US envoy leaving Vietnam calls rights issue disappointing
Thu Aug 9, 9:33 AM ET

The outgoing US ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Marine, on Thursday said a lack of progress on human rights in the communist country was the biggest disappointment of his three-year tenure.


"I wish I could say it's improving, but I can't," he told his final media briefing in Hanoi. "Perhaps my biggest disappointment here is that we've not been able to expand the space for political dialogue in Vietnam."


Vietnam, a one-party-state, this year jailed a number of political activists who had called for non-violent political change toward a multi-party democracy, drawing protests from the United States and other countries.


Rallies dogged a June US visit by President Nguyen Minh Triet, the first to the United States by a Vietnamese state leader since the war ended in 1975.


Marine said religious freedoms had recently been expanded in Vietnam but he added: "If we are talking about the ability of people to engage in political activism, I can't be as positive, and in fact I'm a bit discouraged."

 

He pledged that the United States would keep up the human rights dialogue with Vietnam under his successor Michael Michalak, due to arrive this month.


"We have a long-term commitment to this, it is in Vietnam's interest for this to happen, and I believe it will happen," he said. "The question is when."


Vietnam's government says it does not punish dissidents, only people who break its laws, including the charge of spreading propaganda against the state, under which several dissidents were imprisoned this year.


Marine said: "To the extent that we are able to understand the Vietnamese legal system, there are laws on the books that allow the authorities to move against people for expressing their opinions, for organising in any way and for calling for political change.


"Those are fundamental human rights that I strongly believe are universal and should be enjoyed by the people of Vietnam."


The ambassador praised growing bilateral trade relations that were fully normalised last year, weeks before Vietnam -- an economy now growing at over 8 percent a year -- joined the World Trade Organisation in January.


"Economically, Vietnam is making major strides forward," said Marine. "The value of US-Vietnam two-way trade will exceed 10 billion dollars this year.


"The United States is Vietnam's top export market and its fourth largest foreign investor, and Vietnam expects to attract at least 15 billion dollars in foreign direct investment commitments this year."

<BR> http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070809/pl_afp/vietnamusrights_070809133303

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US Ambassador bids farewell to Vietnam
17:37 10/08/2007
 
Mr. Michael Marine
VietNamNet Bridge – US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Marine has said goodbye to Vietnam as his term has ended.

 

As the third US Ambassador to Vietnam after Peter Peterson and Raymond F. Burghardt, Mr. Marine acknowledged that he was “a lucky man to have had an opportunity to represent the US at this very important moment in the relationship between the two countries.”

 

In 1988, when he was working at the US Department of State’s office, in charge of Vietnam-US relations, he came to Vietnam for the first time. At that time, Vietnam in his eyes was not developed much, but “a Vietnam that is trying to rise at the end of the 1980s”.

 

Starting his term as the US Ambassador in Vietnam in 2004, Mr. Marine has witnessed strong advances of Vietnam and of the US-Vietnam relationship, which was marked by the successful visit to the US by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet recently.

 

Today, the relations between the two countries have been completely normalised, along with the approval of the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status for Vietnam of the US Congress. The two-way trade revenue is expected to exceed $10 billion this year. High-ranking visits between the two countries have been held at an increasing frequency. Ambassador Marine has witnessed the visits by the two highest-ranking leaders of Vietnam to the US, former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and President Nguyen Minh Triet, and the visit by President G.W. Bush to Vietnam.

“Vietnam-US relations are progressing to a strategic level,” he observed. The significant progress in the relations between the US and Vietnam has witnessed the contribution of Mr. Marine as the US Ambassador to Vietnam.


Before coming to Vietnam, Mr. Marine was US Vice Ambassador to China. He also worked at the US Embassies in Kenya, Russia, and Germany.
 

Mr. Marine is leaving Vietnam on August 14, 2007. His successor is Michael W. Michalak, a professional, experienced diplomat who is believed to have deep knowledge about Asia.


Phuong Loan
 
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/service/printversion.vnn?article_id=969090