US embassy cable - 04HANOI64

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000064 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR PRM, EAP/BCLTV 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SOCI, PGOV, PHUM, VM, ETMIN, HUMANR 
SUBJECT:  FAMILY PLANNING IN PRACTICE ALONG THE HCM HIGHWAY 
 
REF:  03 HANOI 2047 
 
1.  (U)  Summary and Comment:  Reftel described Vietnam's 
new ordinance on family planning that went into effect on 
May 1, 2003, "encouraging" families of one or two children 
but highlighting individual choice.  Under the revised 
national guidelines, no fines or administrative sanctions 
are to be used to punish those who have larger families.  A 
variety of provincial officials throughout central Vietnam 
separately confirmed that all family planning activities are 
wholly "voluntary," despite vigorous campaigns to "educate" 
and "persuade" families to practice family planning.  No 
officials admitted using economic or administrative measures 
to punish those who violate national norms, while 
acknowledging some reports of such measures in the past. 
There is clearly more latitude given to ethnic minority 
families, which continue to be significantly larger than the 
national norm.  Overall, family size is indeed declining, 
but there are no indications of any genuinely coercive 
nature to Vietnam's family planning program in the 
provinces.  End summary and comment. 
 
Free to choose 
-------------- 
 
2.  (U)  During a December trip along the newly constructed 
Ho Chi Minh Highway between Nghe An and Gia Lai provinces in 
central Vietnam, Pol/C and ConGenoff discussed family 
planning practices in various localities with provincial 
officials, along with other topics (septels).   Ha Tinh 
provincial vice chairman Ngo Duc Huy emphasized that family 
planning in his province was "100 pct voluntary," including 
numbers of children and methodology.  In 2003, the average 
family had only 2.1 children, down from 3.9 in 1992. 
However, the province failed to achieve its goal of 0.69 pct 
population growth for 2003, instead reaching 0.9 pct.  Huy 
lamented that every one percent increase in population 
realistically required at least four percent in GDP growth 
(which he noted that the province had met twice over). 
 
3.  (U)  Quang Tri provincial officials similarly stressed 
that all family planning was "voluntary," relying on 
"campaigns" rather than "pressure."   They admitted that 
Quang Tri still had the 13th highest population growth rate 
in the nation, but described how the average number of 
children per family had dropped from 4.5 in 1975 to 3 in 
2003, with a goal of 2.9 in 2005.  The family sizes were 
larger than national averages because of the high percentage 
of ethnic minorities living in mountainous areas; those 
families prefer more children and often began families when 
they are only 18 or 20 years old, officials noted.  However, 
they claimed that there had "never" been any provincial- or 
district-level officials who had three or four children. 
 
4.  (U)  In Dong Giang district of Quang Nam province, 
officials reiterated the mantra of a "wholly voluntary" 
family planning program, and admitted that many ethnic 
minority families continued to have four or more children, 
nonetheless down from the 8-10 children common a generation 
ago.  District level cadres "never" had more than two 
children -- by choice, officials claimed -- but at the 
commune level, some cadres did have larger families. 
Officials in the Central Highlands province of Kontum also 
noted the large family size of ethnic minority families, 
usually about 4 children per family, an average number that 
they admitted was no longer declining despite public 
campaigns on family planning. 
 
5.  (U)  Gia Lai provincial vice chairman Le Viet Huong 
insisted that the family planning program in this Central 
Highlands province was "entirely voluntary," without any use 
of force whatsoever.  He described educational efforts -- in 
both standard Vietnamese and in two ethnic languages --  to 
persuade citizens that smaller families meant a "better 
future" for their children.  He noted that, previously, 
ethnic minority families had as many as nine children, now 
down to about six.  Even ethnic Kinh in Gia Lai often have 
three children per family nowadays, including some ethnic 
Kinh cadres, he admitted.  Population growth remained about 
2 pct per year, a rate he noted with pride was lower than 
neighboring Dak Lak province but still too high and still a 
major factor for the 15.5 pct rate of poverty within Gia 
Lai. 
 
Fine or not? 
------------ 
 
6.  (U) Ha Tinh's vice chairman Huy confirmed that no fines 
or administrative punishments were used on individuals -- 
even CPV members or local officials -- who exceed the 
desired two child family, while admitting that "as recently 
as one or two years ago," there were still "district 
officials" who resorted to fines.  Quang Tri officials 
emphasized that no fines had ever been used to punish large 
families, while admitting they had heard reports of such 
practices in other provinces in the past.  They confirmed 
that such fines were "strictly forbidden." 
 
7.  (U)  Quang Nam and Kontum officials separately claimed 
that there had "never" been any fines used in these 
provinces, nor would ethnic minority cadres be punished in 
any way if they had three or four children.  Kontum 
officials noted, however, that they had "never" seen a case 
of an ethnic Kinh cadre with more than two children.  Gia 
Lai's vice chairman Huong similarly claimed that there had 
"never" been any use of fines or other economic punishments 
in family planning programs in this province. 
PORTER