BBC Learning English
Words in the News
Vietnam Land Repossessions
24th January 2012
Words in the News
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2012
Page 1 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com
The use of land is one of the most contentious issues in Vietnam, where all land belongs
to the state and private ownership is not allowed. Hundreds of public protests happen
each year, mostly over land clearance and compensation. A violent clash between local
authorities and a farmer family earlier this month has once again brought up the need to
reform the land policy. The BBC's Nga Pham reports:
It was like a scene from an action movie. More than one hundred police officers with
firearms and sniffer dogs took part in a four-hour stand-off with villagers armed with
homemade bombs and shotguns. The result - six officers injured and four farmers
arrested on attempted murder charges. This was a case of a land eviction that went
horribly wrong.
The lease on the farmer's land was coming to an end, and the local government wanted
it back. But Doan Van Vuon's family refused to leave, saying that they had to borrow
money and work hard for twenty years to develop the farm and are yet to receive any
income from it.
According to Vietnam's Land Law, individuals are given the right to work any piece of
land for 20 years. After that, the local government decides whether their lease will be
extended or the land given to someone else.
This, some say, gives officials at the district level too much power in deciding people's
livelihoods and creates a fertile environment for corruption. There are calls to
privatise farmland in order to manage it better and more fairly.
To do so, the constitution which says that all land belongs to the state, needs to be
changed. Top communist party leaders are reluctant to discuss this as they consider it
anti-socialist. But without a solution, the land problem will continue ticking away,
possibly with more violent confrontations in the future.
BBC reporter, Nga Pham
