Vietnam in struggle against 'hostile forces': party boss

03/02/2010
Bangkok Post

Vietnam will prevent "hostile forces" from exploiting democracy and human rights to sabotage the country's revolution, the Communist Party leader Nong Duc Manh, pictured in 2009, said Tuesday.

Vietnam will prevent "hostile forces" from exploiting democracy and human rights to sabotage the country's revolution, the Communist Party leader said Tuesday.

Nong Duc Manh made the comments at a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the Indochina Communist Party founded in Hong Kong by Ho Chi Minh on February 3, 1930.

"We are trying hard to maintain political stability and we struggle against all the manoeuvres of hostile forces by preventing them from profiting from matters such as democracy, human rights, multipartyism and pluralism to sabotage the Vietnamese revolution," said Manh, the country's most powerful political figure.

His comments follow the controversial jailing of four dissidents for trying to overthrow the regime. The case highlighted a climate of increasingly harsh political repression in Vietnam, New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

Manh added that the state guarantees religious liberty, but religious activity must be conducted according to law.

"We severely forbid all abuse of religious liberties to attack national security and public interests," he said.

Last month a court in Ho Chi Minh City jailed four democracy activists for between five and 16 years for trying to overthrow the regime, in a case criticised by the European Union, the United States and Britain.

Some observers see a link to next year's Communist Party Congress when high-ranking leadership posts will be determined, while one analyst said "law and order advocates" may be gaining ground among authorities in the one-party state.

The European Parliament and the US embassy have also expressed concern over Vietnam's treatment of followers of Thich Nhat Hanh, a French-based Zen master who is one of the world's most influential Buddhist monks.

Manh said the party and country are facing great challenges.

"We notably have to struggle against bureaucracy, corruption, waste and other negative phenomena. We also struggle against a moral and ideological degradation within the population."

Ho Chi Minh, the country's revered revolutionary leader, died in 1969 while his forces were still battling American troops. Vietnam was reunified in 1975 after decades of war against both the US, and French colonisers.

About half of Vietnam's population of about 86 million is under the age of 30, giving them no memory of the war years.

State television broadcast Manh's speech live after actors dramatised the country's liberation struggle while black-and-white combat footage played and the communist hammer-and-sickle flag flew.