http://www.thanhniennews.com/2010/pages ... -vuon.aspx
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/soci ... phong.htmlPM Dung orders Hai Phong to report on controversial land revocation
Last updated: 1/17/2012 12:45
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has instructed Hai Phong City to inspect procedures used in allotting and revoking farmland in a controversial case that led to a violent confrontation between farmers and local authorities.
The municipal administration head - chairman of the Hai Phong People’s Committee – will have to report to the central government about responsibilities of individuals involved if violations are found, according to a statement posted Tuesday on the government website.
On January 5, local police and military went to Doan Van Vuon’s home to force his family to return the 50-hectare plot of land that Tien Lang District’s authorities had assigned to him for aquaculture farming for 14 years. A controversial decision claimed his right to use the land expired in 2007.
However, the family refused and set up homemade mines along the only entrance to their house to fight the forced eviction. During the confrontation, a mine exploded and Vuon’s brother Doan Van Qui and two others allegedly shot at the force with two self-made guns, injuring four policemen and two soldiers.
Four men have been arrested on attempted murder charges while police are hunting for two others accused of being involved in the incident.
On January 12, Hai Phong authorities held a press briefing where the Tien Lang People’s Committee Chairman, Le Van Hien, asserted that they had done nothing wrong in allotting and revoking land from Vuon.
The Tien Lang administration allotted land to Vuon on October 4, 1993, just 15 days before the Land Law of 1993 took effect, replacing the Land Law of 1987. The latter stipulated that aquaculture land would be allotted for a fixed period of 20 years.
Thus, Hien said Tien Lang District had every right to revoke land after 14 years had expired as was originally contracted.
Former deputy minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Dang Hung Vo has criticized authorities in Hai Phong City’s Tien Lang District for trying to justify revoking a farmer's land that prompted him to defend his home with guns and mines.
“I am willing to confront Tien Lang District. It’s a simple issue. But the Hai Phong People’s Committee must render their own opinion first,” Vo told the media on January 13, one day after Hai Phong authorities held the press briefing on the case.
“I think the best way for Tien Lang District now is to admit that they were wrong. That’s the only way they can be right,” he said.
Vo said Tien Lang District authorities should have extended the lease to 20 years after the Land Law 1993 took effect.
“It is possible for one who does not understand law to say so. Those who understand and enforce the Land Law could not say so. What he [chairman Hien] said was not correct at all,” Vo told the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
At the briefing, the media asked whether Vuon’s house – that was totally destroyed in the incident - was part of the revocation decision, but no answer was given.
Tien Lang Chairman Hien only said they "disassembled" the house because it was the hiding place of suspects accused of opposing the revocation.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has asked that the Hai Phong agency issue a report about the case.
Pham Van Tinh, deputy chief inspector of the ministry’s Land Management Department, said Tien Lang authorities were wrong in revoking Vuon’s land without compensation or support.
If the revocation was made on land after his rights of use expired, he must be supported for damages.
According to Tinh, Tien Lang District should allot land to Vuon’s family with a maximum area allowed by law [of two hectares] and the rest could be put up for auction which Vuon’s family could bid on.
Dinh Xuan Thao, director of the National Assembly Standing Committee's Institute of Legislative Studies, said local authorities have wrongly revoked Vuon’s land due to low awareness of law or under the thinking the residents do not understand law.
He said Tien Lang District would have to compensate for destroying Vuon’s house and identify the responsibility of relevant people.
“There is no regulation allowing destruction of the house of a man because he violates the law. It’s their legal property,” he told the Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper.
Thao also questioned why Tien Lang District employed military force during a land revocation.
Some extra information - naturally, this is mostly coming to me second and third hand, so treat it with a certain amount of suspicion.Fatherland Front to visit Hai Phong
HA NOI — The Central Committee of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front will prepare a field trip to probe into the high-profile incident of farmers firing at local police over a forced land eviction in the northern city of Hai Phong's Tien Lang rural district.
On January 5, about 100 police took part in seizing land from Doan Van Vuon, whose lease on 50-ha swamp land that was said to have been expired.
Vuon and his relatives tried to stop the operation by laying home-made mines and firing at polices using sawed-off shotguns, leaving six police and army officers injured. All were later arrested.
Deputy chairman of the Front, Vu Trong Kim, said that the Front would act in a supervisory role but would provide necessary comments.
He said they wanted to paint a bigger picture of the relations between local authorities and farmers.
They also wanted to check on political and social organisations for labourers, how laws were enforced and how armed forces were engaged in land eviction.
Several committee members said that although the incident had received intensive media coverage, there were still a number of issues left unclear.
These included the whole process of land eviction, how farmers were compensated, and what was the role of local authorities and the Fatherland Front?
Earlier, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung requested the municipal People's Committee chairman to launch a full investigation to identify who was responsible for the eviction and report back to the Government. — VNS
In most of Vietnam, you don't and cannot own the land - you merely own the right to use it for a certain purpose for a certain amount of time. After that time, the local government has to give permission for you to keep using it for another period. Normally extending that permission is reasonably easy unless the land is needed for something else (eg, a road widening scheme)
In this case, Doan Van Vuon (who has some qualifications in agriculture) volunteered to take on a large area of marsh that was deemed worthless.
After a considerable amount of work and investment (mostly based on loans) he'd succeeded in turning the area into a very successful aquaculture farm, with orchards, shrimp pools ect.
At this point, some local official decided to 'reclaim' the land. I am not sure of the legal battle preceding this, but ultimately dozens (most reports claim about 100) police AND SOLDIERS were deployed to take the land, encountering home made landmines and Mr Doan's armed resistance on the way.
There is widespread condemnation of the use of soldiers and excessive police within Vietnam, with the vast majority of people being sympathetic to Mr Doan. Put it this way, the newspapers have been allowed to keep reporting on it, to the puzzlement of the local official.
After Mr Doan was arrested, reports have come in that his house has been demolished, all of the farm produce stolen, the ponds dynamited and the orchards cut down. When asked about this, the same local offical declared, "Local people were so angry at his resistance, they came in a mob to do it"
There's a lot of extra stuff still emerging about this case, such as the compensation offered was based on the marshland value, not the farm, that Mr Doan was paying taxes on the farm to the local government (or other sources claiming he was not paying taxes at all) ect ect.
it stinks to high heaven, and seems to be rumbling on in a manner that the last incident didn't (guy burning himself to death outside the city hall in protest at corrupt land seizure for a new road)
