Dear Sir/Madam:

It is with grave concerns that I draw your attention to the following:

• On January 9, 2020 a violent clash over a land dispute in Dong Tam commune, Vietnam where excessive military and police force was deployed that killed an 84-year-old civilian and injured several others. The elderly who had been a vocal leader in the
struggle against land confiscation was shot twice in the head and once in the chest while sleeping in his bed. Several other elderly and farmers of the same commune were arrested or assaulted and badly injured. Reportedly there were some 3000 police
heavily armed with tear gas, explosives and live ammunition that launched the attack at approximately 3 a.m. on that day targeting the house of the local elderly leader. His sons were also arrested and his daughter in law and grandchildren were also
hunted down while running away by police sniffer dogs.

• This is the latest bloody conflict of land seizures in Dong Tam commune where tension has been simmering for some three years. Farmers claim that the government seizes 47 hectares (116 acres) of their farmland for the military-run Viettel Group,
which is Vietnam’s largest mobile phone company, without consultation, consent and adequate compensation for the rightful owners.

• While violent land confiscations are not uncommon in Vietnam, this is the first time the authorities claimed there had been 3 policemen killed during the attack against the rightful owners of the lands. Human Rights Watch and other international
human rights organizations have urged the authorities to investigate the killings fairly and to hold accountable those who used violence and whether excessive police force was justified so as not to wrongly accuse and further victimize the victims.

• Similarly, last year, just days before the Vietnamese traditional new year, “Tet”, on January 4 and January 8, the authorities in Ho Chi Minh city also launched an attack against the Loc Hung Vegetable Garden, a settlement area claimed by the
Catholic Church and registered for agricultural use in 1991, 1995, and 2005, and ever since the land had been used by residents for growing vegetables.

• During the two-day operation, some thousand uniformed police and plain clothes forces wearing masks equipped with about 8 bulldozers and earth movers to demolish all the houses in Loc Hung Vegetable Garden, Tan Binh district, without prior warning,
proper notice, or adequate compensation for the residents.

• This forced hundreds of displaced victims who are mostly defectors and people who had escaped the Communist regime in the North in 1954, and former prisoners of conscience, political dissidents and veterans of the former army of South Vietnam out of
their homes.

• Lawyers in the country protested against the local authorities’ abuse of power claiming the state should have issued an order for land appropriation first before any issuance of an eviction order to residents of Loc Hung Vegetable Garden.

Therefore, we earnestly ask [your embassy] [U.N. organization]... to exert diplomatic pressure and

1. Urge the Vietnamese government to end military and police repression and abuse of powers against civilians;

2. Urge the Vietnamese government to recognize the importance of engaging in respectful dialogues and fair negotiations to solve land disputes peacefully rather than resorting to violence.

3. Urge the Vietnamese authorities to investigate with impartiality and transparency and punish all those who are responsible for the human rights violations and the violence in Loc Hung Vegetable Garden and Dong Tam commune so that there is no impunity
for crimes committed by state officials.

4. Urge the Vietnamese authorities to permit access to Dong Tam and Loc Hung survivors by local and foreign journalists, diplomats, UN agency officials and other impartial observers to assess what evolved there and monitor the government’s
investigation of these incidents.

5. Urge the Vietnamese government to recognize unfair and arbitrary land confiscation for economic projects displacing local people is the source of social unrest, public grievance and a violation of civil and human rights.

6. Urge the Vietnamese authorities to adequately compensate thousands of displaced victims from the unlawful attacks in Loc Hung Vegetable Garden Settlement Area as well as in Dong Tam commune so that at least they could afford to bury their dead family
members, find alternative lodgings and rebuild their homes.

*

Danh sách địa chỉ email để gửi:

Đại sứ quán Hoa Kỳ
Email: hanoiac@state.gov

Đại sứ quán Úc
Email: vembassy@webone.com.au

Đại sứ quán New Zealand
Email: nzembassy.hanoi@mft.net.nz

Đại sứ quán Đức
Email: sqvnberlin@t-online.de; vnemb.de@mofa.gov.vn

Đại sứ quán Pháp
Email: ambafrance.hanoi@diplomatie.gouv.fr

Đại sứ quán Anh và Bắc Ai-len
Email: Generalenquiries.vietnam@fco.gov.uk

Đại sứ quán Canada
Email: hanoi@international.gc.ca

Đại sứ quán Thụy Sĩ
Email: hanoi@eda.admin.ch

Đại sứ quán Bỉ
Email: hanoi@diplobel.be

Đại sứ quán Thụy Điển
Email: ambassaden.hanoi@gov.se

Đại sứ quán Hà Lan
Email: han@minbuza.nl

Đại sứ quán Đan Mạch
Email: hanamb@um.dk

Đại sứ quán Na Uy
Email: emb.hanoi@mfa.no

Đại sứ quán Ba Lan
Email: hanoi.amb.sekretariat@msz.gov.pl; vnhanamb@msz.gov.pl

Đại sứ quán Nhật
Email: soumuhan@ha.mofa.go.jp

Liên Minh Châu Âu
Email: delegation-vietnam@eeas.europa.eu

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