VietNamNet Bridge – At a meeting on January 18, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee (VFF) agreed to set up a supervisionary team to investigate the land revocation case in Tien Lang district, the northern port city of Hai Phong.

PM orders probe into coercive land seizure
Six cops shot in forced removal case in Hai Phong

VFF’s Vice Chair cum Secretary General Vu Trong Kim said that the case in Tien Lang is no longer the affair of Tien Lang district or Hai Phong city but the common concern of the entire country.

Kim said that the supervisionary team would investigate the case, particularly the signs of breaking law in allocating and revoking land of the local authorities.

He said that the land revocation case in Tien Lang on January 5 has signs of extortion and local authorities did not respect the people’s interests. “Why they mobilized military forces? The VFF will ask the government to quickly investigate, to handle and to answer the public,” Kim said, adding that mobilizing the military forces in this case is the sign of violating the Constitution.

Earlier, the Ministry of Public Security also stated to look into the case, in which the family of a man named Doan Van Vuon in Tien Lang shot and injured six police officers who were executing the decision to revoke 40 hectares of public land rented to the family.

The highly controversial headline-making case has also reached the attention of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who ordered the chairman of Hai Phong City People's Committee to review the case and submit a detail report on the allocation of the land to Doan Van Vuon.

Meanwhile, Dr Dinh Xuan Thao, head of the National Assembly’s Legislation Study Institute, told Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper that the local authorities had unlawfully revoked the land, since they either had not enough knowledge of law or had thought that the person subject to their revocation order was ignorant of law.

The district authorities must pay compensation to Vuon’s family for destroying his house and clarify the responsibility of the person who ordered the demolition, since there is no law that allows them to do so, Thao said.

In addition, the use of armed force by the authorities to repossess the land will also be examined, since prevailing laws do not allow random use of armed forces in executing decisions on forced removal.

As reported, on January 5 more than 100 armed policemen and soldiers executed a local authorities’ decision to force Vuon and his family to vacate their premises and return the land, more than 40 hectares in size, to local authorities for an airport project.

The authorities forced Vuon to return the land, stating that his lease on the land expired in 2009, but Vuon disagreed, saying he was eligible to continue using the land.

Vuon and his family members planted mines in their garden and used shotguns to injure 6 police officer, including Senior Lieutenant Colonel Le Van Mai, head of the Tien Lang District Police.

Vuon, 49, and three other members of his family were later arrested and prosecuted on charges of murder, while two other members, including Vuon’s wife, were indicted for resisting law enforcement officers on duty but were let out on bail.

Former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Hung Vo confirmed that Tien Lang district authorities’ land revocation decision is contrary to moral standards and the law. He said he is ready to confront Tien Lang district authorities about this.

VNE/VNN/Tuoitre