HANOI, Mar 6, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Vietnam vehemently opposed to and firmly rejected the U.S. human rights report, noting that with issuing the report, the United States is roughly interfering in Vietnam's internal affairs.

In answering a question here on Vietnam's reaction to the 2001 global human rights report issued by the U.S. State Department on Monday, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said the U.S. State Department is continuing a wrongdoing as qualifying itself for judging human rights conditions of other countries. Meanwhile, the United State is being criticized for violating human rights and was not voted member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. 
She said the report flagrantly distorted real human rights conditions in Vietnam as making slanderous remarks, and showing fabricated and false evidences. 
In Vietnam, the fundamental rights of the citizens are ensured by the constitution of the country and respected in reality, Thanh stressed. There is not so-called "political prisoners" and "religious prisoners" in Veitnam, but there are people breaking the law and being tried according to the law provisions, she added. 
Vietnam's political system and government are chosen by the Vietnamese people, showing the aspirations of Vietnamese people, she stressed. 

The spokeswoman noted that while Vietnam and the United States are making joint efforts to heal the wounds of the war and building the cooperative relationship on the basic principle of equality and mutual benefits, the U.S. wrongdoing will harm the development of the Vietnamese-U.S. relationship and counter with the interests of the peoples of the two countries. 

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam on Wednesday rejected a critical human rights report by the United States, calling it a "cynical distortion" by a country that was not even a member of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. 

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh described this week's State Department report as "crude interference" in Vietnam's internal affairs at a time when both countries were trying to heal the wounds of the Vietnam War. "Vietnam vehemently opposes and firmly denies (the report)," she said. 

Thanh said the report came from a country that gave itself the right to judge others, noting the United States had been criticized for rights violations and it was not even a member of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. 

In its March 4 report, the State Department said Vietnam's rights record was poor and had worsened in some respects last year, with numerous serious abuses continuing. It referred to religious and political prisoners and abuses by security forces, including beatings of suspected demonstrators, during unrest in the Central Highlands region last year. Vietnam says all its prisoners are common criminals and none are held for political or religious reasons. 

Thanh said American officials and foreign reporters had recently been able to visit the Central Highlands to see how well the state treated ethnic minorities and its "humanitarian" effort to repatriate hill people who had crossed illegally into Cambodia. Some hill tribe people interviewed by foreign journalists on a trip to the Central Highlands last month said they were under constant surveillance by the authorities. Some who returned from refugee camps in Cambodia under a stalled U.N. repatriation plan said they were worried about their safety. 

UNHCR complained last month Vietnam had not allowed a team of its officers to visit highland villages to assess the safety of returns. The United States was voted off the U.N. Human Rights Commission on May, losing a seat it had held since 1947. Speculation as to why it happened ranged from poor lobbying to unpaid U.S. dues to the United Nations to U.S. condemnation of rights abuses in other countries. U.S. assails Vietnam's human-rights record. The annual report cites continued 'numerous, serious abuses.' 

March 6, 2002 

By JOHN GITTELSOHN
The Orange County Register 

Vietnam's human-rights record deteriorated last year, marked by mounting repression of political and religious freedoms, according to a new State Department report. 

The report, based on events in 2001, catalogs extra-judicial killings, torture and arrests of Montagnard tribesmen in Vietnam's Central Highlands. It tells of persecution of Buddhists, Protestants and Catholics. It also cites restrictions on free expression, such as the monitoring of e-mails and the house arrest of a biologist who wrote articles calling for democracy. 

"The government's poor human-rights record worsened in some respects, and it continued to commit numerous, serious abuses," the report said. 
Vietnam had no official response Tuesday, a day after its release. Last month, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said an earlier U.S. report that cited many of the same abuses was full of "slanders and distortions of reality in Vietnam." 

Human-rights activists from Orange County said the report should revive momentum for Senate passage of a bill that would withhold non- humanitarian aid and impose other sanctions if Vietnam fails to improve human rights. 

"Most definitely, the State Department report will help our case," said Diem Do of Brea, who led a Vietnamese America Public Affairs Committee's trip to lobby senators last week. Introduced as a companion to a trade-normalization bill, the Human Rights Act passed the House of Representatives last year. But Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who led efforts to normalize relations with Vietnam, have held up a Senate vote, arguing that denial of aid would slow human-rights improvements. 

The State Department issued reports on human rights in 195 countries. Burma, China, Indonesia, Laos and North Korea also got bad marks. The Vietnam report balanced criticism with praise for progress, such as: Growing legislative independence in the National Assembly, despite Communist Party control. Tolerance of a few demonstrations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. Government recognition of a previously outlawed Protestant group and a permit for 300,000 Hoa Hao Buddhists to gather in July in An Giang province, despite the group's record of resistance. 

Mai Nguyen, a Santa Ana spokeswoman for the Hoa Hao Buddhist Church, said pressure from the State Department, American politicians and other international human-rights groups has put the brakes on worse rights abuses in Vietnam. But Vietnam continues to persecute members of her faith, Nguyen said, and recognizes only government- approved clergy. 

"A lot of our members are still in jail," she said. "There is no real evidence of improvement." 

The State Department said it has no reliable estimate of the number of political prisoners, but fewer than 150 cases could be confirmed. Phan, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, said last month that "Vietnam has never jailed, arrested or put under house arrest any religious figures for religious reasons." 

Mrs. Nguyen Huynh Mai