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At Vietnam’s ‘Dong Tam Massacre’, activists claim government attacked its own citizens
- A long-running land rights dispute turned deadly last week when Vietnamese police carried out a raid on a village near Hanoi
- Authorities accuse villagers of setting police alight but activists claim thousands of armed officers came to village and opened fire
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A long-running battle over land rights in the northern Vietnam village of Dong Tam flared last week after a raid by thousands of police led to four deaths and the arrests of 30 residents.
Three officers were killed along with village leader Le Dinh Kinh, state media reported, while 20 of those arrested face murder charges, punishable by the death sentence in Vietnam.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security on Wednesday blamed the villagers for the violence and claimed Kinh and his supporters threw grenades and killed officers by dousing them with petrol and setting them alight. In response, Vietnamese police opened fire and made dozens of arrests, the ministry’s statement said.
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An independent rights group has called for a government inquiry to establish the facts about events in Dong Tam.
The dispute relates to the Vietnamese Defence Ministry’s plans to build a wall around a nearby military airport in Mieu Mon, using land villagers claim has been seized. Inspectors working for the Vietnamese government in July 2017 announced land in Dong Tam had always belonged to the military.
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