US embassy cable - 04HANOI291

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000291 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV and DRL 
 
DRL PASS TO DRL/CRA EISENBRAUN AND DRL/PHD GERAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, PGOV, ELAB, KDEM, VM, ETMIN, HUMANR, LABOR, RELFREE, TIP 
SUBJECT: SUPPORTING DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS: VIETNAM 
 
Ref:  03 STATE 333935 
 
Following is the US Mission in Vietnam's submission for the 
2003-04 edition of Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: 
The U.S. Record. 
 
Vietnam is a single-party state, ruled and controlled by the 
Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).  The Government of Vietnam 
(GVN) restricted both political and religious freedoms 
through a number of means during 2003, including by 
detaining and imprisoning activists who criticized the GVN, 
by subjecting religions to strict registration requirements 
and obstructing the activities of "unauthorized" religious 
groups, by censoring domestic media sources and blocking 
foreign radio stations and websites, and by denying citizens 
the right to form independent organizations.  Restrictions 
on religious freedom were particularly noticeable among 
ethnic-minority Protestant groups in the Central and 
Northwest Highlands.  The USG has maintained close ties with 
political activists and religious groups in Vietnam in order 
to identify and highlight abuses, and has pushed for reform 
during meetings in Vietnam and the United States, including 
in discussions between Secretary Powell and the deputy prime 
minister of Vietnam.  Through State Department-, USAID-, and 
Department of Labor-funded programs, the US Mission in 
Vietnam seeks to heighten awareness of democratic principles 
at the grassroots level, and to develop a transparent and 
responsive legal system in Vietnam.  Our efforts have 
resulted in the opening of new churches in the Central 
Highlands, greater GVN tolerance for the operation of 
"unauthorized" churches in several areas, a reduction of 
prison sentences for some religious and political activists, 
programs to protect trafficked women, the ratification of an 
ILO convention against child labor, and the public 
availability of much of Vietnam's legal code, among other 
successes. 
 
The USG engaged the GVN on human rights issues at all levels 
over the course of the year.  Mission officers traveled 
widely through the country to investigate allegations of 
abuses, and virtually every Mission officer and most senior 
USG visitors to Vietnam raised human rights in their 
meetings with GVN officials.  Through the Embassy in Hanoi 
and Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, USG officers 
explained international concerns and basic rights standards 
to Vietnamese officials from the local level to the highest 
ranks of the GVN and CPV.  In Washington, Department 
officers up to and including Secretary Powell repeatedly 
stressed human rights concerns in meetings with visiting GVN 
officials.  This constant diplomatic pressure has produced 
noticeably greater GVN attention to human rights and 
religious freedoms in Vietnam.  (Unlike in past years, the 
USG declined to hold a bilateral human rights dialogue with 
the GVN in 2003 as a sign of our displeasure over slow 
progress on human rights issues.) 
 
The USG increased legal transparency in Vietnam by funding a 
successful $8 million, three-year program to help the GVN 
develop and codify a better and more transparent legal 
framework as part of the implementation of the U.S.-Vietnam 
Bilateral Trade Agreement.  Among the 2003 activities of 
this program were 54 training and policy workshops with 3330 
participants, and three study tours for 22 senior 
legislative and judicial officials.  The Official Gazette - 
the Vietnamese equivalent of the Federal Register - began 
daily publication in July, from six issues per month 
previously, making the improvements in the Vietnamese legal 
code available to all, in both Vietnamese and English.  This 
year we also began a $200,000 per year program focused 
specifically on working with government officials to 
modernize the Vietnamese Law on Associations which, when 
completed, will allow independent domestic NGOs to flourish. 
 
The GVN took a significant positive step by ratifying ILO 
Convention 138 on minimum working age in June, as long 
encouraged by the USG.  With funds from the Department of 
Labor, in 2003 the Mission began a $325,000 per year program 
to improve employment opportunities for people with 
disabilities as well as a $200,000 per year project to build 
the capacity of the GVN to combat the problem of child 
labor. 
 
The Mission sought to advance awareness of human rights and 
democracy issues in the media by funding Vietnamese 
journalists to participate in an international visitors 
program entitled Democracy and Legal Reform in the United 
States, and a regional program on Refugees and Trafficking. 
The Mission also initiated and helped arrange a Voluntary 
Visitor Program for the Vice Chairman of the Ethnic 
Minorities Commission as well as other Commission 
representatives and officials from provinces with 
significant ethnic minority populations to expose them to US 
values and treatment of minorities.  The Embassy's Public 
Affairs Section also worked with a Vietnamese organization 
to fund a series of workshops in four cities on the legal 
rights and responsibilities of citizens, hold legal clinics, 
and produce a series of pamphlets on such topics as 
citizens' rights and basic issues in the Vietnamese legal 
code. 
 
The USG continued to research and better document 
restrictions on religious freedom in Vietnam, and to raise 
our concerns at all levels in interactions with the GVN. 
For example, after USG officials highlighted the case of an 
"unofficial" Protestant church threatened with demolition in 
Ho Chi Minh City, GVN authorities backed off their threats 
and eventually allowed the church to continue operations. 
In November, Ambassador at Large for International Religious 
Freedom John Hanford visited Vietnam to set forth concrete 
steps - including the release of religious prisoners and 
allowing the opening of new churches - that the GVN should 
take to meet international concerns.  Subsequent to that 
visit, the GVN issued a directive calling for the 
"continuation of normalizing of relations with the 
[Protestant Church] in the Central Highlands" and stating a 
Bible training center may be permitted to open soon, and 
also allowed a 40% increase in the number of officially 
registered Protestant churches in the highlands. 
 
The USG continued to encourage the GVN to ratify additional 
ILO conventions addressing worker rights and recognizing 
core worker rights.  We stressed the need to continue to 
discuss issues surrounding freedom of association and 
collective bargaining.  In addition, a Department of Labor 
(DOL) program on dispute prevention and resolution for 
representatives of more than seventy enterprises started its 
work and enjoyed great cooperation from the GVN.  Another 
DOL program worked with the GVN to improve the country's 
social insurance system. 
 
To counter the problem of trafficking in persons, the USG 
provided more that $500,000 in funds to international non- 
governmental organizations (NGOs) from a variety of 
backgrounds.  These NGOs operated a shelter for victims of 
trafficking repatriated from Cambodian brothels, as well as 
a number of programs to assist returned victims of 
trafficking and protect women and children in high-risk 
areas by providing awareness training, vocational training, 
and economic opportunity through microcredit programs.  USG 
officials at the working and policy levels continued to 
engage GVN counterparts on trafficking in persons issues, 
and USG officers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City played an 
important role in coordinating and focusing the 
international community's response to the trafficking 
problem in Vietnam. 
 
 
Major USG-Funded Human Rights and Democracy Programs in 
Vietnam 
 
-$8 million over three years to help the GVN develop and 
codify a better and more transparent legal framework. 
-$1.7 million over three years to improve industrial 
relations, including the prevention and settlement of 
disputes. 
-$650,000 over two years to improve employment opportunities 
for the disabled by revising relevant legislation, and 
training staff of employment service centers to better 
assist people with disabilities. 
-$500,000 over two and a half years to prevent child labor, 
withdraw current child workers from the labor force, and 
fund rehabilitation programs for these children. 
-$375,000 for a one-year program to assist in the 
establishment of social accountability standards for 
Vietnamese enterprises. 
-$300,000 over 18 months to modernize the Law on 
Associations and related decrees. 
-$288,000 over two years to strengthen the capacity of 
Vietnamese law enforcement to counter trafficking in 
persons. 
-$243,000 over two years to reduce the trafficking of women 
and violence against women through education, community 
monitoring, and economic empowerment programs of vulnerable 
women and families. 
-$60,000 per year to operate a shelter for victims of 
trafficking repatriated from Cambodian brothels. 
-$25,000 for a one-year program to conduct workshops on 
legal rights and responsibilities of citizens, hold legal 
clinics, and produce a series of pamphlets explaining 
citizens' rights and major issues in the Vietnamese legal 
code. 
BURGHARDT