Gangs Attack Vietnamese Protestors in Church-Government Property Dispute
ICC Note:
In a struggle over land confiscated from the Catholic church in the 1950s, police have resorted to sending in motorcyle gangs to threaten and attack the protestors who are refusing to pay the “huge amount” of money being demanded by officials for the return of the land.
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6/5/08 Vietnam (CNA) Police in the Vietnamese province of Ha Tinh have begun using street and motorcycle gangs to threaten and attack Catholic protesters who are seeking the return of lands confiscated by government authorities in the 1950s.
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Leaders of the protests were told that the local government owns the land in dispute and that the land would be returned only if the parishioners paid a “huge amount” of money.
J.B. An Dang told CNA that parishioners refused to accept the terms offered to them and continued their protests. The next day, groups of gangs were brought to the site in police trucks. The gangs attacked the protestors, beating them and chasing them away.
