VN news (May 5)

[Dam Son <son@fermi.phys.washington.edu>]

May 05: First Vietnam ambassador to US to leave Tuesday 
May 05: Vietnam-Press Communist Party newspaper: Vietnam's press must toe 
        the line 
May 05: Read all about it'' - drugs trial in Vietnam 
May 05: Vietnam hails Marx as shining beacon for oppressed 
May 05: Vietnam's foreign minister departs for N. Korea, Japan 
May 05: Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore ease visa requirements: reports 
May 05: Vietnam-Drug Trial Vietnam's largest drug trial resumes 
May 05: Vietnam-Graft Crackdown Vietnam gets tough on graft 


First Vietnam ambassador to US to leave Tuesday 

HANOI (AFP) - Vietnam's first ambassador to the United States, Le Van
Bang, will leave Tuesday for Washington to take up his post, the
foreign ministry announced.

"My first aim is to ease the development of economic and commercial
relations between the two countries, especially the export of
Vietnamese products to the United States," Bang said in a weekend
interview with the Lao Dong newspaper.

The 50-year-old official was named in April as Vietnam's first
ambassador to Washington, 20 months after the normalisation in
relations between the two former enemies. Before, he was the
Vietnamese charge d'affaires in Washington.

The first US ambassador to Hanoi, Douglas 'Pete' Peterson, a
61-year-old former prisoner of war in Vietnam, is expected in Hanoi on
Friday.

Washington and Hanoi normalised diplomatic relations in August 1995,
20 years after the end of the Vietnam war.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam-Press Communist Party newspaper: Vietnam's press must
toe the line 

HANOI (AP) -- Vietnam's state-controlled press must do more to promote
Communist Party doctrine and fight hostile forces, the Communist Party
newspaper said in a commentary Monday.

``The press should aim to become a political force totally loyal to
the party,'' a commentary in The People said. ``Each of our
newspersons has the right to give trust to the party's leadership.''

Despite provisions in its constitution for a free press and freedom of
speech, Vietnam has no independent media. Newspapers are typically
used to promote government and party policy.

Censorship is frequently employed to control information on dissent,
political debate and economic policy.

Just moments before the start last week of a high-profile drug trial,
officials revoked a decision to allow foreign reporters into the
courtroom. The move followed a threat by one of leading defendants to
implicate Interior Ministry officials in a heroin smuggling ring.

Although more than 40 local reporters have been permitted into the
trial, all are from state-controlled newspapers, published by
government ministries or departments.

Despite Hanoi's tight grip on the media and the flow of information,
the Communist Party newspaper said more should be done to promote news
conformity.

``Those who are appointed editor-in-chief of all newspapers and
magazines need to be selected carefully so that they have the right
moral quality,'' the commentary said.

``We also need to be alert for negative acts in the press, strictly
punish and even bring to court the serious cases,'' the editorial
said, without specifying ``negative acts.''

The government has moved to limit access to banking and financial
information by imposing a vaguely defined bank state secrets rule.

In addition, Vietnam will monitor and censor the flow of information
on the Internet, the government said in an earlier decree.

Only government-sanctioned Internet servers will be permitted to
provide the service to the general public.

Vietnam is also wary of its public image beyond its borders.

``We need to be able to fight against the reactionary, slanderous and
provocative voices of the hostile forces that are undermining the
revolutionary cause of our country,'' The People's commentary said.

The government maintains tight controls over the movements of foreign
reporters based in the capital, Hanoi. In October, Vietnam refused to
renew the visa of a Hanoi-based foreign correspondent working for Dow
Jones publishing company's Far Eastern Economic Review.
                 ___________________________________


Read all about it'' - drugs trial in Vietnam 

Hanoi (Reuter) - The entrepreneurial spirit of 1990s Vietnam has come
into its own outside the Hanoi People's Court, where the country's
biggest-ever drugs trial entered its third day on Monday.

Dozens of people have lined the road outside the court since the
closed-door hearing got under way on Friday, offering photocopies of
newspaper stories on the scandal for 1,000 dong (8.5 U.S. cents) a
sheet.

Public interest in the trial of 22 suspected heroin traffickers, half
of whom are state police officials and border guards, has been
intense.

The presiding judge in the case has said that more than 10 people
could be sentenced to death and one of the key defendants has vowed to
expose some ``extremely important people.''

Glancing nervously at police officers standing nearby, one man said he
had paid 500 dong per newspaper clipping copy and expected to make a
cool profit of about $1.70 a day.

Another asked how much he could get for copies in English, but ran off
seconds later as a fellow seller was hauled away by police officers
and driven off in a motorbike sidecar.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam hails Marx as shining beacon for oppressed 

Hanoi (Reuter) - Vietnam, defying sceptics, marked the 179th birthday
of the German philosopher Karl Marx, hailing him on Monday as a
shining beacon for the world's oppressed and warning that capitalist
states would eventually face crisis.

A raft of commentaries in official dailies heaped praise on both Marx
and Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, and said the collapse of communism
in eastern bloc countries had resulted from a failure to apply Marxist
thought properly.

``The collapse of many socialist countries resulted from failure to
realise the scientific and revolutionary spirit of Marxism in
conformity with the practical situation in each country, and stiff
implementation of the theory in a stereotyped model,'' the Nhan Dan
daily said.

The army daily Quan Doi Nhan Dan added that Marxism and Leninism
``remains a shining beacon for the proletarian class and working
people in the world in their struggle for the noblest goal of the
times.''

Vietnam's government avoided the fate of communism in former
Soviet-bloc countries during the late 1980s and early 1990s after
adopting capitalist-style economic reforms, an open-door policy and
improved social freedoms.

But Hanoi has refused to countenance a shift towards a multi-party
system and the Communist Party of Vietnam remains the sole legal
political force.

Nhan Dan said Marxism would serve as the basis for further boosting
Vietnam's reform process and added that capitalist states were plagued
by social problems and would eventually face crisis.

Marx and Lenin are two of the most prominent figures in world
socialism.

While statues of Lenin have been felled elsewhere, a figure of the
Russian revolutionary still dominates a square off a main Hanoi
boulevard. Occasional acts of disrespect are said to have resulted in
conical peasants' straw hats being placed on its head.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam's foreign minister departs for N. Korea, Japan 

Japan Economic Newswire

HANOI -- Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam left Hanoi on
Monday for visits to North Korea and Japan.

During his weeklong visit to North Korea, Cam will hold talks with his
North Korean counterpart Kim Yong Nam on that country's request for
rice to ease its severe food shortage, a government source said.

North Korea Deputy Premier Kong Jin Thae, during a visit to Hanoi last
month, failed to persuade Vietnam to sell rice on credit but secured a
pledge of about 1,000 tons of rice as relief aid.

Vietnam, the world's third largest rice exporter, maintains cordial
relations with North Korea, although bilateral ties soured when North
Korea criticized Vietnam for its invasion of Cambodia in late 1978.
Ties were more recently strained somewhat by Vietnam's opening
diplomatic ties with South Korea in 1992.

During his four-day official visit to Japan starting Sunday, Cam is
scheduled to hold talks with his Japanese counterpart Yukihiko Ikeda
and attend a seminar on the future of Asia to be organized by the
business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbum.

It will be the first time for a Vietnamese foreign minister to
officially visit Japan since October 1990 when then Foreign Minister
Nguyen Co Thach visited Tokyo.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore ease visa requirements: reports

HANOI (AFP) - The governments of Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand have
agreed to streamline and in some cases waive visa requirements for
short-term visitors between their countries, reports here said Monday.

Vietnam agreed to allow Singaporean passport holders to stay in the
country for a maximum of 90 days without having to apply for a visa,
the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.

In turn, Singapore will exempt Vietnamese officials and diplomats of
visa procedures depending on their objective and the nature of their
trip, VNA said.

Meanwhile, Thailand and Vietnam have agreed to a reciprocal agreement
whereby diplomatic and official passport holders will no longer need
to apply for visas in advance.

Holders of ordinary passports from all three countries will only have
to wait two days for travel documents, VNA said.

The new visa agreement is expected to give a boost to business and
tourist travel to the three countries, which existing onerous visa
procedures had hampered, observers said.
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Vietnam-Drug Trial Vietnam's largest drug trial resumes 

HANOI (AP) -- The trial of a high profile heroin smuggling ring with
links to Vietnam's Interior Ministry resumed Monday, and a newspaper
reported that several of the defendants had just tried to commit
suicide.

Twenty-two defendants including police officers, border guards and
customs agents stand accused of ferrying hundreds of kilograms
(pounds) of heroin and opium into Vietnam from neighboring Laos.

Several of the defendants tried to kill themselves in their jail cells
over the weekend, the state-controlled Laborer newspaper said.

At least 10 death sentences are expected to be handed down at the end
of the trial.

National Assembly delegates, meanwhile, debated measures to increase
criminal penalties for narcotics-related offenses.

The English-language Vietnam News said proposed legislation would
increase the availability of the death penalty for people caught
carrying heroin.

Anyone found to be in possession of just 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of
heroin may be punished with death. Previously, the cutoff for the
death penalty was one kilogram (35 ounces).

The top defendant in this latest drug trial, police inspector Vu Xuan
Truong, confessed over the weekend to hiding heroin for his
colleagues, but denied involvement in smuggling the narcotics.

Truong pleaded for mercy Monday when he addressed the court, state-run
Voice of Vietnam radio said. Truong is among the most likely
defendants to face the death penalty.

With presumption of guilt the norm in Vietnamese trials, the courts
typically hear testimony to determine punishment rather than pass a
verdict.

Prosecutors on Monday continued to detail the drug ring's alleged
activities, which included moving opium and processed heroin across
the Laotian border. The drugs were often hidden in police vehicles,
the court was told in earlier testimony.

Foreign journalists have been barred from trial as the government aims
to censor testimony that could be damaging to the Interior Ministry.

Before the trial began, Truong threatened to incriminate ``extremely
important'' Interior Ministry officials.

Local media coverage carefully orchestrated by the court has focused
more on the drama in the courtroom than the substance of testimony.

In addition to the drug charges, several of the defendants face
weapons violations.

The trial is expected to last 10 days, making it long in Vietnam,
where criminal trials often only last one day.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam-Graft Crackdown Vietnam gets tough on graft 

HANOI (AP) -- Adding teeth to a major anti-graft campaign, Vietnam has
decided to execute anyone receiving bribes worth dlrs 4,500 or more,
official media reported Monday.

Other measures approved overwhelmingly by the National Assembly Sunday
include two-year jail terms for taking as little as dlrs 45, the
English-language Vietnam News reported.

The death penalty or life in prison will also be the punishment for
those stealing state or company funds worth dlrs 45,000.

Under the new amendments to the criminal code, anyone convicted of
corruption-related offenses including bribery or embezzlement will
automatically go to jail. No leniency will be given to first-time
offenders.

Vietnam is faced with growing white collar crime as some private and
public employees seek to profit from the country's rapid economic
growth.

The country was stunned earlier this year when a multimillion dollar
corruption scandal resulted in the death penalty for a former
Communist Party member and three of this associates.

Although Vietnam began using the death penalty as a deterrent to white
collar crime last year, its use has only now been formally adopted in
the criminal code.

More than 85 percent of the National Assembly's 337 delegates voted
for the criminal code amendments after more than a week of debate on
the measures.

Thousands of corruption-related crimes worth hundreds of millions of
dollars are brought to Vietnamese courts every year, but law
enforcement officials say those only scratch the surface of the
problem.