Vietnam's troubled Thai Binh province still tense

By Andy Soloman
QUYNH HOA, Vietnam, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Calm has returned to a troubled northern province in Vietnam but local officials remained tense as rural communities struggled with widespread corruption and personal tragedies.

Officially opened to the foreign media for the first time on Thursday, Quynh Hoa commune in Thai Binh province crawled with security personnel as the fullest account to date on serious unrest in the area emerged.

Nguyen Thi Teo, 66, broke down with grief as she told how her son 42-year-old Dao Van Phong, was being detained in the provincial capital after he joined the fight against corruption and was allegedly involved in taking four policemen hostage in November.

``I don't know why my son was arrested. He did not destroy anything, did not beat anyone, he just joined the struggle against corruption,'' she said, crying for help from the spirit of her late husband who died in the Vietnam War.

``I don't know what kind of crime my son committed. I propose that the party and the state grant him amnesty. I'm old and very weak, I don't know who can help me now,'' she added.

One local trader said late on Wednesday that calm had returned to the area but people still sought justice over corruption among local officials, even though some had been punished or sacked.

Quynh Hoa, while at the centre of unrest in Thai Binh province, was just one of a number of communes where local people demonstrated and clashed with authorities over corruption.

The unrest in Thai Binh, which lies just 80 km (50 miles) southeast of the Vietnam capital Hanoi, began in March and April last year.

It went unmentioned in the domestic media until September, by which time the issue had become politically charged because the ruling Communist Party was grappling with how to respond in a region traditionally seen as the seat of Vietnam's revolution.

Foreign journalists are still barred from visiting other regions of the country where unrest has been reported.

Teo said that on November 12 last year she was cooking rice in the kitchen when a large group of strangers holding three captured policemen forced their way into her simply furnished three-room house.

The police, who were later joined by a fourth captive, were held in Teo's house for five days.

At the same time about 17 police were also held in the local kindergarten.

Teo said scores of people were involved and the siege only ended after dozens of police were mobilised to confront the hostage takers, a claim local officials denied.

Phan Nguyen Duyen, newly appointed secretary of Quynh Hoa's communist party unit, said the crisis ended voluntarily.

He said that after the troubles last year more than 10 ``extremists'' had been detained and at least 20 out of a total of 37 local officials, including Duyen's predecessor and the head of the people's committee, had been disciplined for corrupt practices.

``We can lead people in the fight against foreign invaders but we have made some mistakes in economic management,'' Duyen said, adding that officials were determined to correct the mistakes.

Speaking from the shadow of a large bust of former revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh in a basic ramshackle room, Duyen gave reporters an official account of last year's unrest.

He blamed the troubles on a small number of agitators who exploited local residents' genuine concerns over embezzlement to destabilise the situation.

He said the extremists had prevented people from going about their day-to-day activities, and there had been more than one instance of people being taken captive.

``They even stopped the market, and they stopped travel along the river and roads, and others took cadres hostage,'' Duyen said.

``Among the cadres taken hostage were (two) women who were prevented from bathing or even eating.''

``Their activities disturbed the peace in the commune, destroyed official assets and damaged the commune in general,'' he added.