LAND RIGHTS DEPRIVATION: A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION IN VIETNAM By Nguyen Minh Can * Russia The Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) authorities, in addition to their continued violations of the people s freedoms, keep acting against Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, related to the right to own property: No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. Vietnam is currently an agricultural country with more than 70% of its 94 million inhabitants making their living as farmers. The land was the result of their hard labor filled with sweat and tears throughout many generations. Yet since 1980, Vietnam s ruling communist party (VCP) has abused Article. 17 of the 1992 SRV constitution turning the people s land ownership into the so-called ownership by the entire people, a misleading term used to conceal the truth making all the land the property of the VCP. Since then, the communist officials have engaged in innumerable acts of oppression and violent confiscation to steal the people s land and the source of their livelihoods, pushing them against the wall with no means of survival. In principle, compensation was made, but at such an incredibly low and merely symbolic rate that, instead of helping the people to rebuild their lives, it has pushed them into intense poverty. Since 1980, when Vietnam s socialist constitution was first enforced, the land of millions of people has been stolen, creating a new genre of victims of injustice. This has been a tragedy for tens of millions of laborers in Vietnam, who have sometimes complained for more than thirty years to various government offices to no avail, due to those agencies inadequate solutions or even total disregard for their plight. These victims of unbearable injustice have no choice but to firmly stand up to protest nationwide, including a demonstration participated by thousands of people in the province of Thai Binh at the end of 1996. Eventually a series of uprisings occurred over several months in 1997 by tens of thousands of farmers from five of the Thai Binh s seven districts: Quynh Phu, Hung Ham Tien Hai, Dong Hung, and Thai Thuy. Those were followed by two other more uprisings involving tens of thousands of the highland ethnic people in 2001 and 2003, then by a demonstration that lasted twenty seven full days and nights in 2007 by thousands of farmers from the southern 19 provinces of Tien Giang, An Giang, Kien Giang, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, My Tho, Ben Tre, Long An, Can Tho, Dong Thap, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Dinh, Binh Thuan, and nine districts of Saigon. The most recent and violent protest took place in the village of Yen Loc, in the district of Can Loc in Ha Tinh province on 15 August 2012 when hundreds of villagers surrounded the local people committee s office, broke its furniture, and injured four cadres and police officers involved in a land confiscation. A villager named Dang Van Cong, 27, was 1
detained in this event. In general, all uprisings by people upset from the land confiscation were bloodily crushed by the ruthless police and military forces, resulting in many arrests, imprisonments, and even deaths, whether at the scene or in prisons. In recent years, the Vietnamese authorities have become tougher in their forced confiscation of farmers land to serve both the investors interests and communist officials corruption, in spite of increasingly strong protests. In 2011 and 2012, many serious confiscations took place with hundreds and sometimes thousands, of security and mobile police, as well as armed troops and civilian guards, swarming into villages to brutally beat farmers and steal hundreds of hectares of their land. The following are typical cases from those two years: CASE 1: Hundreds of fully armed police, soldiers, and forest agents, together with bulldozers and steam-shovels, were mobilized to confiscate a forested area along the border between Dak Nong and Binh Phuoc in the village of Dak Ngol, Tuy Duc district of the province of Dak Nong. They were met by some 200 villagers who threw rocks and shot rubber bullets at them. After ten days of attacking, the government forces successfully liberated 700 hectares destroying all plant life and 107 temporary huts and tents. The VCP and its corrupt media unjustly condemned their victims as forest pirates and accused them of wounding two police officers and of damaging nine bulldozers and steam-shovels, and one ambulance. However, according to the Dak Ngol villagers, the trees in that forest area had already been fully exploited for sale profits, leaving the bare land for them to cultivate for years. A number of witnesses reported to the BBC that the government actually wanted to let businesses exploit the land, despite the fact that their families had cultivated it and lived on it ever since 1988. Fifteen villagers (besides 50 others fled) were prosecuted for two crimes: acting against officials on duty and damaging socialist properties. The Dak Nong court sentenced all fifteen of them on 31 May 2012 a total of forty years and nine months in prison. 1 CASE 2: Authorities in Da Nang, decided to take back the cultivated and inhabited land of more than 400 families in the Con Dau Catholic diocese together with its cemetery to sell to the Sun Investment Company of the Sun Group, chief investor of the Hoa Xuan- Cam Le ecological apartment building complex project. Local people have repeatedly requested the government to leave them alone on the land that their ancestors had worked for 135 years and in which many were enjoying their final rest. However, authorities ordered police to continue pressuring inhabitants to accept the compensation being offered and to vacate the land. 1 - Xét xử vụ án chống người cưỡng chế ở Đắk Nông, Tuổi Trẻ Online, 31 May 2012, at <http://tuoitre.vn/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/phap-luat/494295/xet-xu-vu-an-chong-nguoi-cuong-che-o-dak- Nong.html>, 15 August 2012. - Xử người chống cưỡng chế ở Đăk Nông, BBC Vietnamese Online, 31 May 2012, at <http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/vietnam/2012/05/120531_daknong_trial.shtml>, 15 August 2012. 2
During the process, Mrs. Ho Nhu (aka Maria Dang Thi Tan) died, leaving wishes that she be buried next to her husband in the village cemetery, which prompted authorities to send 500 police officers to stop the funeral on 4 May 2012. They brutally beat the mourners, injuring three of them severely and some other children, and threw pepper grenades on them before seizing the casket and carry it away on a vehicle. Under their heavy pressure, more than eighty villagers had to flee to Thailand, and several families, out of more than a hundred, had to accept the proposed compensation against their will. On 3 August 2012, the chairman of the Cam Le district people s committee decided to send out hundreds of police officers to confiscate the Con Dau diocese land, injuring many citizens including seniors, women, and children. They also detained seven diocese members, of which Mr. Thomas Nguyen Thanh Nam was tortured to death. The other six were brought to court five months later and imprisoned for causing public disturbances and obstructing officials on duty. The end result was that most of the people s land and properties were taken away, and the cemetery and the 135-year-old Catholic diocese, were totally destroyed. 2 CASE 3: In 1993, under the auspices of authorities of Tien Lang district of Hai Phong City, Mr. Doan Van Vuon and his brother s families in Cong Roc of Vinh Quang village began to develop 21 hectares of seashore, including 19.3 unexploited hectares of seashore swamps, for use in 14 years. They had to invest lots of labor and money, after a series of failures, to successfully build anti-seawater dikes to start a sea product business. Several years later, learning that the family had gained some income to pay for their bank debts, corrupt local officials plotted to take over their lands. In April 2008, they decided to recover their 19.3 hectares of swamps despite protest that the family s period of land use was still valid. In April 2009, the authorities of the Tien Lang district and Hai Phong city ordered hundreds of police officers and soldiers to begin the recovery. However, Vuon and his brother vigorously fought back using rustic weapons, wounding several of the government forces members. The siblings were finally arrested and their houses and properties were burned, leaving their loved ones homeless. Both Vuon brothers are still in prison, awaiting sentencing for their opposition to officials on duty and homicidal attempts, which they continued to appeal with the support of many people. 3 2 - Gốc rễ của vụ Cồn Dầu?, BBC Vietnamese Online, 27 October 2010, at <http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/av/2010/10/101027_havu_condau.shtml>, 16 August 2012. - Khởi tố 6 người vụ Cồn Dầu, BBC Vietnamese Online, 17 May 2010, at <http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/vietnam/2010/05/100517_condau_prosecution.shtml>, 16 August 2012, - Người mẹ có 2 con là nạn nhân của vụ Cồn Dầu, Radio Free Asia Vietnamese, 2 September 2010, at <http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/interview-mrs-nguyen-thi-hai-mother-of-2-son-one-in-prisonand-another-one-flee-to-thai-lan-for-asylum-seeker-mlam-09022010180649.html>, 16 August 2012. 3 - Vụ án cưỡng chế đất ở Tiên Lãng, Wikipedia, 9 May 2012, at <http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/v%e1%bb%a5_%c3%a1n_c%c6%b0%e1%bb%a1ng_ch%e1%ba%b F_%C4%91%E1%BA%A5t_%E1%BB%9F_Ti%C3%AAn_L%C3%A3ng, 16 August 2012. 3
CASE 4: In April 2012, the authorities of the Van Giang district, province of Hung Yen, decided to confiscate some 500 hectares (involving about 4,000 families) to create the Ecopark city-commerce tourist area, to be built by Viet Hung Estate Investment Company. Facing a terribly low and unfair compensation rate of 43,000 VND (approximately US$ 2.15) per square meter, 1,800 families in Xuan Quan, Phung Cong, and Cuu Cao firmly refused to accept, leading the district and provincial government on 24 April 2012 to send out a force of some 2,000 police officers to Phung Cong and Xuan Quan to bar all access to the field, and to detain and beat a number of guardians there. Other farmers coming to support the victims were also brutally beaten, and some were rendered unconscious by having pepper gas pumped into their noses. Eventually, the unarmed people were defeated by the powerful government forces, and twenty of them were arrested, including a mother with a small child at her breast. Citizens continued to be harassed and terrorized by forces hired by the Viet Hung Company. 4 CASE 5: Around the end of 2007, the authorities of the Vu Ban district in Nam Dinh province planned to confiscate 165 hectares of it s the Lien Minh, Lien Bao, and Kim Thai villages to sell to Vietnam Textile Group in order to build the Bao Minh industrial zone. However, due to the extremely low compensation offered, 120 families rejected the offer and tried to stand against the government s threats and enticement. On 9 May 2012, nearly 300 police officers and civilian guards were sent over to carry out a ruthless confiscation, beating three women seriously then leaving them lying in the street, while five others were arrested. Eventually, the 165 hectares were stolen successfully. 5 CASE 6: On 22 May 2012, authorities of the Cai Rang district in Can Tho province ordered a takeover of the family land of Mrs. Pham Thi Lai despite her repeated complaints to many public agencies since 2002. Her husband was so furious about the - Ai sai phạm trong vụ Đoàn Văn Vươn?, BBC Vietnamese Online, 15 February 2012, at <http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/forum/2012/02/120215_who_guilty_doanvanvuon_case.shtml>, 16 August 2012. 4 - Vụ Văn Giang: Chính quyền cưỡng chế, BBC Vietnamese Online, 24 April 2012, at <http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/vietnam/2012/04/120424_van_giang_showdown.shtml>, 16 August 2012. - Chỉnh đốn Đảng và kêu cứu từ Văn Giang, BBC Vietnamese Online, 25 April 2012, at <http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/forum/2012/04/120425_van_giang_lands_party.sht>, 16 August 2012. - Hiệp đồng tác chiến - kẻ thù là Dân, Dân Làm Báo, 27 April 2012, at <http://danlambaovn.blogspot.com/2012/04/hiep-ong-tac-chien-ke-thu-la-dan.html>, 16 August 2012. - Bằng chứng về sự đàn áp dã man trong cuộc cưỡng chế Văn Giang, Youtube, 24 April 2012, at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l2vz3jitflk>, 16 August 2012. 5 - Cưỡng chế đất đai tại Vụ Bản, Nam Định : 5 người dân bị bắt, Radio France International, 9 May 2012, at <http://www.viet.rfi.fr/viet-nam/20120509-cuong-che-dat-dai-tai-vu-ban-nam-dinh-5-nguoi-danbi-bat>, 18 August 2012. - Cưỡng chế đất Vụ Bản, Nam Định phần 1, Youtube, 8 May 2012, at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b8ng0qr8es>, 6 August 2012. 4
injustice that he tried to take his own life with pesticide. Fortunately, he was rescued in time and was being treated in a hospital. To protest the government s forced confiscation, Mrs. Lai and her daughter fully undressed themselves but they were savagely dragged from their family land. On 6-19 the people committee of Cai Rang accused Mrs. Lai of obstructing the construction of residential lot #49 of the new city area of South Can Tho. She was fined 1.5 million VND (approximately US$ 75.00) for that crime, plus 80 thousand VND (US$4.00) for her and her daughter s nakedness in violation of public decency! 6 It is critical to emphasize here that during such official land confiscations, the police normally resort to brutal beatings of the victims of injustice, severely injuring many of them, and causing fatalities as in the case of Trang Bom of Dong Nai in 2008, and Tinh Gia of Thanh Hoa in 2010, or pushing them to commit suicide as in the case of Son Tra of Da Nang in 2011, Thang Binh of Quang Nam or Can Tho in 2012. Unimaginable savageries become normal procedure for the police, including beating citizens to death, attacking funerals, bullying mourners, and even stealing caskets! 7 In addition, the Vietnamese authorities have bluntly attempted in recent years to take over the lands of religious organizations in the country such as Christian, Buddhist, Protestant, Caodai, and Hoahao Buddhist churches. In numerous cases, ruthless violence has been used against religious protesters and victims. Consequences of the deprivation and annihilation of the people s land ownership The Vietnamese people have suffered greatly from government deprivation and the annihilation of the people s land ownership rights by the communists. They have been the innocent victims of injustice and pushed to the wall to survive as homeless, landless, and jobless citizens. Moreover, the national economy has also suffered from farmers loss of their means of survival, changing from their status from land owners to tenants, working on government land for only a limited period (typically twenty years or fifty years for multiple year plants). To those farmers, the state land is merely something temporary that they will eventually have to return, or to be confiscated, so they try their best to maximally exploit the soil for 6 - Khỏa thân cản trở thi công: phạt 1.580.000 đồng, Tuổi Trẻ Online, 26 September 2012, at <http://tuoitre.vn/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/phap-luat/497689/khoa-than-can-tro-thi-cong%c2%a0phat-1580000- dong.html>, 21 August 2012. - Cần Thơ: Hai mẹ con khỏa thân để giữ đất, Kiến Thức, 26 May 2012, at <http://bee.net.vn/channel/1987/201205/can-tho-hai-me-con-khoa-than-de-giu-dat-1837019/>, 22 August 2012. 7 - Cưỡng chế, tàn phá mồ mả tại La Dương -- Dương Nội (1), Youtube, 16 January 2012, at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3ovq7a6nrg>, 12 August 2012. - Dùng côn đồ cưỡng chế làm chết người tại Hà Đông, Youtube, 26 January 2012, at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q-5kyqzj_e&feature=related>, 12 August 2012. 5
fast profits, instead of taking good care of it and making it more fertile for higher yields and higher income for themselves and their descendants. Negative effects on national economy, culture, and society have resulted from that kind of thinking, bringing about a painfully swift reduction of cultivated land along with a population explosion. Vietnam s Agriculture Ministry itself has confirmed that from 2001 to 2006, 376,000 hectares of rice fields were confiscated, leaving over a million farmers without means of survival, while thousands of hectares of fertile land remained unused. Why? Because high ranking officials cared only about immediate profits, mostly their own, and created illogical city projects of high and super-high standards, entertainment and amusement centers, ecological tourist sites, golf courses. While many urbanization and industrialization projects were rejected, or approved but without a budget, much previously confiscated land has remained unused for years, offering opportunities for corrupt officials to sell it and pocket the money. A strange situation has begun happening in socialist societies in which farmers remove the fertile soil to sell to builders to create golf courses or recreation parks. The army of unemployed Vietnamese peasants increases daily, and according to Vietnam s media, will reach multimillions as peasants enter cities to look for jobs, directly worsening an already deplorable unemployment situation there. The examples cited above are merely a few instances of the suffering inflicted on Vietnamese land owners by corrupt communist officials. Those victims must try to survive in the open, harsh weather at the Mai Xuan Thuong or Ly Tu Trong parks near Ho Tay in Hanoi as they pursue their legal demand for justice. Typically of such people were Mrs. Hong Loan, once a home owner in Dak Nong; Mrs. Nguyen Thi Cuc, a former resident of Thanh Hoa; Mrs. Pham Kim Thu, an 87-year-old former resident of Tuyen Quang; Mrs. Tran Thi Huynh Mai, a former resident of Binh Duong; and Mrs. Kieu Chinh, a former resident of Chapa and the longest survivor at the Mai Xuan Thuong park. 8 CONCLUSION: To overcome this type of injustice being imposed on its citizens, especially its peasants, by the Vietnamese government, it is essential that the people s land ownership must be respected with the removal of Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution. The current law regarding the land ownership, together with the modification of the constitution itself must positively recognize the right people to own, land ownership as sacred and untouchable. Only by doing so can justice be regained, the economy stimulated and the people s lives improved, especially the peasants who make up 70% of Vietnam s population. 8 - Đi khiếu kiện đòi đất trở thành vô gia cư, Radio Free Asia, 16 August 2012, at <http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/land-disp-victim-08162012072905.html>, 9 September 2012. 6
The International Conference on Human Rights Education s special attention on this issue will be highly appreciated. * Mr. Nguyen Minh Can was born in 1928 in Hue, Vietnam. He Joined revolution for national liberation of Vietnam, took part in the resistance against the French, and was inducted into the Indochinese Communist Party in 1946. By 1958, he was the standing member of Hanoi Party Committee, vice chairman of Ha Noi Administrative Committee. Due to disagreements with the Communist Party leadership s policy, he was persecuted by party leaders. In 1964, he escaped from the Communist Party and sought political asylum in the Soviet Union. He took part in the democratic movement in Russia during the Perestroika, and has actively supported the struggle for freedom, democracy, and human rights in Vietnam. He lives in Moscow and is a freelance journalist. Works published: Cong Ly Doi Hoi (Demanding Justice), Van Nghe Publishing House, 1997; "Chuyen Nuoc Non" (the Country s Stories) Van Nghe Publishing House, 1999; The Vietnamese Communist Party Through Vicissitudes of The Communist Internationals in Vietnamese, Tuoi Xanh Publishing, 2001, and in English, Tuoi Xanh, Publishing, 2004. 7