Fund for Reconciliation and Development

Washington Update #19

November, 2003

 

 

 

The landmark visit of the Vietnamese Defense Minister, one of several recent high-level exchanges, causes the US to look forward to greater security cooperation and back to war legacy issues.  Debate over Laos continues as the House considers the McCollum bill for NTR.  Human rights resolutions abound on the Hill but, with the exception of the proposed Vietnam Human Rights Act, all are non-binding.

 

 

Security

 

Vietnamese Defense Minister Tra Makes Historic Visit

 

One small but significant contribution to normalization of relations between Vietnam and the United States was made this week when Vietnamese Defense Minister Pham Van Tra visits Washington to talks with US officials.  In Washington November 8-12, met with his counterpart, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as well as with General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice; and Secretary of State Colin Powell.  This marks the first visit to the United States of a Vietnamese defense minister since reunification of Vietnam.  Tra is reciprocating the visit to Vietnam of then Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 2000.

 

Beyond advancing the bilateral relationship, the visit appears to be in synch with recent Bush administration expressions of interest in reconfiguring some US security relations in the Asia-Pacific region.  Over the past several months, the Pentagon has speculated on increasing US access to military facilities in Southeast Asia to relieve strains on relations with Northeast Asian countries, where the presence of US troops has become more controversial, and to respond to terrorist threats.  The announcement that a US Navy vessel will visit Ho Chi Minh City, another post-war first, supports this potential trend.

 

Both Washington and Hanoi have indicated an interest in improving military ties, but  US-Vietnam security cooperation is not likely to be on a fast track in the foreseeable future.  Indeed, Hanoi has indicated that discussion of military cooperation is not on the Vietnamese agenda for Tra’s visit.  Instead, Tra intends to address longstanding issues of the effects of the war, including Agent Orange and unexploded ordnance.  Tra has said he will not raise the issue of compensation for Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, which Hanoi estimates runs to 2 million people, but will urge Americans to “take responsibility” for disabilities and other problems resulting from exposure to the toxins of defoliants.

 

 

 

 

Trade

 

Vietnam Begins Implementation of Legal Reform Program for WTO

 

To conform its legal sector to requirements for the World Trade Organization, Vietnam’s Ministry of Justice has finalized a legal development agenda, identifying ninety-four laws to be adopted or amended before Vietnam’s projected entry into the WTO in 2005.  Roughly twenty of these laws are expected to be approved by the National Assembly this year.  Some of these efforts will build on past or ongoing reforms.  For example, the government has introduced the Enterprises Law, on state-owned enterprises, but government economists point out that Vietnam as yet has no universal law for all enterprises.  Another challenge will be formulating a common law for both domestic and foreign companies.  In the meantime, Vietnam is expected to implement a WTO agreement on customs duties, aimed at both importers and exporters,

by December.  One aspect is development of a data base to examine and assess the values of imports and exports of individual businesses.

 

Shrimp Suit Grows Closer for Vietnam

 

Eight southern American states (Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and North and South Carolina) have joined the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s proposed antidumping petition against Vietnam and several other shrimp-producing countries.  On August 8 the SSA voted to go forward with the petition, but has not entered it officially, a move now targeted for December.  In preparation, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers have been meeting with U.S. law firms to study American antidumping law and to discuss US representation if the SSA goes forward with proceedings.

 

Debate on NTR for Laos Goes Cross-Country

 

In October American Ambassador to Laos Douglas Hartwick visited California’s San Joaquin Valley to discuss the administration’s efforts to grant Normal Trade Relations to Laos.  Hartwick has periodically visited US regions which host significant segments of the Laotian-American community.   In visits with community services organizations, religious groups and business leaders, Hartwick has met with a diversity of views. 

 

In a March letter, responding to correspondence from NTR opponents, Hartwick identified a range of people who are likely to benefit from NTR: Americans of Laotian descent who are likely to increase their investment and trade with Laos; impoverished villagers in northern Laos who will gain US access for silk products; and young people who will find greater job opportunities, and be less inclined to seek work in neighboring countries.

 

In Washington, however, a human rights focus on NTR persists.  On November 5 protestors targeted the Laotian embassy, as well as the Vietnamese embassy and the State Department, criticizing Vientiane’s handling of the lingering Hmong insurgency.  The Washington Times reports that the protests were organized in part by the National Center for Public Policy Analysis, a lobbying firm representing some Hmong-American groups.

Partly in an effort to separate human rights from NTR issues, the following day Representative Betty McCollum, who introduced legislation to grant NTR to Laos, announced she would co-sponsor a House Resolution 402, a nonbinding “sense of the Congress” motion, calling for reform of human rights and religious freedom practices in Laos.  

 

The Fund for Reconciliation and Development is circulating a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee in support of NTR for Laos, for signature by non-governmental organization representatives and scholars and analysts.  The letter can be read and signed on line at http://www.petitiononline.com/LaosNTR/petition.html

 

 

Human Rights

 

US Ambassador for Religious Freedom Visits Vietnam

 

In late October John Hanford, US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, made an official visit to Vietnam for observation and discussions with a wide range of institutions and individuals.  Hanford oversees preparation of the State Department’s annual report to Congress on religious freedom in the world.  Hanford met with senior government officials, provincial leaders, and religious leaders and traveled to two provinces in the Central Highlands, a region of particular focus for international human rights groups.  The administration has not as yet released the results of Hanford’s visit.  However, on October 30 Representative Loretta Sanchez introduced a House Resolution 427, a “sense of the Congress” human rights resolution on Vietnam, focusing on the Unified Buddhist Church, a factional grouping opposed to the officially recognized sangha.  The resolution was sparked by reports of a new downturn in relations between the UBC and the Vietnamese government.

 

 

Legacy Issues

 

Four-Party Talks on Vietnam War Era MIA’s Held in Bangkok

 

For the first time, senior officials from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and the United States met together to review cooperation on accounting for Americans missing in action in the Vietnam War.  In the last week of October the US convened the two-day meeting in Bangkok, hosted by Jerry D. Jennings, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Misssing Personnel Affairs.  Although the US has pursued bilateral cooperation with the three countries for several years, this represented the first regional meeting on this issue.  This broader approach is expected to yield greater results in accounting for MIA’s believed to be related to border areas.  At the conclusion of the meeting,, the delegates agreed to conduct an Annual POW/MIA Consultation, and to rotate the venue.

 

This innovation was matched by a recent US-Vietnam initiative, in which the US provided funds for Vietnamese researchers to scan official archives for information on American MIA’s.  To date, approximately 700 American MIA’s from the Vietnam War era have been accounted for, with approximately 1800 outstanding.  However, there is as yet no formal cooperation to locate Vietnamese MIA’s, whose numbers are tenfold larger than the outstanding American cases.

 

US-Vietnamese Hold Agent Orange Talks

 

In early November Vietnam and US held talks in Hanoi to discuss eradication of dioxin contamination due to the use of Agent Orange and other defoliants during the Vietnam War.  The meeting was announced in the context of last year’s agreement between the two countries to conduct joint research on the impact of defoliants.  No detailed information on the results of the talks has been released as yet, but US officials announced that the talks focused on the areas of environmental monitoring, remediation and site characterization.

 

Hanoi Responds to Tiger Force Reports

 

In late October the Toledo Blade published an extraordinary series of investigative articles on a seven-month period in 1967 of systematic killing of Vietnamese civilians in the Central Highlands by the Tiger Force unit of the US Army 101st Airborne Division.   After US military personnel came forward, the killings were the focus of a four and a half year investigation by the US Army. It was closed in 1975 despite findings that 18 soldiers committed war crimes and results of the inquiry were never made public

 

The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry did not release a statement when the articles were published, but responded to a request for comment from the Associated Press.  Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung noted the suffering and loss caused by the Vietnam War, but maintained that the best way to resolve the consequences of that war is to pursue stronger mutual understanding in the US-Vietnam relationship “with the tradition of humanity and concord.”  Surviving family members interviewed by the Blade were not so forgiving.

 

(Individual articles can be found at www.toledoblade.com. The full series can be downloaded from FRD’s website: www.ffrd.org/indochina/legacies/tigerforceblade.htm.) 

 

 

 

     The Washington Indochina Update is published by the Fund for Reconciliation and Development (FRD), 355 West 39th Street, New York, NY 10018. 

      It is compiled and written by Catharin Dalpino who is representing FRD in Washington on a consultant basis. She can be reached at <washington@ffrd.org>

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