A EU DELEGATE WILL MEET WITH HANOI

VIETNAM MUST RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS

 

Radio Radicale

12/04/2004

 

Addressing the protests staged on Saturday April 10, by thousands of indigenous people in Vietnam’s Central Highland - demonstrations that were repressed by the Vietnamese authorities that also denied access to the region - European Commission President, Romano Prodi stated in an interview with the Italian Radio Radicale that "what is at stake here is not only the EU cooperation and aid relationships with Vietnam, but also the fact that Vietnam is on the eve of its possible accession to the WTO. Hanoi must respect the rules of the international community and human rights.”

"On behalf of the European Commission we have reached out to the Vietnamese Government, which is minimizing a situation that other sources are portraying as particularly serious. Tomorrow morning, a member of the EU delegation to Vietnam will meet with the Vietnamese Government to insist on the necessity to absolutely respect human rights” Mr. Prodi said.

The President of the European Commission, who tomorrow will leave for Beijing, also stated that he "will not fail to address the issue also in view of the ASEAN October Summit that will take place in Vietnam.” Mr. Prodi learned from the media that “foreigners are not allowed into the region where the demonstrations took place. I have requested by tomorrow a direct contact so that we will not have invocations or weak statements. There is the possible tragedy that thousands of fleeing people will find a closed boarder with Cambodia. We are not facing tranquil boarders – concluded Mr. Prodi – and for this reason our intervention needs to be urgent and needs to anticipate an eventual catastrophe.”