Angry Vietnamese villagers brawl with police during golf course ceremony
More than 30 police and security guards were injured by a mob of Vietnamese villagers demanding compensation for their land during a golf course groundbreaking ceremony, officials said Tuesday. More than 400 villagers surrounded about 300 officials, police and security guards attending the ceremony Monday morning in Kim No village, just outside Hanoi, a village police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Villagers threw rocks, bricks and gasoline-filled bottles and attacked police and security guards with sticks for about three hours, he said. Police and officials were finally forced to leave. It was unclear whether any villagers were injured, and police were still investigating, he said. No arrests have been made.
The Daeha Co. Ltd., a joint venture between South Korean Daewoo Corp. and a local company, rented 128 hectares (316 acres) of land near Kim No village to develop an 18-hole golf course in 1995. In 1998, the villagers received compensation for their property, but the project was put on hold because of the Asian financial crisis. Last year, a Thai company named Noble Ltd. replaced the South Korean partner in the joint venture, now called Noble Vietnam.
The villagers, however, demanded that the new company pay 70 percent of the monthly salaries promised by Daeha Co., which agreed to hire one person from each family who handed over their land before a deadline, a company executive said. The company argued that villagers would be hired once the project is completed. But the villagers insisted that the monthly salaries, which amount to about 400,000 dong (US$26; €19.6) per person, should be backdated to 1998, the executive said. The villagers also argued that they cannot support their families without their land and demanded that Noble Vietnam pay a monthly allowance for children born after 1998 until they turn 18, the police officer said.
The local government was expected to hold an emergency meeting Tuesday to try to resolve the dispute. In recent years, dozens of villagers have landed in jail for attacking officials over the golf course deal.
The Associated Press - December 14, 2004
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