SECOND LARGE GROUP OF ADDICTS ESCAPES FROM VIETNAMESE DRUG REHABILITATION
CENTER IN LESS THAN A MONTH

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnamese police are searching for 37 drug addicts
still at large from a group of 142 who escaped from a drug rehabilitation
center in southern Vietnam, in the second massive breakout from the same
center in less than a month, an official said Friday.

The inmates climbed the center's two-meter (6.5 foot) wall while 12 guards
were busy distributing meals to other inmates, said the official of the
center in Can Tho province, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Ho Chi Minh
City.

Police, guards and villagers captured 98 of the addicts later in the day,
and families and local governments handed over seven more three days later,
the official said.

News of the Dec. 9 escape did not appear in Vietnam's state-controlled
press until Friday.

It was the second massive breakout in less than a month from the center,
which held 312 inmates, including 70 women and 77 people infected with HIV,
the virus that causes AIDS, the official said.

All of the escaped addicts were male.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the center has hung
more barbed wire along the top of its walls to make sure there are no more
escapes.

On Nov. 16, 188 inmates used an iron bed to break open the center's gate.
Authorities recaptured 161 of that group and 27 remain at large, the
official said.

The November breakout was triggered by an inmate's claim that he was beaten
by a guard. Six of the inmates accused of instigating the November breakout
are also suspected of leading the second breakout, he said.

Five inmates have been charged with attacking people in the two breakouts,
and police are investigating the involvement of five others, the official said.

The World Security newspaper, published by the Ministry of Public Security,
reported Friday that violence and breakouts at Vietnam's tough
rehabilitation centers are increasing.

"Repeated breakouts by inmates from rehabilitation centers, attacks on the
centers' officials and the deaths of inmates are a pressing problem which
raises a warning for the management of the drug rehabilitation centers,"
the newspaper said.

In July, an inmate drowned when he tried to escape by swimming from a
rehabilitation center on an island on Thac Ba lake in the northern province
of Yen Bai, it said.

Earlier this month, three inmates were injured in a brawl and 12 escaped
from a center in Ha Tay province near Hanoi, it said.

The newspaper said 17 inmates broke out from another center in the central
resort city of Nha Trang.

Vietnam plans to send all of its known 130,000 drug addicts through
mandatory rehabilitation programs over the next five years despite their
high failure rate. Officials say 97 percent of treated addicts return to
drugs within five years.

The country has more than 50 drug rehabilitation centers.