Cablegate: Popular Anger Over Land Disputes; Protests in Hcmc

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RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHNH
DE RUEHHM #1009/01 2491000
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061000Z SEP 06
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1411
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI 0990
RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 1480

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001009

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM SOCI KJUS EAID ECON PREL KIRF PGOV VM
SUBJECT: POPULAR ANGER OVER LAND DISPUTES; PROTESTS IN HCMC

REF: HCMC 936 AND PREVIOUS

HO CHI MIN 00001009 001.2 OF 002

1. (SBU) Summary: Over the past few months, ConGen has observed
a steady stream of small, peaceful protests over land,
representing disgruntled groups from the Mekong Delta and the
HCMC region. HCMC media contacts tell us of popular
dissatisfaction over land expropriation policy and associated
official corruption in the South. The protests in HCMC appear
to reflect the frustration of Vietnam's urban and rural poor,
who believe they have no transparent legal or political outlet
to defend their interests. We have been able to document at
least two land disputes involving ethnic minority groups in Binh
Phuoc province. As reported reftel, political activists have
sought to highlight the protests in their anti-Communist Party
websites and, in some cases, have become advocates for citizens
with land disputes. Thus far, police have not blocked the
protests, although they have prevented anyone from approaching.
In HCMC alone, some 55,000 households need to be relocated to
move ahead with some of the city's ambitious urban and
infrastructure development plans. End Summary.

Uptick in Public Protests on Land Disputes
------------------------------------------

2. (SBU) Over the past few months, ConGen has observed an
increasing number of small, peaceful protests over land
disputes. The protest groups range from 20 to 50 persons,
usually all older women. They appear to represent rural and
urban poor from HCMC, its environs, and provinces in the Mekong
Delta. The protestors take well-defined routes, from the
Presidential palace to the HCMC People's Committee or to the
Southern Offices of the GVN. (The latter route takes protestors
past the Consulate.) Despite a GVN ban on unauthorized
gathering by any group of more than five persons in public
places, police usually allow the protestors to sit silently
across from Government offices. Police prevent anyone from
approaching the protestors or taking pictures.

3. (SBU) For example, on September 1, approximately 20 women
from the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre marched in HCMC
carrying signs accusing the People's Committee Chairman and
Vice-Chairmen of illegally expropriating land and of corruption
in land deals. In August, another group from HCMC protested
government development plans in Chinatown (District Five). In
July protestors from Ben Tre, Binh Duong and Long An provinces
condemned government policies on land expropriation. A number
of protestors carried signs decrying expropriation from the
"widows of war heroes." The People's Committee Chairman of Ben
Tre was attending our Fourth of July reception while a group of
protestors from his province was filing by outside. At the
reception, the Chairman did not raise the protest per se, but
noted that he had read our Vietnamese translation of "The Lexus
and the Olive Tree" on the challenges of globalization three
times.

The Price of Progress?
----------------------

4. (SBU) According to newspaper reports, in HCMC alone, from
2000 to 2004, the city approved 412 development projects,
requiring the expropriation of 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) and
affecting at least 53,000 households. In 2004 and 2005, the
city approved another 365 projects, requiring another 1,000
hectares (2,500 acres) of land. HCMC press reports that in
HCMC's District 9 5,500 households are to be compensated and
relocated for redevelopment, but only 742 households have been
resettled thus far. HCMC officials have asserted to us in
private that providing full compensation for all affected
households in HCMC would make many projects commercially
unfeasible.

5. (SBU) Details of land disputes in the provinces outside HCMC
are sketchy, but contacts in the media tell us that they are
commonplace. Many of these cases involve local Communist Party
and government malfeasance in the process of rezoning or
reapportioning of farm land. In April 2005, district-level
officials in rural Binh Phuoc province reportedly evicted 50
ethnic Stieng farmers from 220 hectares (550 acres) of land they
had been cultivating since 1998. The district reportedly
allocated the land to a state-owned, rubber plantation, but
allegedly some of the land was transferred into other, private
interests. At least some of the ethnic Stieng were affiliated
with the Inter-Evangelistic Movement Protestant house church.
Eight protestors were detained during the eviction. In a second
case in 2006, local-level officials ordered the transfer of 50
hectares (125 acres) of land from a dozen ethnic Mnong families
to a state-owned rubber producer. In June, district-level
officials temporarily halted the transfer following an appeal
from the group that at least some of the land was improperly
distributed to local government and Communist Party cadre. A
HCMC police contact told us recently that police in rural areas
routinely are allocated "government" land as part of their

HO CHI MIN 00001009 002.2 OF 002

compensation package to make up for low wages.

6. (SBU) Comment: Although there have been land protests in
HCMC in the past, they have tended to be few in number and local
in character. The convergence of groups from provinces
surrounding HCMC is a new phenomenon; it may reflect the
increasing pace of development throughout southern Vietnam.
Protestors may hold out some hope that the Central Government
might intervene where provincial- and lower-level government
does not. The GVN recently opened a southern branch of its
national complaints office in HCMC to deal with the growing
workload in the southern half of the country. They also may
head to HCMC because they believe that police are less inclined
to take action against them there than in their local communes.

7. (SBU) Comment Continued: Nonetheless, public protest remains
a brave and desperate act for Vietnamese -- even in HCMC. It
reflects the frustration of Vietnam's urban and rural poor, who
believe they have no effective legal or political outlet to
challenge official decisions or to obtain fair compensation.
Their anger is compounded by corruption within the system; all
too often the Party and Government officials ruling on a land
case are the ones that are benefiting -- directly or indirectly
-- from the distribution, onward sale or rezoning of that land.
In the process, even "cleaner" development projects get
tarnished. How HCMC officials deal with this sensitive subject
will help determine the pace of planned large-scale clearance
and re-development of neighborhoods in HCMC, including the
development of a new satellite city and convention center.
Political dissident groups have been publicizing land protests
on anti-GVN websites. One group has been working with
disgruntled citizens to organize and file complaints with the
GVN (reftel).

8. (SBU) Comment continued: These same land disputes often
become even thornier when they involve ethnic minority groups,
who often do not have full legal title to the land they occupy.
In Binh Phuoc and in the Central Highlands, these disputes
quickly become conflated with charges of ethnic or religious
discrimination. End Comment.
WINNICK

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