VIETNAM CAPITAL WAGES WAR ON DRUGS, PROSTITUTION

Drug Raves, Orgies Shock Officials

HANOI, Vietnam - Late on a Thursday night, a prostitute on a rickety
bicycle wears white plastic sandals and green-and-yellow striped pajamas.
She pedals up to two American men standing outside the old "Hanoi Hilton"
prison, sniffes and says, "You want boom-boom?"

The men agree and pay the woman $40, which includes a bribe for the night
watchman, then they duck into the prison - now a museum - to have sex in a
room where U.S. pilots were held and tortured during the Vietnam War.

It has come to this in the ultraconservative capital of communist Vietnam:
dowdy prostitutes in rayon pajamas, cruising the streets of Hanoi and using
a hallowed national monument for their late-night assignations.

Prostitution has become so blatant and so prevalent in Vietnam -
"alarming" is the word used by the minister of labor - that the government
is launching a highly publicized crackdown on the twin "social evils" of
prostitution and drug abuse. The sharp increases in prostitution and drug
abuse have caused a corresponding rise in HIV infections and AIDS, health
exports say.

A recent seven-year campaign didn't put much of a dent in the sex trade in
Vietnam, despite the closing of 12,000 establishments and the arrest of
nearly 46,000 pimps, prostitutes and clients.

Prostitutes Solicit Aggressively

The availability of prostitution in an after-hours night-club would hardly
be unexpected in Vietnam - or almost any other country. But until now it
would have been unthinkable that it could be occurring in the prison
museum. The site is officially known as Hoa Lo, or Fiery Furnace, although
American POWs nicknamed it the Hanoi Hilton during the 1960s. These days,
as one of Vietnam's most revered national landmarks, it's on par with the
Smithsonian Institution or the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington.

It's only in recent months that female sex workers have begun to openly and
aggressively solicit business in Hanoi, and many prostitutes are driven
around on motorbikes by their pimps.

Meanwhile, in Ho Chi Minh City, male and female sex workers can be found in
nearly every park and along every boulevard in District 1, the main tourist
and entertainment area. And in nightclubs it's as easy to arrange for a
prostitute as it is to order a beer. Residents say there's more
prostitution in the former Saigon than there was during the Vietnam War.

Although Vietnam is one of the world's poorest nations, government
officials say poverty is not the main reason for the boom in the sex trade.
instead, the "epidemic" is being officially attributed to "laziness,
degraded ethical attitudes and the pursuit of unhealthy lifestyles." They
say 90 percent of sex workers have entered the trade willingly.

Party Functionaries Among Clients

The government's new five-year plan to wipe out prostitution will first
target karaoke bars and massage parlors near schools, museums, historic
sites and government offices. Civil servants and party functionaries are
widely known to be the best clients of Hanoi's sexworkers.

"If caught as clients, state cadres will receive fines and have their
employers notified of their acts," said Labor Minister Nguyen thi Hang.

The crackdown also will include the closing of thousands of nightclubs,
beer shops, dance halls and pay-by-the-hour hotels and guesthouses. Police
also plan to raid barber-shops, many of which act as fronts for brothels.

There hasn't been much sizzle in the campaign yet, just a few billboards
bearing socialist-style slogans such as "Using Prostitutes is Not Correct."

Drug abuse will be the other major focus of the high-profile campaign. The
rising use of amphetamines, evidence of massive trafficking in heroin and
methamphetamines, and the growing popularity of "ecstasy" among young
Vietnamese have shocked the conservative senior members of the Communist
Party. Stories of ecstasy raves and orgies appear regularly in the official
media.

Municipal officials in Hanoi recently ordered the closing of Apocalypse
Now, Magnetic and the Fashion Cafe, although a manager at Apocalypse said
his bar has never closed, nor has he altered his usual 5 a.m. closing time.
Clubs are supposed to close at midnight, the manager said, but payoffs to
the police allow him to stay open longer.

Apocalypse is a few blocks from Hoa Lo, the massive prison built by the
French in 1896. It was originally used to hold - and torture - generations
of Vietnamese freedom fighters. Many of the country's most prominent
politicians and soldiers served time there.

McCain, Peterson Photos Displayed

The prison closed five years ago, when 90 percent of the original compound
was bulldozed to make way for a pair of hotel, shopping and apartment
towers. The remaining portion was converted into a museum that is popular
among tourists and locals. There is a working French guillotine in the old
execution yard and several cells have been recreated, complete with leg
irons and instruments of torture.

Two rooms have exhibits relating to U.S. prisoners of war. The photos on
display are the POW mug shots of John McCain, the Republican senator from
Arizona, and Pete Peterson, the former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. Both
were pilots shot down during the Vietnam War and were imprisoned and
tortured in the old prison for about six years each.