New US envoy's first meeting flags differences with Hanoi
A first meeting between new US ambassador Raymond Burghardt and
Vietnam's
communist authorities highlighted the continuing differences between the
former foes as the two sides put out contradictory accounts of the
encounter.
Vietnam's state-run media said Burghardt had expressed opposition to a
Vietnam Human Rights Bill that has already passed the US House of
Representatives and unqualified support for an international agreement
of
the repatriation of Vietnamese refugees from Cambodia.
Wrong on both counts, said a clarification put out by the US embassy on
Burghardt's comments to First Deputy Prime Nguyen Tan Dung as he
presented
his credentials with other recently-appointed ambassadors Friday.
Burghardt "did not express opposition or support on behalf of the
administration" for the draft rights legislation which was put forward
by
Hanoi's opponents in the US Congress during the ratification of a
landmark
trade agreement with Vietnam last year, the embassy statement said.
"The ambassador's comments reflected the fact that the administration
had
not taken a position on this legislation."
The Vietnamese media had cited Burghardt as saying "he himself and the
US
government neither want to have nor have agreed to pass a Vietnam Human
Rights Act."
The embassy statement also took the state-run media to task for
"incomplete
reporting of our position" on the January agreement between Hanoi, Phnom
Penh and the United Nations on the repatriation of some 1,000 hilltribe
refugees who fled an army clampdown in Vietnam's central highlands early
last year.
Burghardt had expressed support for the agreement's implementation
"consistent with the principles which govern the UN High Commissioner
for
Refugees operations worldwide," the statement said.
"In other words repatriations must be voluntary and those under UNHCR
protection must be fully briefed on their options before being asked to
decide -- those options are repatriation, resettlement in place, or
resettlement to a third country.
"The UNHCR must have unimpeded access before, during and after
repatriations
to montior local conditions for those who choose this option."
Vietnam's refusal to grant the second of those two conditions prompted
the
UNHCR's suspension of repatriations last month after a single return of
just
15 refugees.
Hanoi says the agreement never specified more than "selected" access to
the
refugees' home villages in the highlands and is refusing to allow more
field
visits by UNHCR staff until further repatriations have been made.
In the meantime, Hanoi and Phnom Penh have pressed ahead with at least
two
repatriations of refugees under UNHCR protection without the UN agency's
involvement.
At least 104 UN-registered refugees have been returned to Vietnam in
this
way, ensuring that the first of Burghardt's conditions, that they be
"fully
briefed on the options," was not met for them.
Burghardt's counterpart in Cambodia, Kent Weidemann, has been a vocal
critic
of the UNHCR over the January deal, joining rights groups in publicly
criticising its access provisions.
But Burghardt has been more supportive of the UN agency insisting
Friday:
"They know what the principles are. Let them do their job."
A career diplomat who previously served in Taipei, Burghardt succeeded
Washington's first ever ambassador in Hanoi, former Congressman and
wartime
prisoner Pete Peterson, last year.
Agence France Presse - March 18, 2002
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