Police beat
reporters during Vietnam land eviction
AP - 05/08/2012
HANOI,
Vietnam—Police and security guards beat two journalists from Vietnamese state
radio while they were covering the mass eviction of farmers from land slated for
a housing project, the journalists and state-controlled media said.
The incident was captured on a video posted on YouTube, which showed police and
guards beating and kicking two helmeted men and hitting them with sticks during
the high-profile land seizure last month. Nguyen Ngoc Nam, chief of political
and economic news at the Radio Voice of Vietnam, and staff reporter Han Phi
Long, came forward this week to describe what happened.
Nam told the Today's Countryside newspaper he yelled to the security staff that
he and his colleague were journalists trying to do their job. "We are
journalists, why did you beat us?"
Long was forced to take two weeks off from work for medical treatment, the paper
said.
The two reporters and the national radio station have asked provincial
authorities for an explanation, but they have not responded, it said.
Provincial officials were not available for comment.
Last week, provincial vice governor Nguyen Khac Hao told a high-level government
conference that the case was handled properly, and he accused anti-government
activists of trying to paint the incident in a bad light by posting fake video
clips.
However, state media on Wednesday quoted another provincial official as saying
Hao had not seen the video involving the journalists.
Land rights cases have attracted increased attention in Vietnam in recent years
as farmers have been pushed off their land to make way for projects ranging from
industrial parks to luxury golf courses.
In the April 24 eviction in Hung Yen province near Hanoi, about 3,000 police and
militiamen, many in full riot gear, overpowered more than 1,000 villagers,
witnesses say. Authorities detained 20 villagers, and five remain in custody.
A total of 166 families were evicted from 5.8 hectares (14 acres) of land, part
of 72.6 hectares (180 acres) allocated for the second phase of the housing
project. More than 4,000 families are slated to lose their farmland.