Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, Nov. 11 (VNA) -- Images of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims, taken 25 years after the American war which blighted their lives, are now on display in a European centre.

A photo exhibition of these long-suffering people is being held in the city of Luxembourg, co-sponsored by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg's Ministry of Co-operation and Charitable Activities and Switzerland's Caritas Fund, in co-operation with the Luxembourg Red Cross.

Ha Noi, Nov. 11 (VNA) -- The Museum of Ethnology and the Embassy of Austria are preparing for a comprehensive exhibition on Viet Nam to be held in some European countries in 2002.

Christian Schickgruber, who is in charge of the Southeast Asian and Himalaya region of the Austrian Museum of Ethnology, stressed that he and his colleagues in Austria wanted to introduce Viet Nam's comprehensive culture and its 4,000-year history to the European public, who now know about Viet Nam only through its wars.

ANSWERS BY MOFA'S SPOKESPERSON PHAN THUY THANH
TO FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS ON NOV.3, 2000


AFP: In a letter by President Bill Clinton to US Congress, it is written that Viet Nam is in the list of drug producing or major drug-transit countries. What is Viet Nam's reaction thereto?

Answer:

Viet Nam is not a country that produces or transits narcotic drugs and other psychotropic substances but a country that has to bear with bad effects of this scourge.

Ha Noi, Nov. 10 (VNA) -- The police force has so far this year discovered 9,430 cases of drug-related crimes and arrested 17,130 suspects, year-on-year decreases of 12.6 percent and 17.8 percent, respectively, according to the Anti-Drug Office of the Ministry of Public Security.

They confiscated 51.26 kg of heroin, 470 kg of opium, more than 2,080 kg of marijuana, 112,400 ampoules and 66,000 doses of narcotics.