News-Info-Alerts

Re: Vietnam Still Bent Over US Congressional Action

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: July 23, 2003

"Vietnamese newspapers protest US aid bill
 
Ha Noi, July 17 (VNA) - Vietnamese dailies, including Nhan Dan (People) and Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army), on Thursday all carried spacious commentaries against the US Department of State's Bill for Foreign Affairs for the 2004-05 fiscal year, saying it links human rights in Viet Nam with non-humanitarian aid.

The Nhan Dan daily said the bill, passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday, is in fact a copy of the Viet Nam Human Rights Act draft, which was prepared by a group of US House of Representatives members.

"The bill, with an additional provision on Viet Nam, has shown the hostile forces' unchangeable policy for years to abuse the issues of democracy, human rights, religion and ethnic minorities to press on and create reasons to interfere into Viet Nam's affairs. It's unimagineable that in the modern and diverse world, one nation would impose its own law, and order on the other independent and sovereign nation to follow."

"The reactionary and hostile forces have clearly shown their dangerous intentions of creating arenas for discontented groups of people and dissidents to play through tempted offers. They offer more than 10 million USD for the Free Asia Radio to expand their aired programme coverage closer to Viet Nam, aid to those individuals or organisations which the US lists as "elements" to boost the US-styled democracy and human rights, and a guarantee of a "paradise" in the U.S. for those people of ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands who intentionally flee from their homeland."

"After failing to defeat Viet Nam by force in the past, those forces now hope to use peaceful means as pressures from outside to wage a "velvet revolution" based on outside play scripts. Once these dangerous ambitions are legalised into conditions, they will become "Stick and Carrot" in the US relations with Viet Nam, enabling hostile forces to openly interfere into Viet Nam's internal affairs."

"The supplementary provision with imposing conditions has run counter to the development trend of the Viet Nam-US relations. The act has not only not promoted, but also blocked Viet Nam's cooperation with the US in a number of issues of US concern such as the fights against terroris, trans-national cirmes, and drug-related crimes, and especially efforts in the issue of US servicemen missing in action (MIA)," the newspaper concluded.

Joining Nhan Dan, on Thursday the Quan doi Nhan dan (People's Army) daily published a commentary calling for a cancellation of the "unreasonable and wrongful" bill.

It claimed that the US House of Representatives' approval of supplements to the bill was a serious breach of the basic principles of the international law and the relationship between nations. "It has revived a very dangerous and unacceptable precedent in international relations, namely the attachment of economic, trading, cultural and educational relations to political conspiracies," the paper accused.

The bill, it added, would adversely affect the growing ties of cooperation between the two nations, including those in which the US has an interest, such as combating terrorism, transnational crime, the search for Americans Missing in Action and other humanitarian issues.

The bill represented a wicked plot of US hostile forces attempting to use aid and the so-called "human right issues" for blatant interference in Viet Nam's internal affairs and to obstruct the improving relations between Viet Nam and the US, against the interests of the two countries' people.

Concluding the commentary, the paper said, "We believe that American progressives and those who respect truth and justice in the US political circle would protest against and prevent the supplements from being approved by the US Senate". --Enditem

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