Vietnam’s Deepening Political Destabilization: Rights of Land & Country

The plight of farmer Doan Van Vuon and his family in Quang Vinh Commune of Hai Phong, Vietnam made international headlines last month when he and his family tried to fend off a squadron of more than 100 police and soldiers trying to seize (we are now told illegally) his family’s farm. In a momentous battle recalling John Rambo of First Blood (1982), Vuon and his family fought off officials with homemade landmines and shotguns. Six government officials were seriously wounded, including the police chief. Vuon and family members were eventually arrested and await trial for attempted murder. Their homestead was demolished by police.

Forced evictions by the government--even violent ones--are common in Vietnam, particularly involving ethnic and religious minorities. The degree to which Vuon and his family resisted, and the fact that it was reported widely, even by the government-controlled media of communist Vietnam, is not so common. Unlike most seizures of private property, the government could not sweep this one under the rug.

When Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung later announced that the land seizure was illegal and further investigation and remedies were needed, it represented an unprecedented bowing to public pressure (who, not insignificantly, showed overwhelming support for Vuon). Despite the Prime Minister’s words however, Vuon and others still remain in prison.

Does the Prime Minister’s intervention represent a softening of Hanoi’s grip on land rights issues? The answer is a resounding no. Even while this incident continues to unfold, the Vietnam government continues to secretly demolish homes and forcibly evict religious and ethnic minorities in rural provinces such as Quang Ngai, Kon Tum, and Quang Nam. I reported on one such incident—part of a long-standing policy of burning Christian villages and destroying church buildings—only days ago.

Hanoi’s move to recognize some wrong-doing in the government’s attack on the family of Doan Van Vuon is an attempt to keep him from becoming a martyr and a modern folk hero—a status which he may already hold in the eyes of the Vietnamese public.

Above: Broken windows on a police vehicle from the Mui Ne riot last year.

The incident is merely the latest in a recent series of violent clashes between the communist government and its citizens. Several serious incidents are believed to have occurred in 2011, ranging from the alleged Muong Nhe Massacre in May of last year, an incident in which the Vietnamese military were said to have gunned down a religious gathering of ethnic Hmong, to a riot outside Danang that attacked a police station over land rights, to a riot in the beach resort of Mui Ne in which over 1000 residents gathered and attacked the local police station, burning several vehicles and injuring officers, in response to police torture of a detainee. The government responded with a squadron of over 100 riot police who launched tear gas and shock grenades to disperse crowds late at night.

Phan Thiet riot police launch tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse the Mui Ne Riot last year.


Meanwhile in 2011 the popular newspaper Tuoi Tre, in a surprising but eventually squelched move, reported constant examples of severe police brutality on a weekly basis which went on for several months. Incidents ranged from frequent cases of police torture of children, to the murder of numerous detainees in police custody. The most high profile case involved the alleged murder of Nguyen Cong Nhut, a Kumho Tire employee, in police custody. Police later admitted trying to coerce Nhut’s wife into sex for assistance with her husband’s case. It is widely believed that police faked a suicide note after murdering Nhut, who was voluntarily assisting police (and never charged with a crime) in the investigation of missing Kumho warehouse stock. A few officers were reprimanded but Nhut’s wife has never received justice for her husband’s murder at the hands of police. Incidents of police brutality continue unabated but are no longer reported by government journalists with any sort of regularity.

Above: Nguyen Thi Thanh Tuyen, holding a photo of her husband, Nguyen Cong Nhut, 

who she believes was killed by police.

In 2011 the issue of Bauxite mining in the Central Highlands by ‘illegal’ Chinese workers (brought into Vietnam through deals by government officials) was a highly controversial issue. The issue alone led to the arrest of Vietnamese bloggers and protestors, causing serious headaches for the government. When the ‘Arab Spring’ protests occurred in the Middle East last year Vietnam became concerned of a world-wide protest movement and began making a display of training squadrons of  riot police in public squares—a practice likely meant to dissuade citizens from thoughts of protest. The issue was later eclipsed by clashes with China over the South China Sea last summer.

Above: A factory worked tortured with police supervision last May. Source: Tuoi Tre.

The Vietnamese government noted a wave of disapproval from the Vietnamese public—both in terms of China’s actions and the way that Hanoi was handling the South China Sea situation—and feared that it would not be able to control demonstrations if they erupted. In a clever move the government actually organized protests themselves, orchestrated by secret police and leaders in the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Đoàn Thanh niên Cộng sản Hồ Chí Minh. The highly-controlled, weekly Sunday protests in Saigon and Hanoi had the advantage of both dissipating public frustration (until the government later ordered them to cease) as well as flush out devoted political agitators. While many legitimate activists were secretly detained during the protests, Bui Thi Minh Hang received international attention when the government sentenced her to two years in a known re-education camp (which the government terms a ‘drug rehabilitation centre), without trial. 

Fearing independent coverage from within, the Vietnam government continues to arrest and imprison Vietnamese bloggers, as well as the French citizen, Pham Minh Hoang in 2011. Several expatriate journalists were also detained in 2011 and some continue to report constant harassment from police officials.

The recent Hai Phong incident is not an isolated incident that simply got out of hand. It is symptomatic of a growing discontent among the Vietnamese public in their communist country. The question remaining is not how the Vietnam government will respond to citizens with land rights grievances; but how citizens with grievances of land and liberty will respond to the communist government.