By David Brunnstrom
HANOI, Nov 14, 2000 (Reuters) - Just days before a historic visit to Vietnam by U.S. President Bill Clinton, the country's most prominent dissident has urged a peaceful struggle against what he called obsolete communist dictatorship.
Nguyen Dan Que told Reuters he backed Clinton's three-day visit, due to start on Thursday, and a new era of cooperation between Vietnam War enemies Hanoi and Washington following the signing of bilateral trade pact in July.
"But development should go hand-in-hand with human rights and democracy," he said in an interview on Tuesday.
In a statement issued earlier by email Que urged Vietnamese to use peaceful means to force the Communist Party's powerful 19-member Politburo to dismantle party structures, let the National Assembly draft an election law, organise free-and-fair elections and draft a new constitution.
He urged taxpayers to withhold support for the "dictatorship."
"I am trying to ask the authorities to accept opposition in Vietnam" he said, adding that the current system was hampering development and Vietnam's ability to attract investment.
"I don't think you can get in money by maintaining a one-party dictatorship, and there is no place for dictatorship under the rules of the World Trade Organisation," he said of Hanoi's ambition to join the body.
"HARASSMENT AND SURVEILLANCE"
Que, 58, a physician who has spent about 18 of the last 25 years in prison because of his calls for democracy, was released in an amnesty in 1998. He said he has been under constant surveillance and frequently harassed.
He had his medical licence withdrawn and members of his family were also harassed, he added.
Vietnam had not kept pace with other countries in terms of political and economic reform, Que said.
"We need freedom of the press," said Que. "I cannot publish what I think and what I want to say to people."
He said the Politburo was the root of Vietnam's problems.
"They still cling to Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought, even though it is not appropriate in today's world," he said. "We would like to use all peaceful social, economic, cultural and political means to speak up for democracy.
"Marxist-Leninist thought can't solve problems like jobs, health, eduction and housing, etcetera. After the Cold War we need another type of thinking. We cannot accept this obsolete doctrine."
Que said the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 had seen only a unification of territory in Vietnam and now north and south needed "psychological" reunification.
Que, who lives in southern Ho Chi Minh City, said Vietnam needed to find "a new political line" as the world was changing fast thanks to the Internet and greater attention to rights issues.
Clinton is expected to raise rights when he becomes the first serving U.S. president to visit a unified Vietnam. International rights group have urged him to take a strong line.
Vietnam's ruling party tolerates little or no dissent and monopolises power at all levels of society.
Que estimated at least 60 people were held for political or religious reason at Xuan Loc jail in southern Vietnam's Dong Nai province and said there must be many more elsewhere. Vietnam denies holding political or religious prisoners.
Que issued a statement calling for rights ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright last year.