnam's first ambassador
to the United States came two days after the US Senate approved the
nomination of Douglas "Pete" Peterson as America's envoy to Hanoi.

But 22 years since the end of the war, Vietnam is still a dirty word
in some Washington circles.

"The most difficult issue is still the war," ambassador Bang told
Worldwide Television News in an interview in Hanoi on Saturday.

"I have to work hard to convince Americans that Vietnam is a country
that we want to open and we have a policy of economic renovation," he
said.

"It's a big shoe for me to fill, but I will do my best," Bang added.

Before his appointment, the 50-year-old old worked for four years as
charge d'affairs to the Vietnamese embassy in Washington after having
served as director of the Americas deparment for the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in Hanoi.

He has also been chief of Vietnam's mission to the United Nations in
New York.

Fluent in English and Spanish, he has also worked as a diplomat in
London and Australia and spent four years studying in Cuba and is
considered one of the most polished diplomats in the Vietnamese
foreign service.

Peterson, who spent six and a half years as a prisoner of war in
Vietnam after his plane was shot down in September 1966, played a
pivotal role in the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two
countries in August 1995 when he was a congressman from the state of
Florida.

He has also played a major part in efforts to recover former US
personel taken as prisoners of war (POW) or listed as missing in
action (MIA) which remains the number one concern of politicians in
Washington.

But Peterson is also seen as the ideal candidate to forge new
relations with Vietnam stressing future economic ties rather than
war-time wounds.

"He understands better than anybody the MIA issue, but his main
concern will be with moving ahead economically," said a US
businessman, war vetern and former state department official who
translated for Peterson when he visited with Communist Party chairman
Do Muoi in 1991.

The Vietnamese hope that Peterson's arrival in Hanoi, expected within
two to three weeks, will help speed the process of full economic
normalisation.

The two countries have yet to ratify a trade agreement necessary
before Washington can confer Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status on
Vietnam, a process both sides acknowledge could be as much as a year
off.

The accord, a draft of which negotiators will begin discussing in
Hanoi next week, contains provisions that will be hard for Hanoi to
swallow.

The agreement would reduce trade barriers exposing highly coddled
state owned enterprises to competition, and confer national treatment
to US companies, allowing them to compete on a level playing field
with domestic concerns.

But many say the idea will stick in the throats of communist
hardliners.
                 ___________________________________


Hanoi confirms first ambassador to the US: source 

Hanoi (AFP) - Vietnam has appointed Le Van Bang as Hanoi's first
ambassador to the United States and he will take up his post as soon
as his nomination is accepted by the United States, a ministry
spokesman said Saturday.

"We are waiting to hear from the American side. As soon as he is
accepted he will be able to take up his post," a spokesman from
Vietnam's foreign ministry said.

The official did not specify a date when Bang would arrive in
Washington, neither did he say whether it would coincide with the day
on which US ambassador designate Douglas "Pete" Peterson will arrive
in Hanoi.

Peterson was confirmed as the first US ambassador to Hanoi on Thursday
by the US senate, eight months after being nominated. He is expected
to arrive in Hanoi within the next two weeks.

Peterson was an air force captain whose plane was downed on September
10 1966 during a bombing mission, 70 kilometres (44 miles) northeast
of Hanoi. He was captured and spent six and a half years as a prisoner
of war, including time in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison.

Before his appointment, 50-year-old Bang was charge d'affaires at
Vietnam's embassy in Washington after having previously served as
director of the American Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
in Hanoi, and chief of the mission of Vietnam to the United Nations in
New York. He is currently in Vietnam.

Fluent in English and Spanish, he is considered one of the most
polished diplomats in the Vietnamese foreign service.

The United States reestablished diplomatic ties with Vietnam in August
1995, but both embassies in Hanoi and Washington have since then been
directed by charges d'affaires.