Transparency International – Thu, 12 Sep 2013 01:53 AM
Corruption’s cruel backlash: the case of Doan Van Vuon
Early last year near the port-side city of Hai Phong, fish farmer Doan Van Vuon armed himself with homemade bombs and guns in a violent resistance against the public officials who had come to forcibly confiscate his land.
Doan Van Vuon acquired his property back in 1993 and like all landholders in Vietnam received only temporary land-use rights. In that time he converted what was once swampland into a profitable business raising fish and prawn on his land.
The confrontation with public officials left seven security officers injured but the publicity the case generated led to Vietnam’s prime minister publically rebuking local authorities in Hai Phong and declaring the eviction to be illegal. The day following the confrontation, Vuon’s property was stormed by more than 100 police and public security officials who demolished both Vuon and his brother’s houses, which was not even on the land marked for confiscation.
Doan Van Vuon and his family have since been allowed to keep their land as an investigation showed local officials had made mistakes in ordering his eviction, but in April this year he was sentenced to five years imprisonment for attempted murder as a result of the conflict with the authorities.
Read more: http://www.transparency.org/news/feature/vietnam_citizens_against_corruption
