Three policemen and a local man died after people in Hanoi's My Duc District tried to prevent authorities from building a wall around a land plot which was previously a military airport site.
Police put up barriers at Dong Tam Commune on January 9
According to the Ministry of Public Security, the construction of the 1,000-metre wall around the land plot in Dong Tam Commune was started on December 31 by the Ministry of Defence. On the morning of January 9, a group of local people came bringing grenades, petrol and knives to attack the workers and the authorities at the construction site.
Three policemen and one local man were killed in the clash, one other local man was injured, the Ministry of Public Security said, adding that some other local people were arrested.
"The situation has been brought under control," the ministry said. "Construction work is still being continued."
The prolonged land dispute revolves around 59ha of land, called Senh field, upon which Dong Tam residents have grown crops for decades, yet authorities insisted belonged to Mieu Mon Military Airport.
The two sides clashed when the Ministry of Defence decided to repossess the airport land in 2017, assigning it to military-owned telecommunications group Viettel. The dispute reached its peak on April 15 when local people took 38 police officers and My Duc District officials hostage following the detention of four residents by local authorities.
The week-long hostage crisis came to an end on April 22 when city leader Nguyen Duc Chung held a direct dialogue with local people, following a decision by the Hanoi Inspectorate on April 20 to thoroughly investigate the management of Mieu Mon Airport’s land in Dong Tam Commune. The four detained residents were also released.
In July 2017, Hanoi inspectors concluded that the 59 ha of disputed land did not belong to the Dong Tam residents but belonged to the military.
The increased area was the 31.9ha “affected from construction,” falling within the boundary of Chuong My District, not excluding 2.5ha of traffic roads and 0.5ha of measurement error, the inspection report stated.
However, the military units were at fault for failing to report the extra land to the defence ministry and the Prime Minister, the inspectors said.
The military also breached laws when they signed yearly contracts with the Dong Tam People’s Committee to allow the residents to use the military land for agricultural purpose. Those contracts ended in 2012, but the residents continued agricultural production on the land.
According to the inspection report, 47 complaints were filed against Dong Tam officials from December 2013 to the end of 2016, accusing them of wrongdoings in land management. These complaints were resolved by My Duc and the city authorities, followed by Communist Party of Vietnam disciplinary action against 19 individuals, eight of whom were expelled from the party, while one was fired and 14 were disciplined at their workplaces.
The Hanoi Inspectorate asked the My Duc and Dong Tam authorities to ensure they had firm solutions to force households who were illegally occupying military land to return the land to Viettel.
It also asked the defence ministry and the police to look into the responsibilities of those tasked with managing Mieu Mon airport’s land who had committed wrongdoings during the time.
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