Vietnam on world newspapers

ABN Amro pays $4.5m to free staff
By Amy Kazmin in Bangkok
Published: November 27 2006 03:08 | Last updated: November 27 2006 03:08
Dutch bank ABN Amro has paid $4.5m to a Vietnamese-state run bank as part of a deal to secure the freedom of four of its employees, who have been in jail or under house arrest, for months in connection with disputed foreign exchange trading, Vietnamese authorities and sources close to the case said.
Vietnamese police over the weekend told the state-controlled Thanh Nien newspaper that ABN Amro deposited the money in a police custody account at the state treasury as compensation for â?oillegal profitsâ? from the disputed foreign currency trades it executed on behalf of Incombank, a large state-owned bank.
The payment came after Vietnamese authorities and ABN executives held formal talks, following a call from ***************, the Vietnamese prime minister, for an expe***ious resolution to a case that has alarmed Western businesses in Vietnam and raised serious questions about the integrity of its financial regulatory system.
In his order Mr Dung suggested that prosecutors may waive any criminal prosecution of ABNâ?Ts four Vietnamese employees â?" who have never been formally charged with any crime, despite months in custody - if the Dutch bank repaid the money lost by Incombank.
ABN has consistently denied any wrong-doing in connection with the controversy, which erupted in February when central bank au***ors discovered that an Incombank bank employee in the port town of Haiphong had lost around $5.4m of the banks money in unauthorised speculative foreign currency trades carried out through ABN.
ABN said it merely acted as a counterparty bank executing the transactions, which it maintains were legal and valid. However, authorities have been holding two ABN local employees in jail and keeping another two under house arrest for months under Vietnamese laws that allow criminal suspects to be held for up to 16 months without charges during the course of an investigation.
An Incombank employee has also been in jail, potentially facing the death penalty under a harsh Vietnamese law that makes causing losses to state enterprises a serious crime that can be punished by death.
ABN initially resisted public demands by the Vietnamese police that it repay the money Incombank lost in more than 500 currency trades, suggesting that the matter was better dealt with by the State Bank of Vietnam, the countryâ?Ts central bank and ostensibly its financial sector regulator.
For months, the State Bank kept a conspicuous silence about the case, but it recently issued a report concluding that ABN had not fully complied with Vietnamese regulations, such as a rule that all foreign currency traders be registered with the central bank.
In ad***ion to straining Hanoiâ?Ts relations with the Netherlands, the high-profile case has alarmed other international banks operating in Vietnam, including Citibank, who formally wrote to the government expressing concern about what they called the â?~criminalisationâ?T of normal business transactions.
The case has raised questions about the transparency of Vietnamâ?Ts financial regulatory system at a time when many Western banks are planning to expand their presence in the fast- growing country, which is poised to join the WTO in the weeks ahead.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

Straits Times
June 2, 2007
Vietnamese PM to reshuffle Cabinet
More young technocrats likely to feature in smaller Cabinet
By Roger Mitton (<< văn phòng ông này đối diện Quán Ăn Ngon, đường Phan Bội Châu, HN)
HANOI - VIETNAM''S Prime Minister *************** is expected to embark on a major Cabinet reshuffle within the next few weeks.
The Premier, who will celebrate one year in office this month, is well positioned to overhaul his Cabinet by inducting more dynamic young technocrats like himself. He has just received the highest single vote count in the recently concluded National Assembly elections, netting 99.1 per cent. The polls did not yield surprising results - the ruling Communist Party won more than 90 per cent of the seats.
Since the start of the year, Mr Dung has made it clear that he would revamp his team once the elections are out of the way.
Dr Ha Huy Thanh, director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainable Development, said: ''The reshuffle will bring in new faces who, I''ve heard, will be more open, disciplined and innovative, and whose views will be more in keeping with modernday Vietnam.''
There are indications that Mr Dung may reduce the size of the Cabinet from 29 members to as few as 22 by eliminating some ministries and merging others. The health and population ministries, for example, are likely to be combined into a single portfolio, as are culture, information and sport.
Mr Nguyen Tran Bat, chairman of Investconsult, a major business advisory firm, said: ''It is a good idea to reduce the number of ministries because it will help administrativereform and reduce overlap and red tape.''
Among those highly likely to be axed are 10 ministers who were not elected to the Communist Party''s central executive committee at its congress in April last year. They include the influential head of the government office, Mr Doan Manh Giao, who is expected to be replaced by his younger deputy Nguyen Xuan Phuc, 53, a more dynamic southerner whose style resembles that of the Prime Minister. Also departing will be ministers in several heavyweight portfolios such as interior, trade, labour, health and natural resources.
Expected to helm the newly combined Trade and Industry Ministry is Mr Hoang Trung Hai, 48, a Hanoi native who speaks English with an Irish accent, acquired during his years in Dublin, where he obtained a master''s degree.
Another high-flier moving up will be Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat, 51, an energetic Harvard-educated technocrat whose portfolio is expected to absorb the fisheries and, possibly, natural resources ministries. But perhaps the biggest boost will go to Dr Nguyen Thien Nhan, 54, the Germanytrained Education Minister who will become a deputy prime minister, while retaining his education portfolio.
Once the Prime Minister announces his reshuffle later this month, he is expected to embark on a long-delayed visit to Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines.
rogermitton@hotmail.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6738075.stm
The Vietnamese authorities have released leading dissident Nguyen Vu Binh from prison.
A former journalist who used the internet to criticise the Communist government, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for spying in 2003.
The government said Mr Binh, 39, had been granted amnesty by President *****************.
His release comes two weeks before a visit to the US by Mr Triet, although eight others have recently been jailed.
''Deliberate timing''
After Mr Triet was formally invited to Washington, Vietnamese Vice Foreign Minister Le Van Bang said Hanoi would release three unnamed dissidents.
The timing seems to be deliberate, says the BBC''s former Vietnam correspondent, Bill Hayton.
Mr Binh was top of the list of dissidents that US and European diplomats is pressing to have released.
But eight other dissidents have recently been convicted of conducting propaganda against the state and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
Human rights groups are calling for their release, but Vietnamese authorities seem determined to make an example of those calling for an end to Communist Party rule, says our correspondent.
Mr Binh was arrested in September 2002 for writing an online article criticising a border agreement between Vietnam and China.
He had also planned to create an alternative political party, which is illegal in Vietnam. The Communist Party is the country''s only political party.
VNA state media said Mr Binh "thanked the Nam Ha prison management for their care while he was serving his sentence there".
Được vnbui sửa chữa / chuyển vào 11:07 ngày 11/06/2007

xo''a
ko hieu loi gi
Được vnbui sửa chữa / chuyển vào 11:03 ngày 11/06/2007

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/13/asia/vietnam.1-74706.php
Hanoi leader braces for U.S. critics
By Seth Mydans Published: June 13, 2007
HANOI: Bracing himself for criticism over the Vietnamese human rights record, President ***************** said Wednesday that he would keep his eye firmly on trade and investment when he visits the United States next week.
The first Vietnamese head of state to visit Washington since the Vietnam War ended 32 years ago, he is a longtime proponent of his country''s economic liberalization and integration into the world economy.
In an interview at the presidential palace, Triet said he would lobby for tighter economic ties in meetings with President George W. Bush, members of Congress and business leaders.
"We really want the United States to increase its investment in terms of high technology in Vietnam," he said, "and we want the United States to create favorable con***ions for Vietnamese goods in the United States market."
He bristled, though, over recent criticisms of the arrests and trials of several dissidents that threaten to overshadow the broader positive relations that have made visits like this one less and less remarkable.
"Vietnam has experienced war and understands well the loss of human rights and freedom," he said. "Therefore we really love the fundamental rights of man and respect human rights. But if anyone violates the law we have to punish them."
Since this nation of 84 million people stepped onto the world stage as host of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum last fall, it has conducted a roundup of a number of dissidents, most recently sentencing two activist lawyers to long jail terms last month.
The White House said Bush would "express his deep concern" over the issue, and some critics of Vietnam in the United States have lobbied for a cancellation of the visit.
The visit is all the more significant given the opposition it has faced, several Vietnamese and foreign analysts said.
"It strengthens the hands of the outward-looking reform types in the government," said Jonathan Pincus, the senior country economist for the United Nations Development Program. "It shows Vietnam that the United States is a reliable and mature partner. That is hugely important to Vietnam."
One strong motivation to proceed, on both sides, is cementing their relationship in the context of the growing political and economic weight of Vietnam''s northern neighbor, China.
Le Dang Doanh, a leading economist, said: "It is very important that the visit could take place because if not, the big neighbors to the north could try to push harder on Vietnam. And this is not good for the stability of the region and not good at all for Vietnam."
Vietnam has carefully balanced its relations between the United States and China, and in advance of his trip to Washington, Triet visited Beijing last month.
"The two countries have a common target to build socialism," he said of China in the interview. "Therefore, we want to enhance cooperation in many areas with China. As you know, China is a nation that goes farther than Vietnam, so Vietnam wants to learn from China''s lessons in development."
The United States is the largest Vietnamese trading partner, with an increasing two-way trade that rose to $7.8 billion in 2005 from $1.5 billion in 2001, according to Vietnamese government figures.
But Triet said he would lobby for more high-technology investment, saying U.S. investment still lags as bilateral ties have developed.
"Now, trade and investment relations development is not commensurate with the politics of the two countries," he said.
The United States ended a trade embargo in 1994 and established diplomatic relations with Vietnam the next year. In 2001, the two nations signed a trade agreement that was called the final step in postwar normalization of relations.
Last fall, with strong U.S. support, Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization.
The bilateral relationship has flourished in areas that include trade and business, military contacts, education and health care issues like bird flu and AIDS.
But last year, Vietnam listed the United States as only its 11th largest foreign investor, with licensed projects whose total capital was $1.7 billion.
As relations have progressed, high-level exchanges have multiplied, from former President Bill Clinton''s highly popular visit here in 2000 to a flurry of visits last year that included Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense at the time.
The Vietnamese prime minister and defense minister have both visited the United States.
Triet is seen as one of the outward-looking members of the Vietnamese hierarchy. A southerner who was party chief in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, he is known for his innovations in supporting private enterprise and foreign investment.
He made his reputation as the chief of what is now Binh Duong Province, a landlocked area just north of Ho Chi Minh City that has few advantages for development. By relaxing con***ions for private and foreign investment at a time when these were new and controversial policies he created what is now one of the most prosperous regions in the country, a magnet for both business and labor.
"He broke the mold," Pincus said. "He was able to change the way things are governed. So he has street cred among reformers."
Triet, who kept himself on a tight formal leash throughout the interview in a large, unadorned room, allowed a small glimpse of his family life when he was describing the neighborly relations of Vietnam and China.
"In a family even husband and wife differ," he said. "For example, my wife, she loves cooking and music, and I prefer football. And therefore sometimes she complains to me because at 1 or 2 a.m. I wake and watch a soccer match. So in that case I apologize to her and turn down the volume."
Because of the time difference, many Vietnamese stay up late at night to watch European matches.
Triet said it was not actually the sound of the television that bothered his wife. "But you know that when I watch football matches - I love football, and therefore I shout out."

Spotlight: ***************** - Vietnam?Ts businessfriendly face
By Amy Kazmin
Published: June 15 2007 18:18 | Last updated: June 15 2007 18:18
As a mathematics and political science student at the elite Saigon University in the early 1960s, *****************, the son of a farming family, was caught up in the leftist student movement, joining ?" in the words of his official biography ?" ?othe revolutionary basê?.
For a decade after his graduation, Mr Triet was an activist in southern Vietnam with the Communist party?Ts youth movement, an organisation that drummed up popular support for
the communist resistance to the US-backed Saigon regime. He was also sent to the battlefield in My Tho province, the site of heavy fighting between US-backed forces and ********* guerrillas.
But with the communist-ruled, reunified Vietnam now focusing on ?othe battlefield of the market?, Mr Triet , the president, will next week make his first visit to his old war-time enemy, the US, now Vietnam?Ts biggest single trading partner. Mr Triet, who became president last June, makes an appropriate emissary for the economically burgeoning ?onew? Vietnam, which is now capturing the imagination of many western foreign investors hungry for a piece of the action in one of Asiâ?Ts fastest-growing economies.
Charming, business-friendly and eager to project himself as responsive to the public, Mr Triet is one of the new generation of Vietnamese communist leaders who are trying to steer the country on a course of rapid economic growth and development, while ensuring that the party maintains tight control over the country?Ts political life.
In the 1990s, he presided over a period of spectacular industrial development in his home province. Later, as Communist party chief in Ho Chi Minh City, he earned a reputation as a corruption fighter for taking down the kingpin of the city?Ts criminal underworld, who had
connections to several senior party officials.
?oHe really represents this generation of the so-called renovators,? said a western diplomat in Hanoi. ?oHe is a good communicator, is quite modest in his attitude and has a good image in
the population.?
Mr Triet gained credentials as an economic reformer in the 1990s, as chief of what is now known as Binh Duong province, then a little-developed, primarily agricultural inland area north of Ho Chi Minh City, as Saigon was renamed after the war.
While Hanoi was still agonising over( phân vân về) issues of how much it should relax its hold over the state- controlled economy ?" and antagonising many investors in the process ?" Mr Triet laid
the foundations for an economic boom in his province, opening its doors to foreign direct investment and encouraging locals to set up their own businesses.
?oHe was one of the main breakers of the rules ?" one of the main breakers of the orthodox system,? says Thomas Vallely, director of the Vietnam program at the Kennedy School for
Government. ?oMy clear impression is that he was experimenting without permission.? It was an experiment that evidently paid off. Today Binh Duong is one of the prime sites for foreign direct investment, generating a significant portion of Vietnam?Ts booming export industries.
In 1997, Mr Triet was moved to Ho Chi Minh City, the booming business capital, where he led a crackdown on a notorious local Mafia don, ?oNam Cam,? or ?oFifth Orangê?, who ran brothels, gambling dens and other illegal businesses with the tacit tolerance of high-ranking government officials, including two members of the elite central committee, and lowerranking police officers. More than 155 people were tried in the case. Given the Mafia don?Ts high-level connections, Mr Triet ?oreally took a lot of risk in this casê?,
the Hanoi- based diplomat said.
As president, Mr Triet is officially the head of state but the role is largely ceremonial, compared with the more powerful roles of the prime minister, and the secretary-general of the Communist party. Yet, as part of Vietnam?Ts ruling ?otroikâ?, Mr Triet has ended up with at
least one crucial portfolio ?" heading a committee overseeing reforms of the justice system, essential if Vietnam?Ts economy is to continue to progress.
During his first trip to the US, Mr Triet hopes to focus attention on the two countries?T soaring bilateral trade, which was valued at $7.8bn (,5.8bn, £3.96bn) in 2005, and to woo fresh foreign investment from US companies. His itinerary includes a visit to New York where he is expected to meet the leaders of big US companies, including General Electric, Intel and American International Group.
But there is little doubt that Mr Triet will also be criticised for Vietnam?Ts human rights record when he meets George W. Bush, US president, and other US politicians. In recent months, Hanoi has come under fire for a harsh crackdown on dissent, in which
several dissidents ?" including two human rights lawyers, a Roman Catholic priest and members of an outlawed trade union ?" have been sentenced to imprisonment.
Mr Triet has publicly rejected criticism of the crackdown, insisting that Hanoi respects human rights but must punish those who violate Vietnamese laws. Yet the criticism is likely to be reiterated on the trip.
?oAs much as Vietnam would like that issue to go away, it?Ts not going to,? Mr Vallely says.
?oThat is going to be part of the bilateral relationship, and that is the price Vietnam pays for relations with the US.?
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Được vnbui sửa chữa / chuyển vào 13:43 ngày 18/06/2007

Tiền Phong dịch bài trên của Financial Times
http://www.tienphongonline.com.vn/Tianyon/Index.aspx?ArticleID=87455&ChannelID=5

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2007-06-19T150008Z_01_HAN128185_RTRIDST_0_VIETNAM-CITI-DEALS.XML
tin Reuters
Citygroup ký với EVN, Vinalines, và Vinacomin
http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070620010754.3anhtb5y&cat=null

Vietnam''s president opens US trip with NY stock exchange visit

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/21/america/NA-GEN-US-Vietnam.php
Vietnam''s president likely to hear complaints about human rights from US lawmakers
WASHINGTON: Vietnam''s president may face an uncomfortable reception with U.S. lawmakers keen to discuss claims of widespread human rights abuse in his country as well as its spectacular economic success.
***************** was to visit Washington on Thursday, the first such trip by a president of the communist-led country since the Vietnam War, with a delegation of more than 100 Vietnamese businessmen. The group planned to play up negotiations to buy jets from Boeing Co. and a possible Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, which sometimes acts as a road map to eventual free trade negotiations.
Triet also must navigate potential political hazards in the U.S. Congress, where lawmakers have criticized Vietnam for ignoring human rights pledges and increasing its repression of dissidents.
"I''ll let him know that if we''re going to bolster our friendship with Vietnam, as he wishes, Vietnam must embrace political pluralism in all of its forms," said Republican Rep. Ed Royce, who plans to attend the Thursday meeting hosted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "Silencing dissidents and suppressing religious freedoms are not the ways toward a close partnership."
Triet was to meet Friday with President George W. Bush at the White House.
Vietnam, which has one of Asia''s fastest growing economies, achieved its goal of membership in the World Trade Organization in January; U.S. officials expressed hope at the time that the country had begun making progress toward turning around a dismal rights record.
Rights group say, however, that purple]Vietnam has embarked on one of the worst crackdowns on dissidents in years. Vietnam has arrested or sentenced at least eight pro-democracy activists in recent months, including a dissident Catholic priest who was sentenced to eight years in prison.
In a message of disapproval to Vietnam,Bush met in May with four Vietnamese-American activists.
[purplepOne of the activists, Diem Do, chairman of the Vietnam Reform Party, met with Pelosi on Wednesday. He urged her to press Triet to release political prisoners and respect the rights of Vietnamese citizens.[/purple]
Pressure by lawmakers and by Bush, he said, could result in progress in Vietnam. "Vietnam needs the U.S. for economic development; it needs the U.S. to integrate into the international community," he said. "The U.S. is in a great position to exert pressure for human rights and democracy in Vietnam."
Vietnam does not tolerate any challenge to Communist one-party rule; it insists, however, that only lawbreakers are jailed. In an attempt to ease misgivings in Washington, Vietnam released two political dissidents recently.
Frederick Brown, a Southeast Asia specialist at Johns Hopkins University''s School of Advanced International Studies, said Triet will be prepared for strong words from some in Congress.
"He will get an earful on Capitol Hill with regard to human rights[/purple]," Brown said. But, he said, "there''s no denying the really immense gains that have been made in the relationship because of two-way trade."
Since the two countries began a bilateral trade agreement in 2001, trade has been booming. It reached nearly $10 billion (õ,ơ7.45 billion) last year. Vietnam''s WTO entry is expected to lead to further U.S. investment.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/20/news/letter.php
Letter from Vietnam: Emblems of war persist, but enmity is long gone
By Samuel Abt
Published: June 20, 2007
HANOI: Because "war museum" and "mausoleum" can sound alike, especially if a pedicab driver speaks no English and his passenger no Vietnamese, a recent visitor to Hanoi found himself in a long line waiting to view the embalmed corpse of Ho Chi Minh, "He Who Enlightens."
The change in plans was acceptable. Although he had not been one of those Americans who chanted "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh" during war protests in the turbulent 1960s - still less "Hey, hey, LBJ ( tổng thống Lybdon Johnson) , how many kids did you kill today?" - the visitor had opposed the war and respected Ho''s impulses more than he did Lyndon Johnson''s. So, instead of heading for 28 Dien Bien Phu street and the Military History Museum, his original goal, the visitor stayed at the mausoleum in Ba Dinh Square.
It is a huge, gray temple, air con***ioned against the fierce heat, size=4]and Ho''s body is under glass and guarded by four soldiers in white uniforms. He died in 1969 and is said to have wanted not a mausoleum but cremation and burial of his ashes at three sites around Vietnam, north, central and south.[/size=4]
In the Presidential Palace Area near the mausoleum are more vestiges, as a tourist pamphlet put it, of Ho. The sparse dining room in the House of 1954, where he lived and worked from that year until 1958, has a table set for one. The workroom has portraits of Marx and Lenin, a small bust of Lenin, a collection of books and a clear desk.
The House on Stilts,( nhà sàn) where Ho lived and worked from 1958 until 1969, is also uncluttered. A metal air raid helmet sits behind three telephones, none of them red. A fish pond, orchards and a pergola complete the site except for the imposing Presidential Palace, formerly the seat of France''s governor of Indochina. Acclaimed in the same pamphlet for his "simplicity, modesty, gentleness and dedication for the nation and the people," Ho seems never to have used the palace.
Strikingly absent throughout the compound are any references to Vietnam''s wars against the French (1946-1954) for independence or the Americans (1964-1973) for reunification.
Almost all of Hanoi is mute about those conflicts, especially what is known in the United States as the Vietnam War and in Vietnam as the American War. That is why the visitor wanted to see the Military History Museum, where, guidebooks say, the forecourt includes a U.S. tank and a second courtyard is littered with the wreckage of U.S. planes.
The visitor was curious whether these spoils would be labeled with denunciations of the enemy, but that will have to wait for another visit; woozy in the heat, he hailed a cyclo, or pedicab, and returned to his hotel for a shower before the flight home.
It had been an exciting visit to a vibrant city. Bao Ninh was surely too pessimistic in his searing novel, "The Sorrow of War," about his 10 years as a North Vietnamese soldier, when he wrote in 1991: "The aura of hope in those early postwar days swiftly faded. Those who survived continue to live. But that will has gone, that burning will which was once Vietnam''s salvation.
"Where is the reward of enlightenment due to us for attaining our sacred war goals? Our history-making efforts for the great generations have been to no avail. What''s so different here and now from the vulgar and cruel life we all experienced during the war?"
Ask young Vietnamese if they agree.
At the hotel and in the few shops and restaurants where young Vietnamese spoke a bit of English, there was no resonance of the American War. Questioned where he was from, the visitor noticed no loss of smile, no sudden intake of breath when he said "the United States." He might as well have identified himself as a Finn or Bolivian. A people who have battled in the last half-century against the Japanese, the French, the Americans, the Cambodians, the Chinese and, certainly, themselves, appear mostly to have put that history far behind.
Not entirely, though. Here and there in the teeming Old Quarter of Hanoi are shops devoted to propaganda art, which is to art what military music is to music. Posters with primary colors and slightly idealized figures - workers, peasants, soldiers - range over several decades up to the present day. Mainly they concentrate on the American War, possibly because the shops'' customers are overwhelmingly American, as a clerk explained.
All the posters are inspirational, puzzlingly in English, and some are dated. "Congratulations on the great victory in Tri Thien-Hue (1975)," exclaimed one under a drawing of smiling combat veterans. "More manure and good rice varieties mean bumper crops (1970)" announced another.
In one poster, a huge fist demolished a plane marked USAF, or U.S. Air Force. In another, a storm of bombs falls toward an infant in a basket above the question, "Is this what you want to do, Nich Xon?" first and middle names Richard Milhous, the man with the "secret" peace plan that consisted of increasing the bombing and spreading the war into Cambodia.
For $9, no bargaining, the visitor bought two posters. The first showed a woman soldier with an automatic rifle standing in front of a cheering crowd and was captioned "Let''s hold firmly to our guns to protect revolutionary achievements (1974)." The second was Ho gazing benignly over a swarm of doves and soldiers, labeled "Dien Bien Phu victory (1999)," or, 45 years earlier, the battle that broke the French.
Then it was time to leave the shop. The street outside was the standard Hanoi maelstrom of cars, trucks, taxis, motorcycles, cyclos, bicycles and motorbikes, all of them blaring their horns to warn that they were passing everybody else, none of them particularly observing any rules of the road, like not turning across traffic.
It was intimidating to try to cross that two-way nonstop flow. As he stood wavering at a corner, the visitor felt his hand being taken.
An old man smiled at him and, in a move worthy of Moses parting the Red Sea, looking neither left nor right, only straight ahead, led the visitor across and unscathed.
"Thank you, friend," the visitor said. The old man nodded, understanding perhaps the words, certainly the sentiment.
The guidebooks confirm it: All is forgiven. On both sides.