Driving evil off the streets

The bamboo curtain is back up. Across Vietnam, prostitution in all forms may have been driven deep underground by the government's drive against 'social evils' but it still flourishes.

The flesh trade thrives in the curtained back rooms of bars and behind the shaded windows of 'luxury sedans', hired by the hour. Young girls abound in the floating huts once used for fishing on the lakes around Hanoi. Only prices have changed.

Many locals are now bracing themselves for a second, more intensive wave of the three-month-old Social Evils campaign, with state officers primed by a prime ministerial mandate to wipe out prostitution.

Any new drive will be under-scored by the growing fear of violent crime - a long-time rarity in Vietnam. The trumpet of the faithful, the Communist Party daily newspaper Nhan Dan, recently urged more action, warning that evils were now lurking behind the 'cloak of more sophisticated forms'.

For Mr Tai, the operator of a well-known cuddle bar in Hanoi's teeming old quarter, the cloak is a row of reduced-price pickles and canned foreign meats which 'disguise' karaoke rooms out the back.

'I've had to completely re-do the whole place,' he says. 'But I'm getting by. The only people making real money now are the people who make screens and curtains.' Mr Tai says his customers still include the new urban elite - the sons of local cadres, gang bosses and the heads of state-owned enterprises - 'royalty', according to the Nhan Dan. Gone is the traditional draught beer and dog meat. These men want cognac and caviar.