Forwarded message:
Subj:    "THAI BINH" VIETNAM, "BERLIN WALL" OF ASIA?
Date:    97-08-26 15:57:34 EDT
From:    LyTBinh@aol.com
To:      letters@sjmercury.com

To:  Editor of the San Jose Mercury News

c/c ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and other world press organizations.

Although the San Jose Mercury News had published an article restating
what
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam News Agency admitted about some
violent
uprisings in Thai Binh Province, the truth of the matter is that there
was no
foreign journalist allowed to actually report this histotical event.  

One can not imagine what really went on as thousands of farmers got
together
and protested against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's government
using
whatever means they can without resorting to guns and bullets to fight
for
their citizen rights and their god's given rights as human beings.   

Reports from Hanoi News Agency saying that tax and corruption were the
causes
of these riots.  Not that Hanoi News Agency would lie (after all, Hanoi
News
Agency is the only news agency "legally permitted" to do the
journalistic
reporting); but, it's hard to believe that those poor farmers would be
so
interested in fiscal and social policies of their government that they
had to
burn down the homes of local officials and chased them out of the
village
just to make their points of grievance.

Since May 1997, the uprising continues.  This uprising has spanned a
much
longer time frame than the Tiennamen Square's protest not too long ago.  

No.  Thai Binh is not in the center of Hanoi as Tiennamen Square is in
the
center of Beijing.  Nor is the uprising of Thai Binh carried out by
highly
educated college students as in Beijing.   Thai Binh's uprising is
spontaneously erupted by the poorest of the poor farmers of Northern
Vietnam
who live the province of Thai Binh, a village located not so far from
Nghe
An, another farming village where Ho Chi Minh, one of the founders of
the
Communist International Party (COMINTERN) who claimed to liberate
Vietnam
from the French after Dien Bien Phu and from the Imperialistic American
after
the 10,000 days war, came from.

Can Hanoi's Politburo and Police force keep these farmers from uprising
again? Will the Socialist Republic of Vietnam issue some new pacifying
policies and incentives to "calm down" these uprisings?  It appears that
both
of these measures are contemplated and quickly dispatched by Hanoi to
keep
this implosive event from becoming "explosive".  

Sure, Hanoi jailed hundreds of "trouble makers" and punished a few
"lower
officials".  And that seems to be the end of Hanoi News Agency's
story.   A
carrot and big "stick" would do the job, thought Hanoi's Politburos,
perhaps,
as Hanoi frantically contained this rapid "downfall" of their local
government.

But, will families and comrades of those hunderds being jailed accept
that
their protest were nothing but an act of "trouble making"? Or will they
rise
up again, just like their ancestors have done for thousands of years in
defying foreign aggressions against their home land, their farm land? 

What foreign aggression one might ask in this quiet rural village of
Thai
Binh?  The answer is evidently and symbolically displayed at the site of
the
massive white tomb of Ho Chi Minh, built by the former Soviet Union's
architects and constructed to resemble Stalin and Lenin's resting
places,
purposefully blocking the view of the traditional Vietnamese "Chua Mot
Cot"
("One Pillar Temple") which was built around one thousand years ago and
is
recognized as one of the most important cultural sites of Vietnamese
history.
 

Foreign aggressions continue to rule the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
in the
form of the seeds of Stalinism, Lenism, and Maoism as embraced by Ho Chi
Minh
and never let go off even after the country was no longer at war after
April
30, 1975.

Will the world's communities and world's "free" press accept that Thai
Binh's
uprising is nothing but another "trouble making" effort by a few
thousands
rural residents and totally be happy with Hanoi's propagandas thus
continue
to ignore the sound of this crumbling "Berlin Wall" of Asia?

Let's hope not!

Poet Nguyen Chi Thien wrote:  

"Dang tat tho thi doi moi tho.  
Dang con kia bat Pho cung thanh mo."

Temporarily translated:  
"When The (Communist) Party stops breathing, life
will breathe again.  

When The Party is around, even "Pho" (a bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup)
is
nothing but a vanishing dream."

Perhaps, it is time the world will hear the sound of "Pho" being slurped
up
by ALL Vietnamese who live in Vietnam and who have been temporarily
transplanted overseas since 1975, in total relief of joy and happiness,
without the Vietnam Communist Party choking and strangling on the necks
of
these poor rice farmers in Thai Binh.


Ly Thanh Binh
A freedom fighter who believes in "ballots" not "bullets" for Vietnam
Vietnam Freedom Party (VFP) inside Vietnam in "opposition" with the
Vietnam
Communist Party (VCP)
http://home.navisoft.com/vfp/


REFERENCE: EXCERPT OF REUTER NEWS 
 
Hanoi Seeks To Placate Farmers Amid Unrest Worry By Adrian Edwards

HANOI, Aug 8 (Reuter) - Hanoi announced measures on Friday aimed at
encouraging the formation of farmers'
cooperatives and improving rural incomes, as new indications emerged of
trouble in northern areas of the
country stricken by recent unrest. Friday's Communist Party Nhan Dan
newspaper said the Agriculture Ministry
had unveiled what it called ``10 big policies'' aimed at modernising and
industrialising rural Vietnam. 

The measures include increased capital for developing rural
infrastructure, a
land-use licensing system, export
taxes on raw commodities to encourage processing, and reduced taxes for
farmers. They also call for strict
controls on inflation and ``suitable readjustment'' of foreign exchange
rates
to boost the competitiveness of
agricultural products, the newspaper said without elaborating. 

The new measures follow calls by senior politburo officials and advisers
for
a bolstering of the socialist system of rural cooperatives, but they
also
come amid concern over recent unrest in areas of northern Vietnam. A
foreign
ministry spokesman said on Thursday that the authorities in Thai Binh
province, some 80 km (50 miles) southeast of Hanoi, were taking steps to
restore stability there following violent protests since May over
alleged
corruption and tax demands. Tran Quang Hoan said low-level officials in
the
province had been punished, but did not elaborate. 

The troubles in Thai Binh have not been reported in Vietnam's
state-controlled media, and foreign journalists have not been able to
visit.
But in a new development on Friday, a report in the Cong An Nhan Dan
(People's Police)
newspaper indicated problems in at least one other northern region. It
spoke
in vague terms of ``internal
conflicts between individuals'' in nearby Thanh Hoa province and said
police
units sent to the area during the
past seven months had found 67 communes where there were ``internal
contradictions.'' In nearly half of those
``people had questioned'' alleged corruption among officials, or been
involved in land disputes. ``Some cases,
under the responsibility of police were quickly resolved, others were
proposed by police to be resolved at
higher party and government levels in order to stabilise the
situation,'' it
said, adding that the problems were
now resolved. 

Around 80 percent of Vietnam's 77 million people live in rural areas,
which
have been hit hard
this year by falling commodity prices despite bumper harvests of the
staple,
rice. Violent protests are normally
considered rare in Vietnam. Diplomats in Hanoi say the recent troubles
have
presented the country's
communist government with the sensitive question of how to tackle unrest
among a section of society
traditionally considered as a sturdy pillar of its support.
----------------------------------- 

Hanoi Says Tackling Unrest In Northern Province 

HANOI, Aug 7 (Reuter) - Vietnam said on Thursday it was taking steps to
restore stability
in a northern province following months of unrest there and said local
officials were being punished. A foreign
ministry spokesman told journalists at a news briefing that problems in
Thai
Binh province, where thousands of
people have been involved in protests since May, were the fault of
low-level
officials. ``The leaders of the
province have taken some measures to punish cadres at the grass-roots
level,
and measures are taking place
to stabilise the situation,'' the spokesman, Tran Quang Hoan, said. Hoan
gave
few details but said there were
signs that local officials ``had some non-transparent activities for
projects
for rural development.'' News of the
problems in Thai Binh province, some 80 km (50 miles) southeast of
Hanoi,
surfaced in May when several
thousand residents converged on the province capital to protest against
new
tax demands and alleged
corruption. 

Last month new details emerged, indicating the problem had become far
more
serious than earlier
thought. Residents said local officials had been evacuated from the area
after the houses of several of them
were razed to the ground and other officials beaten. They said security
forces had been sent in but had failed to
bring the situation under control until shortly before the July 20
parliamentary elections, when more than 100
alleged troublemakers were rounded up for punishment. 

The current situation in Thai Binh remains unclear and foreign
journalists
and non-government workers have not been able to visit. 

Hoan was asked to confirm reports of similar troubles in three nearby
provinces, Hung Yen, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An, but he declined to
comment.   He
also declined to comment on what form of punishment had been levied on
the
Thai Binh officials, but referred to the decision to take measures
against
them by saying, ``I think this is also the crucial demand from the
populace.'' Violent protests in Vietnam are believed to be rare and are
rarely reported by the state media when they do occur. Diplomats in
Hanoi say
the issue has presented Vietnam's communist government with
the complex and sensitive question of how to tackle serious unrest among
a
rural population traditionally
viewed as a sturdy pillar of support.