Hanoi takes heat on activists, rejects accusations

HANOI, Mar 12 (Reuters) One-party ruled Vietnam, rapidly gaining diplomatic and trade acceptance, was in the past week criticised by the US government and rights groups for arresting peaceful political activists, accusations the communist state rejects.

US-based Human Rights Watch and other groups described last Tuesday's detention of two outspoken lawyers, a Catholic priest in February and members of an outlawed trade union in January as ''a crackdown on dissent''.

Representatives in Hanoi from at least 30 countries have voiced concern about the arrests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomats said on Monday. They included the members of the European Union.

The US State Department, in its March 6 annual rights report, said the Hanoi ''government's human rights record remained unsatisfactory''. It said although the country's law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention ''the government continued to arrest and detain citizens for their political activities''.

These and other allegations that a few detainees were struck or manhandled by police during interrogation were rejected by a spokesman for the government, which says it respects human rights and democracy.

''In Vietnam, there is no political crackdown, no one is arrested for his or her political viewpoint, only those who violate the law will be dealt with according to Vietnamese laws,'' Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Dung said in a statement.

The Communist Party of Vietnam is the only legal political party in the country of 84 million people, who have an average annual per capita income of about 720 dollar, although economic market reforms are improving the standard of living for many.

INTERNATIONAL TIES Rights groups said Hanoi has been emboldened in the past five months by winning membership to the World Trade Organisation, removal from a US religious rights blacklist and hosting an Asia-Pacific summit. It is also the only candidate from Asia for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council in 2008-09.

A delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem, who is also foreign minister, is in the United States from March 11-16 for official meetings, visits to corporations and universities. President Nguyen Minh Triet and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung are expected to make separate visits to the United States this year.

Rights groups and groups of exiled Vietnamese who oppose one-party communist rule say arresting and charging activists flouts Hanoi's international commitments.

Vietnam says its laws reflect rights pronounced in UN declarations.

''The government's ongoing criminalisation of peaceful political dissent and violations of basic human rights threatens to undermine its economic achievements,'' said Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director at HRW.

Lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, founder of the outlawed Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam, and lawyer Le Thi Cong Nhan, spokeswoman for the outlawed Progressive Party, were detained on March 6 after police searches of their homes and offices in Hanoi.

They say they want Vietnam to have a multi-party system and greater freedom of speech.

They were charged with ''propagandising against the state'' and could be held for up to four months while police investigate.

The charges were similar to those against Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly who was moved from his home in the central city of Hue in February to a remote parish.

Ly was described by overseas supporters as one of the founders one year ago of ''Bloc 8406'', which some diplomats say comes closest to being a movement.

Few Vietnamese are aware of dissidents because of state control over media, but the arrests and charges against the priest and the lawyers were reported by the official Vietnam News Agency, published in newspapers and online.

REUTERS SB BST1218