“They died because of a military attack with participation of military and police forces, not by civil authorities in land seizure process.”
There is much information with conflicting views between the information from the state media and the information from the people, but in my opinion there are some issues surrounding Mr. Le Dinh Kinh’s death:
First of all, it is important to recognize that they died because of a military attack. There is a combination of military and police forces.
They died not because of a land coercion, but rather “repression” as stated by the state media. The attack occured in Hoanh hamlet, where reside Mr. Kinh and other villagers who protest land seizure of Senh field. The distance between Hoanh hamlet and Senh field is about 3-4 km. So there was no actions of violations of government’s Decree 01/2017/ND-CP which is about the implementation of the Land Law (which states that land seizure must not be carried out during nights between 10PM to 6AM, and in holiday time), as understood by some lawyers and Facebookers.
The Criminal Code clearly states “The land seizure is carried out at the scene of the violation or the object is the property enforced judgment execution by a decision of the Court”
In this incident, the participating police and military forces may violate the Constitution; Law on Public Security and Criminal Code as follow:
Using weapons and repressive acts when there are no existence of the details “to prevent acts of threatening to attack, endanger lives, or cause serious damage to property of the state, organizations or other individuals” (Law on Public Security and Criminal Code)
There is no arrest warrant or probe approved by the Procuracy (Criminal Code).
Infringing upon the legal residence of citizens (Constitution and Criminal Code).
They died or detained at their private residences but not in Senh field because the entire Hoanh hamlet was blocked by the forces prior to the attack. Mr. Kinh was on wheel after being beaten with broken legs in 2017 so he couldnt move to Senh field during night in the context that the village was blocked by forces. There is additional information: the video clips made by local residents and the videoclips filmed by reporters of the Vietnam Television (VTV) in the Hoanh hamlet gate in the early morning of January 9.
The cause of the deaths of Mr. Kinh and other people due to injury or choking gas, should be examinated by independent international organizations with support from the United Nation if there was no trust in the state forensic examination.
State media and the indictments (if any) issued by Vietnam’s authorities may should not use phrases such as “assaulting law enforcement forces” and opposing seizure of defense land” to talk about the deaths and arrests of people on January 9’s morning because the incident occured in their house, not in Senh field. Their acts (if any) should be clearly defined after being attacked by police or before the forces entered Hoanh hamlet. According to the videoclips made by VTV and local residents showed that the forces blocked the village and attacked residents’ houses.
No more talking about the people of Dong Tam protesting the land acquisition of Dong Senh (Dong Tam) right or wrong. The death of those involved in the night of 9/1/2020 was an undesirable loss not only in terms of property damage, human life but it was certainly an unjustifiable political stain. Any insulting or deliberate act of attributing victims to an identity with an improperly attributable nature is an immoral act.
By Thien Dieu.
Hoàng Trung from Ha noi – Thoibao.de (translated)
