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VN News (May 28, 1997)
May 28: Four more people arrested in Vietnam corruption case: report
May 28: U.N. urges Vietnam to step up family services to curb population
May 28: Hanoi Issues Regulations For Postings on Internet
May 28: Vietnam's boatpeople drama draws to slow close
May 28: Tentacles of mafia boss spread far
May 28: Seven Vietnamese held by Philippine coast guard
May 28: Problems remain for Hong Kong in Vietnamese boat people saga
May 28: Last boatpeople charter flights arrive in Vietnam
May 28: Vietnam congratulates Kabila regime in former Zaire
May 28: 245 Vietnamese boat people make last voluntary return
Wednesday - May 28, 1997
Four more people arrested in Vietnam corruption case: report
Hanoi (AFP) - Four people have been arrested in Ho Chi
Minh City in a widening investigation into what appears to be
Vietnam's biggest case of fraud, a newspaper reported Wednesday.<p>
Four directors at affiliate firms of Minh Phung Garment Co and
Export-Import and Tourist District 3 Company (EPCO) were arrested
May 27, the Saigon Giaphong newspaper reported.<P>The four had been charged
with fraud and appropriating socialist
property following their arrests as part of an investigation of
corruption and fraud involving state owned banks, it said.<P>So far 22
people have been arrested in connection with Minh
Phung, including general director Tang Minh Phung and his wife, and
EPCO general director Lien Khui Thin.<P>They accused of being involved in a
complex scheme of bank
frauds involving as much as 370 million dollars.<P>Police from the Ho Chi
Minh City investigation bureau refused to
confirm the report but said that the newspaper should be considered
the official mouthpiece of the city's People's Committee.<P>Investigators
also reportedly searched the offices and homes of
the directors for evidence and made a list of the inventory of
their possessions.<P>The four have been accused of signing false contracts and
invoices which were used by satellite companies of the Minh Phung
group to obtain credit from banks.<P>The four were reportedly responsible
for enabling Minh Phung to
"appropriate" 55 billion dong (5 million dollars) from the Ho Chi
Minh City Branch of Vietcombank.<P>Ming Phung's troubles surfaced in March
after an affiliate
company, EPCO, defaulted on an 18 million dollar debt to the Bank
for Foreign Trade and Investment, or Vietcombank, Vietnam's largest
state owned bank.<P>The investigation has focused on trying to assess a
labyrinthine
company structure in which Minh Phung allegedly used more than 22
subsidiaries and associate companies to deceive bankers of its true
financial structure.<P>After his arrest, Phung said his company owed state-owned
Incombank nearly 370 million dollars, hundreds of times the amount
of Minh Phung's authorised capital.<P>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.<P>EPCO, which has trade offices in Sydney and San Francisco, is a
big importer of fertilizer and exporter of coffee with turnover
exceeding 150 million dollars last year.<P>Officials at both EPCO and Minh
Phung have refused to talk to
the press.
Wednesday - May 28, 1997
U.N. urges Vietnam to step up family services to curb population
Hanoi (dpa) - Vietnam has to substantiallly improve family planning
services in order to curb rapid population growth that could undermine
its development efforts, according to the United Nations. <P>Unlike most
other coutries Vietnam's population growth has been
constant for the last four decades, fueling a tremendous increase of
inhabitants, which is poised to shoot well over the 100 million mark in
the early part of the next century.<p>
The current Vietnamese population is 77 million but UN officials say
there is a ``huge unmet need'' for family planning services which could
held tame the country's dangerous growth rate. <P>Research has shown that
30 per cent of pregnancies are not wanted at
the time of conception and that roughly 40 per cent of all pregnancies
are medically terminated, giving Vietnam one of the highest abortion
rates in the world, according to the U.N. <P>``So you can see what a huge
unmet need there is and if you can just
reach this.... you can reduce the population growth,'' said Erik
Palstra, the U.N. Population Fund representative in Vietnam. ``That is
our main message to the government.'' <P>He spoke at a local press
conference marking the international release
of the World Population Report. <P>With an extensive health care system in
place, and high female
literarcy - as well as a strong desire among Vietnamese women to have
smaller families - the country should be able to bring down its high
fertility rate of about 3 children per woman, he said. <P>But at the same
time Vietnam is just emerging from a heavily
socialist-oriented health care system that is in a state of crisis as it
adjusts to market economy conditions. <P>The Hanoi government has set the
year 2005 as the target date for
achieving replacement level fertility (two children per couple), a goal
Palstra said is ambitious but doable. <P>With the momentum of young people
continuing to mature to marriageable
ages Vietnam's population would only stabilise at about 116 million by
2040 even if this target is reached, projections show. <P>``If they don't
achieve this replacement fertility level within the
decade the populaiton will continue to grow to 130 or 135 million, so it
does make a difference,'' said Palstra. <P>Few, if any countries have seen
the same tremendous population
explosion as has Vietnam which only had 12 millon people at the turn f
the century. <P>Today there are six times that amount and the population
has doubled
since 1972.
Wednesday - May 28, 1997
Hanoi Issues Regulations For Postings on Internet
<
HANOI (DJ) -- The information age may be dawning for some people in
Vietnam. But only after they fill out all the paperwork.</p>
<p>There's a lot of it. According to new regulations issued by the Ministry
of Culture and Information, local Internet users -- Vietnamese and
foreigners -- posting information on a Web site must first submit an
application form, photocopies of a business license and documents showing
the "purpose, project, price and details of the information plan" for the
site. Diplomats, nongovernmental organizations, other foreign organizations
and foreign journalists will have to get an additional permit from the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</p>
<p>If a license is issued, the prospective information provider then has to
submit it to Vietnam Post and Telecommunications, or VNPT. Access to the
Internet requires a license from VNPT in the first place; downloading
information from Web sites is governed by an earlier set of equally onerous
rules.</p>
<p>Of course, all this is somewhat esoteric at the moment, since only a few
people in Vietnam have access to the Internet. But industry officials
expect the government to open the door to cyberspace a crack this year. (At
the moment, only a limited form of electronic mail is available in
Vietnam.)</p>
<p>Vietnamese and foreign businesses have been gearing up for access to Web
sites for more than a year now, and many already have Web pages designed
and ready to run. But some may not even get out of the starting blocks. The
computer networks of "legislative, executive, justice, research, training
and administrative organizations" are "not allowed" to connect with the
Internet, according to article one of the new regulations.</p>
<p>And providing information that is "inconsistent with the license" could
lead to the removal of the license, a fine or a jail term, though the exact
penalties aren't yet clear.</p>
<p>That clause has some potential Web site operators worried. Site
information often needs to be updated regularly, and the question of
whether that information is inconsistent with the terms of the license
could be wide open to interpretation, says Royce Matlock, sales manager for
Digital Equipment Corp. in Hanoi.
"There's not a great deal of understanding among officials about how
Internet services are provided," he says, although he's quick to add that
he is "very pleased that these issues are being addressed in the first
place."</p>
<p>Indeed, these red-tape-rich regulations do mark a small step toward a
more liberal flow of information. Just two years ago, the government was
opposed to allowing Internet access altogether. And a clause at the end of
the new regulations says they can be "updated" as conditions change. Of
course, that could always mean more restrictions.</p>
Wednesday - May 28, 1997
Vietnam's boatpeople drama draws to slow close
By Adrian Edwards <P>
Hanoi (Reuter) - Ninety-three Vietnamese boatpeople arrived in Hanoi on
Wednesday aboard the last U.N. chartered repatriation flight from Hong Kong,
in what officials said marked the virtual end to a two-decade-old refugee saga.
<p>
There was no fanfare. Instead, the weary group was transferred to a faceless
arrival room at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport where paperwork was processed as
they awaited transfer to a transit camp.
<p>
``I left Vietnam in 1979. Now everything has changed a lot,'' said a tearful
44-year-old Vietnamese-Chinese man, who gave his name as Tho. ``In the camp
we used to fight crazily, we just wanted to break out... Anyway, that ended
and now we are here.''
<p>
The 93 were the last to be returned to Vietnam aboard a United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) chartered voluntary repatriation flight
from Hong Kong.
<p>
Officials said those boatpeople remaining in the British colony will either
be deported over the next month or repatriated by the UNHCR individually on
commercial flights.
<p>
But the fate of two groups -- several hundred whom Hanoi has refused to
recognise as Vietnamese nationals, and more than a thousand others who have
been granted refugee status but have yet to be offered resettlement in third
countries -- is less certain.
<p>
A meeting of resettlement nations in Geneva earlier this week made headway
towards finding possible homes for some of the latter group.
<p>
But the rest now look set to remain in Hong Kong after its return to Chinese
rule in a month's time.
<p>
Nonetheless, a UNHCR official who accompanied Wednesday's flight spoke of
achievement in having brought a two-decade-old refugee drama to a virtual close.
<p>
``We should not forget the situation we were faced with six or seven years
ago, with asylum crumbling in the region, people dying at sea and being
raped, and with a seemingly impossible situation to solve,'' said Jean-Noel
Wetterwald, the agency's Hong Kong representative.
<p>
``So today is a milestone, because it is our last chartered flight... So
yes, we have reasons to be satisfied that this saga is being closed.''
<p>
Vietnam's boatpeople drama began during the 1970s in the aftermath of the
Vietnam war as thousands sought to flee the country following the communist
victory over U.S.-backed South Vietnam.
<p>
In a scathing commentary on Tuesday, Vietnam's official Quan Doi Nhan Dan
(People's Army) newspaper accused Western countries of hypocrisy by having
originally encouraged the exodus on human rights grounds but being unwilling
today to offer homes to those still left in Hong Kong.
<p>
Wetterwald declined to comment directly on the report, but conceded there
had been a ``pull factor'' during the early years of the crisis when
Vietnam's boatpeople were automatically recognised by the international
community as refugees.
<p>
That ended in 1989 when compassion for East Asia's most dramatic refugee
saga ran out, and screening measures were introduced, resulting in the
voluntary and forced repatriation to Vietnam since then of more than 110,000
people.
Wednesday - May 28, 1997
Tentacles of mafia boss spread far
By Greg Torode <P>
Hanoi (SCMP) -- If Vu Xuan Truong has been exposed as the nation's drug
king, then Duong Van Khanh is being painted as its supreme mafia boss.<P>
"White Khanh", as he is known, allegedly worked his way from market porter
to rule the biggest gangland network to emerge on the underbelly of
Vietnam's reforms.<P>
Acid scarred, tall and elegantly dressed, he sought acceptance in classic
mafia style through donations to charities while turning his small market
trade union for porters into a "black society".<P>
Khanh and 27 underlings will next month face a host of charges including
murder, rape and robbery as Vietnam's anti-crime and corruption drive
continues apace.<P>
Allegations surfaced yesterday that Khanh had built up links with gangs from
the Chinese border town of Lang Son, from Ho Chi Minh City and from resort
cities on the central coast.<P>
Never before has such a network emerged in modern Vietnam, where the police
maintain an extensive grassroots force that allows little room for
mafia-style operations to take hold.<P>
Khanh's men provided "protection" for bars and restaurants owned by Ho Chi
Minh City gangsters, who returned favours by guarding him in hospital
following an acid attack by a rival, the Thanh Nien paper reported.<P>
One of 18 children from a broken home, Khanh controlled up to 500 people by
January last year through his Dong Xuan market union.<P>
The group threatened the family of a 16-year-old girl raped by one gangster
and used police connections to smother charges relating to the fatal
stabbing of a rival.<P>
Khanh's domination of the city's markets came unstuck in May last year amid
widespread outrage at his increasingly brazen debt-collection methods.<P>
On one occasion, he sent five trucks filled with dozens of men, many armed,
to a Hanoi restaurant to claim outstanding "debts".<P>
The Nhan Dan thundered on its front page: "How do they dare do this in the
heart of Hanoi at midday . . . without interference?"<P>
Wednesday - May 28, 1997
Seven Vietnamese held by Philippine coast guard
SUBIC BAY, Philippines (AFP) - Seven Vietnamese fishermen, caught
near a shoal disputed by the Philippines and China, have been detained at this
northern Philippine port, the coastguard said Wednesday. <P>
Petty officer Jimmy Castro said the seven Vietnamese, who were aboard a
small fishing boat were intercepted by the Philippine Navy on April 29 off
Scarborough Shoal, the center of a dispute between Manila and Beijing.<P>
The arrest of the Vietnamese was annnounced only Wednesday, a day after it
was announced that 21 Chinese fishermen were arrested and detained here, also
after being caught near Scarborough shoal.<P>
There were dolphins and sharks aboard the Vietnamese' 15-meter (49.5-foot)
long boat when it was captured, Castro said.<P>
The boat's captain was identified as La Ban Nhuoc, he added.<P>
However, another coastguard official, who asked not to be named, said the
seven fishermen had a good chance of being released by the Committee on
Illegal Entrants which hears such cases.<P>
The official said it was Chinese fishermen that the Philippines had to be
wary of, without elaborating.<P>
The fishermen were taken by police and coast guard for a medical check-up
at the local hospital Wednesday, Castro said.<P>
News of the arrests came as the Philippines and China pursued talks in
Beijing on their rival territorial claims to the Scarborough shoal and other
formations in the South China Sea.<P>
The navy picked up the Chinese fishermen for poaching last week after their
boat strayed within seven nautical miles of Scarborough shoal which is about
120 nautical miles southwest of the northern province of Zambales.
Wednesday - May 28, 1997
Problems remain for Hong Kong in Vietnamese boat people saga
By Frederik Balfour <P>
HANOI (AFP) - The last two chartered flights of Vietnamese boat
people returned home voluntarily from Hong Kong refugee camps Wednesday, but
United Nations officials say the saga is not over yet. <P>
Although the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) voluntary
repatriation programme has sponsored the return of 57,594 Vietnamese,
including 253 who arrived in Vietnam on Wednesday, some 1,800 boat people may
be stranded in Hong Kong when it reverts to Chinese rule on July 1. <P>
Beijing has made it clear that it considers the boat people in Hong Kong as
Britain's problem and has indicated that all of the camps in which they are
held must be emptied before the handover. <P>
"We clearly have to look for other solutions since returning is not
possible," said Jean-Noel Wetterwald, Hong Kong UNHCR representative. <P>
Among those still in Hong Kong are between 400 and 450 boat people deemed
non-refugees or economic migrants whom Hanoi will not accept for repatriation
because they cannot prove they are Vietnamese nationals. <P>
Another headache for UNCHR officials in Hong Kong are the 1,384 boat people
granted refugee status but whom have not been resettled in third countries. <P>
Wetterwald said resettlement prospects for the bulk of this group looked
dim, most of whom have been rejected by third countries because they have
criminal records or drug problems. <P>
"Most of these people are long stayers with no links. Some have committed
petty criminal offences and some more serious ones," he said. <P>
He also said third countries were concerned with more pressing refugee
problems in Africa and Eastern Europe. <P>
"There is a fatigue element regarding the boat people question," he said.
<P>
Apart from the Vietnamese boat people whose situation has been managed in
Hong Kong by the UNHCR, there are another estimated 1,000 Vietnamese who
arrived in the territory over the past year looking for work. <P>
They are deemed illegal economic migrats and are being held in the same
camps as the boat people but their fate rests on a decision by authorities in
Hong Kong and Hanoi. <P>
Following an 11th hour appeal by the UNHCR in Geneva, Britain, Sweden, and
the United States agreed on Tuesday to accept 41 Vietnamese refugees. France
has also indicated it will also accept an unspecified number of refugees. <P>
While the fate of those remaining in Hong Kong after July 1 is uncertain,
Wetterwald holds some hope that China will show flexibility. <P>
"UNHCR has absolulely no indication that the new authorities in Hong Kong
or China are going to take any drastic measures," he said. <P>
He added that although the 253 people who voluntarily repatriated today
aboard UNHCR chartered flights were "technically" the last, there are about
150 volunteers still in Hong Kong, mainly pregnant women, who have not yet
returned for medical reasons. <P>
Another 181 diehard boat people, who are refusing voluntarily repatriation,
will be forcibly sent home before July 1, although Vietnam has not guaranteed
it will accept anyone after its own May 31 deadline. <P>
"The people left behind ... are the responsibility of Hong Kong and
Britain," a Vietnamese immigration official said at Hanoi's Noi Bai
international airport on Wednesday, indicating that only 19 people deemed
medically unfit to travel could arrive after the deadline. <P>
In a stinging editorial which appeared in the official army daily newspaper
Quan Doi Nhan Dan on Tuesday, Vietnam accused the international community of
turning its back on the refugee problem. <P>
"The US and western countries just intended to use it for political reasons
and not for the welfare of people and human rights," the daily said.
Wednesday - May 28, 1997
Last boatpeople charter flights arrive in Vietnam
HANOI (AFP) - Two charter flights carrying 240 Vietnamese
boatpeople arrived in Vietnam from Hong Kong on Wednesday, bringing to a close
an eight-year program of voluntary repatriation. <P>
A chartered Vietnam Airlines jet carrying 93 returning Vietnamese touched
down at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi accompanied by Jean-Noel
Wetterwald, Hong Kong representative of the United Nations High Commission for
Refugees (UNCHR). <P>
A second flight carrying 147 boatpeople arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on
Wednesday while another 13 aboard a commercial flight were due to arrive later
in the day, said Catherine Bertrand of the UNHCR in Hanoi. <P>
The three flights bring to 57,594 the total number of boatpeople to return
under a UNHCR Voluntary repatriation (Volrep) program begun in March 1989. <P>
"Today is a milestone because it is our (symbolic) last charter flight,"
said Jean-Noel Wetterwald, Hong Kong UNHCR representative. <P>
However Wetterwald said the boatpeople saga is not yet over. Some 300
economic migrants -- those denied refugee status -- are still in Hong Kong
camps and will be repatriated before the July 1 handover to China. <P>
About half of them could not return on the chartered flights for medical
reasons, primarily pregnacy, and will be flown to Vietnam on regular
commercial flights. <P>
About 181 people, who have been denied refugee status and failed to
volunteer to return to Vietnam, will be forcibly repatriated before the
handover. <P>
There are also roughly 450 non-refugees who have been rejected by Hanoi for
repatriation because they are not considered Vietnamese nationals. <P>
"We will have to look for solutions because having them return is not
possible," Wetterwald said. <P>
Another unresolved issue concerns the 1,384 boatpeople accepted as bona
fide refugees but rejected by third countries because they have criminal
records or drug problems. <P>
Although earlier this week Sweden, France, the United States and Britain
indicated they would accept a handful of people from this group, but
Wetterwald admitted the fate of those left behind was uncertain. <P>
Asked if China would respect their refugee status he said "the UNHCR has no
indication that the new authorities in the SAR (Special Administrative Region
as Hong Kong will be known) or China are ready to take drastic action." <P>
China has repeatedly said the boatpeople problem was Britain's problem and
indicated all Hong Kong camps must be emptied before the handover. <P>
A total of 68,051 Vietnamese boat people, including those forcibly
repatriated, have returned from Hong Kong between March 1989 and May 1997. <P>
Wednesdat - May 28, 1997
Vietnam congratulates Kabila regime in former Zaire
Hanoi (AFP) - Vietnamese President Le Duc Anh has congratulated
President Laurent Kabila on taking power in the newly proclaimed Democratic
Republic of Congo, a report here said Wednesday. <P>
The telegram message was sent after the formation of a new government in
the former Zaire, the Communist Party daily Nhan Dan said. <P>
Vietnam's Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam also sent congratulations to his
counterpart in Kinshasa, Bizima Karaha. <P>
Kabila proclaimed the new republic after overthrowing the 32-year rule of
former president Mobutu Sese Seko nearly two weeks ago.
Wednesday - May 28, 1997
245 Vietnamese boat people make last voluntary return
HONG KONG (AFP) - A group of 245 boat people who returned
Wednesday to Vietnam were the last to volunteer as a Chinese deadline to clear
Hong Kong camps looms. <p>
A UNHCR spokesperson said the group -- deemed economic migrants rather than
political refugees -- agreed to take a charter flight to Hanoi. <p>
The UNHCR has declared a May 31 deadline for those agreeing to return home
voluntarily, those remaining after that date could be forcibly repatriated. <p>
There are currently 1,465 economic migrants held in detention centres
here. <p>
A further 1,384 Vietnamese boat people have been accepted as refugees and
are hoping to resettled in a third country. Most would prefer to go to Canada
or the United States. <p>
China, which regains sovereignty in the territory on July 1, has repeatedly
said it does not want to inherit the boat people problem, which grew after
Britain declared Hong Kong to be a port of first asylum for Vietnamese
escaping the communist regime. <p>
Wednesday's flight was part of a last-minute attempt to clear the camps
which appears doomed to fail. <p>
The authorities started transferring a group of 181 Vietnamese boat people
from a detention camp to a security unit in preparation for their forced
return to Vietnam. <p>
The group from High Island detention centre will undergo pre-flight
documentatioin and medical checks prior to repatriation on Friday. <p>
Around 500 non-refugees are expected to still be in Hong Kong when the
British colony returns to China. <p>
The UNHCR has asked China to be flexible over those remaining. <p>
Some 214,648 Vietnamese refugees have passed through Hong Kong since 1975.