HANOI - Hanoi has denounced a bill submitted to the U.S. Congress seeking to promote human rights and democracy in Vietnam as "rude interference" in its internal affairs that would harm bilateral relations.
The bill was submitted on June 28 by a bipartisan group led by New Jersey Republican Representative Christopher Smith and including California Republican Dana Rohrabacher and California Democrat Loretta Sanchez.
"These Congressmen are deliberately undermining constantly improved Vietnam-U.S. ties," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said in a statement carried in the official media on Friday.
Thanh called the submission of the bill "rude intervention" in Vietnam's internal affairs and a distortion of the situation in a country in which rights were guaranteed by the constitution.
"We believe that such draft a resolution is completely harmful to the development of Vietnam-U.S. relations and will only harm the prestige of the draft resolution initiators."
Thanh said constitutionally guaranteed rights in Vietnam included freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to demonstrate, freedom to assemble, and freedom to follow or not to follow a religious belief.
Human rights groups say such freedoms are not in practice guaranteed.
Vietnam's rights record has been cited as a factor that could complicate ratification of a historic trade agreement with the United States, although it is still expected to be approved given broad bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress.
This agreement is now awaiting approval in the U.S. Congress.
Ties between the United States and Vietnam have warmed steadily since the former foes established diplomatic ties in 1995, but human rights remain a divisive issue.
04:33 07-13-01
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