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VN News (Apr. 14-15, 1997)
April 15: China says it agrees to differ with Vietnam over Gulf of Tonkin
April 15: China Says Ties With Vietnam Won't Be Harmed By Oil-Rig Spat
April 14: Five Vietnamese police accused of gang rape
April 14: New US envoy to Vietnam to be confirmed April 29
April 14: CPC Cadres Delegation Leaves for Visit to Vietnam, Laos
April 14: Vietnam says U.S. approved its Washington envoy
April 14: Vietnam Removes Mines Near Border
China says it agrees to differ with Vietnam over Gulf of
Tonkin
BEIJING (AFP) - China and Vietnam have agreed to differ over the
sovereignty of the Gulf of Tonkin pledging the differences would not
damage relations, a spokesman from China's foreign ministry said
Tuesday.
In expert-level talks meeting in Beijing on April 9 and 10 the "two
sides expressed their positions and agreed they would not let this
affair influence bi-lateral relations," said foreign ministry
spokesman Shen Guofang.
"We must always recognise there are differences" between the two
countries, Shen told a news conference.
"We want to start by considering general interests and resolve the
differences by negotiation," he added.
"The Vietnamese have the same attitude themselves. We will not let our
differences prevent good bilateral cooperation," Shen said.
The talks were aimed at resolving a dispute after China sent the
Kantan III rig to the disputed zone just south of the Gulf of Tonkin,
which is almost halfway between the central-Vietnamese coast and the
Chinese island of Hainan and believed to be rich in natural gas.
The oil rig was withdrawn on April 1 before the talks began.
Hanoi however expressed its regret saying the talks failed.
"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," a Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesman said Saturday.
Hanoi also disputes sovereignty with China over the Paracel and
Spratly islands, in the South China sea, which are also claimed by
several other countries in the region.
___________________________________
China Says Ties With Vietnam Won't Be Harmed By Oil-Rig Spat
BEIJING (AP) -- China and Vietnam for now are still in disagreement
over claims to a disputed area in the South China Sea following two
days of expert-level talks last week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry
said Tuesday.
Speaking at a twice-weekly press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman
Shen Guofang said China and Vietnam have 'agreed on certain issues'
and 'disagreed on others' concerning oil exploration in the South
China Sea.
The bilateral talks in Beijing April 9 and 10 'were conducted in a
friendly manner,' said Shen. But in statements last Friday, neither
the Vietnamese or Chinese foreign ministries said the matter had been
resolved.
Shen didn't comment on when or whether the talks would resume. But he
sought to play down any residual tensions from last month's dispute
over a Chinese oil prospecting rig, Kantan-03, which entered an area
between Vietnam's north central coast and China's Hainan Island that
is claimed by both countries as their own.
'Neither side is willing to see this problem affect the overall
cooperative and friendly atmosphere of relations,' Shen told
reporters. 'But we also realize both sides have their own stance on
the issue,' he added.
___________________________________
Five Vietnamese police accused of gang rape
Hanoi (AFP) - Five policemen have been arrested for the gang rape of a
young mother in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City, the news sheet of the
Saigon Workers Union said Monday.
The five patrolmen allegedly raped and brutally beat up the
26-year-old, who gave birth two months ago, the thrice-weekly Nguoi
Lao Dong said.
The men also stole 200,000 dongs (18 dollars), the paper added
denouncing it as an "intolerable crime."
The rape came as the authorities are planning to introduce heavier
penalties for sex offenders, in bid to crack down on a worrying
increase in sex-crimes.
___________________________________
New US envoy to Vietnam to be confirmed April 29
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former congressman Douglas "Pete" Peterson will be
sworn in April 29 as the first US ambassador to Vietnam since 1975 and
first ever in Hanoi, the State Department said Monday.
Peterson was confirmed late Thursday by the full Senate after a
lengthy delay as Republican legislators sought to slow the upgrading
of US relations with former enemy Vietnam.
A prisoner of war in Vietnam for six-and-a-half years, Peterson plans
to arrive in Hanoi on May 9, State Department spokesman Nicholas 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.
Even after those issues were resolved, Republican Senator Bob Smith, a
staunch opponent of President Bill Clinton's 1995 decision to
normalize relations with Vietnam, again sought to delay his despatch
to Hanoi.
Peterson was the 66th American taken prisoner 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.
___________________________________
CPC Cadres Delegation Leaves for Visit to Vietnam, Laos
BEIJING (Xinhua News) - A cadres delegation of the Communist Party of
China (CPC) left here today for a goodwill visit to Vietnam and Laos,
at the invitation of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao
People's Revolutionary Party respectively.
The delegation is led by Cao Keming, member of the CPC Central
Commission for Discipline Inspection and deputy secretary of the
Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPC.
___________________________________
Vietnam says U.S. approved its Washington envoy
Hanoi (Reuter) - The Clinton administration has approved Vietnam's
choice of career diplomat Le Van Bang as its first ambassador to
Washington, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.
``Vietnam applauds the speedy approval by the U.S. side,'' the
ministry said in a statement. ``Mr. Bang will leave for America soon
to take up his post.''
U.S. diplomats in Hanoi declined to confirm the statement, which said
approval was given April 11.
However, they said it had been expected to come immediately after
Thursday's confirmation by the Senate of Douglas ``Pete'' Peterson as
the first U.S. ambassador to Hanoi.
``It's a choreographed thing. Both sides ask for escalation to
ambassador at the same time,'' one U.S. Embassy official said.
No date has been given for Peterson's arrival in Hanoi.
Although the two former enemies normalized relations two years ago,
the embassies in their respective countries are headed by a charge
d'affaires rather than an ambassador.
Bang, 50, became charge d'affaires in Washington in 1994 after stints
as Vietnam's ambassador to the United Nations and prior to that as
director of the Americas department at the Foreign Ministry in Hanoi.
The ministry said the envoy exchange would help relations in all
fields, but especially in economic cooperation and trade. A
comprehensive trade agreement, which would lead to most favored nation
status for Vietnam, has yet to be reached.
___________________________________
Vietnam Removes Mines Near Border
Hanoi (AP) -- Vietnam has cleared more than 100,000 land mines from
its side of the contested border with China over the past five years,
the Communist Party reported today.
At least 2,265 acres in the border province of Lang Son have been
declared free of land mines, but another 1,112 acres are still
littered with mines, the Communist Party newspaper, The People,
reported.
Vietnam and China fought a brief border war in 1979. It is unknown how
many land mines were planted, but Vietnamese soldiers have been
working to retrieve the explosives since then.
After four decades of civil war, revolution and foreign occupation,
Vietnam is a country littered with abandoned armaments, including
unexploded bombs, land mines and countless artillery shells.
Every year, thousands of Vietnamese are hurt or killed by leftover
wartime arms discovered in farming fields. Last week, seven children
were killed when a cluster bomb from the Vietnam War exploded in their
playground.