Con Dau – Dang Nang city, October 15, 2010
To:
His Excellency Bishop Peter Nguyen Van Nhon – President of the Vietnamese Episcopal Conference.
His Excellency Bishop Cosma Hoang Van Dat – Secretary General of The Vietnamese Episcopal Conference.
His Excellency Bishop Paul Nguyen Thai Hop – President of Committee for Justice and Peace.
Respected Fathers,
We, parishioners of Con Dau parish, Diocese of Da Nang and relatives of the following six victims being put unjustly under Da Nang city’s police custody:
1 – Matthew Nguyen Huu Liem
2 – Joseph Tran Thanh Viet
3 – Thadeus Le Thanh Lam
4 – Simon Nguyen Huu Minh
5 – Teresa Nguyen Thi The
6 – Mary Phan Thi Nhan
would like to send to you our best regard and our report on the incident as follows:
Our Con Dau parish has been established for 80 out of our 130 year- history of receiving the Good News. Generations of Con Dau parishioners had sacrificed their blood and tears for the development of their home parish and their homeland, making it a more pleasant place to live and worship. Life has been going by in peace and harmony.
Our normal life, however, has been turned upside down when the government of Da Nang decided to sell this area off to “The Sun- Investment Corporation” for an Eco-Tourism Project. This is a joint stock company formed by private owners. It’s neither a company established to carry out State’s projects, nor belonging to any national security project. Compensation was set at dirt-cheap rate of 350.000 VND (an equivalent of 20 dollars) per square meter for residential land.
Article 40 in 2003 Land Law, pertaining to “Land recovery for use for economic development purposes” stipulates: “The State shall recover land for purposes of economic development in the case of the construction of industrial parks, high-tech zones, economic zones and major investment projects as stipulated by the Government. “
The Governmental Decree 84/2007/ND-CP, May 25, 2007 in article 35, paragraph 1, said “The focus on other business areas have similar land use regimes prescribed in Clause 1, Article 40 and paragraph 1 of Article 90 of Land Law, including:
a) Commercial – general services with a variety of sales, service, and many owners doing business together.
b) The affiliated travel on infrastructure, on the type of business and many owners doing business together (not including eco-tourism). “
The Da Nang authority’s action of recovering parish land and selling it to The Sun- Investment Corporation for building the Eco-tourism plan has seriously violated the land law and infringed upon people’s lawful property.
In a residential area with a long-standing stability and a good secular and religious tradition, where our fathers’ remains are resting in peace, it’s appalling to see the homes, the land, the properties generations after generations have worked so hard to earn being audaciously taken away…For years many of our Con Dau parishioners have been asking local government at all levels to comply with the law, to respect the legal rights of all citizens. Da Nang authority, instead of doing just that, has applied every measure including cracking down on people in order to achieve the goal they had set.
On May 4, 2010, at the funeral of Mrs Ho Nhu, her maiden name as Maria Dang Thi Tan, police used different forms of weapons to attack parishioners who were on the way to the parish cemetery to pay final respect to the decease. A total of 72 parishioners had been detained by the police. Subsequently police arrested a number of others including those who did not participate in the funeral procession but spoke out to support the rights of the residents.
Among those arrested were our relatives who had been accused of “disorderly misconduct”, obstruction of justice”- offenses the provincial governments in the country usually charge people with in land disputing cases.
We are affirmative that their relatives neither violated the law, nor they were against anyone. People like Simon Nguyen Huu Minh, who did not even step out of his house the day Mrs Ho Nhu was buried, was arrested on May 20, 2010 or more than two weeks after (the funeral). There are cases where parishioners were beaten; their relatives were subject to torture every day. All they did was to cry but later were called on by the authorities to receive a fine of an equivalent to 3 dollars.
Since the arrest of these citizens, Da Nang authorities have serious violations of the criminal proceedings, where there is no arrest warrant, no proof of probable cause. Instead they simply arrested their targets, then rounded up several others and put them through torture to extort false testimonies against the intended victims.
During their detention at Da Nang’s police station, the law enforcement agency of Da Nang city had asked our relatives not to seek legal counsel and threatened to up-grade their charge to a more severe level should they “dare to fight back with the prosecution”
Respected Fathers,
We are only the simple faithful, dedicating all our lives to our land, our farms and our prayers every early morning in this beloved, serene countryside.
Should Da Nang authority appropriate our entire neighbourhood, our properties, we do not know how we will survive, where we live, or what our future will be like! There is absolutely no guarantee for our everyday lives and our children’s future; even our way of a good life is being turned upside down and on the way to be destroyed.
But above all and most urgently is the agonising situation where our fathers, husbands, wives are suffering at the detention centre of Da Nang government.
These things are happening with Bishop Joseph Chau Ngoc Tri ‘s knowledge. We’re therefore putting our hope so much on his ability to help us. But as of now, there still has been no way out for us. We are now very optimistic upon the news of the Committee for Justice and Peace being created by the Vietnamese Episcopal Conference.
In this desperate situation we can only pray to God for his keeping and beg you Fathers for your help in obtaining justice for our loved ones who are being unjustly detained in the Da Nang Police’s detention centres, in accordance with the current law.
We, the small children, would appreciate very much your help in this matter.
We wish you Fathers be blessed with good health and grace of God in your guiding the Vietnamese Church to walk alongside with the (Vietnamese) people, with the miserable and to be progressing forward in your mission to be the Lord’s witnesses in this world.
RESPECTFULLY YOURS,
COSIGNATORIES OF THE VICTIMS’ FAMILIES
Recipients
– As mentioned above
- Catholic Media (for information and support with prayers )
- Related Church’s agencies and organizations (to be informed and offer support)
To:
His Excellency Bishop Peter Nguyen Van Nhon – President of the Vietnamese Episcopal Conference.
His Excellency Bishop Cosma Hoang Van Dat – Secretary General of The Vietnamese Episcopal Conference.
His Excellency Bishop Paul Nguyen Thai Hop – President of Committee for Justice and Peace.
Respected Fathers,
We, parishioners of Con Dau parish, Diocese of Da Nang and relatives of the following six victims being put unjustly under Da Nang city’s police custody:
1 – Matthew Nguyen Huu Liem
2 – Joseph Tran Thanh Viet
3 – Thadeus Le Thanh Lam
4 – Simon Nguyen Huu Minh
5 – Teresa Nguyen Thi The
6 – Mary Phan Thi Nhan
would like to send to you our best regard and our report on the incident as follows:
Our Con Dau parish has been established for 80 out of our 130 year- history of receiving the Good News. Generations of Con Dau parishioners had sacrificed their blood and tears for the development of their home parish and their homeland, making it a more pleasant place to live and worship. Life has been going by in peace and harmony.
Our normal life, however, has been turned upside down when the government of Da Nang decided to sell this area off to “The Sun- Investment Corporation” for an Eco-Tourism Project. This is a joint stock company formed by private owners. It’s neither a company established to carry out State’s projects, nor belonging to any national security project. Compensation was set at dirt-cheap rate of 350.000 VND (an equivalent of 20 dollars) per square meter for residential land.
Article 40 in 2003 Land Law, pertaining to “Land recovery for use for economic development purposes” stipulates: “The State shall recover land for purposes of economic development in the case of the construction of industrial parks, high-tech zones, economic zones and major investment projects as stipulated by the Government. “
The Governmental Decree 84/2007/ND-CP, May 25, 2007 in article 35, paragraph 1, said “The focus on other business areas have similar land use regimes prescribed in Clause 1, Article 40 and paragraph 1 of Article 90 of Land Law, including:
a) Commercial – general services with a variety of sales, service, and many owners doing business together.
b) The affiliated travel on infrastructure, on the type of business and many owners doing business together (not including eco-tourism). “
The Da Nang authority’s action of recovering parish land and selling it to The Sun- Investment Corporation for building the Eco-tourism plan has seriously violated the land law and infringed upon people’s lawful property.
In a residential area with a long-standing stability and a good secular and religious tradition, where our fathers’ remains are resting in peace, it’s appalling to see the homes, the land, the properties generations after generations have worked so hard to earn being audaciously taken away…For years many of our Con Dau parishioners have been asking local government at all levels to comply with the law, to respect the legal rights of all citizens. Da Nang authority, instead of doing just that, has applied every measure including cracking down on people in order to achieve the goal they had set.
On May 4, 2010, at the funeral of Mrs Ho Nhu, her maiden name as Maria Dang Thi Tan, police used different forms of weapons to attack parishioners who were on the way to the parish cemetery to pay final respect to the decease. A total of 72 parishioners had been detained by the police. Subsequently police arrested a number of others including those who did not participate in the funeral procession but spoke out to support the rights of the residents.
Among those arrested were our relatives who had been accused of “disorderly misconduct”, obstruction of justice”- offenses the provincial governments in the country usually charge people with in land disputing cases.
We are affirmative that their relatives neither violated the law, nor they were against anyone. People like Simon Nguyen Huu Minh, who did not even step out of his house the day Mrs Ho Nhu was buried, was arrested on May 20, 2010 or more than two weeks after (the funeral). There are cases where parishioners were beaten; their relatives were subject to torture every day. All they did was to cry but later were called on by the authorities to receive a fine of an equivalent to 3 dollars.
Since the arrest of these citizens, Da Nang authorities have serious violations of the criminal proceedings, where there is no arrest warrant, no proof of probable cause. Instead they simply arrested their targets, then rounded up several others and put them through torture to extort false testimonies against the intended victims.
During their detention at Da Nang’s police station, the law enforcement agency of Da Nang city had asked our relatives not to seek legal counsel and threatened to up-grade their charge to a more severe level should they “dare to fight back with the prosecution”
Respected Fathers,
We are only the simple faithful, dedicating all our lives to our land, our farms and our prayers every early morning in this beloved, serene countryside.
Should Da Nang authority appropriate our entire neighbourhood, our properties, we do not know how we will survive, where we live, or what our future will be like! There is absolutely no guarantee for our everyday lives and our children’s future; even our way of a good life is being turned upside down and on the way to be destroyed.
But above all and most urgently is the agonising situation where our fathers, husbands, wives are suffering at the detention centre of Da Nang government.
These things are happening with Bishop Joseph Chau Ngoc Tri ‘s knowledge. We’re therefore putting our hope so much on his ability to help us. But as of now, there still has been no way out for us. We are now very optimistic upon the news of the Committee for Justice and Peace being created by the Vietnamese Episcopal Conference.
In this desperate situation we can only pray to God for his keeping and beg you Fathers for your help in obtaining justice for our loved ones who are being unjustly detained in the Da Nang Police’s detention centres, in accordance with the current law.
We, the small children, would appreciate very much your help in this matter.
We wish you Fathers be blessed with good health and grace of God in your guiding the Vietnamese Church to walk alongside with the (Vietnamese) people, with the miserable and to be progressing forward in your mission to be the Lord’s witnesses in this world.
RESPECTFULLY YOURS,
COSIGNATORIES OF THE VICTIMS’ FAMILIES
Recipients
– As mentioned above
- Catholic Media (for information and support with prayers )
- Related Church’s agencies and organizations (to be informed and offer support)