NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DISCUSSES PRISONER AMNESTY, REORGANIZES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000720

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
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STATE FOR EAP/MLS AND DRL/AWH

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM VM

SUBJECT: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DISCUSSES PRISONER AMNESTY, REORGANIZES
ITSELF DURING SHORTENED SPRING SESSION

REFS: A) 06 HANOI 3012; B) HANOI 535

HANOI 00000720 001.2 OF 002


Summary
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1. (SBU) The National Assembly (NA) convened March 20 for its 11th
and final session prior to its May 20 elections. Prior to wrapping
up its abridged spring session on April 2, the legislature debated a
new draft Amnesty Law and, in discussions with the Office of the
Government and the Ministry of Public Security, agreed on an
unprecedented July general amnesty, which is reportedly meant to
coincide with President Triet's planned visit to the United States.
The NA also took modest steps to reorganize itself and mandated an
increase in the number of full-time NA deputies from 25 percent to
30 percent of the total of 500 legislators. This
self-reorganization tracks with other NA efforts to carve out a more
prominent role for itself in the areas of government accountability,
oversight and anti-corruption efforts. End Summary.

Amnesty Tied to Triet Visit?
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2. (SBU) During its shortened spring session, the Assembly debated
the first draft of a new Amnesty Law, which would essentially codify
what is already in the Vietnamese Constitution. However, according
to contacts in the Assembly, there continue to be differences in
opinion between the legislature and the Office of the Government
(OOG). For example, the NA would like to consider irregularly
scheduled amnesties, while the OOG wants to maintain the current
practice of amnesties tied to major national holidays. The Amnesty
Law will be taken up again when the next National Assembly sits in
the fall of 2007.


3. (SBU) Furthermore, the NA, the OOG and the Ministry of Public
Security (MPS) recently agreed to schedule a July 2007 general
amnesty for prisoners. This was reportedly done "to coincide with
the visit of President Triet to the United States - as a 'gift' to
President Bush," one contact said. The GVN generally conducts
general amnesties or sentence reductions on the occasion of the
Lunar New Year (January-February),Victory Day (late April) and
Independence Day (early September),and an amnesty in July would be
unprecedented. (Note: The exact date, and possible beneficiaries,
remains TBD. End Note.)

National Assembly Reorganizes
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4. (SBU) The NA also agreed to split two existing committees into
four: the existing Legal Committee will become the new "Law
Committee" and the "Committee for Judiciary Affairs," while the
Committee on Economic and Budgetary Affairs will become the new
"Economic Committee" and the "Financial and Budgetary Committee."
The new committee structure reportedly will allow for greater
efficiency and enhanced NA oversight of agencies and GVN programs.
Due to this new structure, the next National Assembly will need to
be staffed by a greater percentage of full-time legislators, and the
legislature decided to increase to 30 percent its ratio of full-time
members. (Note: Currently, 25 percent of the NA's total of 500
deputies are full-timers. End Note.) This increase will cover
personnel for the two new committees as well as a larger National
Assembly Standing Committee.


5. (SBU) According to a briefing by Tran The Vuong, Vice Chairman of
the NA's Legal Committee, the new Judiciary Committee is expected to
help strengthen the independence of the court system and better
monitor the activities of the Supreme People's Procuracy, the
government's main investigation and prosecution arm. The plan is
for the Supreme People's Procuracy to ultimately re-structure and
establish a new regional court system, Vuong explained.
Furthermore, the NA is hoping its new Judiciary Committee will take
on a much greater oversight role on government anti-corruption
initiatives. According to Vuong, the newly established economic and
finance committees reflect post-WTO accession realities and the
sheer volume of work resulting from Vietnam's tremendous economic
growth and restructuring in the last five years, as well as the
increase in foreign investment and resulting need for greater
regulation and oversight.

Comment
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6. (SBU) The National Assembly appears committed to continuing to
carve out a larger role for itself in the areas of public
accountability, government program oversight and anti-corruption.
As our Assembly contacts often say, one way to do this is to
increase the NA's overall expertise, professionalism and "policy
sense" by raising the percentage of full-time legislators. We

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expect the NA to make efforts to further increase this percentage,
as well as seek opportunities -- including by working with donor
countries -- to expand and professionalize the cadre of legislative
assistants and other staffers. End Comment.

ALOISI