Vietnam villagers to get free Internet access to party congress
HANOI - Three villages in rural areas of northern Vietnam are to be given free Internet access so that they can follow the proceedings of
a five-yearly congress of the ruling communist party later this month, officials said on Tuesday.
The free connection will be provided for three months from April 9 by the service provider of the state post and
telecommunications utility, the Vietnam Data Communication Company.
"Our purpose is to allow people to monitor the progress of the national party congress," which opens on April 19, the
company's deputy director, Nghiem Xuan Tinh, told AFP.
"If the scheme proves successful, we may extend it to rural post offices across the country."
Computer terminals will be set up in three village post offices in the provinces of Lang Son, Nghe An and Thai Binh.
Tinh said the villages had been chosen for their "important political significance."
"For example, Nam Dan district (in Nghe An province) is the place where Uncle (Vietnam's commmunist ideologist Ho Chi
Minh) was born and grew up.
"Hung Ha district (in Thai Binh province) is the place where people have high intellectual standards and Cao Loc district (in
Lang Son province) is the place that has magnanimous revolutionary tradition."
Thai Binh province is perhaps better known as the scene of five months of violent protests in 1997 which rocked the communist
authorities here.
Thousands of peasants fought pitched battles with police, amid widespread anger over official corruption and the huge
disparities between urban and rural living standards.
The authorities since been at pains to be seen to be addressing rural grievances, even permitting a steady trickle of rural
protestors to demonstrate in the big cities, albeit under tight surveillance and not around the party congress.
The communist party meanwhile announced that it had selected a play to be performed during its four- to five- day congress.
"Soul of the Nation" was written by army commander Nguyen Khac Phuc and is to be performed by the army drama group, an
official told AFP.
The play may not make easy viewing for the fraternal delegation from Beijing which is expected to attend the congress.
It recounts the history of Vietnam's 15 centuries-long struggle for independence from China.
Agence France Presse - April 3, 2001.
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