Vietnam Plays down Reports of Unrest in South

By Andy Soloman
HANOI, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Vietnam on Thursday blamed "extremists" for violent clashes last week with police in southern Dong Nai province, and denied dozens of women and children had been detained.

The clashes in Long Binh, a suburb of Bien Hoa City about 26 km (16 miles) northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, occurred after authorities moved to evict people living on military land adjacent to an army camp.

"There were no arrests of women or children (but) there were a number of people who used force...and who were detained," Phan Thuy Thanh, director of the foreign ministry's press and information department, said at a press briefing.

She added that nine or 10 people had been arrested and were still being detained for their "provocative, extremist activities" while an investigation was conducted.

Thanh did not say what punishment those arrested faced, whether there were any injuries or where the evicted people were now living.

But an unusually frank report that is due to be published in the official Dong Nai newspaper on Friday said hundreds of people attacked soldiers and police through the night of January 7-8.

Trouble began brewing as early as December 19 when military and local authorities unsuccessfully tried to stop the alleged illegal construction of a house by local resident Nguyen Van Tam.

The authorities gave Tam a final chance on January 6 before moving in the following day to clear the site. Tam and three workers resisted and two of them were arrested.

After the arrests about 60 protesters converged on the military unit office while others ``mobilised hundreds of people to attack officers with sticks and bricks,'' the report said.

It added that trouble continued to flare through the night until early next morning when protesters moved during the rush-hour to block Highway One, the main artery linking Ho Chi Minh City with Hanoi.

Many of the people living in Long Binh were originally migrants who moved south, some as long ago as 1954, from impoverished areas in the Red River Delta surrounding Hanoi.

Some residents claimed to have bought land from officials at the army base, and had been told recently that they would have to leave to make room for the army base's expansion.

The trouble in Long Binh followed serious unrest in the same province only weeks earlier.

Long Binh lies just 20 km (12.5 miles) from Tra Co, where an estimated 3,000 Catholic villagers clashed with police in November over moves by the local authorities to acquire land belonging to the local church.

Rural unrest is considered a major concern for Vietnam's communist leadership. The peasantry, which makes up 80 percent of the country's 78 million people, is traditionally the mainstay of its support.

The troubles in Dong Nai in November drew protests from the Vatican and overseas Vietnamese communities. But they also followed more serious unrest in the northern province of Thai Binh as people protested against corrupt local officials.

Hanoi has responded by despatching top party officials to both areas in an effort to restore calm, and by dismissing a number of local cadres.

Analysts say that while none of the recent incidents have been directed against central government, land ownership disputes and associated allegations of official corruption have emerged as common themes.

Vietnamese authorities have refused permission for foreign correspondents to visit any of the areas affected by unrest.