Canada blasts
Vietnam's human rights record, supports WTO bid
AFP - Tuesday
• June 28, 2005
The first prime minister of Vietnam to visit Canada in over 30 years was
welcomed by human rights protesters outside parliament, while inside Canadian
Prime Minister Paul Martin offered both praise and criticism.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai signed agreements with Canada in the
areas of banking, agriculture, disease prevention, and adoptions.
Khai also secured a commitment for unspecified financial aid and Canadian
support for his country's bid to join the World Trade Organization -- but not
without getting an earful about his country's poor human rights record.
"The prime minister and I had a substantive discussion about human rights,
including religious freedoms and freedom of expression. I told the prime
minister that Canada has many citizens of Vietnamese origin and that many came
to Canada because of concern regarding respecting human rights, including
freedoms in Vietnam," Martin said.
"While it's true that our nations have different histories, live under different
conditions, and we have different cultures, we in Canada believe that the
culture of freedom should be and must be universal," he said.
Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit group that promotes free speech around
the globe, urged the Vietnamese PM to release Pham Hong Son, a young
pharmaceutical executive sentenced to five years in prison in 2003 for posting a
Vietnamese translation of a pro-democracy article produced by US embassy staff
in Hanoi online.
"The government has shown some evidence of goodwill with the recent release of
several prisoners of opinion," the non-profit agency said in a news release,
urging reforms.
Khai dismissed the criticisms, suggesting that more Canadian government
officials need to visit his country to better understand the situation.
The two heads of state also announced the resumption of Canadian beef exports,
for cattle under 30 months of age, to Vietnam and an end in coming weeks to the
2001 moratorium on Vietnamese adoptions by Canadian parents.