Sun 2 Mar 2003

SIMON MONTLAKE IN HO CHI MINH CITY


STANDING impassively in his green-and-white striped prison pyjamas in a crumbling colonial courtroom, 55-year-old Truong Van Cam hardly looked like Vietnam’s most feared gangster.

But as the judge read out charge after charge - murder, smuggling, extortion, sheltering criminals and illegal gambling - his life as the infamous criminal Nam Cam was laid bare.

Backstreet bookies have already stopped taking bets on his expected death sentence; the only remaining question in the eyes of the public is how many of his 154 co-defendants will face the firing squad when the trial ends two months from now.

"I don’t know, maybe 12 or 15," said a motorbike driver. "This is a big event in our country, these criminal gangs are a real problem."

Nam Cam’s arrest just over a year ago revealed just how close he was to those in power. Top government officials and police chiefs stand accused of being on his payroll.

His grip on the former Saigon was so tight the government had to send in police from outside the city to arrest him and stop him bribing his way out of jail, a trick he pulled in 1997.

It took more than an hour for the charges against all the defendants to be read out. They include 13 police officers, three prosecutors, three journalists, a vice-minister of public security and the director of state radio.

On the streets of Saigon, as locals still call their city, news of the trial swept through the crowded alleys and smoky cafes that Nam Cam once ruled.

Outside court, loudspeakers relayed the proceedings to a crowd numbering several hundred people. Some had waited since the early hours of the morning in the vain hope of getting a seat inside.

Nam Cam’s criminal gang was a family affair. Among those on trial are his first wife, two children, a son-in-law and a cousin.

Few Vietnamese were surprised to read in the state-run media that Nam Cam’s circle included a number of dignitaries or that his wealth was so great. Petty corruption is rife in Vietnam, from backhanders in hospitals to police rip-offs; foreign businessmen rank it as among Asia’s most fraud-ridden economies.

Now some observers believe the ruling Communist Party is serious about stopping the rot. "They’re saying, enough is enough, this can’t continue," said a British businessman with several years’ experience in Vietnam. "I think this campaign is real."

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh insisted the government was taking a firm line on corruption. "The party and the state of Vietnam are clearly aware of the threat of corruption and consider it a national disaster," she said.

However, others argue Nam Cam, a former dockworker born in then French-ruled Saigon in 1947, had over-played his hand and that crooks who are smart enough to keep a low profile will not be worried by his show trial.

In this case, what finally prompted the government to act was public alarm about gang-related killings in a country where violent punishments are normally meted out by the state.

Two years ago, Dung Ha, a lesbian casino boss from the northern city of Haiphong who had tried to get a piece of the action in Saigon, was gunned down in public, allegedly by a hired hit man. Months later another gangster was shot dead outside a popular nightclub.

Nam Cam has been charged with organising these killings.

For a political system that prizes order and stability above all, the murders sent alarm bells ringing. Communist bigwigs are well aware that the Tiananmen protest movement in Beijing in 1989 began with anti-corruption demonstrations.

"They’ve known for a long time that corruption could undermine the legitimacy of the Communist Party," Carl Thayer, an Australian expert on Vietnam, said.

"It’s frightening to them. They have to act."


This article:

www.scotlandonsunday.com/international.cfm?id=258372003

-----------------------------
BETA TESTER