Da Nang
The Con Dau Incident
On May 4, 2010, the local police of Cam Le ferociously
assaulted on order he attendants of the funeral of the female parishioner Ho
Nhu of Con Dau Parish, Da Nang. They even arrested more than 60 people who were
then detained at the security police headquarters of Cam Le District. Those who
were injured during the assault were not permitted to go to the hospital for
medical treatment. At 9:00 P.M. of the following day, the security police of
Cam Le released 11 people without explanation. On May 6, the spokeswoman of the
Vietnam Foreign Affairs Ministry, Nguyen Phuong Nga, rejected the news about
the incident, saying that the police had not assaulted the parishioners of Con
Dau and that this was mere fabrication from a vile scheme to denigrate Vietnam.
According to sources, before the funeral, the administration
had forbidden the defect’s relatives to proceed with the funeral procession and
burial of the deceases at Con Dau cemetery because Con Dau Commune lies within
the area to be cleared for the city’s plan of creation for a tourist center and
the city’s new ecological environment. The defect’s family members and the
religious community of Con Dau were not in agreement with the authorities’
decision. The administration arbitrarily did that without consent of the people
to the project, and thus they refused to comply with security police’ order. The police quickly disbanded the funeral procession,
brought the coffin away, and buried it in another cemetery, 20 kilometers from
Con Dau.
The dispute over land between the State and the people
in general took place elsewhere in the country. In the sphere of religions, it
takes a form of a fight for land claim between the secular power on one side
and the Church on the opposite. The State holds the firm principle according to
which “the Party is the leader, the State is the manager, and the people are
the master.” Concerning land property, in particular, the State is not the
proprietor; it is the manager that administers it. The people are the master of
land property but not the proprietor. There is no private ownership whatsoever under
the constitutional law of present-day Vietnam. The State is the only “legal
person” that is entitled to jurisdiction over land. The Church is not entitled
to any legal entity, and thus is entitled to no right whatsoever to public
land. A Church is only a user of land, as any citizen. If the State needs for
use for national interests, for instance, it can dispose a certain piece of
land in use of a citizen with indentions. In fact, the motives for dispossession
of the administration are generally unclear, and the indemnities are
exceedingly low, creating unfitness and injustices. Poor citizens do not accept
unfair and unjust indentations. There are now millions of people throughout the
country who become the victims of unfairness and injustice of the kind, and the
Church is no exception.
The incident at Con Dau raised concerns over
stricter repressive measures of the authorities. They not only intended to take
away 100 ha of land of the commune but also the entire area. For a long time,
the City Party Secretary of Da Nang Nguyen Ba Thanh had contrived to transform
Con Dau and neighboring communes into a new ecological environment with plans
to construct villas and buildings to attract foreigners to invest in the ditty
development.
On May 4, the security police of Da Nang charged
with crimes of causing public disorder 7 attendants of the funeral procession
of Ho Nhu at Con Dau . One of them was released on bail. Six others were
detained and prosecuted to stand trial before court on charges of causing
public disorder and obstructing the officials' order while on duty. They are
Liem Loi, Viet, Nhan (female), Kim Huynh
(female), and Lieu (female). On May 6, the Bishop of Da Nang Diocese Chau Ngoc
Tri, in his ministerial letter addressed to the laity, advised the Catholic
congregation of Da Nang to observe religious conduct. The dignitary appealed to
the administration to remain patient and not to use violence against the
citizen. He also called on the
parishioners of Con Dau, in particular, to serve faith firmly, stressing that
the “shepherd is always on their side” in their fight for just cause and social
justice.
On May 18, City Party Secretary Nguyen Ba Thanh and
the Bishop of Da Nang Diocese Chau Ngoc Tri met to consider the Con Dau
incident. The result came to no avail. The official journal Saigon Giai Phong
(Saigon Liberated) recounted in its news report that the Party Secretary of Da
Nang,
concurrently Chairman of the City People’s Council
Nguyen Ba Thanh met with the Bishop of Da Nang Diocese Chau Ngoc Tri and Catholic priests to explain
the city' projects of economic
development and social welfare and the
quarrel between the officials and the parish of Con Dau which the journal described as “the disorder at
Con Dau.” According to the journal, Nguyen Ba Thanh specifically charged the
parishioners of Con Da with "opposition to the officials' order in the
clearance of the site." Sources
from the parish said that, on this occasion, the Bishop of Da Nang Diocese
proposed the city to give the Diocese of Da Nang to take responsibility in the
development project whereby the parishioners of Con Dau could participate in
the establishment of vocational training quarters. In this way, the citizens as awhile as well
as the parishioners of Con Dau, would be better helped to change their trades
and occupations. The proposal seemed to fall to deaf ears.
Con Dau was immersed in suffocated silence. The
parishioners resisted the clearance of land and relocation of the
administration. They refused to leave their beloved land on which their investors
have lived for two hundred, the properties they have created for generations,
and the parish they have ever cherished. On July 3, told by words of mouth that
the security police had beaten to death Nguyen Thanh Nam, a helpmate in the
funeral procession of the 93-year-old Ho Nhu. On July 4, he is said to have run
away out of fear, being convoked to the police station for interrogation. He
was chased after, got caught, and severely injured by the security police. He
died, black-and-blue wounds over the body, vomiting blood, and blood oozed from
the ear, after returning home. The victim could only ask fellow parishioners to
pray for the defunct.
Sources said Nguyen Thanh Nam was among many
parishioners who had been beaten in the funeral procession by the security
police. The parish was shrouded in fear. This security forces surrounded,
blockaded, and repressed the funeral attendants. It arrested and brought to the
police station as many as 60 parishioners but detained 11 afterwards.
Nevertheless, they continued to search for those attendants that had resisted
their order. Many were convoked to and beaten during interrogation at the
police station, and warned others with threats if they sought to have contact
with foreign mass media.
Confusion reigned over Con Dau. The parishioners were closely trailed
wherever they went. They dared not talk to strangers about the death of Nguyen
Thanh Nam. The Section of Religious Affairs of Da Nang contended that Nguyen
Thanh Nam was struck by sudden heart stroke. Doubts and fear of the
parishioners about the conduct of affairs pervaded. Nguyen Thi Phuong, whose
husband was one of the six parishioners arrested lamented over her lamentable
situation. She could visit him only one
time after three months under detention. She grieved at his deteriorating
health. A man of courage, he became dumbfounded. He dared not answer when
asked. He appeared to be frightened. She wondered whether he had been forced to
testify during interrogation. She moaned over the disaster that fell on her
family. Her husband was arrested for investigation without a reason.
The authorities of Con Dau tightened control on the
parishioners. Police continued to search for the parishioners they thought to
be the key instigators of the disorder. Many of them were cornered to the wall
and sought to evade the country. From the beginning of May, a group of
parishioners of Con Dau had sought refuge in Thailand. Nevertheless, it was not
until August 22 that they dared raise their voice about their miserable
situation for fear of misfortunes that might happen to their families in
Vietnam. Police raids intensified fears of those parishioners who
fled the parish following the clash with the police in May. About 40 of the
parishioners fled to Thailand via Laos, and their families were targeted with
intimidation. The authorities maintained that the Con Dau clash was
"unrelated to religion." The Foreign Ministry of Vietnam would object
any decision by the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees to grant refugee
status to the parishioners.
The dispute over land between the State and Con Dau
Parish shouldered. On August 26, 2011, 150 households of Con Dau Parish sent a
letter of claims for justice to Bishop Nguyen Thai Hop, asking the dignitary to
save the Catholic followers from difficulty. They were forced to leave their
birthplace in different forms of repression by the authorities of Da Nang. Tension was such that it created fear and
anxiety among the faithful of the parish. Their only aspired to live the
religious life in peace. Nevertheless, since the outset of the land eviction
they had ever lived under threat. Petitions came to no answer. Con Dau is a
Catholic parish where religious traditions are handed down from one generation
to another. It is well known with solid ancestral Catholic legacy for more than
135 years. The removal of the parish graveyard and all the households around
the Con Dau cathedral only serves an evil purpose, eliminating the parish for the
interests of the cupid powerful. It is an act of injustice --to transform a
religious historic site into a market center for profits. Nowhere else in the
country is there a Catholic parish that suffers such a misfortune.
The petitioners were convoked “to work with” the
authorities at their office. More than half of the 400 households of Con Dau,
due to difficulties they had faced, had to give in and leave to another place.
In reality, the victims had repeatedly sent their petitions to the Central
Government for intervention, and no rescue came to avail, nevertheless. The
Bishop of Vinh Diocese Nguyen Thai Hop,
Chairman of the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Episcopal Conference said
in an interview with the RFA that there were then unjustified points concerning
the prices for compensation and the policy of land dispossession of the
State.
During mid-March 2012, the parishioners of Con Dau
received notice from the chairman of the People’s Council of Cam Le District Vo
Van Thuong informing that the order for land eviction would be executed within
two weeks. The Con Dau Parish lived in
constant threat and fear. It truly faced elimination from the geographical map
of Quang Nam - Da Nang Province. A year
after the issuance of the order, beginning in March 2013, and the authorities
renewed inspection operations. Agents came in every household, searched the
house, and forced the householder to receive redemption for eviction. Forced eviction
would be carried out, regardless of whether or not the householder agreed to
accept the redemption. Parishioners had
the least hope to keep their ancestral land and the centuries-old cathedral
with all loving memories generations settlers on Con Dau have hold dear.
Thua Thien--Hue
Thien An Monastery
In Hue, the dispute over land between the authorities and
Benedictines drags on without a solution. The Order of Benedictines is
in possession of a picturesque side on which stand an ancient monastery and
dependent facilities. Beginning in 2000, the authorities of Thua Thien-Hue
issued administrative order to requisition the land. On April 27,
2000, the Benedictines of Thien An Monastery incidentally learned from verbal notice that the People’s Council
of the district of Huong Thuy would requisition 495,929 square meters of land
of the monastery and lease it to the Service of Tourism of Hue to construct on
it a public leisure center.
The requisition raised anxiety over not only the fate
of the missionaries but also the religious worship in general among the Catholic
clergy in the Thua
Thien-Hue Province.
Thirty-seven priests in the province expressed their empathy and support for
the Benedictines, who were being flayed of their land. The authorities, as always, didn't reconsider their decision. The
appropriation of a large section of land of the monastery is vital to the city.
A tourist center will bring forth a source of interests to the "Service of
tourism of the ancient capital." Being warned of the decision on land confiscation,
the Benedictines expeditiously sent petitions to the higher authorities. They Benedictines particularly claimed their
rights to ownership based on irrefutable titles of property, the ones that had
been recognized by the new revolutionary authorities immediately after the
change of political regime in 1975. They added that, by taking away their land,
the authorities deprived of them their sole means of subsistence, working and
living on it. On the land confiscated “are found, in effect, orange trees of
great quality of the region, a fruit garden, and meadows breeding a herd of
cattle of 28 heads. The monks in residence are frustrated at the loss of the
land that they have entirely created with hard labor.” A special petition,
signed by the superior of the monastery, Mgrs. Etienne Huynh Quang Sanh, was
sent to the Prime Minister, on March
30, 2001. In it, the dignitary complained of the arrogance of the
local authorities and the violation of the law they had committed, specifying
that the Service of Bridges and Roads unlawfully opened public road into and
across the land of the monastery. There
was total silence. In May 2000. The dignitary sent a petition to competent authorities
of the Thua Thien - Hue province, requesting interference. The petition came to
no response. The Service for Bridges
and Roads of Hue province, in favor of dark night, got down to work, to construct
in hiding a public park as planned.
Facing impermeable indifference to their complaints,
the Benedictines sent report to the central administration. Included in it was a file with land titles and
legal documents. Perceiving that their report could be blocked at the postal
office in Hue, they sent at the same time a report to the representatives in
Hanoi to request an audience with the Prime Minister. Their file was then transferred
to the Commission of Inquest within the Bureau of Land Property. Several days
later, the officials of the said agency came to make an on-the-spot inquiry into
the situation, verifying the land titles and legal documents of which the
Benedictines were in possession and which they used as proofs of their right to
ownership of the land in question. Nevertheless, the inquest came to no action.
In February 2001, the dispute became increasingly
tense. Two officials of the Service of Bridges and Roads came to the monastery
and informed the Benedictines that they were commissioned by the Service of
Tourism to open a road through the land of the monastery. They asked the Benedictines
if they had any objection. The Benedictines replied that they had already
expressed their disagreement and that they refused to give away their land or
receive any financial amends. The officials of the Survive of Bridges and Roads
proceeded with their task, nevertheless. A team of workers proceeded with
construction work on the land of the monastery. This measure was, to the
Benedictines, a violation of the Order of the government on land requisition.
The authorities overtly violated Article 27 of the said law. This law foresees
that the confiscation of land is applied in the case the land confiscated is
used for the interests of national defense and security or economy, and not for
the creation of a center for leisure. The construction on the Benedictines'
property, thereby, is an act of blatant abuse of power. Besides, the existence of
a center for leisure on the site of a religious emplacement is apparently uncivil,
causing nuisance and problem to a religious community that is in need of
serenity, peace, and seclusion.
On April 29, 2001, thirty-seven priests of the
diocese of Hue, in a letter to the Superior of the Benedictines Order,
expressed support for the monastery. They also showed empathy and solidarity
with the superior and the months in their efforts to defense their religious
worship rights and life. The priests pronounced that they had sent petitions to
diverse competent civil authorities in favor of the Benedictines community. On
July 11, 2001, another group of priests of Hue declared that the oppression of the
authorities against Thien An Monastery was blatant. Such an act not only
trespasses upon the physical property of the monastery but also the spiritual life
of the Catholic laity of Hue. In effect, it is thanks to divine favor and the
labor of the Benedictines that the hill covered with pines can stand and makes
Hue more picturesque scenery. The site has become not only a source of
inspiration for poets and writers but also an emplacement where everyone can come
and relax free of cost.
Quarrel resumed. On September 24, 2001, the work team at the Thuy
Tien Lake intimidated with violence a group of monks of the monastery who tried
to prevent the workers from intruding their land. By doing this, the monks
would only show their will to protect their property. They asked the workers to
attest their legal permission of any kind, the work contract or the State authorization
to work on the land of the monastery. The foam could not produce a piece of
legal papers. The monks insisted that the land was theirs and that the team was
not permitted by rights to intrude into it. The workers were thus asked to stop their
work. They team, however, declared that they would go ahead with installation of
an electric post and that they did not need to know who the proprietor of the
land was. The television of Hue aired during many days reports on the incident.
The Benedictines were portrayed as "bad element," and the population
was advised to stay away from the place
On their part,
the Benedictines of Thien An announced that they would do anything they
could to protect their rights and property. In the petition to the People’s
Council of Thua Thien- Hue, the Benedictines declared to preserve the rights to
live in the territory of which they are undeniably the legitimate proprietor.
They are unlawfully stripped off the right to use the land on which they live. In fact, the authorities showed all intents to
dispossess their land. Already, in 1999, the authority had foreseen the
confiscation of 495,929 m2 of land of Thien An Hill. They had pleaded their
case in vain before the provincial authorities.
To show good will, the Benedictines, on July 29,
2002, sent a proposal to the local authorities in which the religious community
presented their wish to retain the pine-wood section surrounding the inner
buildings of the monastery, just to draw from the entire territory a space large
enough for religious contemplation. The proposal came to no response, however.
On October 9, 2002, the authorities executed the decision No 577/QD-XKT,
fleecing the monks from their land confiscated, in spite of the Benedictines’ resistance.
After more than a decade following the eviction of
the Benedictines from their land, the authorities of Thua Thien-Hue, on January
1, 2015, prevented them from placing a roof over an outdoor shrine honoring the
Virgin Mary on the pretext that the monastery was violating the law. In
reality, on an intent of grabbing the pine forest, a forest rangers checkpoint was set up to monitor
the monastery’s activities and at the
same time proceed with their plan --to seize the monastery’s hundred acres of
land for the construction of a leisure center and amusement park. To begin
with, they took down a cross on the hill and placed a pole on the monastery’s
grounds, making it a mark of restriction. Police even stopped the monks in residence
from building an in-road to the place. On June 27, 2016, the monastery’s head
monk Nguyen Van Duc sent petitions to the provincial People’s Council, the
Catholic Archdiocese in Hue, the European Union Embassy in Vietnam, and the
U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, complain about the authorities’ disrespect of the
religious worship and illegal appropriation of land. Their claims for
properties dragged on without an echo.
An Bang
The Altar for the Cross built in a plot of land of
600m2 at Ap Bac became the cause of conflict over land between the authorities
at An Bang Parish, Vinh An Commune, Phu Vang District. The Reverend Nguyen Huu
Giai and the parishioners firmly maintained that they had done nothing wrong
with the parish construction of the Altar for the Cross for religious worship. The communal authorities, on the contrary,
considered the erection of an alter without authorization from the
administration is in violation of the law. The construction must be removed. In
fact, in 2007, Le Tuan, an An Bang parishioner, offered his private piece of
ancestral land to the parish for this purpose. A show of veneration like this
has nothing to do with public order or security. Moreover, the parishioners had
three times applied for authorization beside the local authorities. But the applications
came to no answer. They practically proceeded with their work as required by
the law: if there is no opinion from the authorities after 30 days of the
application, authorization is automatically granted. Considering this an act of
opposition, the authorities resolutely
executed the land eviction, forcing with threat the parishioner to take down
the Cross as it was built on the
people’s property. The State is the manager and decides on who can be the user
of it. Moreover, the piece of land in question is preserved for a State
multipurpose plan of development, which fact the parishioners resiliently
oppose. The reason behind the land eviction is irrelevant and unjustifiable.
The conflict thus dragged on without a solution.
