Vietnam vehemently opposed to and firmly rejected the US human rights report, noting that with issuing the report, the United States is roughly interfering in Vietnam's internal affairs.
In answering a question in Hanoi on Vietnam's reaction to the 2001 global human rights report issued by the US State Department on Monday, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said the US State Department is continuing a wrongdoing as qualifying itself for judging human rights conditions of other countries. Meanwhile, the United State is being criticized for violating human rights and was not voted member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
She said the report flagrantly distorted real human rights conditions in Vietnam as making slanderous remarks, and showing fabricated and false evidences.
In Vietnam, the fundamental rights of the citizens are ensured by the constitution of the country and respected in reality, Thanh stressed.
There is not so-called "political prisoners" and "religious prisoners" in Veitnam, but there are people breaking the law and being tried according to the law provisions, she added.
Vietnam's political system and government are chosen by the Vietnamese people, showing the aspirations of Vietnamese people,she stressed.
The spokeswoman noted that while Vietnam and the United States are making joint efforts to heal the wounds of the war and building the cooperative relationship on the basic principle of equality and mutual benefits, the US wrongdoing will harm the development of the Vietnamese-US relationship and counter with the interests of the peoples of the two countries.
(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2002)
