Vietnamese stage rare protest in Hanoi over land
HANOI - About 20 people from southern Vietnam
staged a rare public protest near Vietnam's National Assembly in
Hanoi on Wednesday, saying they had been robbed of land and demanding democratic
treatment.
The protesters, most of them women, sat quietly on a street corner opposite the Foreign
Ministry, a few hundred metres from the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and the Assembly's Ba
Dinh Hall.
They held banners complaining they had lost land in disputes with local authorities in several
southern provinces.
Some of the group told foreign reporters they had come to Hanoi in a fifth attempt to
secure help from the government and Communist Party leadership, but so far had been
ignored.
"We are asking for human rights for the people," said one middle-aged woman.
"But Nong Duc Manh, Phan Van Khai and Tran Duc Luong are not here," she said,
referring to Vietnam's leadership trio of Communist Party chief, prime minister and
president.
Several women from Sa Dec township in Dong Thap province said they had been moved
off land that had then been sold to "rich people".
"They paid us 700,000 dong ($46) a square metre in compensation, then resold it at 5
million a square metre," one said.
Another woman, a widow, said she was now homeless. "I have 300 square metres of land,
but they took it away and threw me and my three children onto the street," she said.
Women complain of beatings
A woman from An Giang province said she had lost her house to a road construction
project.
Three women complained they had been "beaten brutally" and arrested for protesting on
the street before.
"We have come to Hanoi to raise our voices," one said. "We can't meet the National
Assembly deputies and its chairman. We'll stay here in Hanoi until our problems are
solved."
An 82-year-old woman said she had been fighting for the return of her land for 24 years.
She said she and her 82-year-old husband were now hungry as well as landless.
"I have come to Hanoi because the local authorities will not solve my problem," she said.
"Please help me urge them to solve this issue democratically."
The women said they were patriotic Vietnamese and knew that the police would not be
happy with them speaking to foreigners, but added they were fed up with not being listened
to.
"The laws of Vietnam are supposed to treat everyone equally," a woman from An Giang
said. "Four delegations have come to see the prime minister, but it's not settled yet."
Police did not move the protesters away or stop them talking to journalists, but blocked
access to the Ba Dinh Hall, where the assembly was reviewing the performance of the legal
system.
The protesters said police had ripped down one of their banners and told them they must
not move from their street corner but had allowed them to keep their placards.
A Foreign Ministry official said the gathering was "a normal event" and that he did not
consider it a protest.
There have been periodic small-scale demonstrations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in
recent years over land, a common source of friction in communist-ruled Vietnam.
Earlier this year, ahead of the Communist Party's five-yearly congress, Hanoi ordered
police to make sure no protesters staged sit-ins outside government offices or leaders'
residences in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
By David Brunnstrom - Reuters - December 5, 2001.
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