VIETNAM, NEWS ANALYSIS, APRIL 1, 2000.

Last week, according to reports from Yonhap, the South Korean News Agency, there were many North Koreans military servicemen who fought the Vietnam War on the side of communist North Vietnam, and at least 14 of them were killed and buried in marked graves about 38 miles from Hanoi. Yonghap said 11 of the 14 Koreans were fighting as combat pilots, the other 3 were warplane mechanics. According to inscriptions on tombstones at the grave sites, they were killed by American bombs or were shot down over North Vietnam skies in mid-1967.

A Vietnamese communist local government official confirmed the direct participation of North Korea in the Vietnam War in a telephone interview.

"It's not a newly-found place. We built the grave a long time ago and every year people from the North Korean embassy in Hanoi come here to pay homage to the martyrs," he said as reported by Reuters.

As far back as 1967, there were information from North Vietnamese POWs and ralliers (or defectors, or chieu hoi) reported to the South Vietnamese intelligence agencies about North Korean fighter pilots in North Vietnam. The sources said that North Vietnamese were praising the North Koreans as the best jet pilots who often led the intercepting missions and brought down a lot of American warplanes, far better than North Vietnamese fighter pilots.

South Korean sources estimated that more than 800 North Korean Air Force military men were serving in North Vietnam before 1975.

The POWs and defectors also told stories about Soviet jet pilots in dogfights against the Americans over North Vietnam's skies. The Soviet pilots, as well as the North Koreans, always flew warplanes bearing North Vietnam colors.

Rumors, later confirmed, ran that some Soviet pilots' jets were shot down by the Americans and they landed safely by parachutes on the ground. The Soviet pilots never wore insignias or marks to tell that they were from the Soviet Union.

They were immediately arrested and were beaten to pulp by the militiamen in the area, most of whom didn't understand Russian. Some who could tell that the downed pilots were Russians usually beat them more brutally as if they had mistaken them for the Americans.

The question is why the South Koreans and the Vietnamese Communists chose this moment to disclose such an "already-known secret?"

 THE HOA HAO STRUGGLE 

According to news from An Giang province released by the Central Council of Administrators of Hoa Hao Buddhist Church, the Vietnam Communist Party government has increased its repression against the Hoa Hao Buddhists for the last few weeks.

On December 26, 1999 local Public Security arrested Truong Van Thuc and eight other Hoa Hao Buddhists when they were organizing a religious ceremony to celebrate the 80th birthday of the religion's founder. During the two-days detention, many of them suffered injuries caused by police beatings.

They were released only after members of the U.S. Congress made inquiries about these arrests.

On March 27, the An Giang provincial government took the group in again for questioning. The group was released after intense and lengthy interrogation.

The Public Security charged Truong Van Thuc with "defaming the government," arrested him, and then transferred him to the provincial prison. Chau Van Lan, another Hoa Hao Buddhist, was also arrested and detained. There is no information on his conditions and whereabouts.

These latest activities are part of a terror campaign waged by the Communist government to stop the commemoration of Prophet Huynh Phu So's disappearance, initially planned for March 30. The Ancestral Temple, the birthplace of Prophet Huynh Phu So and where the ceremony was to take place, is currently surrounded by a large contingent of about 1,000 armed Public Security. Outgoing phone calls are closely monitored and intercepted by the authorities.

On March 11, the Public Security of Thoai Son Hamlet, An Giang Province, raided the home of a Hoa Hao Buddhist, during a private ceremony to commemorate his deceased father, physically assaulted and injured 13 participants in the ceremony.

Three other Hoa Hao Buddhists were arrested and have been detained at the local prison. They have been denied medication and family visits. Before his own arrest, on March 20 Truong Van Thuc and 10 other Hoa Hao Buddhists wrote a petition to VCP government President, Prime Minister and the Party Secretary General to protest the Public Security brutality and request the immediate release of the three Hoa Hao Buddhists from prison.

Latest news showed that despite threats by Communist authorities and their efforts to stem the streams of pilgrims coming from all directions, the commemorating service would be attended by a large crowd of many thousands.

Latest news from Long Xuyen City indicated that many pilgrims were turned back on their ways to the Temple, scores of them were even arrested. It was estimated that a thousand or more of Public Security were deployed to control all routes on land and waterways leading to An Hoa Temple.

(For more information, please visit httm://www.pghh.org.)

The new raids against the Hoa Hao Buddhists proves that the Communist regime in Vietnam is always frightened at any sign of activities that might endanger the political power of the Party and the safety of its leaders.

Such dictators will never be tolerant so much to the extent that they could permits services commemorating the disappearance of the Prophet Huynh Phu So, who was allegedly perished in their Communist comrades' bloody hands. Culprits don't want anybody to commemorate their victims.

The Hoa Hao struggle is a bird of ill omen to the Communist regime in Vietnam.

Only when investing money into the could-be prosperous market in Vietnam and directly confronting the insurmountable obstacles in doing business in that country, did foreign investors realize that the Vietnam Communist Party regime is entangled in the staggering amount of red tape. In the last few years, foreign investors and international donors have increased pressure on the Hanoi government for reforms in administrative procedures and simplification of business management to enable better economy.

The Hanoi government has shown strong willing to carry out such administrative reform. In our news analysis on Feb. 19, 2000, there was a report regarding Hanoi government Decree #19, which revokes 84 kinds of licenses and certificates which enterprises were required to do business.

Nearly two months have passed, disputes among Hanoi government branches about the issue are still hot. The conflict in opinions about the revocation is more serious than it was predicted.

Firstly, after several months since the Enterprise Law and Decree #19 were in effect, many businessmen who are seeking guidance for their new enterprises find no answer from responsible officials. The Department of Planning $ Investment of Hanoi City have said it doesn't know whom to ask, either.

Lao Dong (Workers), a state-controlled newspaper reported that many government agencies said they haven't received the decree or its related circulars (after nearly 2 months of wide publicity).

Secondly, each official in local governments may view provisions of the new law in a different way. The Department of Planning & Investment of Binh Dinh province allowed a sea transport enterprise to register its business. But the Department of Commerce of the same province objected to the decision, citing a previous directive that it thought still in effect. Mr Nguyen Dinh Cung, secretary of the team enforcing the Enterprise Law confirmed that many similar cases were still pending.

Mr. Cung said his team found a number of 10 laws, 6 decree-laws and 50 decrees governing a few businesses that required certain conditions to be licensed. Attached to each decree were many - sometimes five or six - circulars implementing the decree. All totted up to 242 documents, a lot of which contradict with one another.

In businesses that require government licenses such as medical, pharmaceutical, veterinary and legal practices, registration procedures are not clearly defined and still at a deadlock. Many businessmen have been knocking every door for the last three months but have failed to get their problems solved.

Meanwhile, the Feb.-19 decree met considerable objections. The Ministry of Construction replaced the repealed license for construction business by a newly created "registration," in order to control the profession, reasoning that a constructor must have specific expertise to ensure public safety.

In a similar reaction, the directorate of Road Transportation of the Ministry of Communication $ Transportation wished to retain all the licenses supposed to be repealed. The director proposed that at least the license of inter-province bus transportation should be retained to ease proper safety control.

The Public Health Ministry demanded that certificates of food safety be maintained and the Ministry of Aquatic Products proposed that licenses for piscatory businesses be continued.

People could not imagine businesses that might cause harm and detriment to the public should be let loose without the least survey and control.

It's apparent that the decree was just a formality, without close cooperation of various branches of the government.

A ranking expert at the cabinet office, Vu Quoc Tuan, disclosed that no ministry knows for certain the number of licenses and permits and certificates under its control. Another official said there was a total of 305 types of licenses, permits and certificates and his people are still searching for more. He asked people who have information about unreported types of licenses to let his team know through the hotline reserved for the sheer purpose of implementing the Feb.-19 Decree.

Reducing red tape is a task that should be welcomed. But the ways Hanoi is enforcing the decree might cause more troubles instead of solving the problems efficiently.