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April 12, 2001 Oil
Expropriated From Mafia Used for Chrism Mass
U.S. praises Cambodia for role in refugee row with Vietnam WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Thursday praised the Cambodian government for its role in a refugee dispute involving members of Vietnam's Montagnard minority that has angered Hanoi. "The US government commends the decision of the Royal Government of Cambodia on its decision to grant the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees access to 24 Vietnamese Montagnards who recently arrived in Phnom Penh," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said. "We further welcome the decision by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to allow processing for third country resettlement those persons determined by the UN to be refugees," Reeker said in a statement. The Montagnards, who fled Vietnam's central highlands after a fierce army crackdown, were granted refugee status by UNHCR earlier this week and are expected to be resettled in the United States, according to officials in Cambodia. Reeker's statement made no mention of the UN decision nor US acceptance of the group but is still sure to further anger Hanoi which has already lashed out at Washington in the matter for interference in its internal affairs. Vietnam maintains the 24 are part of a foreign-led conspiracy to create a breakaway state for the highlands' mainly Christian minorities and has demanded they be returned. The Vietnamese stance has placed Cambodia in a difficult position, torn between fully complying with the 1951 UN convention on refugees and angering Hanoi, its ally. Last week, Hun Sen, in an apparent about-face, said that he would agree to the 24 Montagnards being resettled in the US, rejecting Hanoi's protests. A senior State Department official said Reeker's statement was intended as a show of support for Hun Sen and his government who the official said had come under intense pressure from the Vietnamese. "We want the Vietnamese to back off and leave the Cambodians
alone," the official said.
Vietnam number one loses battle as congress meets behind closed doors by Steve Kirby HANOI (AFP) - Vietnam's top leader, party supremo Le Kha Phieu, looked to have lost his battle to remain in power Thursday as delegates gathered behind closed doors ahead of a five-yearly congress. The congress, which opens formally next Thursday, is finally set to oust the 69-year-old Phieu after a months-old battle to unseat him for a performance widely criticised as lacklustre, a top official told AFP. His fate was sealed by a four-day closed-door meeting of the party's 170-member central committee, which closed on Tuesday, the official said. Phieu's fortunes have waxed and waned with such rapidity during the protracted leadership battle of recent months that a last-ditch fightback can never be excluded. One of the accusations made against him by his opponents is that he has abused the intelligence services for partisan purposes. But the official said that a consensus had now been reached that Phieu should make way for President Tran Duc Luong. The head of state has always been regarded as the least influential of Vietnam's three top leaders and his nomination is likely to be seen as a weak compromise between the party's rival factions. As widely predicted, Luong's position is set to be taken by parliament speaker Nong Duc Manh. A member of the Tay ethnic minority from the northern mountains, Manh is the senior representative within the regime from Vietnam's 54 minorities. His promotion to the presidency is likely to be seen as move to create a high-profile figurehead for the regime's minorities policy in the face of a months-old wave of ethnic unrest in the central highlands which prompted an army crackdown in early February. The protests among the mainly Christian highlanders constitute Vietnam's worst unrest in years and are seen by many within the party as a direct assault on national unity as well as party control. The leading reformer within the regime, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, is expected to remain in post to give continuity to the leadership. Colleagues finally persuaded the 67-year-old premier to stay on in public life after tendering his resignation twice in as many years, the official said. His remaining in post is likely to be seen as reassurance to foreign investors that the communist authorities are determined to press ahead with their 15-year-old market reforms. The consensus finally thrashed out by the central committee after months of heated factional debate will be rubberstamped by the party congress when it opens next week. The foreign ministry Thursday still insisted on the public fiction that its the congress itself which actually decides. "The question of the personnel of the party (leadership) will be decided at the party congress. We reject as baseless all rumours (to the contrary)," ministry spokeswoman Phan Thy Thanh said. There is enormous sensitivity here to foreign speculation over the outcome of the bitterly contested leadership changes -- Vietnamese culture dictates that leaders be dropped quietly and not be publicly humilated. Open factional wrangling is also severely frowned upon by a party that has always made public unity its supreme value. "For the ninth party congress, it is essential that party members ...
strictly maintain order and discipline and come down hard on those who do not
strictly observe discipline of expression and the defence of party
secrets," said an editorial in the party's mouthpiece daily Nhan Dan (the
People) last month.
Vietnam number one likely to be little mourned in Washington by Steve Kirby HANOI (AFP) - The ouster of communist party chief Le Kha Phieu from Vietnam's top post is likely to raise few tears in Washington -- the conservative army man was always the leading champion within the leadership for anti-US hardliners here. When then president Bill Clinton made a landmark visit here in November -- the first by a US head of state -- Phieu marred the atmosphere of reconcilation and rapprochement between the former foes which had been carefully nurtured by US officials. In an uncomfortable meeting with Clinton, the party chief declined to put the Vietnam War behind him, instead launching a vigorous defence of the conflict as a "great socialist victory." The tirade was seen by analysts as a calculated appeal to his own constituency by a man who was already facing a concerted assault on his leadership from the highest levels within the party. The previous month, the party's three powerful advisors -- elder statesmen Do Muoi, Le Duc Anh and Vo Van Kiet -- had already circulated a letter within the party accusing Phieu of demonstrating "a lack of ability in party and state management." October had already seen the first rumblings of protest among the ethnic minorities of the central highlands, which boiled over into violent demonstrations in the region's main towns in early February forcing the authorities to call in the army. Vietnam's worst unrest since the end of the war in 1975 threw into stark relief the failings of Phieu's three years in office. The former armed forces commissar had been appointed to the country's top job in December 1997 precisely to provide a steadying hand after a similar wave of unrest swept the countryside in the midst of the Asian financial crisis. The party blames the persistent rural disturbances on rampant corruption and abuses among its cadres, which have severely dented the party's prestige, particularly among its traditional bedrock support, the peasantry. Phieu is accused of paying no more than lip service to the problem with a string of much vaunted party building campaigns which are widely perceived as having targeted minor officials while leaving the big fish untouched. Worse he is himself accused of cronyism in the appointment of supporters from his native province of Thanh Hoa to top positions within the government. The party number one has by no means taken the campaign against him lying down -- Phieu's reformist opponents accuse him of abusing a much enlarged military intelligence service to level a string of false allegations against their proteges. The lifelong military commissar has always had a reputation as a hard man -- as long ago as 1984 he was given the difficult task of raising Vietnamese "volunteers" for the government's unpopular decade-long occupation of neighbouring Cambodia. But as the leadership battle dragged on, forcing the postponement of the party congress, Phieu was forced to sacrifice some of his closest allies in the armed forces. At its penultimate preparatory meeting last month, the party's 170-strong central committee delivered an unprecedented pair of public reprimands against the country's defense chiefs. Defense Minister Pham Van Tra and chief of staff Le Van Dung were disciplined for their "management failings," a central committee spokesman said without elaborating. The wounding of his close allies left the party chief fatally exposed, and at the party's final preparatory meeting Tuesday, the central committee finally sealed his fate. By coincidence or otherwise, Thursday's edition of the party's mouthpiece
daily Nhan Dan (The People) announced that a collection of Phieu's political
thought has just been published in English and Spanish -- a fitting valedictory
for a lifelong party ideologue.
Vietnam offers 5,000 tons of rice in aid to North Korea SEOUL (AFP) - Vietnam donated 5,000 tons of rice and other humanitarian aid to famine-stricken North Korea Thursday, the North's official media said monitored here. The donation ceremony was held at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang with Vietnamese vice minister of culture and information Vo Hong Quang attending, the Korean Central News Agency said. Vo Hong Quang was leading a cultural delegation to attend the North's festival to mark founder Kim Il-Sung's birthday on April 15. Kim died in 1994, and his son Kim Jong-Il has since ruled the North. The communist North has suffered from chronic food shortages due to a series
of natural disasters and failures in centralized economic policies, heavily
relying on outside aid to feed its people.
U.S. & Vietnamese soldiers unite in shared grief over helicopter dead HANOI (AFP) - US and Vietnamese servicemen sat side by side as the former foes joined forces Thursday to pay their last respects to 16 comrades who lost their lives in the search for American soldiers still missing from the Vietnam War. The smell of incense wafted across the hall as the congregation sang "Amazing Grace" in an ecumenical memorial service for the seven Americans and nine Vietnamese killed in Saturday's helicopter crash. "These men were our colleagues, they were our friends. We feel their loss deeply and honour their sacrifice," said US ambassador Pete Peterson. The headquarters commander of America's MIA mission, Brigadier General Harry Axson, who had flown in from Hawaii for the service, paid tribute to "our Vietnamese and American fallen comrades and friends." The men who died in were "highly dedicated soldiers, sailors and airmen dedicated to this very difficult and sometimes highly dangerous mission," he said. "These men have laid down their lives for their fellow servicemen and the families of those missing," Axson said before paying individual tribute to each of the dead. The loss of the 65-year-old deputy director of the Vietnam Office for Seeking Missing Personnel was "immeasurable," he said. Senior Colonel Tran Van Binh had worked in the MIA mission virtually since its beginning in 1985 even though he had himself fought in and lost four brothers during the Vietnam War. "When asked ... by a journalist why he now searched for those he once fought, he said: I help because it is the right thing to do," Axson said. The Vietnamese dead had also included another deputy director of the Vietnamese liaison office Nguyen Than Ha, 43, while the Americans had included both the commander of the MIA office, Lieutnenat Colonel Rennie Melville Cory, 43, and his appointed successor, Lieutenant Colonel George Martin, 40. At the time of the crash, Martin had been on field visit from his native New York in preparation for taking up his new command. The other American dead were Major Charles Lewis, 36, Master Sergeant Steven Moser, 38, Technical Sergeant Robert Flynn, 35, Chief Hospital Medical Corpsman Juan Pedro Gonzalez, 36, and Sergeant First Class Tommy Murphy, 38. The other Vietnamese dead were Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Ha, 45, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thanh Son, 43, Major Nguyen Huu Nham, 41, Major Vu Pham The Kien, 36, Lieutenant Giap Thanh Ngan, 39, Lieutenant Pham Duy Dung, 29 and Lieutenant Dang Ngoc, 31. All of the men had earned the "gratitude and respect of the families of a grateful nation," Axson said. Peterson read out the text of an exchange of letters between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien. "The joint effort between Vietnam and the United States in the search for our missing personnel is an example of the earnest cooperation which our two countries can achieve when we work together," Powell said. "I hope that we can honour the sacrifices of these individuals by
rededicating ourselves to ensuring better understanding between our
countries."
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