Clinton raises rights issue in Vietnam

HANOI, Vietnam — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton chided Vietnam on Thursday for intolerance of dissent and infringement of Internet freedom, even as she celebrated its 15 years of normalized relations with the United States.

Clinton said she raised the issues of jailed democracy activists, attacks on religious groups and curbs on social-networking websites during a meeting with Vietnam's deputy prime minister, Pham Gia Khiem.

The United States will prod Vietnam's government "to pursue reforms and protect basic rights and freedoms," she said at a news conference, as Khiem stood expressionless beside her.

"Vietnam, with its extraordinary, dynamic population, is on the path to becoming a great nation, with an unlimited potential," she added. "That is among the reasons we expressed concern."

Leader's reply

Khiem replied that human-rights policies were rooted in unique cultural and historical circumstances.

He cited what he said was President Obama's observation that countries should be allowed to choose their own paths and that human rights should not be imposed from outside.

The timing of Clinton's remarks, at the start of a two-day stop that includes an Asian regional security meeting, suggested she wanted to make her point and move on. She emphasized that the United States would increase cooperation on trade and investment, and would do more to help people suffering from lingering effects from Agent Orange, a chemical spray the U.S. military used as a defoliant during the Vietnam War.

Still, Clinton's criticism offered a vivid contrast to her visits to China, where she has avoided publicly raising human-rights issues with Chinese officials.

Although human-rights conditions are indisputably better in Vietnam now than at the end of the war, analysts say there has been backsliding in recent years, which may reflect the growing influence of conservative political elements. In January, the government convicted three prominent democracy activists under a national-security law.

Last visit in 2000

Clinton's husband, former President Clinton, oversaw the normalization of ties between the United States and Vietnam in 1995, and Hillary Clinton spoke warmly of the memories that the country evoked. Her last visit was as first lady in November 2000, in the waning days of the Clinton presidency but in the flush of her own recent election as senator from New York.

Clinton also spoke of how the United States and Vietnam had overcome the bitterness of war, and then the "profound differences" that divide a Communist state from a democracy.

"The United States will continue to urge Vietnam to strengthen its commitment to human rights and give its people a greater say over the direction of their lives," she said. "But our relationship is not fixed upon our differences. We have learned to see each other not as former enemies but as friends."