Vietnam province still tense - provincial party chief

HANOI, June 20, 1998 (Reuters) - The Communist Party chief in a troubled northern province in Vietnam has said the sitation in some areas remains tense, more than a year after serious social unrest first appeared.

Pham Van Tho, communist party secretary in Thai Binh province, said in unusually frank comments that people from most of the province's 285 communes and wards had lodged complaints over official corruption and other related issues over the last 16 months.

``From the beginning of 1997 until now people from 251 out of 285 communes in the province have lodged their complaints and denouncements,'' Tho said.

``The content of the complaints from 207 communes was complicated and the situation in 30 communes is still tense,'' he added. He gave no further details.

Tho's comments were made in a speech to the Thai Binh Farmer's Association and reprinted in the official Thai Binh provincial newspaper seen by Reuters on Saturday.

The unrest in Thai Binh, which lies just 80 km (50 miles) southeast of Hanoi, began last March.

Demonstrators converged on the provincial capital and in one case around 20 policemen were held hostage for five days in Quynh Hoa commune.

Tho said negative impacts from the new market economy together with unrealistic demands for contributions from poor local people for infrastructure development had provided the spark for the troubles.

``Loose financial management, shortcomings in implementing social policy and inappropriate attention paid to the task of building party cells led to red tape and a lack of democracy among officials and party members who held power.

``This caused discontent and people complained. Those complaints were basically right and required the party to seriously admit and correct (mistakes),'' Tho said.

Tho outlined a rash of serious disturbances that have occured in his province.

``It was very serious. ...In some places local cadres were beaten, robbed and had their houses burned down, offices of some commune people's committees were vandalized.

``That made the political security, social order and safety become very complicated and caused bad impressions and slow economic development,'' he said.

A commune in Vietnam is an administrative area that combines a collection of villages.

A foreign engineer working on a Japanese government-sponsored bridge project in Thai Binh said his contractors were nervous after local people attacked the bridge under a hail of rocks and stones earlier this month -- a claim that was denied by local officials.

Serious unrest in various rural areas last year, mainly triggered by anger over corruption and local abuses of power, unsettled Vietnam's collective communist leadership.

Aside from one trip organised by the foreign ministry in February, foreign correspondents in Vietnam have been barred from visiting Thai Binh or any other troubled areas, and there has been only scant mention of unrest in the country's official press.

In late May, the communist party daily Nhan Dan (People), reported that authorities in Ha Nam province close to Hanoi had been told to immediately deal with complaints made by local peasants.

This followed soon after protests by farmers against corruption in Nam Dinh, another northern province.