Hanoi blasts US Bill on Viet human rights
HANOI - Vietnam has denounced the United States for reintroducing a Bill in Congress that would call on Hanoi to improve human rights, saying the initiative would harm warming relations between the two former foes.
The Vietnam Human Rights Act would require a halt to all non-humanitarian aid to Vietnam until it releases religious and political prisoners and improves the treatment of ethnic minorities, according to a statement from the office of Mr Chris Smith, vice-chairman of the House Committee on International Relations.
Mr Smith and 30 other members of Congress re- submitted the Bill on Thursday, according to the statement. Last year's Bill passed the House by a vote of 410-1 but died in the Senate.
'Vietnam resolutely denounces and rejects the so-called Vietnam Human Rights Act,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Phan Thuy Thanh said in a statement on Friday. 'This Bill is completely not in line with the trend of normal development and cooperation between Vietnam and the United States.'
Vietnam's relations with the US have broadened since a bilateral trade agreement went into effect in December 2001.
The pact has significantly increased two-way trade between the two former combatants.
Yet Washington has become increasingly critical of Vietnam's lack of progress on human rights.
'Vietnam is a government that consistently employs a policy of harassment, discrimination, intimidation, and - increasingly in the last three years - imprisonment and other forms of detention' against those who oppose its restrictions on religious and other freedoms, Mr Smith said.
Earlier last week, the US State Department criticised such restrictions, which include the detention of citizens who expressed views opposing the government.
Ms Thanh said that Washington has no right to criticise its human rights record.
The Associated Press - April 6, 2003.
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