Properties Claims

Properties Claims

 By Van Nguyen




Yen Kien Parish

On April 14, 2012, a group of unidentified people, for unknown reason, brutally assaulted Pastor Nguyen Van Binh of Yen Kien Parish, Hanoi.  The   priest fell into a coma and was brought for treatment in a hospital. He was reportedly the victim of envy, whom the authorities condemned on ungrounded charge of infringement on the law. For months, he had directly helped build a shelter for orphans. He bought a house at Thuy Xuan Tien Hamlet, Chuong My District, Hanoi. It was then repaired in conformity with the requirements of the law. As he would be transferred to another parish, the pastor wished to have a farewell party at the shelter, but no one was allowed to come. The reason was the house was built without permission of the commune authorities.   

      

At 4:00 A. M. of the said day, assailants broke down the door, then left. At 7:00 A.M., police checkpoints were posited around the shelter. Hooligans of the underworld were sent in to make trouble. About 20 of them with army weapons assaulted the pastor. A number of parishioners rushed in to protect him. As the priest fell down, unconscious, he was brought to the hospital. Elsewhere in the country, instances of violence happened to the clergy. At Tam Toa Parish, Vinh Diocese, in September 2009, for example, similar incidents happened. the Reverend Nguyen Dinh Phu of Ky Anh  and the Reverend Nguyen The Binh of Dong Troc were brutally beaten by hooligans in the presence of the enforcers of the law, regardless of requests for intervention from by-standers. The priests were reportedly suspected of being the instigaters in land disputes. The followers demanded that land of the Church be returned to the Church. On February 23, 2012, the Reverend Nguyen Quang Hoa of Kontum Diocese was ferociously beaten on his way home after having celebrated funeral mass for an ethnic follower at Dak Hing Commune, Dak Ha District.

     The Dong Chiem Incident

On the morning of January 6, 2010, a dispute over religious practices between the local administration and the Catholics broke out in the parish of Dong Chiem, An Phu Commune, My Duc District, Hanoi. A force of armed  servicemen consisting of defense civil guards and the security and patrol police posited checkpoints at entrances to the parishes of At Tuy Hien, and Dong Chiem, and the area of Nui Tho (Mount of Worship). About 500 agents of the security and patrol police with clubs, arms and tear gas grenades stormed An Phu Commune and destroyed the Crucifix on Mount Che. Parishioners came to stop the act of violence and were brutally beaten. Many were seriously injured.

 Nui Che (Mount of Tea) or Nui Tho (Mount of Worship) traditionally called by the parishioners of Dong Chiem is originally a cemetery for newly-born infants and visitors that passed away casually. Both are worship places where religious veneration is observed. Infringement on it means religious misconduct .The incident happened when the priests of the parish were attending their monthly renewal at the archdiocese. According to the Reverend Nguyen Van Phu, the pastor of the parish, the commune People’s Council of An Phu ordered without specific reason the parishioners to remove the Crucifix erected on Mount Che. The pastor resisted the order, arguing that as soon as the parishioners planned to erect the Crucifix, they asked for permission from the local authorities. The commune authorities nevertheless gave no opinion on the subject.  In addition, the parish of Dong Chiem is the legitimate owner of the land. Years ago, the parishioners built on the mount a cemetery for innocent infants. Until the present time, the parishioners have not registered the land as the property of the parish because they think that it is still a cemetery. The parish still is in possession other land and uses it for humanitarian purpose.  Moreover, the parish has aspired to erect a Crucifix on a cemetery, making it a sanctified worship place and a scenery in the area  as well. The construction of a Crucifix with a height of 5 meters on a mount covered only with trees does not create any problem to public security. It is a virgin mount.  With all accounts, it is a sacred worship site, and the parish wishes to preserve it, and it aspires to embellish the environment.

     

The chairman of the People’s Council of An Phu Commune, on the other side, asserted that the parishioners were misleading. The construction of the Crucifix was preceded without authorization, and the parishioners infringed on the law. The local Party’s cell proposed that the crucifix be taken down by the parishioners themselves. Curiously enough, masses organizations in the Fatherland Front, notably, the male and female youth’s associations and war veterans were solicited to join in the authorities to create pressure on the parish. With "popular support," the commune council used force to count out all possible opposition. A detachment of 500 security and traffic police agents were deployed to repress the parishioners. Scuttle and fight ensued. The parishioners resisted in vain.   

  

In its communiqué of January 7, the Archdiocese of Hanoi informed the laity of the repression at Dong Chiem.  The destruction of the Crucifix erected on Nui Che is a religious offense, causing damage to the holiest and most sacred symbol of the Catholic faith. The communiqué stressed that brutal repression against innocent people without a means of self-defense of the armed forces of the administration is an act of barbarism and a serious offense against human dignity.  

   

Dong Chiem became a hot spot. Regardless of brutal repression that would happen again, on January 6, the parishioners raised a new Crucifix on Nui Che. On January 8, the local administration convoked "to work" at the district’s office 5 parishioners, namely, Dang Minh Nham, Bach Van Loi, Dinh Van Su, Dinh Van Kiem, and Bach Ven Quynh. They were then held under detention for 24 hours. On January 10, the security police isolated Dong Chiem from the outside. Checkpoints to control passers-by were posited on every entrance to the parish.  Mounds of earth were dammed up on the roads to Dong Chiem.  The security police disbanded a gathering of parishioners, injuring seriously Nguyen Duc Vinh. They arrested two war veterans, who were visiting Dong Chiem. The pastor of Dong Chiem made a claim beside the Commune People’s Council about the repression.

    

Many congregations of Catholics in the parishes in Hanoi availed themselves to come to visit Dong Chiem. Nevertheless, access to the parish was almost impossible. Strict control was applied in and around Dong Chiem. On January 13, the Reverend Pham Minh Trieu, Deputy-pastor of Ham Long Parish in Hanoi affirmed that visitors who came to pray in communion at Dong Chiem met with difficulty. The security police of Hanoi kept them off the way and ordered them to stop the journey.  On January 16, the local administration voluntarily had the new Crucifix on Nui Che broken off. The following day, 5 parishioners were arrested for causing damage to State property, having thrown away construction materials of the commune bridge. They were Huong (female), Dang, Heo (female), Dau (female), and Quyet. They only showed an act of protest. All of them would be prosecuted to stand trial before court. 

  

On January 17, a group of Catholics gathered to pray at Dong Chiem. The Commune People’s Council of My Duc, in its notice number 4, gave the pastor of the parish Nguyen Van Huu warnings and ordered him to stop the gathering for prayers which it viewed as an act of “opposition to the administration;” otherwise, it would take stern measures against him . This gathering for prayers was, in fact, come out of the initiatives of the Catholics from other parishes who gathered in Dong Chiem to pray in communion f with the parish. Meanwhile, local parishioners were restricted to their domiciles. The commune bridge was on watch by uniformed security police, the patrol police, and civil guards. The group of visitors was led by a priest and a Hanoi security police agent; they came to Dong Chiem without police obstruction. They had already got authorization from higher authorities. The local authorities, on one side, insisted that there was instigation. The pastor of Dong Chiem maintained that there was no vile scheme. The authorities then voluntarily did as they wished. There was no consideration to settle the dispute. The security police, in particular, asserted that the re-erection of a Crucifix on Nui Che “is definitely untenable.”   The State is “the manager of that land; it has a final say,”

        

The dispute was at its height.  Large groups of Catholics from other parishes came to Dong Chiem to visit and pray in communion with the local parishioners, regardless of threats and violence. On the evening of January 17, Nguyen Huu Vinh and fellow visitors were assaulted and beaten by civil guards and security police. Nguyen was seriously injured. Parishioners at the scene dared not interfere for fear of being condemned to involve in a crime. The security police chief of An Phu said he heard that there had been a fight and would look into the incident. Duong Ngoc Tan, the official of the State Office of Religious Affairs in charge of Catholicism said he had received no official report from the authorities of Hanoi on the situation at Dong Chiem. He contended that the dispute between the administration of An Phu Commune and Dong Chiem Parish was an internal affair. Moreover, land, in general, is the State’s property. Nui Che does not belong to Dong Chiem Parish. There should be little verification on the exactitude. The Hanoi authorities, for their part, repeatedly rejected the claim on a repression against the parishioners at Dong Chiem Parish, An Phu Commune, My Duc District, and Hanoi.

      

In a communiqué to the laity on the situation at Dong Chiem to the parishes in Hanoi of January 20, the Archdiocese of Hanoi announced that the Catholic priest Anton Nguyen Van Tang was beaten to a dead faint as a result of his visit to Dong Chiem. Witnesses to the incident recounted that the priest and a group of followers were beaten, and they had to seek refuge in a local house and call the pastor of Dong Chiem Parish to come for rescue. The pastor then asked the commune security police to intervene. The request came to no response.  Having left Dong Chiem with permission, the Reverend Anton Nguyen Van Tang nevertheless became the victim of violence. He was seriously injured. His cell phone, camera, and belongings were stripped off.

       

Tension aggravated the situation at Dong Chiem Parish. A force of security police patrolled the commune, creating pressure on the parishioners. Many of them were convoked to the Commune People’s Council “to work” with the authorities. One of them was savagely beaten, and his ninth rib was broken. It was not until the beginning of February 2010 that the propaganda machine at An Phu stopped hissing threats and warnings against the parishioners. The authorities launched a campaign of pacification aimed at softening discontent of the masses. They still supplied rice and distributed money to the parishioners to ease tension and buy their compassion.