Vietnam calls U.S. rights report "cynical distortion"
HANOI - Vietnam on
Wednesday rejected a critical
human rights report by the United States, calling it a "cynical
distortion" by a country that was not even a member of the
U.N. Human Rights Commission.
Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh
described this week's State Department report as "crude
interference" in Vietnam's internal affairs at a time when both
countries were trying to heal the wounds of the Vietnam
War.
"Vietnam vehemently opposes and firmly denies (the report)," she said.
Thanh said the report came from a country that gave itself the right to judge others, noting
the United States had been criticised for rights violations and it was not even a member
of the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
In its March 4 report, the State Department said Vietnam's rights record was poor and
had worsened in some respects last year, with numerous serious abuses continuing.
It referred to religious and political prisoners and abuses by security forces, including
beatings of suspected demonstrators, during unrest in the Central Highlands region last
year.
Vietnam says all its prisoners are common criminals and none are held for political or
religious reasons.
Thanh said American officials and foreign reporters had recently been able to visit the
Central Highlands to see how well the state treated ethnic minorities and its
"humanitarian" effort to repatriate hill people who had crossed illegally into Cambodia.
Some hill tribe people interviewed by foreign journalists on a trip to the Central Highlands
last month said they were under constant surveillance by the authorities. Some who
returned from refugee camps in Cambodia under a stalled U.N. repatriation plan said
they were worried about their safety.
UNHCR complained last month Vietnam had not allowed a team of its officers to visit
highland villages to assess the safety of returns.
The United States was voted off the U.N. Human Rights Commission on May, losing a
seat it had held since 1947.
Speculation as to why it happened ranged from poor lobbying to unpaid U.S. dues to the
United Nations to U.S. condemnation of rights abuses in other countries.
Reuters - March 06, 2002.
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