VN news (May 14)

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

May 14: Death penalty for eight in Vietnam's biggest heroin smuggling trial
May 14: U.N. promotes study of addiction cure in Vietnam 
May 14: Beijing Hosts China-Vietnam Symposium 
May 14: Hanoi With Its Hand Out 
May 14: Peruvian president scraps trip to Vietnam 
May 14: Vietnam girds up for fight against drugs 


Death penalty for eight in Vietnam's biggest heroin smuggling
trial

By Frederik Balfour

HANOI (AFP) - Eight people including two senior police officers and
two women were sentenced to death on Wednesday in Vietnam's biggest
heroin smuggling trial.

The verdicts came against the backdrop of concerted government efforts
to crack down on Vietnam's growing narcotics trade.

"It's clearly a showcase trial where the government wants to
demonstrate it means business in its fight against drugs," said one
foreign diplomat.

The condemned included Vu Xuan Truong, a former captain of the
interior ministry's anti-crime unit who helped mastermind a
sophisticated drug smuggling syndicate, and Vu Phong Ma, a police
captain in Lai Chau province.

A third security official, Bui Danh Ca, a captain of the Lai Chau
border guard, also received the death sentence.

Two women, Lai Thi Ngan and Nguyen Thi Hoa also received the death
sentence for their part in a sophisticated syndicate thought to have
smuggled 414 kilogrammes of heroin (980 pounds) into Vietnam since
1992.

Three other members of the syndicate were condemned to die, while
another eight people received life prison sentences, and two received
20-year jail terms.

Truong's mistress Ta Thi Hien and younger brother Vu Thuong Kiet were
given life prison terms, while Truong's wife received a 20-year prison
sentence.

One Laotian, Sieng Kham Chan also received a life sentence.

All 22 people who have been on trial since May 2 were found guilty of
crimes including trafficking, transport and possession of heroin for
their part in the drug ring.

Throughout the trial Truong has stolen the media limelight. Before the
hearing he promised prosecutors he would name "high level officials"
who had betrayed him, in exchange for lenient treatment of his wife
and brother law.

But Truong lost his resolve and had reportedly made at least three
suicide attempts. In his final statement before judges on Monday he
asked authorities for a "speedy execution."

It took judges more than two and a half hours to read out the
sentences, which many Vietnamese said were not tough enough.

"The eight death penalties are completely insufficient," said Nguyen
Thanh An, a 42-year-old cyclo-cab driver told AFP.

"I think the authorities need to show more severity towards drug
traffickers.

He was among the hundreds of people who braved the grueling afternoon
sun outside the courthouse for a last chance to glimpse of the
culprits as they arrived for the last time at the Hanoi People's Court
for sentencing.

Nearly one hundred police, some toting cattle prods or rifles slung
over their shoulders kept the crowds back to allow nearly 20 heavily
guarded police vans with blackened windows enter the court driveway.

All 22 defendents were found guilty, and the eight death and life
prison sentences were in line with recommendations from the
prosecution office.

Truong and his wife Lua, were arrested in July 1996, when authorities
found 4.9 kilograms (10.8 pounds) of heroin and 80,000 dollars in
their home.

The case dates back to 1995 when two Laotians were arrested with 15
kilograms (33 pounds) of heroin. Both were condemned to death, but one
of them, Sieng Pheng, last June earned a last-minute reprieve from the
firing squad in exchange for names of those involved in a massive
heroin smuggling.

A new law passed earlier this month by the National Assembly states
that conviction for possession or trafficking of at least 100 grams,
(3.5 ounces) of heroin is punishable by death, replacing a previous
law with a one kilo (2.2 pound) minimum.

The trial has been closed to foreign press and diplomats who have
expressed their objection to the death penalty.

"We have a frequently expressed objection to their use of the death
penalty. We welcome a serious effort to clampdown, especially since
Vietnam has become a growing drug transit point, but we don't support
the 'final solution,' " the diplomat said.

According to the United Nations Drug Control Programme, (UNDCP)
Vietnam has close to 200,000 narcotics addicts and the country has
become a major transit point for international drug syndicates.
                 ___________________________________


U.N. promotes study of addiction cure in Vietnam

Hanoi (Reuter) - The United Nations said on Wednesday it would
contribute $500,000 to a project in Vietnam which will study the
effectiveness of a herbal medicine for drug addiction.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said the medication
known as HEANTOS had been applied effectively as a therapy in Vietnam,
where there are an estimated 185,000 addicts.

But its claims still needed to be reviewed, verified and substantiated
in compliance with international standards before its use on a wider
scale and outside Vietnam could be authorised.

``Further research on HEANTOS is critical as drug abuse is one of the
most pervasive social problems facing countries throughout the
world,'' UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Hanoi Nicholas
Rosellini said in a statement.

The project, which will be carried out with the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine and the National Institute of Drug Abuse
in the United States, was launched as a major heroin-trafficking trial
entered its final day in Hanoi.

The UNDP said that since 1991 more than 3,000 Vietnamese patients --
mainly opium and heroin addicts -- had been treated successfully with
HEANTOS for withdrawal symptoms.

HEANTOS, which is composed of various plants and other ingredients
found in Vietnam, could bring cost reductions in treating addicts all
over the world.
                 ___________________________________


Beijing Hosts China-Vietnam Symposium 

BEIJING (Xinhua News) - Yang Rudai, vice-chairman of the National
Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
(CPPCC), presided over a symposium between the CPPCC National
Committee and a delegation from the Vietnam Fatherland Front here
today.

Le Quang Dao, head of the delegation and president of the Vietnam
Fatherland Front Central Committee, attended the symposium.

The leading officials of four subcommittees of the CPPCC National
Committee briefed the Vietnamese visitors on the organization and work
of the CPPCC, China's top advisory body, and answered their questions.

The Vietnamese visitors arrived here Tuesday as guests of the CPPCC
National Committee.
                 ___________________________________


Hanoi With Its Hand Out 

The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition

When a former American prisoner of war in Vietnam returns to Hanoi as
the first U.S. ambassador in the country in 22 years, there's a kind
of symmetry that satisfies the desire for closure on a sad chapter in
world history. Unfortunately, in the ways that count most these days,
the U.S.-Vietnamese relationship is still lopsided, and another kind
of battle looms ahead.

In short, Hanoi wants to take, and it expects Washington to give,
give, give. New Ambassador Douglas "Pete" Peterson is going to be
bombarded with requests for handouts; not only by his hosts with their
begging bowls but from the American business community that hopes to
share the booty. He should resist the pressure. If the goal is to help
Vietnam back on its feet, why encourage more debilitating dependence
that will only delay prosperity and self-reliance?

Hanoi's shopping list is extensive. Vietnam is particularly eager for
President Bill Clinton to sign a waiver that would make
still-communist Vietnam eligible for U.S. Export-Import Bank credits
and the loans and political risk insurance of the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation. Vietnam also wants the United States to grant
it Most Favored Nation trading status, while continuing to protect its
own industries from competition. Hanoi has its hand out in other
directions as well: it wants unspecified "help"--most certainly code
for cash--from the U.S. for Vietnamese victims of the Agent Orange
chemical defoliant used by U.S. forces during the war in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Hanoi trawls for loans and credit and development money
from rich countries like Japan and from multi-lateral institutions
like the Asian Development Bank; all this on top of the $8 billion in
official aid it has already had over the past decade. And while you're
at it, Vietnamese Central Bank Governor Cao Sy Kiem told an ADB
audience this week, please set up some "new lending modalities in a
flexible way" to extend urgent loans to countries that get themselves
in an "emergency" jam.
  _________________________________________________________________

No group knows more about the effect of Vietnam's one-step forward,
two-steps back approach than the foreign business community.
  _________________________________________________________________

The correct response to all this is what U.S. Treasury Secretary
Robert Rubin told his hosts during a visit to Vietnam last month: You
want money, he said, move to a market economy and it will come. If
that message didn't sink in very deep, it's partially because after
ten years of "doi moi" or renovation, Vietnam's communist leadership
is still wrestling with the most basic arguments about what Messrs.
Marx and Lenin would say about even tentative "state" capitalism. The
more relative reformers like Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet keep pushing
in the right direction, the more rhetoric we hear from people like
Communist Party chief Do Muoi about the need for "increasing the
capacity and combat strength of grassroots party organizations."

No group knows more about the effect of Vietnam's one-step forward,
two-steps back approach than the foreign business community, including
the Americans who joined the rush to pump in $30 billion in direct
foreign investment, according to Vietnamese government figures, as of
1996. After some rough but momentum filled years, the past 18 months
have brought one disappointment after another as Hanoi raised taxes
sky high, built new mountains of regulation, and changed or reversed
official policies overnight. Authorities have targeted individual
companies, like Coca Cola and PepsiCo, for bizarre regulatory torture
and mounted massive campaigns against foreign advertising and
products.

Vietnamese companies didn't fare much better. Official figures show
that the vast majority of some 3,200 remaining state enterprises were
unprofitable in 1996 and the country's showcase private banks owed
some $850 million in deferred letters of credit by year's end.
Incredibly, the American business community in Vietnam wants
Washington to encourage more of the same by rewarding failure and
mismanagement in Hanoi with Exim credits and other concessions.
Incredibly, they expect Ambassador Peterson to accept the assertion
that unless America subsidizes Vietnam's current creaky system, Hanoi
will go elsewhere for handouts.

Somehow we doubt it. But even if a few government-backed Swedes or
Frenchmen do manage to outbid their poor American competitors a few
times, who can make real money for very long in such a distorted and
artificial environment? It shouldn't take barriers like the issue of
American servicemen missing in action to keep Washington from making
more mistakes in Vietnam. Secretary Rubin was right: the good fight
today is for measures that encourage market reform, not moves that
will postpone it. It is a fight Americans should be rooting for
Vietnam to win.
                 ___________________________________


Peruvian president scraps trip to Vietnam 

LIMA (AFP) - Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has apparently
scrapped a trip to Vietnam but will go ahead with visits to the United
States, India and Bangladesh despite minor surgery, a source told AFP.

Vietnam had announced that Fujimori's trip to Hanoi set for May 23-24
had been cancelled after Fujimori underwent minor, outpatient surgery
in his mouth on Sunday at a state hospital that specializes in
treating cancer. No details of his condition have been released.

In Lima, a government source who asked not to be named said that it
"was unlikely" that Fujimori would go to Vietnam after it criticized
the bloody military hostage-rescue operation at the Japanese embassy
residence last month. Fourteen rebels, two troops and one hostage
died.

The government source, however, said that Fujimori would go ahead with
stops in Accra, Bangladesh on May 26 and New Delhi on May 27-28.

On Thursday, Fujimori travels to the United States to give a speech in
New York and attend daughter Keiko's graduation ceremonies at Boston
University, a Peruvian embassy spokesman said Tuesday.

Keiko Fujimori, who has acted as Peru's first lady since her parents'
extremely acrimonious divorce in 1994, had said that her father would
rest in the United States.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam girds up for fight against drugs

By Frederik Balfour

HANOI (AFP) - Vietnam's biggest heroin smuggling trial has showcased
the government's get-tough fight against drugs but observers say the
country has a long way to go.

An explosion in both international narcotics trafficking and domestic
use of hard drugs in the past few years has created the need for an
overhaul of drug enforcement efforts, aimed mainly at curbing poppy
cultivation, they say.

"Vietnam needs to refocus its efforts from opium poppy eradication to
improved drug control and education," said Joern Kristensen, local
programme coordinator for the United Nations International Drug
Control Programme (UNDCP).

While Vietnam has succeeded in reducing opium production to about 15
tonnes per year from 90 tonnes in 1993, it also needs to confront the
tougher task of battling international trafficking.

Even though domestic production of opium poppies has dropped by about
75 percent since 1993, the country has become a transhipment point for
heroin produced in the infamous "Golden Triangle" -- where Laos, Burma
and Thailand meet.

Recent clampdowns by drug enforcers in neighbouring countries have
coincided with a relaxation of border controls and greater trade and
tourism in Vietnam, making the country an easy target for
international drug syndicates.

Though no estimates of the volume of drugs moved through Vietnam are
available, the rapid increase in the number of arrests suggests an
explosion in trafficking and drug use.

According to a US report on international narcotics, drug-related
arrests in Vietnam more than doubled to 6,000 in 1996 from a year
earlier, causing concern at the highest official levels.

"We have not warned the people in time of the problem and not
introduced firm methods to stem the scourge which has been booming in
line with the country's opening-up policies," Prime Minister Vo Van
Kiet told the Saigon Giai Phong daily last week.

Vietnam spends about four million dollars a year fighting drugs and
receives another two million annually from UNDCP. One programme has
helped finance two roving anti-drug forces which patrol the two main
land supply routes to Laos.

But drug enforcers are outgunned and outmanned. Vietnam desperately
needs outside help to tackle its drug problems and protect its porous
borders.

"They have a long way to go. There's no coastguard, border controls
are minimal," said one foreign diplomat who asked not to be named,
pointing out that it was impossible to patrol 1900 kilometres (1200
miles) of coastline.

"Traffickers have more money and better technology than the
Vietnamese," he added.

But it takes more than just money, says Kristensen. Vietnam needs to
work more closely with its neigbours on the problem.

"The drug issue cannot be dealt with as a purely domestic issue.
Cooperation with other drug enforcement agencies is pretty weak,"
Kristensen said.

Although Vietnam shares information with Laos and Thailand, it is not
a signatory to a 1988 UN convention on international drug enforcement.

To be sure, a rapid increase in domestic demand for hard drugs is also
to blame for the rise in trafficking, Kristensen said.

According to UNDCP estimates, more than 200,00O Vietnamese are
addicted to narcotics. In Vietnam, once the bastion of the opium den,
use of its derivative heroin has now become widespread, especially
among the young.

Boredom and increasing affluence are partly to blame. So is the
breakdown of traditional values, especially in urban areas, aid
workers say.

For example in March, 96 people -- nearly half 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 in Ho Chi Minh City,
formerly Saigon.

Nguyen Minh Chanh, deputy director of the city's social affairs
office, estimates there are at least 30,000 addicts in Ho Chi Minh
City.

"10 percent of drug users are women, including girls aged 12 or 13,"
he said.

But the problem has recently spread north, Kristensen said.

"A couple of years ago it was hard to find heroin in the north. Now
kids can buy it from candy vendors outside secondary schools in
Hanoi," he said.