Vietnamese Church Forbidden to Bury the Dead

ICC Note: Government fobidding villagers to use church cemetary, threaten to raze the church with bulldozers. The cemetery will become an exclusive neighbourhood.

4/22/10 Vietnam (AsiaNews / EDA) – Municipal authorities of Da Nang have stopped the burial of the dead at the cemetery Con Dau to “free” space and turn it into land for construction. The project provides for the recovery of the cemetery and other farmland around the village of 2 thousand inhabitants, to build a “green”, luxury residential area, built thanks to foreign investment.

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A week before a member of the Patriotic Front and two Religious Affairs Bureau officials visited the parish priest to tell him to warn the faithful that burials in the cemetery are now prohibited. The priest refused, explaining that the cemetery and church belong to the whole village and that there are ownership documents to prove it.

The faithful remain opposed to the project that wants to destroy their homes, land and the resting place of their ancestors. The government is pressing on however, threatening that by May they will send bulldozers to raze the parish.

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