May 22, 1998

FREE VIETNAM ALLIANCE

PRESS RELEASE

PEASANTS' PROTEST IN NAM DINH

Years of tension between peasants and local authorities in Nam Dinh province has shown its first sign of eruption in the early morning of Friday, May 08, 1998 when more than 500 peasants surrounded the Office of the Province People's Committee (provincial administrative authorities) at 4 Mac Thi Buoi Street to protest the heavy and arbitrary taxation and related corruption by the officials.

Nam Dinh, the cradle of one of the most successful dynasties - the Tran's - in Vietnamese history, is on the southwest side of Thai Binh province, where organized protests by thousands of peasants last year and the government subsequent suppression remain a reference point in the foreign press and a topic of internal political training for the Vietnamese Communist Party cadres. Nam Dinh has a long tradition of quality fabrics making and is the home of Vietnam's largest textile factories. The bankruptcy and the following trials of the corruptive managers of the Nam Dinh Textile Plant last year have deeply affected the province's economy.

According to the eyewitness' account, the majority of the protesters on May 08 came from the greater area of My Phu ward, My Loc district on the south side of the Hong river. For years, farmers in this area have resented the heavy central-government taxes and the arbitrarily-issued auxiliary taxes and fees by local authorities. These burdens are particularly pressing when the 1997 average income of each peasant family is 100,000 dong (about US $8) per month. The auxiliary taxes and fees were collected nominally to build more public "electric generators, roads, schools, and train stations". These projects, however, were rarely finished or even started while the army of "Dreams-riding officials" multiplies. (Dream is the brand name of a Honda motorcycle model considered an item of high luxury in this area). In the last several years, after each round of peasants' collective petition and Provincial People's Committee's promise to investigate, both the types and the amounts of auxiliary taxes, once again, increased.

News of the tension in Nam Dinh has reached the top leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party. In April 1998, the Party sent its former Secretary General Do Muoi to both Nam Dinh and Ninh Binh provinces to check on the situation.

According to the latest information, the protest has now spread to the surrounding districts of Y Yen, Vu Ban, Nam Truc, and Bui Chu.

May 22, 1998
The Free Vietnam Alliance

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|   \    / /\    /                                                       |
|    \  / /  \  /  The Free Vietnam Alliance (Lien Minh Viet Nam Tu Do)  |
|     \/ /    \/   Email: vndemo@fva.org - Web: http://www.fva.org/      |
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