(More "multi-polarity", here?)

Friday April 6 4:07 AM ET
Vietnam Slams Bush for 'Brutal Interference'

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam's official media on Friday accused the United States of encouraging riots in the Central Highlands and said the new Bush administration was guilty of brutal interference in Hanoi's internal affairs.

A commentary published on the back page of the official Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan found fault in a whole range of U.S. foreign policy stances, from the Middle East to the Kyoto climate convention and the spy plane standoff with China.

``Only the American government, especially the new government under Mr. G.W. Bush's leadership in the past 100 days, could act so violently,'' it said.

In terms of U.S.-Vietnam relations, the Vietnamese-language article denounced a U.S. offer of asylum to 24 ethnic minority people who fled to neighboring Cambodia from the Central Highlands after widespread protests in February.

``They brutally interfere into our internal affairs, rudely agitate and encourage riots and illegal immigration and then say they are ready to accept those they have labeled 'asylum seekers','' it said.

``In general, the new U.S. government is trying to make their foreign policy hard, using human rights as cover to carry out hegemony. Where are they going?''

The commentary was the first time the official media had made a direct allegation of U.S. government involvement in fomenting the highlands protests, which involved hill people from tribes that fought alongside U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. Hanoi has previously blamed the protests, the biggest for years in the communist country, on agitation by U.S.-based emigre groups, including the Montagnard Foundation Inc. of Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Thursday, Hanoi called on long-time ally Cambodia to return immediately the 24 minority people and accused Washington of encouraging illegal immigration and destabilizing the region.

The Nhan Dan commentary said the United States had tried to portray the U.S. spy plane incident in China as a human rights issue, even though the plane ``trespassed and landed illegally at a Chinese airport.''

``This is U.S. human rights!'' the commentary said. ``Human rights from the point of view of the United States (or more precisely, the U.S. government) should be understood as having a full right to do what it wants -- it's their right to enter and to spy. No one can touch them!''

Hanoi enjoyed warm relations with the previous U.S. administration, with a visit in November by former President Bill Clinton championing the cause of normalization of relations with
America's former enemy.

This process included a landmark trade agreement signed but still to be ratified by both sides.

Concerns have been growing that a deterioration in relations and an intensifying focus in the United States on Vietnam's rights record could delay the process.

-----