Vietnam's president discounts criticism
WASHINGTON - Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet is resisting pressure from U.S. lawmakers and President Bush to improve what critics call a dismal human rights record.
Triet, the first president from the communist-led nation to visit the White House since the Vietnam War, indicated in an Associated Press interview Friday that his country's human rights practices need no improvement.
``It's not a question of improving or not,'' Triet said, hours after meeting with Bush. ``Vietnam has its own legal framework, and those who violate the law will be handled.''
His comments this week have not satisfied angry U.S. lawmakers, who say they will keep pressing Vietnam to stop increasing repression of political activists and religious leaders.
Triet acknowledged differences in the countries' positions on human rights and suggested more dialogue. He said his talks with Bush were ``frank and open,'' and said disagreement over the issue would not stop a thriving trade relationship from getting stronger.
``The Vietnamese laws could not be 100 percent the same as the United States laws, due to the different historical backgrounds and conditions,'' Triet said through an interpreter. ``There is a different understanding on this issue.''
Bush said he pressed upon Triet during their meeting the importance of having a strong commitment to human rights and democracy. U.S. lawmakers, in a meeting Thursday, urged Triet to treat Vietnam's citizens better.
``I explained my strong belief that societies are enriched when people are allowed to express themselves freely or worship freely,'' Bush said in the Oval Office after a meeting with Triet.
``We want to have good relations with Vietnam,'' Bush said, as dozens of protesters outside the White House waved flags and carried signs critical of Vietnam's government.
Vietnam tolerates no challenges to communist one-party rule; it insists, however, that only lawbreakers are jailed. In recent months, Vietnam has arrested or sentenced at least eight pro-democracy activists, including a dissident Roman Catholic priest who was sentenced to eight years in prison.
White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said Bush hoped that Triet would take his ``words to heart, and that we'll see some behavior changes in Vietnam.''
Triet has tried to keep the focus on vibrant trade ties between the United States and one of Asia's fastest-growing economies. The countries began a bilateral trade agreement in 2001; trade reached nearly $10 billion last year.
Triet, who is known as a crusader against corruption and a supporter of economic liberalization, said in the interview that his government is working hard to make Vietnam attractive to foreign investors by improving administrative procedures.
Triet is leading a delegation of more than 100 Vietnamese businessmen. He signed with the United States a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, which sometimes acts as a road map to free trade negotiations.
During an hourlong private meeting Thursday, senior U.S. lawmakers repeatedly took Triet to task on human rights abuse claims.
Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who resigned recently as chairman of the U.S.-Vietnam Caucus in Congress to protest human rights abuses, said the message from both political parties during Triet's visit has been clear.
``They're being told that the biggest single obstacle to further progress in the relationship, and especially in the economic relationship, is this crackdown on human rights,'' Blumenauer said in an interview Friday.
In Los Angeles, Triet's next stop, hundreds of protesters, most of them critical of Triet, are expected to demonstrate.
By Foster Klug & Deb Riechmann - The Associated Press - June 23, 2007.
Protesters gather where Vietnam's president stays
Several hundred demonstrators gathered outside a Dana Point resort Friday night to protest a visit by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet, while authorities braced for another demonstration today that could draw thousands.
The protest outside the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort and Spa, where Triet hosted a reception for invited business leaders, culminated weeks of planning by anti-Communist groups in Orange County's Little Saigon.
"What we wanted here was a very peaceful protest to show [Triet] that the movement for democracy in Vietnam has a face," said Bung Tran, a member of the Vietnam Reform Party and one of the protest organizers.
Police estimated 400 people were in front of the resort Friday.
Protesters waved U.S. and South Vietnamese flags — yellow with three red stripes. One man dragged and trampled the current Vietnamese flag.
"We see that Vietnam is progressing economically," said Tina Thien-An Tran, 19, a Westminster college student. "But they're not enriching their own people with what matters most: human rights."
The anticipation of Triet's arrival caused some confusion, as protesters occasionally mistook passing luxury cars for the Vietnamese president's motorcade.
When a white Toyota Prius turned into the resort, several in the crowd began yelling.
"Go home, traitor," cried Minh Pham, 45, a computer-chip manager who flew in from San Jose Friday afternoon. It was unclear whether the Prius' occupants had anything to do with the Vietnamese president.
But at 7:45 p.m., a motorcade of more than a dozen vehicles — limousines, sport utility vehicles and police escorts — brought what everyone believed to be the president of Vietnam. The crowd spilled into the intersection, blocking traffic, waving flags and chanting "Freedom for Vietnam."
Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen, there to support the protest, pleaded with the crowd to stay out of the street.
"I know that's him. He's scared," said Hang Dang, 55, a medical lab technician from Garden Grove, holding a U.S. flag. "He didn't stand up in a convertible and wave or anything."
Around her neck hung a sign saying, "Triet does not represent the Vietnamese people."
The first visit to the U.S. by a Vietnamese president since the end of the Vietnam War has been the talk of the Vietnamese American community for months.
The most sensitive issue was whether Triet would visit Little Saigon in central Orange County, the nation's largest Vietnamese American community, where the passions of the Vietnam War still burn. On Friday, speculation among protest organizers was that he would avoid the enclave.
Accompanied by a delegation of Vietnamese businessmen, Triet met in Washington with congressional leaders Thursday and President Bush on Friday before flying to Los Angeles International Airport.
Triet spotlighted growing business ties between the United States and Vietnam, while Bush pushed him to improve Vietnam's human rights record. A number of pro-democracy advocates in Vietnam have been arrested or detained in recent months.
"Societies are enriched when people are allowed to express themselves freely or worship freely," Bush said after meeting with Triet. Triet said his talk with Bush was "direct and open."
"Our approach is that we would increase our dialogue so that we will have a better understanding of each other," he said through an interpreter.
Triet has been dogged by protesters throughout his trip. Several dozen were outside the White House during his meeting with Bush. And even before he arrived in California, dozens marched through Little Saigon to denounce his visit.
"We've been monitoring Vietnamese radio and knew what was being planned, so we were prepared for it," Westminster police Sgt. Brian Carpenter said.
Orange County sheriff's deputies erected crowd-control barriers around an area across the street from the St. Regis. More than two dozen deputies on foot, bicycle and horseback restrained the crowd.
By Tony Barboza and Mike Anton - The Los Angeles Times - June 23, 2007.
Bush prods Vietnam on human rights
President George W Bush, hosting Vietnam's president in an historic visit, welcomed warmer relations with a former US enemy but warned that Hanoi must improve its human rights record if it wants to deepen trade ties.
Chanting "Freedom for Vietnam, now, now, now", hundreds of democracy activists gathered across the street from the White House to protest against Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet's communist-ruled, one-party government.
Many wore T-shirts that said "Stop kangaroo court in Vietnam" and showed guards muffling the mouth of Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest and democracy activist, who was sentenced to eight years in jail in March.
Triet's trip is the first by Vietnamese head of state since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. His meeting with Bush in the Oval Office was another step by both countries to move beyond the painful history of the war.
The Vietnamese president is especially keen to bolster a burgeoning trade relationship with the United States, Vietnam's biggest export market.
Bush praised Vietnam's transformation into fast-growing economy. But both he and Triet acknowledged differences over human rights in Vietnam.
"I explained to the president we want to have good relations with Vietnam and we've got good economic relations," Bush told reporters after the meeting.
"I also made it very clear that in order for relations to grow deeper that it's important for our friends to have a strong commitment to human rights, freedom and democracy."
For his part, Triet described the exchange over democracy as "direct and open", but added: "We are also determined not to let those differences afflict our overall, larger interest."
Triet, who signed a trade and investment pact with the United States, told US business leaders in New York that Vietnam would "widely open our arms" to American investment.
But the White House has been expressing concern about human rights in Vietnam, in particular over the arrests of political dissidents and restrictions on religious freedoms.
In addition to their economic ties, Vietnam and the United States share some strategic interests, with both wary of China's rise. But neither leader mentioned China in their comments to reporters.
In November Bush became the second US president, after Bill Clinton, to visit Vietnam since the war. Vietnam and the United States established diplomatic relations in 1995.
As part of his Washington visit, Triet also met law makers on Capitol Hill who pressed complaints about human rights.
Since May 10, Vietnam has freed three people who Washington wanted released from imprisonment or detention. White House national security adviser Gordon Johndroe said the releases were a "good step" but added: "There's probably some more to do."
Another sensitive issue that came up in the talks were Hanoi's concerns about the lingering effects of wartime "agent orange" dioxin sprayed by US and South Vietnamese forces to defoliate jungles used by communist troops.
Dioxin is a small compound within the "agent orange" herbicide and is one of the most toxic compounds known.
Reuters - June 23, 2007.
|