Vietnam dismisses human rights criticism at UN meeting HANOI - Vietnam Friday dismissed criticism of its rights record levelled at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva saying that its author, veteran emigre rights campaigner Vo Van Ai, was discredited by his persistent attacks on the regime. "These statements do not merit any comment because their author is already only too well known for his malicious intentions and his deliberate refusal to accept the truth," foreign ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh told AFP. "In recent years, the Vietnamese state has tried very hard and made significant achievements in ... gradually perfecting the judicial system to guarantee and ensure respect for the fundamental rights to liberty and development of all Vietnamese citizens," Thanh said. "These achievements have been noted and greatly appreciated around the world," she insisted. At the UNHRC's annual session in Geneva Thursday, Ai, chairman of the Vietnam Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and vice president of the International Federation of the Leagues of Human Rights, sharply criticized Hanoi's record on executions and press and religious freedoms. "Death penalties continue to be pronounced despite advice from the upper echelons (...) who have called for it to be used less," Ai said. New press laws introduced in May last year make it possible for the state to demand indemnity payments from journalists and publications for the printing of any information critical of it, even if this is fact, he added. The head of the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam, Thich Huyen Quang, has also been imprisoned for 18 years without trial "for having defended religious freedom," he charged. AFP - April 7, 2000.