US embassy cable - 04HANOI548

UNCLAS HANOI 000548 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, SOCI, PHUM, VM, DPOL 
SUBJECT:  RAPE -- OR CORRUPTION? -- TAKES DOWN SENIOR OFFICIAL 
 
1.  (U)  According to media reports, Prime Minister Phan Van 
Khai on February 25 suspended Vice Chairman of the National 
Committee for Sports Luong Quoc Dung following his arrest 
February 19 on charges of child abuse.  Dung reportedly has 
already confessed to having sex with a 13 year old girl in 
Hanoi on December 30, 2003.  Media reports indicated that 
Dung has also already been suspended from the Communist 
Party of Vietnam (CPV), although one source indicated that 
the CPV's Control Commission had so far only recommended 
suspension to the CPV Secretariat, which had yet to announce 
a decision.  Dung is not/not a member of the CPV's Central 
Committee. 
 
2.  (SBU) According to one Vietnamese journalist, the CPV's 
Commission on Ideology and Culture had on February 20 
requested in writing that the media not to cover the case 
absent official guidance.  However, the Ministry of Public 
Security released details of the case on February 21, and an 
MPS-controlled newspaper broke the news.  Other national 
newspapers then quickly picked up the sensational story, 
which has become a hot topic of conversation in Hanoi. 
 
3.  (U)  There are, however, widespread suspicions that 
there is much more to this case than meets the eye.  One 
popular opinion is that the case has more to do with 
corruption than with the rape charges.  Dung -- the 
equivalent of a vice minister -- was apparently the senior 
official responsible for the nationwide construction program 
of new sports facilities used in the December 2003 SEA Games 
competitions, a multi-million dollar undertaking.  Rumors 
suggest that he has been targeted -- perhaps even framed -- 
by those who feel they did not receive a fair share of 
kickbacks.  (Separately, Prime Minister Khai has requested 
inspections of all buildings erected for the SEA Games, with 
the inspectors commanded to "identify the individuals 
responsible for . . . deficiencies.")  Others have suggested 
that Dung is the victim of political in-fighting of another, 
unspecified kind.  Most agree that there must have been a 
fairly high-level green light to publish stories on the case 
at all. 
 
4.  (U)  Comment:  If the case is true, the GVN actions to 
move vigorously on a legal case, and to reveal information 
about Dung's wrongdoing in the local media, are welcome 
signs of a determination to act against even fairly senior 
wrongdoers.  What must be disturbing to GVN and CPV 
officials, however, is the cynicism -- at least among the 
Hanoi public -- that the coverage has already provoked, 
another sign of the CPV's diminishing credibility despite 
its campaign to clean house against what General Secretary 
Nong Duc Manh and other leaders have publicly warned were 
"degenerate lifestyles" among its members and officials. 
BURGHARDT