ANALYSIS by Ken Stier in Hanoi, South China Morning Post
October 30 1998

With Vietnam's recent release of more than a dozen political and religious prisoners among the nearly 8,000 inmates set free early in a two-part amnesty, Hanoi scored some points diplomatically.

But the handling of the just-concluded visit by the United Nations envoy on religion clearly demonstrates that the Government has not shed its habit of shooting itself in the foot.

After proposing a visit to Vietnam three years ago, the UN special rapporteur on religious intolerance, Abdelfatah Amor, was finally invited by Hanoi to visit and promised unfettered access to whomever he wished. But what happened on the ground was just the opposite. Vietnamese officials undermined every attempt to see independent religious figures.

At the Thanh Minh Zen monastery in Ho Chi Minh City, security officers tried to force the monks to turn the UN envoy away, until the abbot threatened to immolate himself on the spot. Police backed off, but still blocked Mr. Amor, who was there in the hope of meeting three monks from the independent, but outlawed, United Buddhist Church of Vietnam who had been freed under the amnesty.

The one independent monk Mr. Amor did manage to meet, Thich Nhat Ban, had supposedly just been released from a re-education camp, but the camp commander interrupted the conversation so many times that Mr. Amor had to walk out.

When attempting a private chat with the country's Catholic Cardinal, the two walked the seminary corridors followed by government minders trying to eavesdrop. By the end of his trip even the undemonstrative Mr. Amor was so exasperated he abruptly cancelled meetings with foreign reporters.

A statement issued after his plane was in the air on Wednesday was highly critical.

"While thanking the Government of Vietnam for its invitation, the special envoy wishes to remind it of the necessity of respect for the rules and guarantees of his mandate regarding freedom of movement and freedom to meet anybody without any restraints or repercussions."

The complete report he will submit to the UN Human Rights Commission in March should be even more forceful, though past reports he submitted, mild in their tone, have been disappointing to some.

In his 1994 report on China, for example, Mr. Amor offered absolutely no criticism of authorities.

Hanoi officials would have carefully read that report and perhaps figured they could get away with the same.