Vietnam Red Cross to increase ties with Laos, Cambodia

The Vietnam Red Cross will help its Lao and Cambodian counterparts train their staff, increase medical services and conduct charitable eye surgery for people along border provinces of Laos and Cambodia .

Tran Ngoc Tang, President of the Vietnam Red Cross made the commitment at a Red Cross Leaders’ Meeting of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia held in Ho Chi Minh on Nov. 13.

According to Tang, cooperation between the three countries’ associations has contributed to improving living conditions of people in border provinces.

Over the past four years of signing cooperation in the field, the Vietnam Red Cross has helped the two others in health care and charitable activities worth over 8 billion VND, he said.

The meeting reviewed the implementation of cooperation agreements of the three countries’ red cross organisations in the 2006-2010 period and discussed cooperation programmes for the next five years.

The three associations will encourage all border provinces to cooperate in red cross movements in order to share information on natural disasters, diseases and discuss preventive measures, mutual assistance and improvement of health care in emergency cases, Tang said.

He noted that the three will also share information on their activities, international red cross movements, humanitarian cooperation programmes./.

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NGOs call on Laos to scrap Mekong dam project

A coalition of NGOs and local groups has called for the cancellation of a planned hydropower dam plan on the lower Mekong River.

In a letter dated October 13 to the Mekong River Commission (MRC), a river basin management organization directed by the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, Save the Mekong called on the region’s governments to cancel the Xayaboury Dam project in Laos.

The coalition also urged for a halt to the project’s Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA) process, a requirement under the 1995 Mekong Agreement for countries to jointly review any dam proposed for the Mekong mainstream that is coordinated through the MRC.

“We write to convey our complete disagreement with the initiation of the PNPCA process for the Xayaboury dam on the Mekong River’s mainstream,” Save the

Mekong wrote in the letter co-signed by 24 civil society and people’s networks and NGOs from the Mekong region and internationally.

In response to Thanh Nien Weekly’s request for comments, MRC spokesman Khy Lim only said: “We are preparing a response to Save the Mekong. And we will get back to you as soon as we have it.”

“Abundant evidence produced by the MRC itself has already demonstrated the Xayaboury dam to be exceptionally destructive, and a project that should not go ahead,” the letter said.

The Xayaboury dam would have been the first dam to be built on the lower Mekong Mainstream. It would submerge the homes of 2,130 people from 10 villages in Laos and a further 200,000 people located near the dam in Laos and Thailand would suffer impacts to their livelihoods, income and food security.

The dam would also harm the river’s ecosystem, blocking fish migration along the river’s upper reaches with consequences that would be felt throughout the Mekong River basin. Up to 41 fish species would be at risk of extinction, including the critically endangered and iconic Mekong Giant Catfish, the coalition said.

The coalition criticized the MRC for “a complete failure of transparency” because the intergovernmental body has not made the dam’s project documents available to the general public. It further accused the MRC’s PNPCA process of being ambiguous and having no commitment to consult with the public.

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Vietnam, Laos to open joint wartime museum

The two neighbouring Vietnam and Laos are to open a joint museum in the Lao province of Savanakhet in memory of the two countries’ struggle for national salvation.

The information was released by Vice Director of the Savanakhet provincial Department for Labour and Social Affairs Bounauer Phomkhe on September 9.

He said the museum construction started in late 2007 at a cost of some 5 billion Kip.

On display will be war-era relics related to Lao and Vietnamese soldiers and people as well as enemy uniforms and weapons collected at the battlefields, especially during the bloodshed of Lam Son 719 and Road No. 9 campaign.

The exhibits would help visitors better understand the significance of the two nations’ struggle for independence and the aggressors’ nature, Phomkhe said.

The museum will also provide materials for research on the history of the struggle for revolutionary movements in Laos and educate its young generations in the special solidarity with Vietnam, which, he said, was cultivated by blood and bones./.

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Vietnamese in Laos celebrate major anniversaries

The General Association of overseas Vietnamese in Laos (GA) on August 19 held a meeting to celebrate the country’s National Day and the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

At the meeting, attended by the Laotian Minister of Education Phankham Viphavan, Vietnamese Ambassador in Laos Ta Minh Chau and other senior Lao officials, the GA’s chairman Hoang Dieu highlighted the association’s achievements over the past year.

The GA donated 50 million VND to help flood-hit victims from the storm Kestina, 20 million kip for the Bolikhamsay provincial Party Committee, 1,000 USD for flood victims in Atopu province, 20,000 USD to build schools for Vietnamese children in Laos as well as two charity houses worth 12,000 USD.

The association, along with the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos and the Lao Ministry of Education, have provided 14 scholarships for Vietnamese students in Laos to attend university in Vietnam as well as opened Vietnamese language classes for overseas children.

The GA has also worked with a number of artists to help organise various kinds of performances during major celebrations and has requested the Lao state to present orders and medals to 59 overseas Vietnamese for their great services to the Lao revolution.

Speaking at the ceremony, Ambassador Chau asked the Vietnamese community to uphold their traditional unity and carry out pertinent activities when celebrating the country’s major anniversaries./.

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