Australia holds talks with Vietnam on human rights
HANOI - Australia held inaugural talks with Vietnam on human rights on
Monday and raised concerns about the treatment of dissidents and
Australians
facing possible death sentences in Vietnam.
The head of the Australian delegation told Reuters he had raised the
case of
three Australians of Vietnamese origin who could face death sentences if
convicted on drugs charges.
Geoff Raby, a senior foreign affairs official, said his delegation also
raised Vietnam's treatment of minority groups, religious freedom and
detention of dissidents. He said Vietnam responded with questions about
aboriginal land rights.
"We welcome that because it was a two-way process rather than a
monologue or
speaking past each other," he said.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer earlier compared the
ground-breaking talks to those Australia has undertaken with China and
Myanmar, arguing that dialogue and engagement was the best way of
addressing
human rights concerns.
Asked to comment on the two-day talks, Hanoi's Foreign Ministry said it
welcomed all dialogue carried out on the basis of equality, mutual
respect
and non-interference.
Australia, which does not have the death penalty, will be hoping to
avoid an
incident like that in April 2000, when Vietnam executed a 44-year-old
Canadian woman of Vietnamese origin for heroin trafficking.
Australians in jail in Vietnam include Nguyen Thi Kim Hieu and Le My
Linh,
who were arrested in January and November and accused of trying to
smuggle
heroin out of the country.
Trafficking in 600 grams (1.3 lb) or more of heroin is punishable by
death
or life imprisonment in Vietnam, where 55 people were executed for drugs
offences last year. Execution is carried out by firing squad.
Vietnam routinely denies charges of rights violations.
A report by New-York based Human Rights Watch in April said torture,
arbitrary arrests and church burnings were among the weapons the
communist
government had used in the past year to suppress ethnic minority
dissent.
Reuters - May 27, 2002
Australia recalls soy product from Vietnam in cancer scare
CANBERRA - Australia's food watchdog on Monday recalled and stopped
imports
of another soy sauce with a high level of a cancer-causing chemical --
the
17th Asian-made soy sauce product withdrawn from Australian stores in
the
past nine months.
The Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) said a King brand "New
soy
sauce" imported from Vietnam was found to contain unacceptably high
levels
of a chloropropanol called 3-MCPD -- 200 times higher than the level
deemed
to be safe.
This was the 17th soy sauce and soy sauce product imported from
Southeast
Asia to be recalled in Australia since August last year when the ANZFA
cracked down on foods with high levels of chloropropanols following the
European Commission's lead.
ANZFA managing director Ian Lindenmayer said manufacturers had
progressively
introduced improved processes since Australia became tougher on maximum
residue levels for chloropropanols but warned consumers to stay away
from
older products still in stock.
"It is apparent...that some small grocery stores specialising in food
from
Southeast Asia sometimes carry older stocks that may pose a danger to
human
health," Lindenmayer said in a statement.
"I strongly advise consumers to avoid purchasing soy sauce products that
have gone beyond their 'best-before' or 'use-by' dates," he said.
Britain's Food Standards Agency last year warned consumers to avoid
certain
brands of soy sauce imported from Thailand, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan,
after finding unacceptable levels of 3-MCPD which can cause cancer if
taken
daily.
Lindenmayer said chloropropanol contamination could occur during the
manufacture of soy sauce products when a process called acid hydrolysis
was
used although soy sauce and soy sauce products made by a natural
fermentation process were safe.
The products previously recalled in Australia were imported from
Thailand,
Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines and China as well as Vietnam.
Reuters - May 27, 2002
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