* HANOI REPEATING SHAMEFUL LIES

 Once again on Wednesday, November 4, 1998, the Vietnamese Communist government denied restricting access by the UN special rapporteur on religious intolerance.  

Upon his departure following a 10-day visit to assess religious freedom in Vietnam, Abdelfattah Amor issued a statement chastising the Hanoi government for limiting his schedule. He said he had been prevented from meeting Thich Quang Do, secretary-general of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, and that a meeting with two other monks in a labor camp was repeatedly interrupted. Requested meetings with the Hoa Hao, Taoist, Confucian and Hindu religions did not take place. 

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh offered what she called "corrections" to Amor's statement. "We reaffirm that Mr. Amor enjoyed freedom of movement ... and he was free in meeting people he was interested in meeting," she told reporters Wednesday.  

Thanh said one monk, Thich Huyen Quang, was 81 and too old to travel to meet with Amor. A planned meeting was called off at the last minute. She did not explain why Amor had not traveled to see Huyen Quang instead. 

She said Hoa Hao, Taoism, Confucianism and Hinduism do not exist as religions in Vietnam and have only followers who carry their beliefs privately. It is well known that Hoa Hao, a Buddhist Sect whose followers have been the most fervent anti-Communists, is one of Hanoi's arch enemy. During the war, the Hoa Hao countryside had never been imposed curfew.  

In Vietnam, any religion not sanctioned by the government is considered superstition that must be eliminated. That includes unsanctioned sects of Buddhism and other religions.  

As to the fact that Amor was not allowed to meet the famous monk Thich Quang Do, Phan Thuy Thanh gave an explanation contrary to actual occurrence. 

In an interview with BBC after the incident, Thich Quang Do said the UN envoy was turned away by plainclothes police at the gate of his Thanh Minh Zen monastery in Ho Chi Minh City on Oct. 26. He recognized them because they frequently showed up at the monastery. 

But Thanh said local residents who take care of the pagoda did not know who Amor was, and "therefore he was not allowed to go." In fact, pagodas are always open to people going in and out without any restriction, according to Buddhist traditions.

Thanh did not answer a question whether Do has been under house arrest since his release, as human rights groups claim. 

Amor said that he was refused to see four inmates - three Catholic priests and a monk - when the chief jailer simply said that he didn't know who they are. He also complained that his meeting with the two monks in the prison camp Z-30A in Xuan Loc was interrupted. 

Thanh said the commander of the camp was required by law to be at the meeting because the men are prison inmates whose civil rights are curtailed, but that the commander left them alone for an hour before coming back to see if they were finished. 

Despite the fact that many church leaders have been jailed in the past because of their religious practices, Communist officials always deny they hold any religious or political prisoners, just people who have broken the law. 

Amor is expected to release a full report on his visit early next year.

 * HANOI CRITICIZES WASHINGTON 

The Communist government in Vietnam slammed the US Wednesday for a new law requiring the American president to impose sanctions on nations that fail to meet Washington's religious freedom standards.  

"With this new law on religion, one has the impression that American lawmakers intend to make laws for the entire world," the official army newspaper Quan Doi Nhan Dan said in a stinging commentary.  

"They impose themselves the laws and criteria of 'liberty' and then apply sanctions ... one can only express a single word on this law: it is shocking," the commentary said.  

The US Congress adopted the International Religious Freedoms Act in October which calls on the president to employ a range of economic and diplomatic sanctions against countries which violate religious freedoms.  

According to the Nhan Dan, President Bill Clinton signed the bill because of pressure surrounding his affair with Monica Lewinsky, giving into intense lobbying from "certain US religious organizations."  

In the past, the Communist government-controlled media always reacts fiercely whenever the regime is castigated for its poor human rights records. This time, Hanoi shows its anger when the U.S. Congress has included Vietnam on a list of 36 countries whose rulers practice religious suppression. Vietnam Communist regime responded by calling that a distortion and suggested Congress should reconsider an "old and meaningless story."  

* VIETNAM COMMUNIST ARMY IN ECONOMY 

Hanoi's defense minister, general Pham Van Tra on Tuesday, November 4, called on the military to play a key role in economic and social development through the construction of special economic defense zones.  

Pham Van Tra recommended that each infantry division establish one or two such zones charged with the twin tasks of promoting economic activity and ensuring national defense.  

The Communist army had similar projects in North Vietnam from 1957 to 1964. They were discontinued during the Vietnam War. About that time, South Vietnamese army implemented the Military Land Development Center program with almost the same purposes but it gained no big success, also because of the war.  

Right after the 1975 victory, once again many Communist infantry divisions were tasked with the same projects that only proved total failures before long.  

Pham Van Tra statement came when the China Communist top leaders have just ended the role played by its military in the national economy. This time, Hanoi does not follow suit as it used to, probably because of a different situation.  

The army already plays a considerable role in the Vietnamese economy, operating several lucrative businesses both legal and illegal.  

Military experts believe Vietnam military has at least 56 joint ventures with foreign firms, and its more than 200 businesses are expected to post revenues of about 600 million dollars this year. The armed forces also operate domestic air charter services providing exclusive transport for offshore oil companies, run a confectionery company with a Japanese partner and produce explosives. Smaller units are running smaller business such as hotels and restaurants, and in many places, XXX videotapes home theaters as well.  

Though the Communist army leaders always flatly deny military involvement in illegal activities, many army units stationing in remote areas have been overtly engaged in smuggling consumers good from China and Thailand for the last decade. Moreover, they also make money in illegal lumbering, especially for burning woods.  

The army has declined from its wartime peak of more than one million to about five hundred thousand. In the North-South Highway project introduced a few years ago but failed to generate support, Hanoi had planned to employ 550.000 regular soldiers to work - and to survey civilian labor.  

In China, the party is in more firmly control of its armed forces. In Vietnam, the military has greater influence over the government because its leaders have been climbing to powers through a long and desperate war. The military even gains more influence when the current party general secretary is an army general. 

On Saturday, October 31, in a report before the session of the Hanoi's national assembly, the chief of its law committee Vu Duc Khien said that in 1998, about 28.78 per cent of all arrests in Vietnam are of innocent people. 

"If the number of innocent arrested continues to go up then there will be serious consequences in many fields," Khien said to the delegates. 

He said many of those found to innocent of the criminal charges were released after paying administrative fines. 

Khien highlighted this figure based on reports submitted earlier by two key government justice agencies, the Supreme People's Procuracy and the Supreme People's Court. 

He complained that there had been no improvement in this situation even though it had been brought to the attention of responsible authorities one year ago. 

The 450-member assembly, once a rubber-stamp body, has gradually been allowed to criticize agencies and officials from central to local governments, but not members of the Politburo and basic policies of the party. 

Khien also noted that there were "thousands" of people convicted of crimes who were not serving their sentences.  

Other reports at the assembly indicated that serious crime continues to rise steeply, especially murder and robberies, the state-controlled press reported.  

Lawmakers are calling for the creation of a fund to compensate those who are wronged, said a press report Saturday.  

Khien noted that there were already statutes providing for compensation but there have never been budgetary allocations to fulfill them.  

It is common in Vietnam today that Public Security agents search a home with blank warrants signed in advanced by prosecutors.

A Message from a Viet Veteran