The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Vietnam

  • Vietnam sentences 30 to death over drug smuggling

    A court in Vietnam has sentenced 30 people to death over heroin smuggling in what is said to be the largest such trial ever held in the country.

    The trial, over the smuggling of nearly two tonnes of heroin, began in Quang Ninh province in early January.

    Dozens of others were also given prison sentences from two years to life.

    This is the largest-ever drug trial in Vietnam in terms of the number of defendants and the death sentences given, says the BBC’s Nga Pham.

    A total of 89 defendants, including the 21 men and nine women who were sentenced to death, were arrested last year on various charges.

    They belong to different drug rings accused of smuggling the heroin from Laos through Vietnam and China since 2006, state media report.

    Presiding Judge Ngo Duc told AFP news agency that the trial was held at the prison because of the seriousness of the case.

    This is only the first stage of a special investigation carried out by Quang Ninh police, and the extent of the crimes may be a lot larger, our correspondent reports from neighbouring Bangkok.

    Punishments for drug-related crimes in Vietnam are relatively harsh, but this trial shows the immensity of drug trafficking problems in the country, our correspondent adds.

    At least 86 people were sentenced to death in 2012, with more than 500 on death row in Vietnam, rights group Amnesty International said in its annual report 2013.

     

  • Thailand, Vietnam scientists visit

    A  team of Thailand and Vietnamese scientists on the European Union GRATITUDE Project visited the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB) to collaborate on research.

    Welcoming the visitors, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Olusola Oyewole, said the essence of research is to impact knowledge, urging them to make the best out of their research efforts.

    He noted that the collaboration between FUNAAB and the GRATITUDE team was yielding results and pledged his support for any exchange arising from the collaboration between FUNAAB and universities in Thailand and Vietnam.

    Oyewole assured the scientists of their safety as they went round visiting some industries, farms and villages in Nigeria.

    The GRATITUDE Research Fund is established under the EU-Sponsored ‘Project on Gains and Losses from Cassava and Yam’, with partners from the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Portugal, Thailand, Vietnam, Ghana and Nigeria.

     

     

     

     

  • India, Vietnam are world’s top rice exporters

    India, Vietnam are world’s top rice exporters

    Thailand lost its three-decades-old title as the world’s top rice exporter last year, falling behind India and Vietnam, industry sources said on Friday.

    Vietnam on Thursday announced that its rice exports for 2012 were 7.6 million tonnes, up 10 per cent year-on-year. India’s rice exports last year exceeded 9.5 million tonnes, according to United States Department of Agriculture figures.

    Thailand exported 6.9 million in 2012, down 35.5 per cent from the 10.7 million tonnes it shipped in 2011, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association’s and commerce ministry’s latest figures.

    Of the 6.9 million tonnes, some 1.7 million were registered as government-to-government deals, which the private-sector association has questioned.

    “The only government-to-government deal we saw evidence of was a 300,000 shipment to Indonesia in early 2012,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria quoted Chookiat Ophaswongse, the association’s honorary president as saying on the issue.

    “The other deals are still a mystery to us since we’ve seen no records of them,’’ he added.

    The exporters association blamed the country’s drop in exports on the government’s so-called paddy pledging scheme, under which it has agreed to buy unhusked white rice from farmers at a fixed price of 15,000 (484 dollars) per tonne and high-quality jasmine at 20,000 baht per tonne.

    The scheme was one of the ruling Pheu Thai party’s populist policies used to win the July 2011 general election.

     

  • Vietnam jails dissident bloggers

    Vietnam jails dissident bloggers

    Vietnam has jailed three bloggers accused of spreading anti-government propaganda, in a case criticised by human rights groups.

    The high-profile but brief trial took place in Ho Chi Minh City under heavy security, BBC says.

    The trio were given jail sentences of between four and 12 years.

    The government, which does not allow freedom of expression, has been under pressure from bloggers over corruption cases and human rights issues.

    The three were accused of posting political articles on a banned website called Free Journalists’ Club, as well as articles critical of the government on their own blogs.

    Nguyen Van Hai, who uses the pen name Dieu Cay, received the longest sentence of 12 years.

    The case of Dieu Cay, who was a soldier before he became a dissident writer, was raised by United States President Barack Obama earlier this year.

    Former policewoman Ta Phong Tan, who also wrote a blog called ”Justice and Truth”, was sent to jail for a decade.

    In July, her mother died after setting herself on fire in apparent protest against the detention of her daughter.

    The third dissident writer, Phan Thanh Hai, was jailed for four years.

    In a statement, the U.S embassy in Hanoi called on the Vietnamese government to free the group.