POLITICAL TITAN SURVIVES CORRUPTION CHARGES; POLICE AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 000236 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/31/2034 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM VM SUBJECT: POLITICAL TITAN SURVIVES CORRUPTION CHARGES; POLICE AND REPORTER GO TO JAIL REF: (A) 06 HANOI 771 (B) 08 HANOI 672 AND PREVIOUS (C) 08 HCMC 739 (C) 08 HCMC 700 HO CHI MIN 00000236 001.2 OF 003 CLASSIFIED BY: Charles Bennett, Acting Consul General, EXEC, State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: A former traffic cop, a Cong An (Police) newspaper journalist and even a Major General in the MPS have become the latest collateral damage in a political power play centered around Danang Party Secretary Nguyen Ba Thanh. Like the PMU 18 scandal (reftels),this story highlights the contradictions inherent when the GVN's fight against corruption impinges upon the power of top CPV leaders. An apparent revenge motive by at least one accuser added drama while blurring "good guy/bad guy" distinctions. In the latest chapter of this nearly decade-old saga, political insiders in Hanoi recruited police and a reporter to resurrect stories of previous corruption investigations against Danang Party Secretary Nguyen Ba Thanh (whom politicians in Hanoi consider a provincial outsider) in order to block his promotion to a choice spot in the Hanoi city government. Ba Thanh did not get the job but nonetheless appears to have survived the corruption charges with sufficient power in reserve to exact vengeance on two police officers and one reporter who were (knowingly or otherwise) drawn into a political clash of titans. End summary. The Man Who Owns the Soil and the Air -------------- ¶2. (C) Danang Party Secretary Nguyen Ba Thanh is a controversial figure who simultaneously receives praise for the rapid development Danang has enjoyed under his long tenure both as People's Committee Chairman and now as Party Secretary and sharp criticism for his dictatorial (even by Vietnamese standards) style as well as for the immense personal fortune he has amassed while running Vietnam's third largest city. Stories of his ruthless hold on power are legion. Developers who were foolish enough to undertake landscaping projects without getting Ba Thanh's specific approval for the species of trees planted and the style of sidewalk paving, for example, have been shut down and forced to redo their work. Prospective investors who fail to discuss their plans with Ba Thanh before starting the application process uniformly find that permits are never issued. Ba Thanh's approach to governance even includes choosing an official city song for Danang that praises everything from the soil to the sky, and all the development and landscaping in between. One of the city's many "open secrets," however, is that college students and bloggers have come up with an alternate version of the lyrics in which everything in the city -- with the exception of a single small bird resting on a tree branch -- belongs to Ba Thanh. The bird belongs to current People's Committee Chairman Tuan Anh. ¶3. (SBU) Despite Ba Thanh's reputation for dictatorial tendencies and corruption, investors who play by the (unwritten but well known) rules to discuss projects with Ba Thanh before taking concrete steps praise the Danang administration for speed with which actions are taken and the city's commitment to supporting investors. Foreign investors attest that the city makes aggressive promises and then lives up to them. In addition, a number of local Vietnamese with whom the CG has spoken repeatedly over the past few years report that the city considerably loosened its grip on typical small and medium enterprises in 2008. Business persons active in Danang told CG that Ba Thanh amassed his fortune through land deals for development projects and by participating in contracting for public works; he is not know to demand or expect kick-backs from individual businesses, Vietnamese or foreign. The positive aspects of Ba Thanh's rule, combined with the excellent infrastructure that he has tirelessly promoted, helped push Danang to the first spot on the Provincial Competitiveness Index in 2008. What's a Dictator to Do? -------------- ¶4. (C) Despite his demonstrable success in developing Danang, Ba Thanh's reputation as an absolute dictator who not only brooks no dissent but also gives no leeway to underlings and even colleagues (multiple People's Committee Chairman have left during his tenure as Party Secretary) appear to have hurt his longer term career prospects. While Ba Thanh has certainly made a mark in Danang, he has been unsuccessful in gaining a promotion. At 56 years old and after 15 years in a single province with no Hanoi assignments, Ba Thanh has reached the age where he will probably face forced retirement when his tenure as Danang Party Secretary ends in 2010 unless he secures a follow-on assignment/promotion. With a follow-on assignment, Ba Thanh would be allowed to serve to the end of the (usually five year) appointment. ¶5. (C) Ba Thanh -- and many political observers -- thought he HO CHI MIN 00000236 002.2 OF 003 had found his onward assignment: a newly-created position of Deputy People's Committee Chairman of Hanoi in charge of developing the newly annexed (and largely rural) areas of the city. Rumors of Ba Thanh's evidently successful lobbying efforts with the Central Committee of the CPV began circulating early in the summer of 2008. The deal appeared to have been sealed last July when the Central Committee of the Communist Party recommended Ba Thanh to the People's Committee of Hanoi for the position. In a very unusual move, however, the People's Committee of Hanoi did not accept the recommendation and chose a local politician instead. ¶6. (SBU) To bolster their rationale for ignoring the CPV's "recommendation" of Ba Thanh, city leaders in Hanoi needed a stronger rationale than their distrust of outsiders. According to GVN officials from Danang who now work in both Hanoi and Danang, the reason given for refusing to give Ba Thanh the job was concerns over unresolved allegations of corruption. Shortly after Ba Thanh's nomination in July 2008, blogs and newspapers, including the very conservative "Cong An" (Police) newspaper, published numerous articles detailing a 2007 corruption investigation in which Danang police charged that Ba Thanh received four billion VND in bribes from two companies managing land confiscation and clearance for a major infrastructure project. Letters from a land rights activist who had written to the Prime Minister about Ba Thanh's alleged wrongdoings and who later died under mysterious circumstances also began circulating. Stories also cited the long history of corruption charges against Ba Thanh, including official investigations stretching back to 2000. ¶7. (C) A Singaporean banker and nine-year resident of Danang who was involved in many land development and infrastructure projects in the city recently helped bring these events into focus. According to the banker, while Ba Thanh's corruption is well known inside the CPV, no action has ever been taken - or is likely to be. First, Ba Thanh's corruption is not considered excessive and did not appear to be interfering with his effectiveness in developing his city. In addition, he shared the wealth with numerous political backers. The charges against him were resurrected, however, because numerous senior politicians from Hanoi resented the idea of a provincial outsider running a major part of their city. When Water Buffalo Fight, Fleas Die -------------- ¶8. (C) While news coverage of the corruption investigation against Ba Thanh quickly died down once he had been passed over for the job in Hanoi, the saga did not end. As in the PMU 18 scandal (reftels),what was at heart a battle among political titans within the CPV turned into a pogrom against the pawns who had been enlisted in the campaign, although in this case "pawns" is not entirely accurate since the list of victims includes a very senior member of the MPS. On February 24, 2009, Danang city police announced plans to prosecute former MPS Chief Inspector and Major General Tranh Van Thanh for his involvement in a campaign to discredit Danang Party Secretary Nguyen Ba Thanh. The Major General stands accused of working with a former Danang traffic cop named Dinh Cong Sat and Cong An (Police) newspaper journalist, Duong Ngoc Tien, to disseminate false information about corrupt land deals carried out by Ba Thanh. ¶9. (C) Both Sat and Tien had already come under fire for their role in a previous case against Ba Thanh. Sat was arrested in December 2007 for "distributing banned materials" while journalist Tien was arrested in March 2008 for "abusing democracy to harm GVN interests." According to the Singaporean banker, Major General Thanh had previously been warned against pursuing charges against Ba Thanh but no action was taken due to his rank and his own set of backers. Following Ba Thanh's humiliation in July of 2008, however, he wanted vengeance and convinced other senior CPV members that (as in the PMU 18 scandal),MPS officers as well as reporters had to be shown that could not be allowed to become involved in political squabbles. While the trial for both Sat and Tien had previously been scheduled for September 2008, in August it was postponed officially because both defendants had suddenly decided to point to Major General Thanh as the officer who instigated the expose during pre-trial hearings. Old Grudges Die Hard -------------- ¶10. (C) This twisted tale of corruption, politics and revenge has even deeper roots. A well-connected reporter told ConGenOff that Dinh Cong Sat blamed Ba Thanh for his dismissal from the Danang police force after Sat was accused of moonlighting as a security officer for his family's transportation company. As revenge, Sat began disseminating information about Ba Thanh's corrupt land dealings to land rights activists and journalist Duong Ngoc Tien, who in turn wrote several articles about Ba HO CHI MIN 00000236 003.2 OF 003 Thanh's alleged wrongdoings in Cong An newspaper, leading to the 2007 investigation. ¶11. (C) The choice of MPS Inspector General, Major General Thanh, to resurrect the charges against Danang Party Secretary Ba Thanh was no coincidence. Major General Thanh has deep roots in Danang as well as a reputation for honesty. Before taking over as the MPS Inspector General, he had been chief of the Danang police. In 2000, then Colonel Thanh arrested a construction contractor for corruption in the development of the Han River bridge. The contractor admitted to police that he had bribed Ba Thanh and other officials in his business dealings and was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Ba Thanh's involvement, however, was never brought to light, and both the reporter and the Singaporean banker independently related that Party Secretary Ba Thanh tried to punish the MPS chief for interfering. While Major General Thanh survived the incident, both sources state that Party Secretary Ba Thanh did succeed in having General Tran Van Van Thanh transferred out of the Danang police department. Despite Secretary Thanh's vendetta, General Thanh continued to advance and eventually was promoted to become as Inspector General for the MPS. Because of his past history with Secretary Thanh, he was an ideal candidate for Secretary Ba Thanh's opponents to recruit. ¶12. (C) Unfortunately for Major General Thanh, the case against Secretary Thanh had not been prepared carefully enough to withstand the type of scrutiny that Secretary Ba Thanh arranged. In the 2000 investigation, for example, General Thanh had personally interviewed some of the key witnesses against Secretary Ba Thanh, including the contractor who was convicted. In recording his testimony, however, General Thanh typed up a statement for the contractor to sign rather than having the witness write it out in his own hand. While having suspects and witness sign prepared statements is a very common practice, in this particular case it left General Thanh vulnerable. When Secretary Ba Thanh's agents reportedly contacted many of the original witnesses who testified about both the 2000 and 2007 corruption charges, they "miraculously" changed their stories entirely and now swear that General Thanh fabricated false statements that he forced them to sign without reading. The Conclusion: No Happy Ending -------------- ¶13. (C) Comment: In this complex tale of politics and corruption, no one is innocent and everyone loses, except for those in the Hanoi city government intent on keeping Danang Party Secretary Ba Thanh out of their city (and even that is subject to change). While Secretary Ba Thanh appears successful in securing vengeance against those who acted to thwart his political progress, he still lacks an onward promotion. Given his well-known corruption and relative isolation in Danang, if he does not secure another post he could even find himself in hot water once his power and influence decline. The MPS officers, having outlived their usefulness as whistleblowers, now face prosecution and jail time, in Sat's case for carrying out a personal vendetta against Secretary Ba Thanh but in General Thanh's case for doggedly pursuing what he believed to be a valid case against a corrupt but influential politician. And as with PMU 18 scandal, the media ranked among the fleas squashed during this battle of titans. End comment. ¶14. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Hanoi. BENNETT