Vietnam fires foe of moon-bear sanctuary
Charity based in Hong Kong had sought to rescue animals from bile trade but park director wanted site for eco-tourism resort
A Vietnamese official who campaigned to shut down a moon-bear sanctuary run by Hong Kong charity Animals Asia has been fired after an investigation ordered by his country's prime minister.
Post Magazine reported last year that Do Dinh Tien was trying to evict the charity's Moon Bear Rescue Centre in Tam Dao National Park in northwestern Vietnam to make way for an ecotourism resort in which his family had a financial interest.
The eviction would have left more than 100 Asiatic black bears rescued from bile farms without a home and brought the loss of 77 jobs at the US$2 million centre, given to Animals Asia on a supposedly indefinite lease by the Vietnamese government in 2005.
Post Magazine last October revealed how Do Dinh Tien, director of the national park, at first wanted Animals Asia to hand over half its 12-hectare site for a tourism development part-owned by his daughter.
When the charity refused, he began a campaign to shut the sanctuary down, leading to an order by the Vietnamese Ministry of Defence in October for the rescue centre to close on the grounds that it occupied a site of "national-defence significance".
Foreign embassies and celebrity supporters appealed for the sanctuary to be saved, and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung intervened, blocking the closure in January. The prime minister also ordered an investigation into the behaviour of park director Tien by the Ministry of Agriculture, which concluded that he had "repeatedly obstructed" the operation of the rescue centre.