More time needed for decision on bauxite projects, says official

The government will continue to gather opinions before deciding whether to halt bauxite exploration projects in the Central Highlands, a senior government official said Saturday.

“It’s necessary to listen to concerns of the public and intellectuals, but we need time to analyze them before reaching a final decision,” Nguyen Xuan Phuc, chairman of the Government Office, told the press.

“Whether to halt the projects or not is a matter of significance,” he said. The bauxite projects had been approved by the Party’s Central Committee, the government and the National Assembly and a decision on whether or not to stop them will have to be considered carefully, he said.

A group of scientists and intellectuals have signed a petition asking the government to halt the projects to conduct further research and gather public opinion on the matter.

Former Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh and former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Hung Vo are among the petitioners.

Concerns have been raised about Vietnam’s two bauxite mining and processing complexes in the Central Highlands especially after the recent red sludge spill in Hungary. The sludge is a byproduct of refining bauxite into alumina.

State-owned mining group Vinacomin has affirmed that the projects in Vietnam are safe, but said it would take measures to minimize environmental impacts in the event of an accident.

Nguyen Van Ban, who formerly headed Vinacomin’s aluminum project, said in an interview with Tuoi Tre newspaper on Sunday that when there are fears that the projects are not safe, it’s a right move to halt them.

“The catastrophe in Hungary was serious,” Ban said. “It’s a painful lesson because Hungary is among countries with leading technologies in bauxite mining.”

“It is a warning for Vietnam,” he said, noting that red sludge treatment methods used for Vietnam’s projects are not the latest.

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Brutal traffic police leave resident permanently disabled

A resident of Khanh Hoa Province has asked local authorities to prosecute two traffic police officers who he said beat and severely injured him for driving a motorbike without a helmet.

Huynh Tan Nam, 21, said in his petition that he was beaten by officers Vu Van Duy and Nguyen Trong Hieu on the street on April 24 and could only make the complaint now after recovering from grievous injuries, Vnexpress reported Friday.

Nam said the police were driving a motorbike and Hieu, riding pillion, assaulted him with a cub on his shoulders and the back of his neck, making him fall unconscious.

Eyewitnesses said the police then stepped down, kicked him further and left him lying on the street.

Doctors at Khanh Hoa Health Department said Nam suffered 77 percent permanent injuries. His head and face suffered multiple injuries and fractures, they said.

His condition was critical and local doctors had to transfer him to four different hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City.

Earlier, Duy and Hieu only admitted to chasing Nam as he was not wearing the helmet. They denied having beaten him.

Wearing a crash helmet when driving motorbikes has been compulsory in Vietnam since December 15, 2007.

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Aunt suspected to have pressed hot iron bars on infant's face

A infant nearly two years old was admitted to a Tien Giang Province hospital on Friday with many burns on his face.

Initial investigations suggest that the burns were caused by the boy's aunt, Tran Thi Thu, also known as Van Thi Kim Lien.

Thu, said to suffer from epilepsy and severely bad hearing, is said to have pressed a hot iron bar on the forehead, cheeks, chin and arms of her nephew, Tran Van Luc, who is just 20 months old.

Each burn mark was round two to four centimeters long and the torture had also caused the baby to have fever, hospital doctors said.

The baby’s father, Tran Van Lap, said he worked far away from home on Thursday, so the baby’s grandmother brought him to her house, where she lives with the aunt.

The grandmother said she was out in the garden when she heard the baby crying, so she ran inside and found the baby with burn marks on his face.

Police in the Mekong Delta province are going to test the aunt’s mental condition and take further action in the case.

No information was given about the baby’s mother or her whereabouts.

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Police arrest fatal bus driver

The bus pictured after being pulled out from the Lam River in Ha Tinh

Photo: Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper

Police in the central Ha Tinh Province have arrested the driver of a bus which was swept away by strong currents from a flooded river last Monday, leaving 20 passengers dead and missing.

Tran Van Truong, 35, was taken into custody Saturday for “violating traffic laws causing serious consequences,” said Phan Huu Dan, police chief of Nghi Xuan District.

Police said Truong ignored warnings and drove the bus carrying 38 people into the flooded area. He faces the maximum jail term of 15 years if convicted.

Last Monday the bus was swept away by strong currents at the foot of a bridge in Nghi Xuan District.

Local authorities said Truong and 17 other people managed to get out by breaking the front windows and swam ashore, some by clinging to power poles.

The public transport bus was traveling from the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong to the northern Nam Dinh Province.

Rescuers have by far recovered the bodies of 15 passengers. The remaining five passengers are presumed dead, police said, though the search for them has not been called off yet.

Rain-triggered floods have claimed 76 lives, including the 15 passengers on the bus in Ha Tinh, and left six still missing.

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Police arrest fatal bus driver

The bus pictured after being pulled out from the Lam River in Ha Tinh

Photo: Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper

Police in the central Ha Tinh Province have arrested the driver of a bus which was swept away by strong currents from a flooded river last Monday, leaving 20 passengers dead and missing.

Tran Van Truong, 35, was taken into custody Saturday for “violating traffic laws causing serious consequences,” said Phan Huu Dan, police chief of Nghi Xuan District.

Police said Truong ignored warnings and drove the bus carrying 38 people into the flooded area. He faces the maximum jail term of 15 years if convicted.

Last Monday the bus was swept away by strong currents at the foot of a bridge in Nghi Xuan District.

Local authorities said Truong and 17 other people managed to get out by breaking the front windows and swam ashore, some by clinging to power poles.

The public transport bus was traveling from the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong to the northern Nam Dinh Province.

Rescuers have by far recovered the bodies of 15 passengers. The remaining five passengers are presumed dead, police said, though the search for them has not been called off yet.

Rain-triggered floods have claimed 76 lives, including the 15 passengers on the bus in Ha Tinh, and left six still missing.

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Ministry set to crack down on telecoms vandalism and theft

Telecommunications violations will be punished with fines of up to 70 million VND (3,500 USD) and no less than 200,000 VND (10 USD), according to the Ministry of Information and Communication.

The ministry is drafting a decree stipulating how to penalise violations to replace existing regulations which lag behind actual developments.

The decree covers violations in business and services, public telecommunications, licenses, resources and network connectivity among others.

Inspectors, people's committees at all levels, police and customs officers and market monitors are among those entrusted to enforce the fines.

However, only the ministry's chief telecommunications inspectors will have the authority to impose the maximum fine.

On Oct.18, officials in central province of Quang Ngai ’s Son Tinh district arrested 17-year-old Huynh Minh Anh, after catching him attempting to steal telecommunications cables.

Anh, a native of the district, was arrested as he tried to drive away with the cables he had cut from pylons on his bike. He said that he and his accomplices had stolen cables five times to fund their online gaming addictions.

District police said that cable theft had risen in the last two months compared to earlier in the year when it only occurred sporadically.

The number of thefts in the last two months was almost equal to the total number in the first half of the year, they said.

An and his co-horts will face criminal charges for stealing national property and sabotaging the telecommunications network, according to police./.

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Flood threatens 60% of HCMC population by 2050

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Ho Chi Minh City will be among the large Asian coastal cities that will flood more often, on a larger scale, and affect millions more people, if current climate change trends continue, the Asian Development Bank warns.

A report titled Climate Risks and Adaptation in Asian Coastal Megacities that it released last Friday examines the impact of climate change on Bangkok, HCMC, and Manila under a range of different scenarios until 2050.

Each of the three cities has a population close to or above 10 million, and all face increased climate-related risks such as rising sea levels and an increased frequency of extreme weather events.

Floods in the cities may cause losses worth billions of dollars, with poor populations likely to be the hardest hit.

In Ho Chi Minh City, around 26 percent of the population is currently affected by flooding, but the number could climb to more than 60 percent by 2050.

The report blames urban flooding on land subsidence due to groundwater pumping, dumping of solid waste into city canals and waterways, clogged drainage systems, and deforestation in the upper watershed.

It recommends that governments of coastal megacities undertake measures to address climate risks as an integral part of urban planning. This includes developing strategic urban adaptation frameworks for managing climate risks, strengthening institutional capacity for adaptation and implementing measures such as land use planning, and zoning to help reduce urban vulnerability.

It is the product of a two-year study by the Asian Development Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the World Bank.

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Flood threatens 60% of HCMC population by 2050

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Ho Chi Minh City will be among the large Asian coastal cities that will flood more often, on a larger scale, and affect millions more people, if current climate change trends continue, the Asian Development Bank warns.

A report titled Climate Risks and Adaptation in Asian Coastal Megacities that it released last Friday examines the impact of climate change on Bangkok, HCMC, and Manila under a range of different scenarios until 2050.

Each of the three cities has a population close to or above 10 million, and all face increased climate-related risks such as rising sea levels and an increased frequency of extreme weather events.

Floods in the cities may cause losses worth billions of dollars, with poor populations likely to be the hardest hit.

In Ho Chi Minh City, around 26 percent of the population is currently affected by flooding, but the number could climb to more than 60 percent by 2050.

The report blames urban flooding on land subsidence due to groundwater pumping, dumping of solid waste into city canals and waterways, clogged drainage systems, and deforestation in the upper watershed.

It recommends that governments of coastal megacities undertake measures to address climate risks as an integral part of urban planning. This includes developing strategic urban adaptation frameworks for managing climate risks, strengthening institutional capacity for adaptation and implementing measures such as land use planning, and zoning to help reduce urban vulnerability.

It is the product of a two-year study by the Asian Development Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the World Bank.

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ADB gives $108 mln to improve rural infrastructure

The Asian Development Bank has approved a US$108 million loan for a project to upgrade rural roads and irrigation systems in some of Vietnam's poorest areas.

The project targets 15 mountainous provinces in northern Vietnam where more than one in four families live in poverty.

It will upgrade 600 kilometers of rural roads and irrigation systems for 12,400 hectares of farmland.

"This project will help farming communities boost their rice yield by 25 percent, and make it possible for them to respond to market demands and diversify to more profitable crops," said David Salter, Rural Development Specialist in ADB's Southeast Asia Department.

"Travel time, effort and costs will be reduced by an average of 55 percent while transport reliability will be increased enabling farmers strategic marketing options," he said.

While Vietnam has three million hectares of farmland that is equipped with irrigation facilities, one million hectares of this land is not currently being irrigated.

Many irrigation schemes are in need of rehabilitation, and one third of the country's 50,000 kilometers of irrigation canals are not lined, resulting in significant water loss.

"Improved irrigation and water management is critical for Vietnam's food security, particularly in the face of rising food demands and the worsening effects of climate change," said Salter.

In northern mountainous areas of Vietnam, less than 10 percent of roads are currently paved, while distances to social services are greater than the national average.

The ADB-supported project will also upgrade ten rural commune markets to bolster local commerce.

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VN faces old-tech dumping ground future

A public telephone booth located in Hoan Kiem District's Quan Su Street in Ha Noi. There are thousands of public phone booths that have been installed but no longer function. — VNS Photo Minh Tu

HCM CITY — It is time to tighten imports of technological devices because the practice is pushing Viet Nam into becoming a technology dump, experts say.

The Lao Dong newspaper cited an unnamed foreign telecommunications expert researching the Vietnamsese market as saying he was surprised that the USB 3G Internet connection, and high-end phones like iPhone and iPad were to be found in plenty.

But he was even more surprised that these products were used mainly as decoration by their owners who rarely used their technological features.

"It is amazing that Vietnamese could spend more than ten million dong to buy these products, then seldom use them.

"If they do use them, these products are utilised only to play games, listen to music, or surf Internet, instead of a device for work."

This is a reason why technological firms consider Viet Nam a lucrative market, he says.

Vietnamese information technology experts have asserted that the "wastage" of technological devices should be seen as a serious problem.

Mobile phone service providers have invested mountains of money in connection technology systems and terminal equipment including G-Phone, HomePhone, E-Com, E-Phone, beeper, and public phones.

But after a short time, the failure of these investments becomes obvious, the experts say.

Ten years ago, many Vietnamese people were proud of having a beeper.

Though it was uncomfortable to receive messages passively, Viet Nam imported this technology and its devices. But the product died a premature death.

The death of the City-phone service that was official announced by Viet Nam Post and Telecom Corporation (VNPT) in September this year is more bitter and painful.

The technological infrastructure that VNPT built over many years for the Citiphone and the terminal equipment needed for the device was not cheap, but the money has gone to waste because nobody uses it anymore.

Telecom service providers have raced to import terminal equipment and offer wireless telephone services such as G-Phone, offered by VNPT using GMS technology, HomePhone by Viettel and E-Com by EVN Telecom.

They have delivered these devices free to rural, mountainous and remote areas with high expectation of making profit from fees levied for their use. But an error in gauging the market has cost the enterprises dearly.

Many households in rural areas have devices given by all three providers but they do not have a need to use them. While many have chosen to return the devices, others have simply thrown them away.

Another product or service that is all but dead is the public telephone booth.

It is estimated that there are thousands of public phone booths that have been installed but do not function anymore.

The trillions of dong invested in all the above ventures has vanished.

The latest cause for worry is the import of cheap mobile phones from China. They are popular among consumers, but they break down easily and soon become a waste product.

The Government needs to find qualitative and other entry barriers to prevent a market glut of short-lived technological devices and make citizens more aware of the harmful impacts of their consumerist behaviour, experts say. — VNS

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VNA-Telam agreement boosts news co-operation

BUENOS AIRES — The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and Telam, the National News Agency of Argentina have agreed to strengthen co-operation in multi-media communications and other related fields.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed between VNA General Director Tran Mai Huong and Telam Vice Chairman Sergio Fernandez Novoa in Bariloche city, Argentina, on Friday.

The MoU, the second of its kind between the VNA and Telam was signed on the sidelines of the 3rd World Congress of News Agencies (WCNA), and represents the foundation for the two agencies to exchange audio-visual information products, which the two leaders said played an increasing role in the modern communication world.

The two sides also pledged to expand activities to other types of communication and would co-operate in training work.

Speaking at the ceremony, VNA General Director Tran Mai Huong congratulated Telam on its successful organisation of the 3rd WCNA and expressed his hope that the national news agency of Argentina would act as a bridge for Viet Nam to access media sources in the South American region.

The Telam Vice Chairman affirmed that the co-operation with the VNA was an important step for Telam in expanding international news service coverage.

During their stay in Argentina, the VNA delegation held bilateral meetings with representatives of a range of news agencies, including France's AFP, Cuba's Prensa Latina, Japan's Kyodo, the Republic of Korea's Yonhap, Indonesia's Antara, Mongolia's Montsame, Australia's AAP, Mexico's Notimex and Paraguay's IP.

Global congress

The Vietnam News Agency delegation attended the third World Congress of News Agencies (WCNA) which concluded in Bariloche city on Friday.

The congress held four sessions focusing on new media technology.

Representatives from around 70 news agencies throughout the globe and related organisations discussed booming public demand for information and put forth several initiatives on new communication products and services.

At the congress, the World Council of News Agencies agreed to elect Sergio Fernandez Novoa, Vice Chairman of the National News Agency of Argentina, Telam, as the Chair of the Council for the new tenure.

The fourth World Congress of News Agencies is expected to be held in Saudi Arabia in 2013. — VNS

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National TV show collects donations for flood victims

HA NOI — A national television programme entitled For our beloved Central Region was broadcast on Saturday to share sympathy for victims of the two storms that hit the northern part of the region.

Speaking on the programme, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said: "The Government's first concern has always been the situation of people in the storm area because this area has suffered from the biggest loss ever." He called on every one to contribute to help the victims.

After the programme finished, donation of more than US$2.4 million were received.

The two floods severely damage several provinces, including Ha Tinh, Quang Binh and Nghe An. The second storm left 77 dead and five missing.

Nghe An's relief committee worked hard over the past weeks to collect and distribute donations. Country leaders, organisations and individuals visited the region to help and show sympathies to the victims and Red Cross staff distributed relief, even when many areas were still under deep water.

On Saturday, Viet Nam Fatherland Front president Huynh Dam visited the family of Dang Huu Ky.

Ky, 58, died in the flood while trying to relocate people in a Ha Tinh village where he was chief.

International organisations and foreign governments have also donated money for flood victims. The Republic of Korea's Government decided to send $100,000 while the Japanese Government will grant emergency relief goods worth $240,000.

Meanwhile, fishing boats and crew were still missing in the region, said Nguyen Van Ap, chairman of Hau Loc District of Thanh Hoa Province.

There was still no news of Nguyen Van Hop, his fishing boat TH 90455TS and nine crew since they received the warning on October 16 of an impending flood, he said.

Hop had informed other boats of the situation and announced that he was headed back to port but his boat has not been seen since.

This was despite the search efforts of local authorities and families of the boatmen.

In other flood news, the driver of a bus that sank in flood waters last Monday, in which 20 people drowned or are missing, has been prosecuted in Ha Tinh for "violations", police said.

It was alleged that driver Tran Van Truong, 35, drove the bus into the flood.

Later the same day, Nghi Xuan District police found a dead body floating on the Lam River, which was suspected to have been either one of the five bus passengers unaccounted for or one of eight other people in the area listed as missing.

Meanwhile, the Central Weather Forecast Centre has warned of another cold front moving through the north, which was expected to bring rain and storms to the central area today. — VNS

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Career advice vital for graduates

HCM CITY — Universities and other training institutions should provide career orientation for their students, experts told a workshop held last Saturday in HCM City.

Dr Nguyen Anh Hong of HCM City Social Sciences and Humanities University (HSSHU) admitted it is not yet considered an important issue though some city universities and colleges have set up centres to provide orientation and find jobs for students.

Dr Le Thi Thanh Mai of the Viet Nam National University of HCM City, said she and her colleagues conducted a study on such centres and found only five universities and colleges had them but even they did not attract many students.

"Most of them merely inform students about jobs and hold job fairs and fail to provide career counselling," she said.

The HCM City University of Economics and Law even co-operates with corporates like Dutch Lady Viet Nam, Sacombank, and Hoa Sen Group to provide internship to its students, but fails when it comes to counselling.

Another study, this one of 200 students at the Viet Nam National University's dormitory, found most of them worried about what job to pursue after graduation and what skills they should learn, Mai said.

Dr Nguyen Thi Kim Loan, Hong's colleague, said employers also had a responsibility to provide career guidance and not just educational institutions.

But the task should begin as early as 12th grade, continue through university, with companies and universities holding forums regularly to guide students, she added.

Dang Duc Thanh, deputy chairman of the HCM City Enterprise Association, said with career counselling and a choice of future career made, students were likely to join short-term courses or even look for part-time employment in their field of choice while still in college.

Hong said universities and colleges should also provide up-to-date information on the labour market and employers' requirements so that students could equip themselves with suitable skills. — VNS

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Malaysia police rescue 8 Vietnamese slave workers

Malaysian police rescued eight Vietnamese women who were forced into labor slavery in Kuala Lumpur late last month, according to the Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA).

The organization said the women were hired to work for a massage parlor owned by a Vietnamese woman and her Malaysian husband in the Malaysian capital.

The couple seized all the papers of the workers, who were confined in their workplace and had to work from 9 p.m to 5 a.m everyday without payment in three months.

One of the workers called the USA-based CAMSA for help on September 24, and Malaysian police then raided the parlor to rescue the slave workers four days later.

Police said they will take legal actions against the couple for human trafficking.

They are still investigating whether the couple has other accomplices in Malaysia or Vietnam.

“The biggest concern is that the legal process may take two to three months while the victims cannot wait to return home," said Nguyen Dinh Thang of CAMSA.

CAMSA is asking Malaysian police to allow humanitarian groups to visit the victims while they are waiting for the trial.

They also called for Vietnamese people who applied to work overseas to be alert to the danger of being forced into labor slavery.

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Vietnam faces old-tech dumping ground future

A public telephone booth located in Hoan Kiem District's Quan Su Street in Ha Noi. There are thousands of public phone booths that have been installed but no longer function

Photo: VNA

It is time to tighten imports of technological devices because the practice is pushing Viet Nam into becoming a technology dump, experts say.

The Lao Dong newspaper cited an unnamed foreign telecommunications expert researching the Vietnamese market as saying he was surprised that the USB 3G Internet connection, and high-end phones like iPhone and iPad were to be found in plenty.

But he was even more surprised that these products were used mainly as decoration by their owners who rarely used their technological features.

"It is amazing that Vietnamese could spend more than ten million dong to buy these products, then seldom use them.

"If they do use them, these products are utilized only to play games, listen to music, or surf Internet, instead of a device for work."

This is a reason why technological firms consider Vietnam a lucrative market, he says.

Vietnamese information technology experts have asserted that the "wastage" of technological devices should be seen as a serious problem.

Mobile phone service providers have invested mountains of money in connection technology systems and terminal equipment including G-Phone, HomePhone, E-Com, E-Phone, beeper, and public phones.

But after a short time, the failure of these investments becomes obvious, the experts say.

Ten years ago, many Vietnamese people were proud of having a beeper.

Though it was uncomfortable to receive messages passively, Vietnam imported this technology and its devices. But the product died a premature death.

The death of the City-phone service that was official announced by Vietnam Post and Telecom Corporation (VNPT) in September this year is more bitter and painful.

The technological infrastructure that VNPT built over many years for the Citiphone and the terminal equipment needed for the device was not cheap, but the money has gone to waste because nobody uses it anymore.

Telecom service providers have raced to import terminal equipment and offer wireless telephone services such as G-Phone, offered by VNPT using GMS technology, HomePhone by Viettel and E-Com by EVN Telecom.

They have delivered these devices free to rural, mountainous and remote areas with high expectation of making profit from fees levied for their use. But an error in gauging the market has cost the enterprises dearly.

Many households in rural areas have devices given by all three providers but they do not have a need to use them. While many have chosen to return the devices, others have simply thrown them away.

Another product or service that is all but dead is the public telephone booth.

It is estimated that there are thousands of public phone booths that have been installed but do not function anymore.

The trillions of dong invested in all the above ventures have vanished.

The latest cause for worry is the import of cheap mobile phones from China. They are popular among consumers, but they break down easily and soon become a waste product.

The government needs to find qualitative and other entry barriers to prevent a market glut of short-lived technological devices and make citizens more aware of the harmful impacts of their consumerist behavior, experts say.

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Country rushes to repair and aid after flood

Photo: Tuoi Tre

In the aftermath of the last two weeks of severe flooding that devastated north-central provinces, authorities are rushing to repair roads and provide aids for victims.

The Ministry of Transport has asked the Vietnam Road Administration and transport officials in the provinces of Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh to repair and consolidate road sections damaged by the floods.

National Highway 1 has been reopened to traffic again as have 7 and 8, and the Ho Chi Minh Highway that runs through the west of the region.

Vietnam Railway deployed 1,500 repair workers to work on the north-south railway which has been disrupted for a week so that services can resume by Friday. More than 1,000 train passengers have been forced to take buses.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development asked the Government to supply affected provinces with seeds taken from the national reserve to prepare for new crops once the flooding recedes.

Accordingly, Nghe An and Quang Tri Provinces will receive 350 tons each, while Ha Tinh Province will get 600 tons of seeds including rice, corn and vegetables.

The Ministry of Education and Training has raised more than VND500 million (US$25,000) which will be spent on textbooks and school equipment, while the Education Publishing House will print additional textbooks for school children in the regions whose books were swept away.

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Four Jetstar Pacific porters busted for theft

Police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested four Jetstar Pacific porters for stealing passenger's property on Thursday.

According to Tan Binh District’s police, a 50-year-old passenger

disembarked from flight No.737 from the central city of Hai Phong to discover he had been fleeced.

At Tan Son Nhat International Airport's baggage carousel, he found his luggage slashed.  VND3.2 million (US$164.18) and jewelry worth containing some 0.7 oz gold had disappeared from his luggage.

After the theft's report, Jetstar Pacific launched an inspection and caught four of its porters red-handed dividing the property.

In unrelated news, also on Thursday Tan Binh’s police said that at around 3-4 a.m. three crooks used a welding torch to break into an ATM machine on Cong Hoa Street.

The criminals absconded with VND822 million ($42,175).

They all wore helmets and facemasks, and covered the glass booth of the machine before going to work, police said.

Nearly two hours later a trio attempted the same scheme before being scared off by bank guards.

A police investigation is underway.

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Corpse shakedown

A family says bad cops and shakedowns kept them from recovering the body of a deceased loved-one for five days.

Relatives of a deceased Vietnamese-Canadian have accused a policeman and several others of attempting to extort money from them as they struggled to recover his body.

For refusing to pay kickbacks, the family said they endured a five-day nightmare before picking up the body at a hospital in District 7. The saga concluded with them discovering that the body had been autopsied without their consent.

A relative of the dead man, who asked not to be named, said the 57- year-old Viet Kieu known only as N., was taken to a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2 on the night of September 8 following a stroke.

Doctors told the family he died before reaching the hospital. Regulations state that district police are in charge of all postmortem investigations, including autopsy examinations, and the issuance of death certificates.

The process often takes no more than one day.

The distressed relative said after N. was pronounced dead, a District 2 policeman identified only as D. met them at the hospital and asked them to take the body to the District 7 Hospital. They would receive instructions at the facility on how to proceed from there, the policeman was quoted as telling the family.

A car was mobilized to the hospital in District 2 hospital to take the body to District 7 Hospital and two men onboard offered to take care of everything for between US$4,500 and $6,500, the relative said.

“After refusing the service, policeman D. asked us to come to [District 2’s] Thao Dien Ward People’s Committee [the local government],” he said. “D. told us he would issue the death certificate.”

But, he said D. later changed his mind and asked them to conduct the procedures themselves at Thao Dien Ward Police Office, saying “just try to see if you can handle it!”

After failing to obtain related documents from the police office, N’s relatives phoned D. and were told to meet him the following day [Friday] at the District 2 Police Office. Instead, the family sought help from the Canadian Consulate General in HCMC.

After securing an official request for assistance from the General Consulate, the distraught family called D. for an appointment on September 13 (Monday) to obtain official release for the corpse and a death certificate. D. said they couldn’t get the body of their relative back that day because he was busy taking his wife to a doctor’s appointment.

The frustrated residents managed to meet D. later in the day and, after two hours of waiting at the police station, they were instructed to come to District 7 Hospital to pick up the body.

“D. and some others went to District 7 Hospital. The two men who had propositioned us were also present,” he said. “At the hospital, we caught a glimpse of the doctors cutting the skull, chest and belly [of N.], although we had not been notified about the autopsy and the Consulate General had requested no such examination.”

Thanh Nien contacted Nguyen Van Tue, Chief Investigator at the District 2 Police Department and he said he would report the case to higher authorities.

“It is clear that N’s family was livid,” he said. “In this case, it was necessary to carry out an autopsy examination to identify the actual cause of the death. But if their accusations are true, the behavior of the involved policeman is unacceptable.”

He also said D. was wrong to ask N’s relatives to handle things alone at Thao Dien Ward Police station because only District police are to handle those procedures for the bereaved.

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Corpse shakedown

A family says bad cops and shakedowns kept them from recovering the body of a deceased loved-one for five days.

Relatives of a deceased Vietnamese-Canadian have accused a policeman and several others of attempting to extort money from them as they struggled to recover his body.

For refusing to pay kickbacks, the family said they endured a five-day nightmare before picking up the body at a hospital in District 7. The saga concluded with them discovering that the body had been autopsied without their consent.

A relative of the dead man, who asked not to be named, said the 57- year-old Viet Kieu known only as N., was taken to a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2 on the night of September 8 following a stroke.

Doctors told the family he died before reaching the hospital. Regulations state that district police are in charge of all postmortem investigations, including autopsy examinations, and the issuance of death certificates.

The process often takes no more than one day.

The distressed relative said after N. was pronounced dead, a District 2 policeman identified only as D. met them at the hospital and asked them to take the body to the District 7 Hospital. They would receive instructions at the facility on how to proceed from there, the policeman was quoted as telling the family.

A car was mobilized to the hospital in District 2 hospital to take the body to District 7 Hospital and two men onboard offered to take care of everything for between US$4,500 and $6,500, the relative said.

“After refusing the service, policeman D. asked us to come to [District 2’s] Thao Dien Ward People’s Committee [the local government],” he said. “D. told us he would issue the death certificate.”

But, he said D. later changed his mind and asked them to conduct the procedures themselves at Thao Dien Ward Police Office, saying “just try to see if you can handle it!”

After failing to obtain related documents from the police office, N’s relatives phoned D. and were told to meet him the following day [Friday] at the District 2 Police Office. Instead, the family sought help from the Canadian Consulate General in HCMC.

After securing an official request for assistance from the General Consulate, the distraught family called D. for an appointment on September 13 (Monday) to obtain official release for the corpse and a death certificate. D. said they couldn’t get the body of their relative back that day because he was busy taking his wife to a doctor’s appointment.

The frustrated residents managed to meet D. later in the day and, after two hours of waiting at the police station, they were instructed to come to District 7 Hospital to pick up the body.

“D. and some others went to District 7 Hospital. The two men who had propositioned us were also present,” he said. “At the hospital, we caught a glimpse of the doctors cutting the skull, chest and belly [of N.], although we had not been notified about the autopsy and the Consulate General had requested no such examination.”

Thanh Nien contacted Nguyen Van Tue, Chief Investigator at the District 2 Police Department and he said he would report the case to higher authorities.

“It is clear that N’s family was livid,” he said. “In this case, it was necessary to carry out an autopsy examination to identify the actual cause of the death. But if their accusations are true, the behavior of the involved policeman is unacceptable.”

He also said D. was wrong to ask N’s relatives to handle things alone at Thao Dien Ward Police station because only District police are to handle those procedures for the bereaved.

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Scientists, former officials sign petition on bauxite mines

A group of scientists and intellectuals have signed a proposal asking the government to halt bauxite exploration projects in the Central Highlands to conduct further research and gather public opinion on the matter.

Former Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh and former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Hung Vo signed the petition.

Binh told Thanh Nien she maintained her stand that the bauxite exploration requires careful research and consideration.

Vo said the proposal called for a comprehensive review of the exploration by scientists, experts and social activists. All research findings need to be presented to legislators and the public for their opinion.

He said other large countries have stopped mining their natural resources and turned to other poor countries for raw materials.

“Vietnam is no longer a poor country and it’s becoming a middle income country,” Vo said. “We don’t necessarily have to sell raw ore products.”

Concerns have been raised about Vietnam’s two bauxite mining and processing complexes in the Central Highlands since the recent toxic spill in Hungary. The red sludge was a byproduct of the refinement of bauxite into alumina.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has ordered state-owned mining group Vinacomin to review the designs for its toxic waste storage facilities.

Vinacomin reiterated its position that the projects are safe, but said it would take measures to minimize environmental impacts in the event of an accident.

In an interview with Thanh Nien this week, Nguyen Thanh Liem, a Vinacomin official, said the group considered moving future bauxite projects closer to the coast so that seawater could be used to neutralize the red mud.

The project in Lam Dong Province is expected to begin selling its products in April next year. The two projects have a combined annual output of 1.25 million tons and 2.4 million tons of the toxic red sludge will be produced every year, Liem said.

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One step closer to complete Pan-Asia railway

A major step was taken towards the completion of a Pan-Asian rail project after the first segment of an international railroad opened in Cambodia on Friday.

According to the Asian Development Bank, the 650-kilometer segment stretches from Cambodia’s border with Thailand, through the capital city of Phnom Penh, and southward to Sihanoukville.

The new railway will benefit Cambodia, whose underdeveloped transportation network has driven up the price of imported and locally made goods, ADB said in a statement. The Manila-based bank is providing US$84 million to the $141-million project.

Cambodia’s new railroad, which is slated for completion in 2013, will be linked to Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City to complete the Pan-Asian railway.

Cambodia and Vietnam have already signed an agreement to link their railways, ADB said.

“We are on the cusp of a contiguous Iron Silk Road stretching from Singapore to Scotland,” said Kunio Senga, Director General of ADB’s Southeast Asia Department. “This possibility has been talked about for decades, but today the dream has finally taken a big step toward becoming reality.”

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One step closer to complete Pan-Asia railway

A major step was taken towards the completion of a Pan-Asian rail project after the first segment of an international railroad opened in Cambodia on Friday.

According to the Asian Development Bank, the 650-kilometer segment stretches from Cambodia’s border with Thailand, through the capital city of Phnom Penh, and southward to Sihanoukville.

The new railway will benefit Cambodia, whose underdeveloped transportation network has driven up the price of imported and locally made goods, ADB said in a statement. The Manila-based bank is providing US$84 million to the $141-million project.

Cambodia’s new railroad, which is slated for completion in 2013, will be linked to Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City to complete the Pan-Asian railway.

Cambodia and Vietnam have already signed an agreement to link their railways, ADB said.

“We are on the cusp of a contiguous Iron Silk Road stretching from Singapore to Scotland,” said Kunio Senga, Director General of ADB’s Southeast Asia Department. “This possibility has been talked about for decades, but today the dream has finally taken a big step toward becoming reality.”

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Unplanned mining threatens geopark's appeal

Unplanned stone mining is denigrating the beauty of the Dong Van Stone Highlands, Vietnam’s first UNESCO-recognized geopark, local newspaper Tuoi Tre reported.

Various machines are operating throughout the highlands in the northern province of Ha Giang, breaking and grinding stones to clear sites for the construction of residential areas, markets and hydropower plants among other things, the news source reported.

“If [individuals and organizations] apply for mining [stones], they will be licensed to do so, but they have to follow zoning plans, meaning that they have to [set up mining sites] far from roads, at least two kilometers, so they don’t affect the park’s beautiful vistas,” Ma Ngoc Giang, Director of the Dong Van Geopark Management Board, was quoted as saying.

Local people, meanwhile, continue to use stones for everything from fences to walls, the paper reported.

In fact, while authorities said they are conducting a project to enhance the awareness of 230,000 about the protection of the highlands’ geological heritage, locals told Tuoi Tre that they have never heard about any “protection campaign.”

Because they lack the equipment needed to harvest large stones, they often choose stones’ peaks. The Van Chai Stone Seal Beach and the Stone Flower Forest are locals’ favorite targets because they are easy places to cut small precious stones. 

As a result, the stone highlands, which was the second in the South East Asia to be recognized as a member of UNESCO-supported Global Geoparks Network (GGN) on October 3, are now addled by dusty scars.

A geopark, according to GGN, is a nationally protected area containing a number of geological heritage sites of particular importance, rarity or aesthetic appeal.

In an interview with Tuoi Tre, Pham Quang Tan, Chairman of Meo Vac District – one of the four districts that border Dong Van, said that they have initiated plans to zone mining sites to protect the 574.35-square-kilometer park’s valuable resources and told locals about the plans.

However, it’s unadvisable to absolutely ban stone mining, because it would be costly to transport construction materials from other places, considering the park's tough topography, Tan said.

Giang said it’s impossible to prohibit local people from mining stones, “but, instead, we need to show them another way of developing the local economy, home building and extending fields.”

It’s also necessary to break stones for construction sites, according to Giang.

Local authorities, however, need to establish clear zones and strictly protected areas in addition to protecting the park’s views and local livlihoods, he said.

Trinh Danh, former director of the Vietnam Geology Museum, meanwhile, suggested identifying important heritages at Dong Van and then strictly protecting them.

Local authorities can allow people to mine certain areas of the park on condition that they won’t harm to the heritages.

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Lack of professionalism hampers Vietnam’s rescue capacity

Vietnam’s disaster rescue capacity is rather poor, Nguyen Son Ha, former chief of the National Committee for Search and Rescue said in an interview with Thanh Nien.

One of the shortcomings, according to Ha, is a shortage of specialized equipment.

Vietnam only has four rescue helicopters with a range of 150 kilometers. As a result, the country is incapable of providing aerial response to disasters at sea.

What's more, the helicopters cannot fly out in bad weather. 

Rescue boats are similarly inadquate, he said. The country’s most advanced boat, Sa41, is only able to stand the 6^th degree [out of nine degrees] of waves.

“Therefore, when typhoons cause accidents at sea, we don't have the resources to make timely rescues,” Ha said, citing that hundreds of fishermen died at sea when the super typhoon Chanchu hit Vietnam in 2006.

Due to a dearth of advanced equipment, local rescuers responded late to landslides and floods in the northern and central regions as well, he added.

The lack of major rescue forces is another big problem.

At the moment Vietnam has only three centers dedicated to sea rescue, three centers for oil spill mititgation and a few agencies responsible for mining accidents. The rest, meanwhile, deal with a wide range of emergencies, he said.

The specialized forces are newly established, Ha said, so their expertise is still limited. Meanwhile, the quality of the general assignment crews isn’t very good, according to the official.

He alleged that while the scope of their training is broad, it isn't very substantive.

“Our want to mobilize local populations […] to deal with natural disasters; however, now there are many disasters and accidents that can’t be dealt with many people, but require professional forces.”

Ha also pointed out shortcomings in localities’ ability to deal with disasters, including local people’s lack of preparations for storms and floods.

On the other hand, he stressed that the government has made plans to strengthen the country’s rescue capacity by investmenting in new equipment.

According to Ha the country plans to purchase two advanced helicopters from France and build 19 rescue boats locally.

The country is also looking into establishing search and rescue centers at various islands like Phu Quoc and Con Dao and Truong Sa Archipelago.

Still, Ha was concerned that even after the proposed purchases, Vietnam will have a hard time effecively dealing with tsunamis or hurricanes in the immediate future.

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Lack of professionalism hampers Vietnam’s rescue capacity

Vietnam’s disaster rescue capacity is rather poor, Nguyen Son Ha, former chief of the National Committee for Search and Rescue said in an interview with Thanh Nien.

One of the shortcomings, according to Ha, is a shortage of specialized equipment.

Vietnam only has four rescue helicopters with a range of 150 kilometers. As a result, the country is incapable of providing aerial response to disasters at sea.

What's more, the helicopters cannot fly out in bad weather. 

Rescue boats are similarly inadquate, he said. The country’s most advanced boat, Sa41, is only able to stand the 6^th degree [out of nine degrees] of waves.

“Therefore, when typhoons cause accidents at sea, we don't have the resources to make timely rescues,” Ha said, citing that hundreds of fishermen died at sea when the super typhoon Chanchu hit Vietnam in 2006.

Due to a dearth of advanced equipment, local rescuers responded late to landslides and floods in the northern and central regions as well, he added.

The lack of major rescue forces is another big problem.

At the moment Vietnam has only three centers dedicated to sea rescue, three centers for oil spill mititgation and a few agencies responsible for mining accidents. The rest, meanwhile, deal with a wide range of emergencies, he said.

The specialized forces are newly established, Ha said, so their expertise is still limited. Meanwhile, the quality of the general assignment crews isn’t very good, according to the official.

He alleged that while the scope of their training is broad, it isn't very substantive.

“Our want to mobilize local populations […] to deal with natural disasters; however, now there are many disasters and accidents that can’t be dealt with many people, but require professional forces.”

Ha also pointed out shortcomings in localities’ ability to deal with disasters, including local people’s lack of preparations for storms and floods.

On the other hand, he stressed that the government has made plans to strengthen the country’s rescue capacity by investmenting in new equipment.

According to Ha the country plans to purchase two advanced helicopters from France and build 19 rescue boats locally.

The country is also looking into establishing search and rescue centers at various islands like Phu Quoc and Con Dao and Truong Sa Archipelago.

Still, Ha was concerned that even after the proposed purchases, Vietnam will have a hard time effecively dealing with tsunamis or hurricanes in the immediate future.

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Missing boat and crew to return home on Oct. 25

The Chinese side is ready to hand over to Vietnam fishing boat QNg 66478 TS and its nine-member crew in the afternoon of October 25 due to nice weather at sea.

This information was delivered by Trinh Duc Hai, deputy chief of the Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department during an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency in the afternoon of Oct. 24.

According to Hai, officials from the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department met with representatives of the Vietnamese embassy in China at noon on Oct. 24 and informed the Vietnamese side of its plan.

Regarding hand-over procedures, the Chinese side said it will send a fisheries administration boat to bring the Vietnamese fishermen and tug fishing boat QNg 66478 TS, which had its gear box broken down, to a sea area agreed by both sides.

The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry promptly informed the National Search and Rescue Committee, the Command of Border Guard force and the People’s Committee of the central province of Quang Ngai .

The National Search and Rescue Committee decided to send a rescue ship to receive fishing boat QNg 66478 TS and its crew to ensure safety for these fishermen and their property./.

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Over 19 bln VND raised for flood victims

The Vietnam Red Cross Association (VRC) has by Oct. 22 raised over 19 billion VND (960,000 USD) from individuals and organisations in the country and abroad to flood victims in central Vietnam.

Of the sum, 10.85 billion VND was from foreign donors.

The donations included 155,000 Swiss France from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 100,000 USD from the Government and the Red Cross society of the Republic of Korea, 80,000 USD from the Government and the Red Cross of the US, 60,000 USD from the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi and the Chinese Red Cross society, and 30,000 USD from the Singaporean Red Cross.

The VRC has sent four missions to provide water filters, blankets, mosquito nets, tents, food, rice seeds, as well as books, text books and other necessities for flood victims.

By Oct. 21, floods caused by heavy rains claimed 76 lives and left six missing in the central region.

They included 15 passengers on a bus, 24 people in Nghe An province, 20 in Ha Tinh province, 12 in Quang Binh province and five people in Thanh Hoa province./.

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Russian Academy of Sciences opens branch in Vietnam

The campus of Binh Duong University

The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) on Saturday opened a branch in the campus of Binh Duong University located in the Vietnamese southern province of the same name.

The sub-institute is expected to open up new opportunities for Binh Duong and other provinces in the region in training high-quality human resources in science-technology.

Earlier, Doctor of Science Cao Van Phuong, who is also rector of Binh Duong University, was honored as an academician of the RSA for his great contributions to bolstering traditional friendship between the two nations.

He was also awarded with noble Keldysh Golden Medal by the RAS for his achievements in mathematics and mechanics.

Establish in 1991 with 12 centers and 520 academicians, 30 of them are foreigners, the RAS functions in compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation and the Academy Charter.

Its principal aim consists in organization and performance of fundamental researches for the purpose of obtaining further knowledge of the natural, social and human development principles that promote technological, economic, social and cultural development in Russia.

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Rescuers find bus lost in central flood

Rescue workers attempt to recover a bus that gushing floodwaters swept into the La River, in Ha Tinh Province. As of press time, 20 passengers had been listed as dead or missing and 15 bodies have been recovered in and around the wreckage.

Rescuers on Wednesday (October 20) finally located a bus that had been swept away by floodwaters on Monday in Ha Tinh Province.

Thirty-eight people were onboard. Twenty have been listed as dead or missing. At around 11:55 a.m. on Thursday the bus was towed to a nearby shore. The body of a three year old child floated out of the ruined vehicle. Divers extracted nine other corpses from the tomblike vessel; five others were found washed upon the shore or floating in nearby waters. Police are now attempting to identify the corpses. Several families have already identified their dead and are preparing the bodies for funeral rites.

Divers located the vehicle on the bottom of the La River about one kilometer from where it plunged into the river. Early this month, the central region suffered the worst floods in 30 years. 54 people were killed, two were declared missing and 44 injured -not including those on the bus.

One of the survivors, 57-year-old Nguyen Thanh Thang, told the Tuoi Tre newspaper that the bus broke down near the Rong Bridge at around 4 a.m. in Ha Tinh Province’s Nghi Xuan District. The bus was en route from Dak Nong to Nam Dinh Province.

Thang said the passengers thought that the rushing water was simply passing under the bus before realizing they were in danger.

As the river swelled, flood waters swept down and threw the bus into the river.

CASUALTIES IN FLOOD

* 54 people were killed. This doesn’t include the 66 that died in the flood from September 29-October 5. * Another 20 people were missing and 44 other injured. * 319 communes in Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces are still flooded. 35 communes in Nghe An are considered isolated. * 266,659 homes were flooded (Source: Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control, statistics as reported by 9 pm on October 20)

Eighteen people smashed windows and swam to safety. Those who couldn’t swim remained inside or clung to the bus, not knowing what to do. Thang, the survivor, guessed that the vehicle was completely submerged after about 20 minutes.

Passenger Tran Dang Luc, 47, recalled the horrifying sound of his son crying for help.

“He cried out ‘dad, I can’t swim’,” he told Vietnam News Agency. Luc tried to push his son and his niece out of the sinking bus but the terrified kids kept darting back into the vehicle, he said.

“I hope they can recover their bodies,” he said.

Forty-six-year-old Tran Thi Mung, another passenger, was rescued while struggling to swim ashore. Her 19-year-old son Tuyen remains missing.

“We clung to the bus for 15 to 20 minutes. My son told me, ‘Mom, I’m very cold,’” Mung told the Associated Press (AP). “We were together, and he was holding my hand.”

Tuyen can’t swim and Mung has never been in deep water. As they clung to the bus, she tried to prepare Tuyen for their ordeal, first telling him to remove his clothes and then to lie back and float. But he was too scared and there was no time. He decided to help others instead.

“He kept calling into the bus, urging the others to take the children outside and give them to the strong young men,” Mung was quoted by AP as saying. “He managed to take out one child that was saved.”

Minutes later, the bus began to sink and Mung lost her hold on Tuyen. She tried to keep her own head above water, she watched her son drown.

“I saw him slowly disappear in the water and he yelled, ‘Mom, where are you?’” she told AP, gasping as she wiped her swollen eyes.” The current was so strong, I could not reach him. I still remember that image vividly of him slowly sinking with his hand waving, trying to ask for help.”

Just then, the bus rolled onto its side and vanished into the murky water, with several screaming passengers still huddled inside.

Mung thrashed around in the swift waters for 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). She was saved, finally, by a fisherman – aged 19 like Tuyen.

RED CROSS APPEALS FOR $1 MLN

The International Red Cross appealed for more than US$1 million in aid for victims of heavy flooding in Vietnam, AFP reported on Monday (October 18). “With large parts of central Vietnam still battling the after-effects of flooding, which has killed dozens of people and affected half a million residents, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is launching an emergency appeal for 1,034,754 Swiss francs ($1.08 million, 772,216 euros) to assist survivors,” it said in a statement. Federation spokesman Paul Conneally said the numbers included those who have been displaced or suffered damages to their homes, land or agricultural property. The Red Cross said fresh flooding since last week has added to damage caused by torrential rains earlier in the month, when rivers burst their banks and dams overflowed. As of Thursday (October 20) Thanh Nien’s readers had donated a total of VND5.86 billion ($300,667) to help flood victims in the central region. The paper has been organizing trips to the area to deliver the relief funds.

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