Democratic Voice of Vietnam

Statement on the Vietnamese government’s violation of farmers’ property rights

By the Nguyễn Kim Điền Group of Catholic Priests

15-05-2012

To: All our Countrymen (in Vietnam and overseas), including Vietnamese Farmers and Catholics of Vietnamese Descent

To: the Governments of All Democratic Nations and All the Human Rights Organizations

To: All People of Good Will Throughout the World.

As temperatures rose in the summer of 2011, patriotic Vietnamese citizens demonstrated against a foreign power’s attacks of our fishermen and violation of our country’s sovereignty in our coastal waters.  The summer of 2012 is shaping up to be even hotter with farmers’ demonstrations against an internal enemy who rob their land and only means of livelihood.  These developments have forced us to examine the issue of property rights and treatment of farmers in today’s Vietnam.

I- As an entity whose mission is to bring the truth to everyone, defend justice and serve others in the name of love, we, the Nguyễn Kim Điền Group of Priests, assert that:

1- Farmers make up 70% to 80% of Vietnam’s population and are the dominant majority. Beginning in the first half of the 20th Century, most farmers had sacrificed   enormously, including risking death, when the Communist Party lured them into “joining the Revolution so that farmers will get their share of the land”.   Sadly, once in power, the Communists launched a bloody “land reform” that resulted in the death of tens of thousands of capable farmers, and a subsequent nationalization of farmland that turned farmers into modern day serfs whose impoverishment continues to this day.

2- In the Constitution of 1992 (Articles 17-18) and Property Law of 1993 (Article 1), the government declared that  “Real property belongs to all the people and is under the State’s unified management”. In the Property Law of 2003 (Article 1), the government declared that “The State represents the people with respect to land ownership”. The government’s position  is equivalent to a death sentence for the people, especially farmers, because it has denied a basic human right that the civilized world recognizes, the right to own property, especially one’s residence and farmland. This egregious violation of human rights is the Communists’ tool for controlling the people and consolidating the Party’s power.

3- The legal foundation established by the Party led   to Article 27 of the 1993 Property Law: “When necessary, the State may take back property being used by the people in order to meet the needs of national defense and security, or to better serve State interests and public good…”  In particular, Article 39 of the 2003   Property Law defined “state interests” as “development projects consistent with plans that appropriate government agencies may review and approve”. This is the framework that has enabled the central and local governments to collude with “interested parties” (such as enterprises, influential families, blue and red capitalists) and blend “State interests” with the interests of the powerful when the State confiscated land   on which millions of farmers had lived and worked for their livelihood over many generations for the benefit of a privileged minority. Examples include the parcelling out of the land among cronies for resale at a stiff profit,   leasing land to companies, or sanctioning projects that brought large profits   to those in power (such as Town Centers Thủ Thiêm, Mỹ Phước in the South and Lê Trọng Tấn, Ecopark in the North).

4- The robberies were accomplished through illegal and unjust tactics:

a- paying compensations that are way below market prices or levels promised by the government (thereby depriving victims of means to resume their livelihood or having enough capital to switch to another occupation);

b- obtaining land through empty promises and lies; threatening victims with the possibility of their children not being accepted into public schools, family members of being fired from jobs, and local officials not acting on   administrative requests submitted by the victims; and even violent suppression through public security organs, the military, the militia, and hoodlums (their actions include intimidation, destruction of crops and grave sites, beating up members of the media, arresting and torturing victims who resist, among other activities;

c- after “liberating the disputed area”, the Party representatives, local officials, courts, public security officers, Front   officials, and others who represent the authorities carry out their tactics of pacification, slandering or administrative measures while the official   media launch a barrage of disinformation (or maintain silence). The most   outrageous cases to date include Cồn Dầu (Đà Nẵng), Đak Ngô (Đak Nông), Tiên Lãng (Hải Phòng), Văn Giang (Hưng Yên) and Vụ Bản (Nam Định).

              5- The arbitrary seizure of people’s livelihoods, treatment of citizens as if they were slaves without any rights, and ruthless oppression of those who dare resist have caused tens of thousands of farmers to stand up for their rights   and dignity. Although the demonstrators occasionally used some force, they have the excuse of being squeezed to the maximum by gangsters posing as  “government of the people, by the people, for the people”. Although the State recognizes only the people’s right to use the land, it is natural for a farmer to be attached to the land that he has been working because he had to pay for the right to use it, or worked hard to turn uncultivated land into arable land, or inherited the land from his ancestors, unlike government officials who were in position to grab public land allocated by the Party to its members.

II- In light of the facts, we declare the   following:

1- Through their actions at such locations as Đak Nông-Đak Ngô, Đà Nẵng-Cồn Dầu, Hải Phòng-Tiên Lãng, Hưng Yên-Văn Giang, Nam Định-Vụ Bản, Hà Đông-Dương Nội, among others, the Political Ministry of the Communist Party and local government entities must be found guilty of misappropriating   private land, depriving people of their livelihoods, coercion of individual farmers, violent suppression of the public through law enforcement agencies,   deception and distortion of the truth through Party-controlled media.

2- As part of the ongoing Constitutional revision effort, the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) must strike out Articles 17 and 18 and thoroughly revise the 2003 Property Law in order to restore our   traditional property rights and guarantee that citizens can truly own the land that they live on and/or used to earn a living. This reform is critical in view of the ever-increasing land-related conflict and the potential disruptions that may arise when the 20-year right to use land expire after the 1993 Property Law arbitrarily instituted it.

3- The SRV must unconditionally and immediately free all those who are in detenttion for resisting unjust confiscation of their property, such as the seven Bến Tre residents sentenced on May 30, 2011; eleven Lục Ngạn, Bắc Giang residents sentenced on March 8, 2012; the four members of the Đoàn Văn Vươn family from Tiên Lãng (detained as of January 5, 2012 and waiting to be tried for “homicide attempt and resisting law enforcement”); or detained farmers from Văn Giang và Vụ Bản.

4- The SRV must stop its harassment of, interference with the right to work of, and/or free citizens who defended victims of   property confiscation, including journalists such as Lê Thanh Tùng, Tạ Phong Tần; attorneys such as Lê Trần Luật, Lê Thị Công Nhân, Huỳnh Văn Đông, Cù Huy Hà Vũ. The SRV must likewise stop harassing and interfering with the work of religious figures who have defended individuals or organizations who fell victims to property confiscation.

5- The Accountability Office, National Inspectorate, Patriotic Front, Vietnamese Farmers Association, and local courts must consider and act justly on millions of petitions and complaints filed by property confiscation victims such as farmers, urban residents, religious   organiations, and religious orders. These agencies must stop the game of passing the buck in order to end the misery and despair that the State has caused to our people.

6- Public Security and the military, including their supporting forces, are sustained by taxes paid by citizens, and therefore must stop acting as tools of the privileged few, special interest groups, “red capitalists” who want to   oppress and robb their compatriots. Public Security and the military must issue apologies and pay just compensation to the victims.

7- Our farmers should unify their efforts on a broad front with the support of all others, including religious leaders,   intellectuals, the media, and generous donors, among others, in staging coordinated protests and marches in both rural and urban communities to reclaim your legitimate property and defend your livelihoods in a non-violent manner.

8- All the word’s governments and international organizations should place conditions related to property rights, right to livelihood when considering assistance to Vietnam for economic development, from infrastructure building to the development of residential, commercial, industrial and cultural facilities and zones.

9- All individuals and organizations in Vietnam or overseas, including both people of Vietnamese descent and other ethnic groups, should boycott projects aimed at building luxurious facilities for residents and tourists such as Thủ Thiêm (Sài Gòn), Hòa Xuân (Cồn Dầu), EcoPark (Văn Giang), among others, because such projects can be achieved only through the denial of basic property rights to many Vietnamese.

Using this occasion, we in the Nguyễn Kim Điền Group applaud the intellectuals behind the Bauxite Việt Nam website for the several   thousand signatures protesting the government’s confiscation of land in Văn Giang trough violent means. We also applaud and support our compatriots in Văn Giang in their struggle against injustice and robbery.

Finally, may the Lord grant all Vietnamese, particularly our farmers, their wish for finally seeing their sacred property rights restored, as a step towards restoring freedom and human dignity, justice, social peace, advancement and prosperity   for our country, through a broad, unified and persistent struggle involving the Vietnamese people in Vietnam and others of Vietnamese descent – a struggle for property rights and all the other basic human rights.

Việt Nam, May 15, 2012

For the Nguyễn Kim Điền Group of Catholic Priests:

– Rev. Stephen Chân Tín, Redemptorists, Sài Gòn

– Rev. Peter Nguyễn Hữu Giải, Huế Archdioces

– Rev. Peter Phan Văn Lợi, Bắc Ninh Diocese,

with the consent and support of Rev. Thaddeus Nguyễn Văn Lý (in Nam Hà Prison).