Land-rights protest stops traffic in Vietnamese capital

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Tuesday August 29, 2006

Hanoi- Rush-hour traffic snarled in Vietnam's capital Tuesday afternoon as hundreds of land-rights protesters camped outside the country's National Assembly office, demanding that a government decision to seize their land be overturned. Uniformed police cordoned off two city blocks around the parliament's administrative office, while plainclothes police mingled among the demonstrators who had travelled from Hung Yen province, 50 kilometres east of Hanoi.

But police did not break up the protest, which was illegal under Vietnamese law.

The protesters, numbering more than 200 by late afternoon but claiming they represented more than 3,000 families from three communes, said that nearly 500 hectare of land had been awarded to a company named Viet Hung to build a new urban area.

"We're here fighting for our land," said one elderly woman in a black velvet headband, squatting in the street outside the office. "The government confiscated it without consulting us."

However, Vietnamese law allows the government to take back land for projects deemed to be for the public good.

Police for the most part did not interfere with Tuesday's peaceful protest, which was the largest in recent memory and one of the few that authorities have allowed to disrupt traffic.

One plainclothes officer even expressed limited sympathy with the protesters' cause. "They may have a point, but gathering here is not good," the officer said, declining to name his rank and division. "The government has its own mechanisms of dealing with such complaints," the officer said.

Unauthorized demonstrations are officially banned in Vietnam, but have become more common, even in the capital, in recent years.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur