From: dannyn@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Danny Nguyen)
Subject: Re: NEWS/VN: VN premier calls for war on corruption
Reply-To: dannyn@umbar.UUCP (Danny Nguyen)
Organization: Motorola Inc., Austin, Texas
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 17:28:34 GMT

In article <1992Sep25.141808.9372@news.media.mit.edu> tran@peora.sdc.ccur.com writes:
>
>09/24
>
>Vietnam premier calls for war on corruption
>
>    By Kathleen Callo
>    HANOI, Sept 24, Reuter - Free-marketeer Vo Van Kiet, re-elected Vietnam's
>prime minister on Thursday for a five-year term, said his appointment showed 
>the people backed economic reforms but promised to wage war on corruption.
>    "Corruption is a burning issue for the whole party and whole society," he
>told the Voice of Vietnam radio station.
>    "The institutions authorised to fight corruption must draw lessons from
>previous anti-corruption campaigns, to cut wasteful spending and carry the
>campaign more widely and resolutely. The people must take an active part in 
>this struggle."
>    Kiet, 69, has been influential in modifying years of Stalinist-style 
>central planning. A southerner ranked number three in the communist party 
>politburo, he was the sole candidate for the job.
>    Once a commissar for the Viet Cong, Kiet has been a key advocate of
>free-market reforms that transformed Vietnam from an economic disaster in the
>early 1980s to a country self-sufficient in rice and enjoying its first trade
>surplus.
>    Kiet told national assembly deputies who elected him that his appointment
>illustrated people's trust in the communist party, the system and reforms.
>    "I acknowledge that this confidence is not only given to me, but shows the
>belief of the national assembly, as well as of all levels of the masses in the
>party and the state.
>    "It is a belief in the victory of the renovation which has already reached
>initial achievements," he said.
>    On Wednesday the assembly elected General Le Duc Anh, 72, Vietnam's top
>military man and a powerful communist party figure, as president.
>    He is considered one of the old-guard conservatives in the army and party.
>Diplomats said the dual appointments indicated that Vietnam was likely to
>continue opening up economically, while remaining under the party's tight
>political control.
>    Anh told a news conference with Kiet on Thursday that Vietnam wanted
>friendly relations with all nations and sought to resolve recent disputes with
>China through negotiations.
>    "We need to live in peace and friendship with each other. Peace and
>friendship between China and Vietnam will also contribute to peace and 
>stability in the region," he said.
>    "With regard to outstanding and newly emerging problems, senior leaders of
>both countries have agreed these should be solved through negotiation, mutual
>understanding and mutual respect."
>    Anh played a major military role in the 1978 invasion of Cambodia in which
>Vietnamese troops overthrew a Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge government.
>    That invasion sparked a brief border war between Vietnam and China in 1979
>but Anh was instrumental in normalising  relations last November. Ties have
>become strained again this year over territorial disputes at land and sea.
>    Anh, number two in the politburo, was already one of the country's most
>powerful men behind the scenes -- in charge of foreign policy, defence and
>internal security for the party. He is expected to be a more active president
>than his predecessor Vo Chi Cong.
>    Deputies also elected Nguyen Thi Binh, a veteran woman revolutionary, as
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

                           Wasn't she dead or might I be wrong ???? Few weeks
                           ago, I believed that there was a report on SCV and
                           US newspapers reported that NTB passed away. Probably,
                           Communist people has two lives to live or what...
>vice-president on Thursday. She is the first woman to hold such a high
>government position in Hanoi.
>    She and other officials elected on Thursday were each presented as sole
>candidates for each position.
>    Binh, a southerner, was foreign minister for the Provisional Revolutionary
>Government of South Vietnam, the political arm of the Viet Cong, before the war
>ended in 1975.
>    She represented the provisional government in Paris talks in 1972 that led
>to the peace accord signed in January 1973 by the United States and North
>Vietnam.
>    The assembly elected Nong Duc Manh, the youngest man in the politburo and
>its only ethnic minority member, as its new chairman on Wednesday.
>    The promotion of Manh, 51, an ethnic Tay, to the politburo last year was
>seen as part of an effort to give a greater voice to minorities, who comprise 
>12 per cent of Vietnam's 69 million people, and to promote younger people.
>    Deputies re-elected Pham Hung as head of the supreme court and voted in Le
>Thanh Dao as inspector-general on Thursday.


Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese