by PIERRE DAUM
‘Give us back our land’: farmers protest in downtown Hanoi against the confiscation of their land PHOTO/Cat Barton/AFP/Getty
Vietnam wants more luxury housing, and industrial and tourism projects. Farmers are growing angrier about what that means for agricultural land.
Hundreds of farmers protesting against the seizure of their land in the village of Dong Tam, just outside Hanoi, in April 2017 captured 38 police officers sent to subdue them, and held them for more than a week. The authorities sent Nguyen Duc Chung, chairman of the Hanoi Municipal Peoples’ Committee, to negotiate the officers’ release, promising the farmers better compensation.
In Nam O, a village halfway down the coast and known for its excellent nuoc mamfermented fish sauce, several families have refused to leave their homes to make way for the construction of a big tourist complex. This would cover the entire beach area and prevent them from fishing, which is vital to the manufacture of their sauce.
The inhabitants of Thu Thiem district of Ho Chi Minh City, the economic capital, have fought for 20 years to prevent eviction from this last green patch, destined to become a designated New Urban Area. A few determined farmers have gone to court to fight the expulsion order, arguing that some expropriation procedures are not fully compliant with the law. There are many procedures, since Vietnamese property law is constantly being amended.
Protests against the massive expropriation of agricultural land for industrial, housing or tourist development purposes are commonplace in Vietnam. According to French researchers Marie Gilbert and Juliette Segard, they are ‘the principal source of social tensions in contemporary Vietnam’.They are the only form of political protest people dare use since senior Communist party members have all the power.
‘Many protests go unseen’
Even though the media is tightly controlled, some protests get reported, especially when a party official is sent to negotiate. And information is posted daily on Facebook, which has more than 30 million users out of a total population of 95 million.
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