HANOI, Sept. 7 (Kyodo) - Vietnam on Friday blasted the U.S. House of Representatives for approving a bill that would link future increases in non-humanitarian aid to Hanoi to the Vietnamese government's progress on human rights.
''We firmly reject the 'Vietnam Human Rights Act' and request the cancellation of this wrongful act,'' Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said in a statement.
''It is the United States who waged a brutal war of aggression against Vietnam, grossly violating the fundamental rights of the Vietnamese people,'' she said.
The act, passed by the House on Thursday in a 410-1 vote, would require that the Vietnamese government make ''substantial progress'' toward releasing political and religious prisoners, ending religious persecution and respecting the rights of ethnic minorities before getting any further increases in government-to-government, non-humanitarian U.S. aid.
''This document groundlessly distorts reality in Vietnam, cruelly intervenes into the internal affairs of Vietnam, runs counter to the U.N. Charter and the fundamental principles of international law and creates a dangerous precedent in international relations by linking economic and trade ties to unacceptable political conditions'' Thanh said.
The act's sponsors had noted that during the last few months Hanoi has arrested a prominent leader of the Unified Buddhist Church, a Catholic priest who gave written testimony to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and a number of evangelical Protestant ministers and believers.
Since February, they said, Hanoi has also cracked down on members of Montagnard ethnic minority groups who peacefully demonstrated for religious freedom and for return of their confiscated lands.
Thanh said the U.S. was in no position to lecture Vietnam on human rights considering its role in the Vietnam War that ended in 1975.
''The Vietnamese people experienced a long and arduous struggle against foreign aggression and suffered great sacrifices and losses to regain the most fundamental human right of living in peace, independence and freedom and in pursuit of happiness and human dignity,'' the spokeswoman said.
She said the act ''reflects the ill intention of a group of people who want to put pressure and conditions on U.S.-Vietnam relations, which runs counter to the interests of the people of Vietnam and the U.S., hinders the improvement of bilateral ties, and will certainly be widely condemned by public opinion.''
The act would also authorize assistance to nongovernmental organizations committed to promoting freedom and democracy in Vietnam and promote more vigorous efforts to overcome the Vietnamese government's jamming of Radio Free Asia broadcasts.
AP-NY-09-07-01 0906EDT
Copyright 2001 The Kyodo News Service.