VN news (May 15-16)

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

May 16: Vietnam's Do Muoi to visit Burma 
May 16: Vietnamese cultural feast 
May 16: Two Vietnamese brothers get treatment for hemophilia
May 16: Vietnam: Foreign sex trader's court appeal rejected 
May 16: Vietnam War conference to examine ``missed opportunities''
May 15: Vietnamese Newspaper Highlights - May 15, 1997
May 15: Interview: Personnel management must be based on practical conditions


Vietnam's Do Muoi to visit Burma 

RANGOON (Reuter) - Vietnamese Communist Party chief Do Muoi will soon
visit Burma, where he is expected to discuss ties and Burma's
membership in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN),
government sources said on Friday.

State-run media said Do Muoi would make the trip in the near future
but did not give a date. Government sources said his delegation would
likely visit Burma on May 22-25.

Burma and Vietnam have stepped up relations in recent years.

Communist Party officials in Hanoi said on Thursday that Muoi, 80, was
due to visit Rangoon and Beijing in his first overseas trips in many
months, although details of the visit to China were not finalised.

Vietnam's Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet visited Rangoon in May 1994 and
General Than Shwe, chairman of Burma's ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council, visited Vietnam in March 1995.
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Vietnamese cultural feast 

The New Press Times
Life and Times

A Vietnamese traditional music and cultural show will be held in
conjunction with the Vietnamese food promotion at the Nipah Coffee
Shop at Hotel Equatorial of Kuala Lumpur.

The food promotion ends on Sunday.

The traditional music and cultural show will be during lunch (1pm-2pm)
and dinner (8pm -9pm).

"Picture Saigon", a photography exhibition on images of Ho Chi Minh
City by Stephen Wong, is also being held.

Three Vietnamese female chefs from Hotel Equatorial Ho Chi Minh City
have been flown in for the promotion to ensure the authenticity of the
dishes.

They are chef de partie Lee Thi Kim Anh, demi chef de parties Trinh
Tri Thai and Thi Thu Trang.

The buffet menus will vary daily for lunch and dinner offering patrons
a culinary journey through Vietnam.

Selections include traditional favourites and others typical to the
diffrent areas of Vietnam where Chinese and French cooking are major
influences.

Main dishes like steamed white rice with pigeon curry, stewed chicken
with mushrooms, salmon with ginger sauce and deep-fried fish cake,
sliced beef with lemon grass, stewed seabass in claypot and grilled
chicken with lime skin.

Ginger crabs with Szechuan peppercorns and Vietnamese ravioli with
roasted goose are also on the menu.

Refeshing salad dish like fresh crystal spring rolls with beef,
grilled eggplant salad, rice cake with dried shrimps and fish sauce
dip and chicken meat and cabbage salad are also offered.

Desserts are mungbean cake, Vietnamese coffee flan, baked rose cake
and coconut turnovers, black bean bun and beef ball.

Lunch is served from noon to 2.30pm and dinner from 7pm to 10.30pm.
The price is RM39.50++ for adults and RM25++ for children.

For reservations, call The Nipah coffeeshop at 03-2617777 ext 8555/6.
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Two Vietnamese brothers get treatment for hemophilia

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- Two young Vietnamese brothers suffering from a
rare form of hemophilia have begun treatments at the Children's
Medical Center of Northwest Ohio.

Thien Minh Nguyen, 3; his brother, Vi The Nguyen, 7, and their parents
flew to the hospital from Vietnam after two years of fund-raisers and
red tape.

Dr. Dorrence Talbut, a hematologist, said he hopes the boys'
conditions can be stabilized during the six months they are in the
United States. No such treatment is available in Vietnam.

The 12 members of Talbut's staff are donating their time for the
treatments, which normally would cost $25,000 to $50,000.

Other sponsors and fund-raisers paid for the family's trip to the
United States.

``We are very thankful and happy that our children can receive the
advanced treatment at this center, because in our country there was no
hope for cure,'' said the children's mother, Thu-Lan T. Nguyen, 38.

The doctors' immediate task is to treat bleeding areas on the
brothers' bodies. Thien Minh has an egg-size hematoma on his forehead
and his brother has bleeding in the mouth and behind the right knee.

The brothers' half-hour, every-other-day intravenous treatment is
fairly common in Europe and the United States, but usually is
unavailable elsewhere, Talbut said.

Talbut and his staff treat about 100 area hemophiliacs on a daily
basis.

He said long-term recovery for the brothers depends on the follow-up
care available in Vietnam.

Mrs. Nguyen and her husband, Dung Nguyen, 39, live in Dalat, about 180
miles east of Saigon, where she is a clerical secretary and he is a
plumber.

Nguyen said he doesn't know where he will find follow-up, long-term
medical help for his sons.

``We are just taking life day by day and hoping for the best,'' he
said.
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Vietnam: Foreign sex trader's court appeal rejected

(SGT-HCMC) The Supreme People's Court in HCMC yesterday turned down an
appeal of Taiwanese businessman Yu Kuang Hui charged with harboring
prostitutes in the Olympic Hotel in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.

According to the panel of judges, the appeal against the verdict
passed by the People's Court of Ba Ria-Vung Tau at the first-instance
trial is groundless, so the defendant must serve a term of 42 months
in jail for the above crime.

The court also authorized a businessperson at the hotel based at 4
Phan Chu Trinh Street, Vung Tau City to manage Yu Kuang Hui's property
while the criminal is serving his term in prison.

On November 20, 1996, the People's Court in Ba Ria-Vung Tau tried Yu
Kuang Hui, 46, after he was arrested for cooperating with local
"madams" in prostitution procurement and harboring prostitutes at the
hotel.

Yu Kuang Hui served as director of the hotel owned by a Vietnamese
after he signed a contract to lease the estate.

In addition to Yu Kuang Hui, seven Vietnamese accomplices received
terms from 15 months to four years behind bars. However, only Yu Kuang
Hui and another Vietnamese lodged appeals to a higher court.
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Vietnam War conference to examine ``missed opportunities''

Hanoi (dpa) - During a conference next month U.S. and Vietnamese
protagonists will examine ``missed opportunities'' that were lost in
the events leading up to the Vietnam War, organizers said Friday.

Among the most pominent participants scheduled are Robert McNamara,
U.S. defense secretary between 1961-1968, and Vietnamese military hero
General Vo Nguyen Giap, who masterminded the defeat of the French
colonial forces and then of the American-backed Saigon regime.

The conference will take place June 19-22 in the Vietnamese capital,
where the event is being sponsored by the Institute of International
Relations, an institution associated with Hanoi's foreign ministry.

``At the table there will be 24 people - six witnesses and six
scholars from each side - but there wil be a lot of observers and
funders from the U.S.,'' said Linh Lan, the institute's external
relations director.

She declined to provide a list of Vietnamese participants because it
had not been finalized, she said.

>From the U.S. side there will be two retired generals, a former
high-ranking State Department official and two former National
Security Council staffers attending along with McNamara.

Preparations for the conference began during a November 1995 visit to
Hanoi by McNamara.

During the trip McNamara had a chance to discuss with Giap the
misunderstandings that surrounded the famous Tonkin Gulf Incident in
August 1964 that led to American bombing of North Vietnam.

``This conference is a necessity for us, for Vietnam, for the people
of Vietnam,'' said deputy prime Minister Phan Van Khai during his
meeting with McNamara. ``It is something we must do if we - your
country and mine - are to move ahead.''

American scholars involved in the conference confirmed the dates but
declined additional comment until there was a more formal
announcement.

Others knowledgeable about the project say there is some concern about
how freely Vietnamese scholars will be allowed to offer their own
independent assessments.

Vietnam's history is largely controlled by the ruling Communist Party
and the interpretation of recent events are subject to political
considerations.

The so-called literature of disenchantment that has arisen - and been
suppressed - in recent years in Vietnam has challenged the orthodoxy
about why and how the war was fought and what it achieved.

A small number of Cold War scholars will be on hand during the meeting
to ensure that ``the testimony of the former officials (and the
analyses of the scholars) is consistent with the known chronology of
events and with the documentary record,'' a preliminary document said.
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Vietnamese Newspaper Highlights - May 15, 1997

Hanoi (VNA) - Highlights of Vietnams daily newspapers today:

NHAN DAN:

- The first US Ambassador to Vietnam, Mr Douglas Peterson, yesterday
presented his credentials to Vietnams Vice President, Madam Nguyen Thi
Binh.

- Vietnam's biggest ever heroin trial ended here yesterday with eight
death sentences being handed down, and another eight people being
sentenced to life imprisonment.

- Vietnam has detected 5,408 HIV/AIDS cases in 50 of the 61 provinces
and cities nationwide up to April 26, according to the National AIDS
Committee.

HANOI MOI:

- Hanois joint-stock cooperatives have invested more than VND 16
billion (roughly US$1.5 million) in modernising technologies.

- The Vietnam Bicycle Manufacturers Association (VINACYCLE) looks to
expand market share and produce 500,000 bicycles per year.

VIETNAM NEWS:

- Tea exports expected to bring in US$100 million by 2000.

- Four-month-old Siamese twins joined at the abdomen were successfully
separated at the Child Institute in Hanoi yesterday. This is the
second operation of this kind the institute has performed to date.
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Interview: Personnel management must be based on practical
conditions

Reported by Ngoc Vinh
Saigon Times Daily

The biggest drug trial in Hanoi court has aroused concerns of people
around the country. On this occasion, Tuoi Tre Sunday had a talk with
Mr. Tran Van Tao, Chief of the HCMC Communist Party's Board of
Ideology and Culture. Excerpts:

With your post, you are probably interested in the trans-national drug
ring on trial in Hanoi?

- This court case has shaken the minds and thoughts of people far and
wide, as defendants in the lawsuit have smuggled into Vietnam hundreds
of kilos of heroin. Many of them are police officers and border
guards, including senior officers.

Is the aspect of ethics or social security that attracts your
interest?

I am more interested in the latter aspect. This court case causes
grave concerns regarding social security, as drug addiction has become
the problem for all. It is an international issue, and must be taken
into full consideration by all families in society. We must seek a way
to help all families defend themselves against the threat of drug
abuse.

Recently, Vietnam has become a market for drug consumption as well as
drug transit. I once had a meeting with a former minister of the
interior of Laos. He said the quantity of drugs in Laos after local
consumption amounts to 50 tons. When I asked him about what happens to
the excessive drug quantity, he smiled and said it is transported to
Vietnam. Recently, a Canadian police officer who is a friend of mine
visited HCMC. After one hour touring the city, he met me to complain
about the sale and use of drugs on Pham Ngu Lao Street. Therefore, if
proper measures are not taken immediately, then drug cases, bigger
than the Vu Xuan Truong drug-ring currently on trial, will appear.

I think that behind well-organized drug-rings like this one there are
usually counter forces. We have only discovered one ring, and we must
continue to uncover the forces, possibly with political intentions,
behind this drug-ring. I do not think it is simply an organization of
drug traders and traffickers.

The drug case has attracted the attention of all people, and it is
heart-rending to see that so many police officers who are assigned by
the State to fight crime are involved in the drug trade. What are your
opinions about this situation?

The operation rules of drug rings are that they always want to
"employ" agents in administration positions, especially police
agencies as the police is the first force that prevents the drug
rings. Therefore, if policemen who are assigned the task of fighting
the drug trade are not well selected, they will be easily "bought".
Examples show that drug rings have even set up armed forces to
counter-attack the police.

The situation in Vietnam is not that bad, so the easiest way for drug
criminals is to convince policemen to work for them. Countries all
over the world have faced this situation. In Vietnam, it has now
happened for the first time, and the public feel lost and lose
confidence. As for the drug oppression forces, the line between
criminals and the policeman can be flimsy, as the police officer must
penetrate into the ring. This fragile line requires that the police
officer must be fully devoted to his duty. Otherwise, he will be
bought, and may turn into a criminal.

Does the drug case mentioned above indicate something about lifestyles
given the fact that police officers and border guards have become
criminals?

- It is certain that these criminals have become depraved in their
lifestyles. It is clearly seen that the wages of a senior lieutenant
like Vu Xuan Truong cannot support his lavish spendings, but due to
loose management, we have let him continue to get deeper involved in
crime. The case also reflects a practical situation: if we are not
able to "feed" the policemen, other forces will "feed" and "use" them.
Therefore, in the market-oriented economy, apart from education toward
and tight management over officials, we must also ensure proper
economic conditions. Otherwise, they may fall to the temptation of
other material sources.

The court case has inspired in a certain group of people prejudice
against the police forces in general. What do you think about this
feeling?

- I no longer work in the police sector, but I feel very sad as a lot
of police officers have become depraved, which could lead to the said
prejudice against the entire security sector. However, in this case,
the security forces have scored a big achievement in discovering the
drug ring. The case is painful, as nothing is more striking than when
we have to beat ourselves. But that is the best way to consolidate the
security forces.

Is it time for the Communist Party and the State to start a campaign
to improve the ethical quality of officials? - That is the
responsibility assumed by leaders. The case must be considered a
lesson for future staffing policies and personnel management. Under
the market-oriented economy, there are rules, both positive and
negative. We have to base the management over personnel and staffing
policies on practical conditions, if we are to maintain a clean force
of officials.
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