Criticism over Vietnam's retention of capital punishment has been growing in the last several months, although local discussions about it have waxed and waned. Last December, however, a meeting of the National Assembly reduced the number of crimes punishable by death from 44 to 29. Most of those taken off the list were economic crimes. The due process of law is not yet guaranteed. More recent criticisms came from the annual UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva early last month.
Death penalties continue to be pronounced despite advice from the upper echelons .
One of the top officials who have expressed distaste for the firing squad has been no less than Prime Minister Pham Van Khai, who has commented that too many prisoners were being executed. It was in response to a growing drug abuse problem that capital punishment in 1997 was introduced in cases of possession of more than 100 grams of heroin or five kilograms of opium. The trafficking of drugs, particularly heroin, has increased steadily since Vietnam's economy began to open up in the late 1980s. The country's proximity to the Golden Triangle, an important heroin producing region, and its porous land borders have made Vietnam a major drug transit point to western countries. Domestic heroin addiction is also believed to be on the rise.