VN News (May 15, 1997)

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

May 15: First Socialist Republic of Vietnam envoy arrives in U.S. 
May 15: 13 more people arrested in Minh Phung Corruption scandal 
May 15: Forced labour for Ho's highway in Vietnam 
May 15: Vietnam leaders in foreign relations offensive 
May 15: Vietnam Seeks Herbal Therapy for Drug Addiction 
May 15: Thailand, Vietnam support Burma entry to ASEAN 
May 15: Hanoi students spill the beans on 173 drug addicts


First Socialist Republic of Vietnam envoy arrives in U.S. 

Washington (dpa) - The first ambassador of the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam presented his credentials at the White House, promising to
promote a new relationship with the United States.

The envoy, Ambassador Le Van Bang, in presenting his credentials
Wednesday at the White House said Clinton's ``good name will be
forever recorded in history as the U.S. president who has worked with
the Vietnamese leaders to close the past and look forward to the
future in building a new relationship with the United States.''

The ambassador said, ``I will do my utmost to develop U.S.- Vietnam
relations, meeting the legitimate interests and aspirations of the
peoples of our two countries, consistent with the trends of peace,
friendship and cooperation in the region and the world.''

The first U.S. ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, former
bomber pilot, POW and congressman Pete Peterson arrived in Hanoi last
week.

The establishment of relations with Vietnam was an intensely emotional
and politically partisan issue in the United States.

The powerful veterans' lobby wanted no formal relations with Vietnam
until all the remaining cases of American servicemen listed as missing
in action (MIA) in southeast Asia had been closed.

Business leaders in the United States pushed for opening links to
Vietnam, which they considered an important emerging market for
American goods, ranging from soft drinks to construction equipment.

They argued that the U.S. business community was forced to stand on
the sidelines while competitors from Taiwan, Japan and the European
Union took over the market.

In his first term, Clinton sided with the businessmen and announced
the opening of a liaison office in Hanoi, which has now been upgraded
to a full embassy.

In Washington, the Vietnamese embassy will be a suite in a downtown
office building. The former South Vietnamese embassy in Washington has
been closed and sold to a private owner.
                 ___________________________________


13 more people arrested in Minh Phung Corruption scandal

Hanoi (AFP) - Thirteen more people have been arrested in the widening
corruption scandal linked to Minh Phung Garment Co in Ho Chi Minh
City, police said Thursday.

Those arrested included directors, vice directors and chief
accountants of the troubled garment and property development company
whose general director Tang Minh Phung was arrested on corruption
charges in March.

All 13 face charges of "defrauding and being accomplices to fraud,"
police said.

Ming Phung's troubles first surfaced in March after an affiliate
company, Export-Import and Tourist District 3 Co, better known as
EPCO, defaulted on an 18 million dollar debt to state-owned
Vietcombank.

Phung was arrested with EPCO director Lien Khui Thin, when the
collateral Minh Phung had allegedly pledged to the bank was discovered
missing.

Minh Phung is one of Vietnam's largest garment manufacturers with more
than 9,000 employees. Like many high flying private joint stock
companies it has diversified into property development and
import-export.

According to the Tuoi Tre newspaper, Phung began aggressively
purchasing property instead of concentrating on his core business of
garment making in 1995.

By establishing new affiliate companies -- they now number more than
20 - Minh Phung was able to raise new capital and evade creditors or
roll over loans through a complex web of financial transactions
between different companies.

EPCO, which has trade offices in Sydney and San Francisco, is a big
exporter of fertilizer and exporter of coffee with turnover exceeding
150 million dollars last year.

Officials at both EPCO and Minh Phung have refused to talk to the
press.

According to the Saigon Giaphong semi-official newspaper, at the time
of his arrest, Phung told authorities the company owed banks and
enterprises about 4,310 billion dong (370 million dollars).

However observers say this case was just the tip of the iceberg and
that more revelations involving larger sums are expected in the coming
weeks.
                 ___________________________________


Forced labour for Ho's highway in Vietnam 

Hanoi (AFP) - Vietnam will start training compulsory labour this year
to transform the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the legendary Viet Cong wartime
supply route, into a modern highway, press reports said Thursday.

An official source was quoted by the Saigon Times Daily as saying "the
country will call for compulsory labourers and train them during the
last months of this year."

The army, which has a long tradition of roadbuilding, has been charged
with the task of mobilizing and supervising a compulsory labour force
for the 1,789 kilometre (1100 mile) route linking north and south
Vietnam.

Unveiled early this year with a fanfare, "crucial highway" is the
brainchild of the communist party politburo and is a pet project of
Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet.

The "Truong Son Road", named after the mountain chain that forms
Vietnam's backbone," will cost 5.5 billion dollars and is scheduled
for completion between 2010 and 2020.

Up to one million Vietnamese could be drafted in for the massive
scheme, which follows hundreds of miles (kilometers) of the legendary
Ho Chi Minh trail -- which supplied Viet Cong troops during the
Vietnam War against US forces.

In line with tradition, local residents will be asked to work free for
10 days, alongside the army. Those who do not wish to dig will be
asked to pay money instead.

The paper said about 100,000 workers per day will be needed during the
first year of the project, growing to 200,000 after two years.

Communist party chief Do Muoi has rejected the term "forced labour,"
preferring the official jargon of "public utility work.

While the government has moved ahead with meeting its labour needs, a
technical feasibility study and a financing plan have not yet been
completed.

The second national artery will duplicate the length of the existing
National Highway No. 1, which is all but cut off for half the year by
typhoons and floods.

The controversial project has attracted much heated debate in the
National Assembly where deputies have cast doubts on the economic
viability of the road, and have asked how the cash strapped government
will pay for it.

Western observers also questioned the need for such a mega project
when Vietnam faces so many other pressing needs.

"Even if we really need a new north-south highway, 2,000 kilometres
(1,200 miles) is a lot, and a strategic transport analysis has not
been done," said one multilateral institutional representative in
Hanoi.

The Asian Development Bank--which has committed hundreds of millions
of dollars to rehabilitate the existing north south route-- has
already said it would not fund a second highway, and it is hard to see
that either the World Bank or Japan, Hanoi's largest source of foreign
aid, would be any more willing to commit to the project.

So while analysts universally agree that Vietnam is in dire need of
developing its infrastructure, they also discern a heavily political
element behind the road.

"It's a way of rallying the population around momentous projects at a
time when they are officially denouncing 'individualism' ... It's
aimed at turning a youth without values away from unemployment and
drugs," one diplomat said.

For the party, it's also "a way of showing that it's still in charge,
continuing the legacy of Ho Chi Minh," a foreign diplomat said.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam leaders in foreign relations offensive 

Hanoi (Reuter) - Vietnam's communist leaders will launch a foreign
relations offensive next week when party chief Do Muoi and Prime
Minister Vo Van Kiet are expected to head for China, Burma, and
central Europe on separate visits.

A foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday that Kiet, 74 and his
wife would visit Poland, the Czech republic, Italy and Hungary between
May 20 and 28 -- his second overseas trip this year.

Do Muoi, 80, the most powerful member of Vietnam's leadership troika,
will visit Burma, a Communist Party official said. Details of a visit
to China, Hanoi's giant northern neighbour, were still being
finalised.

An unofficial source said Muoi's visits would take place around May
20.

The visits are significant in that they mark the first occasion on
which the two men are likely to have been away from Vietnam at or
around the same time in many months.

Vietnam's political environment was dominated by a major Communist
Party congress last year which focused attention on internal affairs
rather than overseas relations.

The sudden illness of President Le Duc Anh, 76, who suffered a stroke
in November, is also seen by analysts as a factor which may have held
back plans for leadership travel.

Anh's condition has improved since then and he has made occasional
brief public appearances.

All three men had been expected to step down last year at the
congress, but last-minute political manoeuvring saw their terms in
office effectively extended.

Political analysts believe that Kiet and Anh will be replaced later
this year, although it is unclear who might fill their shoes.

Vietnam's relations with eastern Europe have weakened following the
collapse of communism in former Soviet-bloc countries, however
officials say Hanoi is seeking to revitalise its ties with these
nations.

Burma is expected to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
possibly as soon as next July and despite U.S. opposition to the move.
Vietnam is an ASEAN member.

Vietnam's relations with China are more complex. Despite ideological
similarities the relationship between the two countries has remained
uneasy.

Muoi's expected visit will be the first by a Vietnamese leader since
the death of China's Deng Xiaoping in February and the first since a
dispute flared up in March over Chinese oil exploration in contested
waters of the South China Sea.
                 ___________________________________


Vietnam Seeks Herbal Therapy for Drug Addiction

HANOI (Xinhua News) - Vietnamese researchers are working with their
U.S. counterparts to study the global application of a herbal therapy
for drug addiction, the local press reported today.

The eight-month project, with 500,000 U.S. dollars funding from the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP), aims to establish
conditions for the safe and effective use of the therapy.

The new ray of hope for a cure for drug addiction lies in a medication
known as Heantos, which is composed of a number of herbal plants and
other ingredients found in Vietnam.

The experimental therapy has been in use in Vietnam since 1991 to
treat about 3,000 people suffering various degrees of addiction, and
initial results are encouraging.

However, health officials said, the claimed success rate needs to be
reviewed, verified and substantiated in compliance with international
scientific standards.

If the ongoing research project is fruitful, the extended use of
Heantos could reduce the cost of treating people around the world for
drug addiction.

According to published reports, in Vietnam alone, there are now about
185,000 drug addicts, including an increasing number of people using
heroin.
                 ___________________________________


Thailand, Vietnam support Burma entry to ASEAN 

By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuter) - A top Thai official on Thursday rejected U.S.
pressure on Southeast Asian nations to isolate Burma and said Rangoon
was ready to join ASEAN along with Laos and Cambodia.

``ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) is a vital
mechanism for integrating countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and
Myanmar (Burma) into the mainstream of the Asian market economy,''
Thai Finance Minister Amnuay Viravan told a conference here on Asia's
future.

``ASEAN has been under pressure to block Myanmar's membership,''
Amnuay said, but added, ``ASEAN does not believe in intervention in
our neighbours internal affairs.''

``ASEAN believes the three countries are now prepared to join the
group and there is no reason to discriminate (against) anyone because
of their political ideology or political activities,'' he added.

Mounting pressure on Southeast Asian nations to isolate Burma has put
them in a tough spot of having to choose between backing a neighbour
and risking relations with the United States, analysts and officials
have said.

ASEAN, which was expected to admit observer nations Burma, Cambodia
and Laos as full members of the group the year, is likely to have
tough deliberations later this month now that Washington was
pressuring them to isolate Rangoon, they said.

Washington recently announced economic sanctions on Burma as a
condemnation of the military regime's alleged human rights abuses and
its repression of the democracy movement led by Nobel Peace laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi.

Amnuay said ASEAN members believed human rights and democracy were
``desirable'' and should be promoted by member nations but added, ``We
need to move at our own pace and in our own political and social
environments.''

A top Burmese official, meanwhile, dubbed Rangoon's entry into ASEAN
``imminent'' and lashed out at the U.S. sanctions.

``A major power has most recently imposed economic sanctions on
Myanmar. We all know that this decision smacks of hypocrisy and double
standards and that sanctions will have little impact on the Myanmar
economy,'' said Brigadier General Maung Maung, secretary of the
country's investment commission.

``Myanmar as a nation is keen for cooperation with the ASEAN 10. Its
joining ASEAN would greatly contribute to the well-being of the ASEAN
10 as well as the well-being of Asia as a whole,'' he said, speaking
at the same conference.

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam also expressed support for
Burma's entry into ASEAN, telling the conference that ``an enlarged
ASEAN encompassing all the Southeast Asian nations will be beneficial
to peace, stability and cooperation in the region and the world at
large and that Vietnam has endorsed the early ASEAN membership of
Laos, Cambodia and Mynmar.''

ASEAN, founded in 1967 to promote regional cooperation, is comprised
of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.
                 ___________________________________


Hanoi students spill the beans on 173 drug addicts 

HANOI -- Vietnam yesterday said an informant campaign among Hanoi
schoolchildren had netted more than 170 drug-addicted students.

The Vietnam News daily said boxes for anonymous letters posted at
schools around the capital helped identify pushers, selling points and
drug users.

Through the system, 173 students were denounced as addicts, 81
drug-dealing points were named, and three touts who urged students to
use drugs were identified.

But the paper said lenient punishments and ineffective propaganda
meant the problem was still increasing, it said.

Drug experts have warned that Vietnam's children are being targeted by
narcotics syndicates hoping to create a new market in one of the
world's poorest countries.

"The problem did not exist a few years ago," said an official of the
United Nations Children's Fund in Hanoi. "The data is not very
scientific but we're hearing reports that up to 50 per cent of
children in some schools are taking drugs."

Teachers at Bach Dang school in Quang Ninh said the problem of food
vendors plying drug-laced drinks and food on students was so serious
that the school had decided to build a 200-m brick wall around the
compound. -- Reuter.