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January 4, 2018| In the early hours of the day, various police forces and their accompanying civil security (dân phòng) surrounded an area in Ward 6, District Tan Binh, Ho Chi Minh City known as Loc Hung vegetable garden with bulldozers, firetrucks, and paramedics to forcefully evicted about one hundred households from the land that they have been disputing with the local government for close to two decades.

The residents have spent years on negotiations with the local government, starting from the time the price for their land skyrocketed and the area became desired for development in the early 2000s.

The two sides could not agree on the price. It is estimated that with such a prime location, the value should be more than 100M VND per meter square, but the government rezoned the area and only offered the people around the range of a few hundreds of thousands VND per meter square. The millions of VND in the difference between the two prices eventually killed the talks, and the authorities declared they would use forced eviction in the last few days of 2018.

Now, only less than a week into the new year, the police and security forces were barricading and blocking traffic and people from coming into the area so that they could begin demolishing the residents’ homes starting from around 9:00 A.M.

Throughout the day, our editor, Pham Doan Trang, reported from the scene and stated on her Facebook page that the security police also stationed in front of many dissidents’ homes in Saigon and even arrested Nguyen Tri Dung, the son of blogger Dieu Cay (Nguyen Van Hai) at his home in District 3. Nguyen Tri Dung was later released in the evening of January 4, 2019.

By 9:20 A.M. the authorities cut off electricity, 3G, and Wifi at Loc Hung. The police began to tear down people’s houses in the area with all means available, from shovel and hammer to bulldozer, while calling on the people to voluntary leave the area.

88 households would become homeless without compensation for their land once the demolishment is finished.

By 11:00 A.M., a large area surrounding the garden was completely sealed off by the police. Witnesses described on Facebook that they were asked to provide identification and not allowed to enter.

Face-bookers continued to report the demolishment and the dispute between the local police and the residents with updates and even live-stream videos .

Aerial view of Loc Hung. Sources: Facebook Nguyen Dat An. According to the residents, Loc Hung is a piece of land estimated to be in between four and six hectares, belongs to the Catholics Church of Vietnam since 1954 with proper documentation, including deeds and other recordings from the former South of Vietnam’s regime. Also, starting from 1954, there were Catholics who migrated from the North of Vietnam to the South after the Geneva Accord took effect that settled in the area. This community has been living in Loc Hung continuously for generations.

In 1993, the residents were trying to register for their right to possess and use the land with the local government (in Vietnam, individual citizens do not own their land as all lands belong to “the people” and under the state’s management, but they can register for the right to possess and usage). The residents alleged that the government intentionally ignored their petitions to record land right’s usage.

Unable to register their land, the people could not construct and develop the area, and instead, relied on vegetable farming to make a living. Their peaceful existence became the thorn in the eyes of the local authorities as the price for the land continued to increase.

Nevertheless, to this day, Loc Hung garden has never been part of any development project, and it is also the most cogent argument the residents and their supporters have against the local government, that there is no imminent reason for the forced eviction and the destruction of hundreds of houses.

By 6:00 P.M. it was reported that at least four people were arrested and some houses have been torn down. The residents strongly opposed the eviction and protested. One person even lay down in front of a bulldozer to protest.

A man lay down in protest. Source: Amen TV As of press time, there were a total of at least ten people arrested and ten houses destroyed.

The forced eviction came during the time Vietnamese people starting to get ready for the Lunar New Year which will be on February 5, 2019. Seeing hundreds of people become homeless from a land dispute in the middle of the largest urban city in the country has angered many users on Facebook. Information continued to be shared throughout the day, despite the new cybersecurity law went into effect on January 1.

Land disputes and land-grabbing have always been among the most severe issues which test the government’s ability to govern since Vietnam embarked on the economic reform in the late 1980s.

The government of Ho Chi Minh City is already in the middle of a heated controversy regarding land-grabbing and development started from the 1990s in the Thu Thiem peninsula. Forced eviction and ill-planning relocation plans of people living in the development area have dragged the government’s ambitious dream for Thu Thiem through the mud for over 20 years.

Adding Loc Hung – and close to one hundred people living there – to the mix, raises even more concerns about Vietnam’s failure to handle development projects according to the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The Vietnamese communist government has been trying to demonstrate their ability to promote the 16 SDG’s goals with their development projects, especially during their negotiation with the EU for the EU-VN Free Trade Agreement. However, the reality of land-grabbing and forced eviction happening in the country throughout the past few decades cast severe doubts on the government’s claim.