VZCZCXRO1184
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHHI #1085/01 1620847
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 110847Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5612
INFO RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH 3218
RUEHZS/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 2299
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0220
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0504
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0203
RUEHSW/AMEMBASSY BERN 0058
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 0504

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HANOI 001085 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, DRL/IRF, EUR/WE 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KIRF HUMANR PGOV PHUM VM
SUBJECT: HANOI-BASED CHIEFS OF MISSION DISCUSS HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
REF: STATE 65224 
 
HANOI 00001085  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) On June 5, the Australian Ambassador hosted the fourth 
Hanoi-based Chiefs of Mission human rights discussion.  Participants 
included Chiefs of Mission (COM) or their designates from the United 
States, European Commission, United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, 
France, Germany and Australia.  Among the issues discussed were the 
bilateral human rights dialogues (HRD) Vietnam recently held with 
the United States, Switzerland and Australia.  Experiences differed 
on the tactics used by the Government of Vietnam (GVN) during the 
respective dialogues, but the COMs agreed that Vietnam was 
performing better during the dialogues and that the Vietnamese side 
appeared more confident with the process. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Additionally, the COMs discussed recent developments, 
including the recent spike in arrests of dissidents, and whether it 
was indeed a "crackdown."  The COMs agreed that there was a growing 
sense of conservatism in the GVN's approach to human rights and 
other issues as well.  In regard to the National Assembly (NA) 
elections, it was noted that none of the government's goals had been 
achieved in terms of increases in the numbers of full-time deputies, 
self-nominated deputies or non-party members.  End Summary. 
 
June 5 Discussion Participants 
------------------------------ 
 
¶3. (SBU) Ambassador Marine; Markus Cornaro, Ambassador of the 
European Commission;  Robert Gordon, Ambassador of the United 
Kingdom; Gabriel-M Lessard, Ambassador of Canada; Jean Hubert Lebet, 
Ambassador of Switzerland; Guillaume Rousson, Deputy Chief of 
Mission, Embassy of France; Holger Seubert, Deputy Chief of Mission, 
Embassy of the Republic of Germany; and, Bill Tweddell, Ambassador 
of Australia (Host). 
 
Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Australian Ambassador Twedell opened by briefing the group 
on the April 16-18 Australia-Vietnam HRD.  The Australian delegation 
was led by Michael Potts, First Assistant Secretary, International 
Organizations and Legal Division, DFAT, and included representatives 
from the Attorney General's Department, the Human Rights and Equal 
Opportunity Commission and the Australian Embassy.  The eight-agency 
Vietnamese delegation was led by Le Hoai Trung, Director General of 
the MFA's International Organization Department.  Vietnam was well 
prepared and approached the dialogue with a high level of 
confidence.  Trung maintained tight control over the entire process 
and vigorously defended Vietnam's handling of political dissidents, 
notably Father Ly.  Despite this, the discussions were cooperative 
with robust exchanges at times, Ambassador Twedell said. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The Vietnamese employed a new dialogue strategy, which 
included long and comprehensive presentations, Ambassador Twedell 
continued, and talked Australia out of time.  There was no new 
information in any of the protracted presentations by agency 
representatives.  Significantly, Trung acknowledged that Vietnam 
"still has a long way to go" on human rights.  Vietnam has assured 
economic and cultural rights for its people as a result of its rapid 
economic growth, and it could now afford to focus on advancing civil 
and political rights.  Nguyen Duc Thuy, Director of the Institute 
for Human Rights at the Ho Chi Minh Political Academy (HCMPA), made 
a similar statement during the bilateral dialogue's two-day working 
program, Ambassador Twedell reported. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Also outside the dialogue, the Australian delegation met 
with the Vietnam Women's Union and the HCMPA.  The delegation 
visited Dong Dzau Social Protection Center, which was the target of 
a report by Human Rights Watch late last year.  The center was 
almost completely empty except for six children whom the staff said 
were orphans and lived there on a permanent basis - no street 
children had been there for some time.  The delegation also visited 
Thanh Phong "show" prison in Thanh Hoa Province. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Ambassador Tweddell said that overall the dialogue was 
constructive, but the strategy employed by the Vietnamese side to 
allow us so little time to address issues of concern was 
disappointing.  The discussions were more tightly controlled than in 
previous years, with Trung squarely at the helm of the Vietnamese 
side, leading off even on items on which it had been agreed 
Australia would lead. 
 
 
HANOI 00001085  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
U.S. Dialogue 
------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Drawing on reftel, Ambassador Marine briefed on the April 
24 U.S.-Vietnam HRD in Washington, D.C.  It was the second round of 
the HRD since it was restarted in 2006.  The U.S. delegation was led 
by DRL A/S Barry Lowenkron and included five Assistant 
Secretary-level representatives from the Department of State, as 
 
SIPDIS 
well as representatives from the Department of Justice.  The 
Vietnamese delegation was led by Assistant Foreign Minister Pham 
Binh Minh and included ten representatives from the Vietnamese 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security, the 
Committee on Religious Affairs and the Embassy of Vietnam in 
Washington. 
 
¶10. (SBU) A/S Lowenkron opened the meeting by stating that "the 
positive trajectory of 2006 had turned negative in 2007," and the 
U.S. delegation led the dialogue's discussions on issues of 
prisoners of concern, criminal code reform, freedom of assembly, 
internet freedom and religious freedom.  The Vietnamese side led 
discussions on national approaches to human rights, racial 
discrimination, rights of ethnic minorities and torture. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Ambassador Marine said the atmosphere of the dialogue was 
better than in 2006, and that A/S Lownkron described it as an 
"actual conversation."  The Vietnamese side was better prepared than 
in the past, and AFM Minh was "a tough defender of the faith," the 
Ambassador said. 
 
Swiss Dialogue 
-------------- 
 
¶12. (SBU) Swiss Ambassador Lebet discussed the fifth Swiss-Vietnam 
HRD, which was held in Hanoi May 21-26, with half-day official 
government-to-government talks held on May 22.  The Swiss delegation 
was led by Jean-Daniel Bieler, Ambassador, Special Mission for Human 
Security Questions, and included seven experts from Switzerland and 
three Embassy staff.  The 23-person Vietnamese delegation was led by 
MFA IO Director Le Hoai Trung. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Ambassador Lebet said the dialogue was held in a friendly 
atmosphere and allowed a good exchange.  The Vietnamese side came 
well prepared to answer questions that had been provided in advance 
of the dialogue, but there were no surprises or breakthroughs coming 
from the discussions.  The Vietnamese side did not "waste time" as 
they had in the Australian dialogue; in fact, on several occasions 
Trung requested the experts on both sides to provide more concise 
presentations. 
 
¶14. (SBU) The Swiss delegation had a broad range of separate 
meetings with ministries and agencies represented at the dialogue, 
as well as several other organizations including:  the Office of the 
National Assembly; the Committee for Population, Family and 
Children; the Vietnamese Lawyers' Association; the HCMPA; and, the 
Vietnamese Union of Science and Technology.  The delegation also 
undertook a two-day visit to Hoa Binh Province to a project funded 
by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). 
 
¶15. (SBU) Ambassador Lebet noted that the separate meetings with 
ministries and agencies proved more useful than the dialogue itself 
as those discussions were more frank and honest.  The Swiss side was 
surprised by the openness of many of the experts and officials in 
the separate meetings.  However, the Swiss delegation also received 
the impression that experts and officials in the separate meetings 
were very willing to listen, but that they had taken nothing on 
board. 
 
Overall: Vietnam Dialogue Performance Improving 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶16. (SBU) The Ambassadors agreed that Vietnam was performing better 
during the dialogues and that the Vietnamese side is more confident 
with the process.  Canadian Ambassador Lessard said that Trung's 
comments at the Australian HRD on economic versus political rights 
was interesting and asked how the group could get that message to 
those not in the MFA.  Ambassador Tweddell said it would be a long 
haul:  the open-minded elements of the Vietnamese system would be 
concerned about the more conservative elements of the Party.  UK 
Ambassador Gordon said that Vietnam seemed to acknowledge it is time 
for a change and to move ahead; however that acknowledgement is a 
theoretical assertion, and the Government remains defensive when 
 
HANOI 00001085  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
discussing practical action.  He hoped the HRDs are sowing the seeds 
of this change and that Vietnam is undertaking action in the 
background. 
 
Human Rights Developments 
------------------------- 
 
¶17. (SBU) Ambassador Tweddell asked the group for their thoughts on 
the recent arrests of dissidents.  Questions worth discussing were 
whether these arrests were indeed a "crackdown," or whether they 
were the actions of over-zealous and conservative ideologues within 
the Party and the security apparatus having simply been taken off 
the APEC/WTO chain.  Were the significant numbers of arrests in the 
first half of this year simply the MPS making up for lost time?  And 
if so, could we expect the arrests to stop?  Was it a case of the 
government asserting its power to impress the public ahead of the 
National Assembly elections?  Had the head been cut off the 
democratic movement already, or were there more arrests to come? 
The Ambassadors agreed there is now a growing sense of conservatism 
in the GVN's approach to human rights and other issues as well. 
 
¶18. (SBU) Ambassador Lessard suggested that the outcome of the 10th 
Party Congress in April 2006 had given the impression that the 
security apparatus has gained the upper hand and that its more 
conservative ideology has been reinforced.  Ambassador Marine 
agreed, saying that Vietnam is comfortable with its economic 
trajectory and the political status quo, adding that those elected 
at the 10th Congress are less likely to seek political change.  He 
thought the head of the democratic movement had been cut off and 
that we should expect six to twelve months of relative quiet, but 
that eventually the democratic movement would reconstitute itself. 
Nonetheless, we needed to convince the GVN to take a more measured 
approach.  Ambassador Cornaro suggested the conservatism may be 
expanding to broader issues, noting that a contact at the Hanoi 
Business Association felt there had been a "clampdown" on the 
business sector, and he had been told to stop criticizing the pace 
of economic reform and "follow the line."  Ambassador Tweddell 
suggested the conservative element may be broader than first 
thought, including players considered generally to be more 
progressive. 
 
¶19. (SBU) Ambassador Tweddell said he thought the mid-term 
Consultative Group meeting in Ha Long City (septel) had seen an 
interesting discussion, with some of the donor community pushing 
hard on human rights, which had resulted in an even more interesting 
response by the Vietnamese.  Ambassador Cornaro agreed, saying that 
it would be only a matter of weeks before the Vietnamese have to 
respond to the demands put forward by some of the donors, adding 
that the Vietnamese could not say development cooperation is not 
linked to human rights performance.  Ambassador Marine said he would 
discount any public diplomacy response by the Vietnamese, noting 
that there would be no genuine change until there is a real 
discourse on the issues and changes to problematic laws. 
 
¶20. (SBU) Ambassador Gordon said likeminded embassies have to make 
things more uncomfortable at the top levels of the system in order 
to effect a change to the human rights situation in Vietnam.  Little 
would change until the message got through to the President and the 
Prime Minister, adding that players at that level are not sensitized 
to how seriously we take these issues. 
 
¶21. (SBU) Ambassador Marine asked the group their thoughts on the 
May 20 National Assembly (NA) elections.  Ambassador Cornaro 
suggested that Vietnam's body politik is now using the NA more 
effectively, as witnessed by Party cliques using NA deputies to 
playout factional games.  Ambassador Marine noted that none of the 
Government's goals had been achieved from the election in terms of 
increases in the numbers of full-time deputies, self-nominated 
deputies and non-party members and asked to what extent was NA 
Chairman, Nguyen Phu Trong, was an architect of that outcome. 
Ambassador Cornaro said that with such seemingly overwhelming 
support for the Government/Party (99 percent voter turn-out and 90 
percent of NA deputies being Party members), it is difficult to 
argue there is a national security threat from the democracy 
movement.  Ambassador Tweddell noted that we are talking about a 
regime that constantly feeds propaganda to its population, and that 
in such a place all things could be claimed at the same time. 
 
¶22. (SBU) Ambassador Gordon said that northern Vietnam has no 
experience of accountable government and that we "might be naive" in 
expecting the Vietnamese public to be active on these issues, 
 
HANOI 00001085  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
particularly if the government keeps delivering what is wanted - 
economic growth. 
 
Next Meeting 
----------- 
 
¶23. (SBU) UK Ambassador Gordon volunteered to host the next 
Ambassadors' meeting in the autumn. 
 
MARINE