2017 Hanoi hostage crisis
More than 30 Vietnamese police officers were taken hostage by villagers in Đồng Tâm commune, Mỹ Đức District, Hanoi on April 15, 2017, after the police came to the village to arrest 4 villagers without an arrest warrant in a land dispute. A total of 38 hostages were taken. Two days after the initial hostage-taking, 3 detainees were released by the police in Hanoi, including the main representative of the people in the land dispute, Mr. Le Dinh Kinh, an 82-year-old man who was injured and hospitalized. In response, the villagers released 15 policemen; 3 more managed to escape.
On April 22, the villagers released the rest of the hostages after securing concessions from the government.
Disputes over land rights are common in Vietnam, because the bureaucratic government does not recognise people's land ownership and they only give to capitalist corporations and foreign investments, that occurred along Vietnam in Doi Moi era. Government agencies reserve the right to seize farmland for construction and investment projects. The crisis was a rare act of defiance in Vietnam, where anger against official corruption and land seizures simmers, but is usually met with a forceful response from police.
Cause
The incident was triggered by the people of the Dong Tam communes' opposition to the government of the Mỹ Đức District assigning their land to the Viettel Group, a business firm owned and managed by the Vietnamese Ministry of Defence, to build their factory complex. According to the newspaper Người Cao Tuổi, the area Miếu Môn next to Đồng Tâm had a temporary airport during the war. After the Sino-Vietnamese War, in 1980 government of Vietnam retrieved 208 ha to build an airport there; 47.36 ha are agriculture land of Đồng Tâm. Because the project was not implemented, Brigade 28 of the Vietnamese Air force gave the land back to Đồng Tâm. In 2014, city council of Hanoi gave that land, all in all,, 28,7 ha more than 208 ha as before, again to the ministry of defense. People in Đồng Tâm say 28.7 ha are their agriculture land. In 2015, Vietnamese Ministry of defence withdrew 50 ha to give to Viettel, 46 ha belong to Đồng Tâm.Event
Villager view
On 15 April 2017, according to a villager, who spoke to the BBC, the police invited representatives of villagers involved in the land dispute to come to measure the border between the military land and the agriculture land and took the four representatives away without arrest warrants. The villagers came to rescue them and there were a clash with the police. Five more villagers were detained. One young villager was severely injured and had to be taken to the hospital. Many police officers then came to try to disperse the crowd, but more than 30 of them were taken since then hostage. Till 17 April, including journalists and some people came to try to negotiate, there are 38 hostages.Authorities' report
According to the Hanoi authorities there was a misuse of the military land and on 30 March, they decided to start a trial because of disrupting public order, which was why they came to arrest four people. Hanoi authorities said they are taking measures to rein in the situation with priority given to rescuing the detained officers. They have also urged the residents to stay calm and cooperate and ensure the safety of the officers. Till now, that is the content of the only article of Vietnam News Agency, that was published by all the official newspapers about this case accept one more of Vnexpress.17 April
There was news that the district government cut the electricity and Internet connections of the commune.Lawyer Trần Vũ Hải wrote in an article in Facebook, that other lawyers Nguyễn Hà Luân, Lê Văn Luân and he had arrived at the village and were negotiating with both sides. The villagers said they don't trust the police from the commune and the district. The mayor of Hanoi, Nguyễn Đức Chung, should come to fetch the hostages but first release the detained villagers. They also showed their anger that the public Vietnamese television did not report the case correctly. The mayor of Hanoi promised to release the detainee in an hour and involve in the land dispute himself to solve the case and punish the wrongdoers, and he will go to see the villagers on the 18th. The police of Hanoi also has released three detainees. The main representative, Lê Đình Kinh, 82 tuổi, was injured and was taken to the hospital to be operated on. In exchange, the villagers released 15 policemen, 3 more have escaped. There are 20 hostages left.
18 April
The next day lawyer Trần Vũ Hải said Mayor Chung told him to correct his writing, that he did not promise anything. But Hai said, that he was not the only one that heard the conversation between the villagers and mayor Chung. Besides the villagers and him, other lawyers who came together with him could also hear it.Major general Bạch Thành Định from the Ministry Public Security said: "as chief of investigation department of the Public Security in Hanoi I confirm that the temporary release of the detainees is not a deal with the local revolters." He also emphasized that he would determine to take the leaders of the group, who distorted the truth to cause the revolt, to court. Until noon of the 18 th roads to the village were still blocked by piles of big wooden logs and mounds of gravel.
In the evening of 18 April, deputy chief of the committee of party members of the capital of Hà Nội Đào Đức Toàn stated that they delegated mayor Nguyễn Đức Chung to meet, discuss and solve the pressing issues of the people of the district of Mỹ Đức.
19 April
Member of parlement from city Hải Phòng Lê Thanh Vân and from province Đồng Nai Dương Trung Quốc had the same opinion, that Hà Nội mayor Nguyễn Đức Chung should soon discuss about the issue with the villagers of Đồng Tâm. Quốc said: " believe is not better than to speak with the people”. Lê Thanh Vân asked, “a military project to build an airport started from 1980 till now, because of national security, stop and start again waisting for the use of agriculture land for many years. Why? The people of Đồng Tâm have a need to speak to the mayor of Hanoi but till now there is no answer. Why?...”20 April
In the afternoon of 20 April, mayor Nguyễn Đức Chung went to district Mỹ Đức, 15 km from Đồng Tâm, to discuss with the committee of the party members in the district, how to deal with the people of Đồng Tâm. Speaking to the online newspaper Zing.vn, a villager in Đồng Tâm said, that they have received an announcement that every village should send 10 people to the district office to discuss with the mayor of Hà Nội Nguyễn Đức Chung. "We rather want Mr. Chung to go to Đồng Tâm to discuss with the people than we go to the district", he said.At the press conference in the afternoon of 20 April, answering foreign news media about the event in Đồng Tâm, Mỹ Đức, speaker Lê Thị Thu Hằng from the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the city Hà Nội is dealing with the event according to the Vietnamese law, guarantee the legal interest of everyone involved.
21 April
In the meeting yesterday, there was only a representative of the commune Đồng Tâm, no villager attended. Chung said: "Tomorrow, the day after that I still ready to discuss directly with the villagers of Đồng Tâm..." and appeal to them to obey the law and take the roadblocks away, release the 20 police officers and officials at the hamlet Hoành back to their family. All their innermost feelings and desires will be listened and solved thoroughly.Member of the parliament from Hà Nội Trần Thị Quốc Khánh informed, in the morning of 21/4, Member of the parlement group from Hà Nội will meet the voters from Mỹ Đức district. She said: "since the election and being elected here it has not been 1 year yet, I had some meeting with the voters, but nobody has reflected this matter with Hà Nội's parlement representatives yet. We are ready to listen, we also make our telephone number public for the people to call any time. I believe, now the most important thing is discussing, come to and listen to the people. For all the problems, both sides have to act according to the law and not without thinking and only to their feeling.”
Also in the morning of 21/4, Lê Đình Ba informed, villagers have released Đặng Văn Cảnh - political propaganda department chief of Mỹ Đức. He also told, that villagers are tidying the roads to welcome mayor Chung coming to discuss.
22 April
Mayor Chung came to commune Đồng Tâm in the morning to meet the villagers there for about more than 2 hours. 9 villagers express their view, bringing up 21 issues that were answered by Chung as followed:- About their appeal that Viettel group should stop building, there was a decision of the city on 20 April 2017 to investigate all the matters about the land dispute and there will be a result in 45 days.
- About their appeal that district Mỹ Đức stop propagating that the disputed land is military land, there was an order to stop that propaganda because it is still investigated.
- About their suggestion not coming to suppress them, there will be no suppress, no effort to try to rescue the hostages.
- About their appeal that they will not be taken to court, mayor Chung admit that the way people were arrested is wrong, because the police did not show the arrest warrant, did not wear uniform and because the people cooperate, they will be judged mild.