Vietnam defence chiefs seen as paying price for party supremo
HANOI - A pair of unprecedented public reprimands against Vietnam's defence chiefs mark a clipping of the wings for communist party
supremo Le Kha Phieu, who draws much of his support from the armed forces, officials said Sunday.
Vietnam's number one looks set to survive a months-old onslaught on his leadership from within the party as it prepares to hold
a five-yearly congress next month, officials and diplomats said.
But the reprimands against two of his leading supporters within the army may have been the price the former armed forces chief
had to pay to save his position, a top official told AFP.
Defence Minister Pham Van Tra and chief of staff Le Van Dung were among five top leaders disciplined at a 12-day meeting of
the party's powerful 170-strong central committee which closed on Saturday.
A committee spokesman gave no specific reasons for the reprimands, saying only that they were for "management
shortcomings."
But the party's ideology and culture chief Huu Tho strongly hinted that the failings were likely to cost Tra his job as defence
minister even though the final decision would be for the government and not the party.
"In the case of a minister elected by the national assembly, if someone is reprimanded, he will not have an adequate reputation
(to be reelected)," Tho said.
A senior official said there were two possible explanations for the unprecedented action against two key allies of Phieu.
"One possibility is that Phieu's rivals decided to hit out at his allies and proteges to weaken the armed forces lobby within the
leadership and pave the way for his removal at a later date," the official told AFP, asking not to be named.
"The second possibility is that Le Kha Phieu himself decided to sacrifice his two close allies ... in order to preserve his own
position as secretary general."
The official noted that a string of failings by the security forces in recent months had lowered the army's prestige, which had
rebounded on the party chief's own efforts to fight off a campign to oust him.
As long ago as last October, the party's three powerful advisors -- elder statesmen Do Muoi, Le Duc Anh and Vo Van Kiet --
circulated a letter within the leadership accusing Phieu of "a lack of ability in party and state management."
Officials say Vietnam's number one has been plagued by a string of accusations from his opponents, ranging from cronyism in
the appointment of supporters from his home province of Thanh Hoa to abuse of the intelligence services for factional interest.
In his closing speech at the committee, Phieu himself strongly spoke out in the favour of the reprimands against his close allies,
the official media reported Sunday.
The central committee "came to clear conclusions about a number of denunciations and discipline for a number of comrades for
wrong-doing, thus showing a spirit of democracy, solidarity, righteousness (and) a high sense of responsibility," he said.
Diplomats say Phieu's own position appears to have been saved by the very event that many analysts had regarded as sealing
his fate -- a seven-week old wave of ethnic unrest in Vietnam's main coffee producing region.
The severity and separatist flavour of the protests among the mainly Christian indigenous minorities of the central highlands has
shaken party stalwarts, prompting them to rally around the current leadership, diplomats say.
"The scale of the disturbances really seems to have played into Phieu's hands," one Asian diplomat told AFP.
In an indication of the sensitivity of the highlands unrest, the ideology chief confirmed that the central committee had taken time
out from its preparations for the April 19 congress to discuss the situation there.
"You must understand that solidarity and unity within our nation is the number one sensitive issue," he told reporters.
Agence France Presse - March 25, 2001.
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