Hanoi Land Petitioners Blocked from Meeting with U.S. Diplomats

By Defend the Defenders, August 25, 2017

Hanoi security forces have blocked land petitioners from Duong Noi and Dong Tam from going to meet with U.S. diplomats to present their situations and seek support for their case.

Blogger Trinh Ba Phuong from Duong Noi said they had a meeting with U.S. diplomats in their Embassy in Hanoi on August 25, however from early evening of Thursday until late afternoon of Friday, they were closely followed by plainclothes agents.

In order to protect themselves, Phuong announced the U.S. Embassy for their situation and cancelled the meeting.

Duong Noi and Dong Tam are among many localities in Vietnam where local authorities have seized local residents’ agricultural land for property and industrial development projects without paying adequate compensation.

In April, residents in Dong Tam held hostages of over 40 police officers and local government officers after police in My Duc district beat and detained Le Dinh Kinh, an 82-year local old resident who leads the farmers to protest illegal land grabbing.

The hostage was settled one week later as the Hanoi city’s leadership promised not to investigate to seek responsibilities of farmers in the case, and conduct fair investigation to settle the land disputes.

However, in July and August, Hanoi police summoned around 70 residents in Dong Tam to probe for their roles in the hostage, and declared that the dispute land belongs to the army and will be taken for the military-run telecommunication Viettel Group.

In Vietnam, all land belongs to the state and residents have only right to use it. The central government or local authorities are eligible to seize land for social-economic development projects or selling to industrial and property developers who later sell the land at prices thousands higher than the compensation prices for the land.

Thousands of Vietnamese have not agreed with the low compensation prices and filled petitions to the government, however, the government has not paid enough attention to their voices.

For land seizure in Vietnam, you can read report LAND OWNERSHIP IN VIETNAM & LAND SEIZURE IN ONE-PARTY STATE

Meanwhile, along with blocking hundreds of local activists from going abroad, Vietnam’s security forces have strived not to allow many activists to meet with foreign diplomats and the common practice is to hold the targets under house arrest until the scheduled meetings are over.