Vietnamese farmers arrested over land row: Report
AFP - 10 May 2012
HANOI
- Vietnamese police have arrested a number of farmers in the latest dispute
over land ownership rights in the communist nation, state media said Thursday.
The farmers were upset with the compensation they were offered to give up their
land for an industrial park about 80 km (50 miles) southeast of Hanoi, the Tuoi
Tre newspaper reported, without saying how many were arrested in the incident on
Wednesday.
Video clips and photographs posted on Vietnamese blogs showed images of riot
police clashing with angry farmers on rice fields.
Farmer Pham Ngoc Doanh said the combination of new land and money offered
represented “a big loss”, according to Tuoi Tre.
It said the planned industrial park needs to resettle 970 farming households,
but 118 of those affected have not agreed to accept the offer.
Land disputes with local authorities are an increasingly contentious issue in
communist Vietnam, where all land is owned by the state and usage rights are not
always clear or protected.
Around 700 farmers clashed with heavily-armed riot police and plain-clothed
security officers late April over the confiscation of land for a planned
satellite city in Hung Yen province on the outskirts of the Hanoi.
Twenty people were arrested and two journalists from state-run Voice of Vietnam
radio were beaten during the protest, and the station has demanded an official
explanation from authorities on the incident.
The media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attack on the
journalists, saying it “underscores the risks of reporting on increasingly
sensitive land issues in the communist-ruled country. The attack on the
reporters signals a potential extension of the media crackdown that until now
has targeted mainly unsanctioned journalists and bloggers,” it said in a
statement released late Wednesday.