VIETNAM: Writer faces increasing official harassment, fears imprisonment

December 23, 2004
www.cpj.org

New York - The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned byVietnamese authorities' intensifying harassment of writer Do Nam Hai. Thewriter, who penned articles critical of the Vietnamese government under the namePhuong Nam, fears that authorities are planning to arrest him, sources close tothe journalist told CPJ.

"Vietnam's record of imprisoning dissenters and writers who question governmentpolicy, as Do Nam Hai has, is appalling," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "We call on authorities to stop harassing Hai, and to respect his rightto express his opinions freely."

In the last five months, authorities have repeatedly detained Hai for interrogation. On August 6, police held him for two days, and on December 3, he was held for 24 hours. A man whom the writer identified as a plainclothes police officer recently confiscated Hai's computer and said he would remove documents from it.

While living in Australia in 2000 and 2001, Hai, who now works at a bank in Ho Chi Minh City, posted on the Internet a series of long articles on Vietnamese history and politics. The five articles, which included "Vietnam, My Land" and "Writing about President Ho Chi Minh," expressed his thoughts on aspects of
Vietnamese history, called for democracy and a multiparty system, and proposed ideas for peaceful political reform.

On December 10, Hai wrote an open letter to the Vietnamese government disclosing his full name and address, reiterating thoughts expressed in his articles, and detailing the harassment he has faced from authorities during recent months.

"You labeled my articles ... as counter-revolutionary, against the Party and the government," he wrote. "But I have a different opinion; I believe they are materials for democracy."

Four Vietnamese writers-Nguyen Khac Toan, Nguyen Vu Binh, Pham Hong Son, and Nguyen Dan Que-are currently imprisoned for writing or distributung articles criticizing the government.

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Vietnam opposes US religious freedom decision

Dec 23, 2004
news.xinhuanet.com

HANOI, Dec. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Vietnam strongly opposes a recent decision by the United States to enlist it as one of "the countries of particular concern" on religious freedom, asking the US side to have proper decisions.
"We request the US side to take right decisions inconformity with the principles of relations between the two countries on the basis of mutual understanding and respect so as not to undermine the broad interests of the two countries," Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesman, Le Dung, said in a press briefing here on Thursday.
Many representatives of religious organizations in Vietnam haveprotested the decision of the State Department of the United States about the enlistment in its annual report on religious freedom, requesting it to remove the country out of the list, he said.
Vietnam always guarantees the rights to freedom of beliefs and religions and rights to freedom of non-beliefs and non-religions, which is specified in legal documents, especially the state ordinance on belief and religion, he noted.
The US State Department released in mid-September 2004 its sixth Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, which examines the "status of religious freedom around the world." The report cites Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam as new "countries of particular concern."
The report is mandated under a 1998 law approved by the US Congress which requires that within 90 days, a period that can be extended to 180 days, consideration must be given about some sort of consequence.

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Vietnam to deepen ties with key partners in 2005

Dec 23, 2004
news.xinhuanet.com

HANOI, Dec. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Vietnam attaches great importance to beefing up relations with its major partners, and proactively integrating into the international economy next year, Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
"One of our focal tasks in 2005 is to continue reinforcing andperfecting the framework of stable and long-term cooperation relations with our major partners in the world.. The agenda of high-ranking visits by our leaders to foreign countries is underway. Certainly, we take Vietnam's important partners into
consideration," spokesman Le Dung said in a press briefing here. Vietnam will next year keep on accelerating the international economic integration, especially the progress of establishing multilateral and bilateral free trade areas, he said, noting that the country is striving to join the World
Trade Organization (WTO)as soon as possible. The 9th round of meetings of the WTO Working Party on Vietnam accession took place in Switzerland in mid-December 2004. Along side the 9th meeting, Vietnam held bilateral negotiations with some partners, including Mexico, Colombia, Paraguay, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Canada, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.
Previously, Vietnam had concluded bilateral negotiations with six partners, namely, the European Union, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil,Chile and Singapore. Vietnam hopes that her future negotiations with other countries,including its major trading partners such as the United States, China and Japan will take
place favorably, paving the way for it to soon join the WTO, expected in December 2005.

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VIETNAM'S ACCESSION PROGRESSES; CIVIL SOCIETY CONCERNS RAISED

Dec 23, 2004
www.ictsd.org

After finishing the ninth round of its WTO membership talks at the 15 December meeting of the Working Party on its accession, Vietnam is looking to complete the negotiations in time for the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December 2005. Entry talks have been underway for ten years. The 63 Members that are negotiating a membership package with the Southeast Asian country used the meeting to review the first draft of the report that they will submit to the General Council for approval by consensus at the end of the accession process. Vietnam announced that it had signed six of the bilateral
market access deals (with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, the EU, and Singapore) that play a crucial though controversial role in ensuring that Members agree to an applicant's accession, and was close to concluding another seven. Other members of the Working Party on the Accession of Vietnam include the US, Canada, Japan, India, Switzerland, and Australia.
Members applaud Vietnam's efforts; say more needs to be done Vietnam reported on how it was bringing its trade regime into line with WTO law, and said that it would speed up the passage of pending WTO-related legislation in 2005. Members praised it for its "hard work," paying particular attention to the bilateral market access negotiations. Members unanimously reiterated that they would like to see Vietnam join the WTO as soon as possible.
Members did have some criticisms of Vietnamese policy. Several pointed to discrimination between domestic and foreign investors in the country's investment regime -- even though, as pointed out by some observers, investment is not a subject of WTO negotiations -- and asked for a list of sectors in which
investment was prohibited. Others contended that Vietnamese law discriminated between domestic and foreign enterprises with regard to trading rights, saying that it was in violation of WTO provisions on national treatment and quantitative restrictions.
Civil society: Bilateral market access talks unfair, dangerous Civil society organisations have criticised the way Vietnam's accession talks have proceeded thus far, arguing that it is being forced to accept commitments that go above and beyond the requirements of WTO rules, and thus runs the risk of liberalising its economy faster than may be desirable from a developmental standpoint. Oxfam researchers Duncan Green and Le Kim Dung have described the bilateral market access negotiations as "a form of political tag wrestling in which the world's mightiest economies take it in turns to climb into the ring and squeeze yet more concessions, with scant regard to an applicant's development needs." They point out that Vietnam has been compelled to accept a far higher level of liberalisation in farm products than any of its neighbouring WTO Member countries. Green and Le warn that as part of its accession process, Members might try to make Vietnam multilateralise several provisions of its "heavily 'WTO-plus'" bilateral free trade agreement with the US, including those on market access and intellectual property rights.
Indeed, in the accession talks, some Members have seemed less than willing to accord Vietnam the special and differential treatment ordinarily due to developing countries on some aspects of its potential future WTO commitments.
Though one developing country Member of the Working Party argued that Vietnam should be entitled to special and differential treatment on subsidies, several other Members wanted it to implement the Subsidies Agreement upon accession.
Vietnam has already dropped its request for a gradual implementation of the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures, and has agreed to comply with it from the date of its accession.
The date for the next meeting of the Working Party has not been set, but is likely to be in the first half of 2005.
Background An applicant for WTO Membership must first describe all of its WTO-related trade and economic policies to the Working Party set up for its accession. Members of the Working Party -- which will subsequently vote on the applicant's accession in the General Council -- may then ask it to engage in bilateral negotiations on market access. Commitments made in these bilateral talks must be extended multilaterally to all WTO Members as part of the applicant's 'accession package.' The tiny Pacific island of Vanuatu completed accession talks in 1999 but turned down the WTO's offer of Membership, judging the high cost of its terms of accession -- including full and immediate compliance with WTO disciplines on intellectual property rights -- to exceed any likely benefits.

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Over 1,700 Vietnamese policemen use illegitimate degrees, certificates

23 December 2004
Xinhua News Agency

HANOI, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has recently found that 1, 704 staff of the Ministry of Public Security are using fake degrees and certificates, local newspaper Pioneer reported Thursday. The people use the papers mainly to enjoy promotion and higher salaries, the paper quoted Deputy Minister of Public Security Le The Tiem as saying. Among the people, the ministry has sacked and offered early retirement to 97, suspended eight from their duty, and given warnings to 390, he said.