Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05HOCHIMINHCITY74
2005-01-21 00:02:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Consulate Ho Chi Minh City
Cable title:  

PRM DAS KELLY RYAN VISIT TO VIETNAM DEC. 1-3:

Tags:  PREF PREL PHUM VM 
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210002Z Jan 05

ACTION PRM-00 

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 ------------------A731EA 210027Z /38 
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 0905
INFO AMEMBASSY HANOI 
AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 
AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH 
AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE 
USMISSION GENEVA
UNCLAS HO CHI MINH CITY 000074 

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR PRM AND EAP/BCLTV

BANGKOK FOR REFCOORD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF PREL PHUM VM
SUBJECT: PRM DAS KELLY RYAN VISIT TO VIETNAM DEC. 1-3:
AGREEMENT REACHED TO RESUME HUMANITARIAN RESETTLEMENT
PROCESS

REF: A) 04 HCMC 0505 B) 03 Hanoi 2098

Sensitive but unclassified. Please handle
accordingly.

UNCLAS HO CHI MINH CITY 000074

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR PRM AND EAP/BCLTV

BANGKOK FOR REFCOORD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF PREL PHUM VM
SUBJECT: PRM DAS KELLY RYAN VISIT TO VIETNAM DEC. 1-3:
AGREEMENT REACHED TO RESUME HUMANITARIAN RESETTLEMENT
PROCESS

REF: A) 04 HCMC 0505 B) 03 Hanoi 2098

Sensitive but unclassified. Please handle
accordingly.


1. (SBU) Summary. PRM Deputy Assistant Secretary
Kelly Ryan held a second round of technical talks in
Hanoi on December 2 and 3 with a delegation of GVN
officials to discuss opening of the Humanitarian
Resettlement (HR) process, a USG proposal to accept
applications for persons meeting eligibility criteria
for certain categories of the former Orderly Departure
Program (ODP). The talks resulted in a decision to
open a six-mon4QQj=9QQQc information outreach phase on
March 1, 2005, followed by a two-year processing phase
starting September 1, 2005. The two sides decided to
initial the texts of two documents laying out the
parameters of the HR process: an "Understanding -
Humanitarian Resettlement - Mechanisms for Cooperation
Between the GVN and USG" and a "Joint USG-GVN Public
Announcement Regarding Humanitarian Resettlement
(HR)," which will be issued at the start of the public
information outreach. A third document describing
specific activities of the HR public information
outreach was extensively discussed and the GVN
requested that the USG modify its proposal in some
regards. The talks were cordial, with the GVN
delegation seeming predisposed to reaching agreement.
But certain issues proved difficult in the course of
the talks and several specific concerns in actual
implementation are still likely to come up. End
summary.


2. (SBU) A delegation led by PRM DAS Kelly Ryan,
along with DHS/USCIS Associate Chief Counsel Ronald
Whitney and USCIS Officer Ralph Foelster met December
2-3 with a GVN delegation headed by MFA Director
General of the Consular Division Mr. Bui Dinh Dinh.
This meeting was a follow-up to a first round of
technical talks held March 29-30, 2004 (ref A) and to
the visit of PRM A/S Gene Dewey in August 2003 (Ref
B),during which agreement in principle had been
reached to re-open certain categories of the former
ODP program for further in-country processing. This
most recent round of talks was aimed at achieving
definitive agreement and setting dates for the start
up of what is now called the "Humanitarian
Resettlement" process, a term agreed upon during the

first round of talks in March. The specific
objectives included agreement on the text of the
initial public announcement, the text of a paper
describing the modalities of the overall public
information outreach and the text of a document
describing the mechanisms for cooperation between the
two governments in carrying out the HR process.


3. (SBU) At the conclusion of the first round of
talks both sides decided that the USG would provide
drafts of these three documents as the next step prior
to the second round of talks, and texts of the draft
documents were provided to the GVN in early November.
During the first morning of talks on Dec. 2,
discussion centered on the "Mechanisms for
Cooperation" paper and it was decided that, rather
than doing a separate "Minutes of Meeting" document as
was done in the first round of talks, this paper would
be used as the basis for an agreement to implement HR
that both sides would initial.


4. (SBU) The GVN delegation's comments on the draft
presented by the USG centered on their desire to
ensure that the HR process is nondisruptive to
Vietnamese society. Several of the items in the
"Mechanisms for Cooperation" paper were first
discussed and fairly quickly agreed upon. The summary
of the previous discussions was acceptable to the GVN
with minor wording changes. They decided to jointly
announce the opening of HR and to the formation of a
GVN-USG Joint Working Group to manage the
implementation of the HR process. On the subject of
access, the GVN delegation confirmed that they would
not require a GVN-issued Letter of Introduction (LOI)
as a prerequisite for applicants' access to the HR

process.


5. (SBU) One very important early comment came on
the subject of document verification. The U.S. side
asked whether the GVN had any kind of central office
to verify information such as claims of time served in
re-education centers. Mr. Dinh admitted that since
many of the older re-education centers had been
dissolved years ago, many records had been destroyed
or were missing. In many cases, the files were not
deemed important and were not kept in any organized
fashion. This admission highlighted a key concern as
to the difficulty of verifying claims for events that
happened nearly thirty years ago. In cases where
people have lost their own certification of re-
education center time served, it may give rise to an
opportunity for graft and corruption in both the
creation and police certification of fraudulent
certifications. The two sides decided on a process
whereby the USG could provide documents to the GVN for
review as necessary for verification purposes. But
the fact that the GVN readily admitted many old
records are now lost or destroyed highlights the
difficulty of this task.


6. (SBU) A recurring issue throughout the two days of
discussions was the need for a Vietnamese passport as
a prerequisite for accessing the program. Although
they had agreed that a separately issued LOI would no
longer be necessary, at several points during the
discussions, the GVN delegation wanted to insert the
passport requirement directly into the section on
"eligibility criteria" for the program. The U.S. side
was adamant that this type of GVN-generated
restriction could not be made a part of the core
eligibility criteria. Insertion of such a clause
would cause too much protest in the U.S. that the GVN
was still limiting access to the program and
preventing legitimate candidates from presenting their
cases.


7. (SBU) Lengthy discussions took place concerning
the GVN's current passport procedures. The GVN
delegation repeatedly stated that the vast majority of
Vietnamese citizens currently have no problem
receiving a passport, unless there is some reason in
Vietnamese law to deny issuance. While it is
acknowledged that anybody being approved for
resettlement under HR will still need GVN permission
to emigrate from the country, the passport requirement
should not be used as a means to deny access to the
program. A compromise on this critical issue was
crafted on the second day by adding a separate
"Authorization to Travel Abroad" section to the
document, stating that Vietnamese citizens will not
receive final authorization to go to the U.S. under HR
without permission to travel abroad under Vietnamese
law.


8. (SBU) Separately, the two delegations also
reviewed the draft "Joint USG-GVN Announcement
Regarding Humanitarian Resettlement (HR)." The GVN
delegation did not have any substantive changes in the
text of the proposed announcement, but suggested re-
ordering it somewhat. They suggested moving up the
entire section on "Access Criteria for HR," which
detailed the specific criteria for the HO (re-
education center detainee),U-11 (former USG employee)
and V-11 (former U.S. private company or organization
employee) categories. Both sides carefully reviewed
these access criteria together and agreed on the exact
wording of the category criteria. The remainder of
the public announcement consists of several "Important
Notes," which are mainly designed to warn against
fraudulent or frivolous applications and to warn
applicants against using the services of a visa
facilitator or "fixer" to assist them. The GVN
emphasized again and again that they wanted the
initial public announcement and the public information
outreach on HR to be minimally disruptive and focus on
the likely target populations without creating
nationwide expectation or confusion.


9. (SBU) With the "Mechanisms for Cooperation" paper
and the Joint USG-GVN Announcement" essentially agreed
to, on the afternoon of the second day the two
delegations then discussed the various specific
proposals for the broader Public Information Outreach
(PIO) to publicize HR following the initial
announcement. The GVN delegation accepted the
"Introduction" and "Goals and Objectives" of the USG
proposal, except for the goal which stated, "Reach the
Broadest Segment of the Population Possible." Again
expressing their concern to keep the HR process
minimally disruptive, the GVN suggested rewording this
along the lines of "Targeted Dissemination to Intended
Audiences."


10. (SBU) More specifically, as the two delegations
reviewed the list of suggested publicity methods, it
became clear they had different ideas regarding how to
handle the publicity campaign. The GVN expressed some
surprise that we had suggested using International
Organization for Migration (IOM) mass media resources
to assist in this project. They felt that the GVN
itself could do a satisfactory job of placing media
spots without involving the IOM. The USG side asked
what exactly the GVN had in mind, and Mr. Dinh listed
several possible items that included most of what the
USG would want plus a few items we did not think the
GVN would permit. For example, they suggested using
the loudspeaker systems at the grass-roots level to
make public announcements, as well as professional
communicators at the commune and village level; TV and
radio programs in all the provinces where we think
there may be many cases; ethnic language broadcasts on
certain TV and radio channels targeting ethnic
minority groups; and print ads in several wide-
dissemination popular newspapers.


11. (SBU) Where the GVN drew the line in the
discussion of the publicity effort was in not running
ads on nationwide TV broadcasts, not allowing ads in
political newspapers and magazines and not using
flyers or brochures that could be easily reproduced by
would-be "brokers" and sold to unsuspecting persons.
Again, this emphasized the GVN concern about
disseminating the information in a more limited and
targeted way to minimize the disruptive effect on
society. The two delegations agreed that there was
generally broad agreement on the methods of publicity,
but that the USG would modify its proposal to work
more directly with the GVN in this area and eliminate
the role of the IOM as the USG's partner.


12. (SBU) With a consensus successfully negotiated
reached on all three papers, the two delegations
discussed and decided on implementation dates. The
two sides decided that the initial public announcement
would best be made after the Tet Lunar New Year
Holiday, and agreed on March 1 as the tentative
announcement date, to be followed by the six-month
Public information Outreach. The actual application-
processing phase would then begin September 1, 2005,
and run for two years until September 1, 2007.


13. (SBU) One further concern was highlighted in the
discussion of implementation dates. The GVN
emphasized it wanted the "processing" phase to be
completed by September 1, 2007, while the USG sees
this as the "application" deadline. We emphasized to
the GVN that there would undoubtedly be some residual
cases still not completed by September 1, 2007,
especially if they had just recently applied. The GVN
side replied that it needed to set a definite end date
to the processing phase in order to have the agreement
accepted by more senior GVN officials. To compromise,
a statement was added to the "Mechanisms of
Cooperation" paper stating that "The USG will make
best efforts to complete processing of all cases
during this period." The agreed upon language
suggests a recognition by both sides that, despite the
best efforts by the United States, residual cases may
remain pending at the end of the processing phase.
This issue was discussed with the Ambassador prior to
DAS Ryan's giving final agreement to the documents.

It is recognized that we may need to negotiate with
the GVN in mid-2007 to permit continued processing of
a small number of residual cases after the September
1, 2007 end date, but we do not believe the GVN will
object.


14. (SBU) Next steps: Overall, the decision by the
two governments to open the Humanitarian Resettlement
process is a satisfying conclusion to several years of
addressing this issue with the GVN. The next step
will be to work with the GVN on final plans for the
Public Information Outreach, with the intended initial
announcement date set for March 1. ConGen Ho Chi Minh
City's Refugee Resettlement Section (RRS) is working
out anticipated resource needs for the expanded
workload, anticipating initially a need for several
additional local caseworker assistants in the Infocomm
Unit to handle the increased volume of inquiries
expected after the public announcement and to start
reviewing claims of eligibility. In anticipation of
the September 1 start of active application
processing, the hiring of several Vietnamese-speaking
expatriate caseworkers will also be necessary. The
goal will be to run the Humanitarian Resettlement
Process efficiently and effectively over the next two
to three years, giving all interested and eligible
applicants one final chance to enter these programs
before bringing these programs based on pre-1975 ties
to the U.S. to a satisfactory conclusion.

WINNICK


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