Vietnam launches propaganda offensive in strife-torn highlands
HANOI -
Vietnam's communist authorities announced a renewed propaganda offensive in the central highlands Tuesday following the
violent suppression of a wave of unrest among the region's mainly Christian ethnic minorities.
More than 75,000 dollars in additional funds will be shared between three provincial and 16 district administrations, a culture
and information ministry spokesman said in a tacit admission of the scale of last month's disturbances.
Books and documentaries will be produced to "counter the reactionary propaganda" about the government's treatment of the
region's minorities, the spokesman said.
Each of the four highland provinces of Dac Lac, Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Lam Dong will be equipped with a car and publishing
facilities to promote "national unity" and "the achievements that have been made in building a new life under the leadership of the
party and state."
Portraits of the regime's icon, wartime leader Ho Chi Minh, will also be made available for free distribution across the region.
Vietnam's main coffee-growing region has been closed to outsiders ever since the authorities sent in the army to quell two
weeks of apparently well-coordinated protest early last month.
Thousands of minority demonstrators took to the streets of the main towns amid widespread anger over land confiscations and
other abuses that have a accompanied a massive influx of ethnic Vietnamese settlers in recent years.
The official media have since carried virtually daily reports singing the praises of government's development policies for the
region.
But the authorities have so far refused all requests from foreign news organizations to travel to the region to report
independently. The foreign ministry was due to pronounce on a new joint application later Tuesday.
The communist authorities' handling of the unrest has sparked renewed criticism of their human rights record just as the US
Congress prepares to consider ratification of a key trade deal which is a central plank of their economic reforms.
At a special hearing of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom last month, dissidents and exiled religious
leaders explicitly called on Congress to delay approval of last July's agreement because of the renewed rights concerns.
Even the deal's supporters admit that the events in the highlands have severely complicated its passage through Congress -- US
ambassador Pete Peterson flew to Washington Monday to lobby the 50 or so newly elected members.
Agence France Presse - March 6, 2001.
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