Vietnamese mother and daughter protest nude against forced land.
The latest attempt of protest against forced land seizure, mother and daughter protested naked; however, the security force removed them from the scene. The husband had exhausted all legal courses, and attempted to commit suicide, but he was saved on time.
Vietnam Authorities in Cai Rang District in Can Tho City are handling a case in which a woman and her daughter got naked to prevent a contracting company from doing its work at a construction site for a residential project.
Vietnamese woman full frontal naked protest
On May 22, Pham Thi Lai, 52, and her 33-year-old daughter, Ho Nguyen Thuy, stripped off all their clothing in a move to prevent Construction Joint Stock Company No. 8. from doing its work at the construction site for the Hung Phu Residential Project in Hung Thanh Commune.
A part of the site was once the land owned by the women’s family.
In response, a group of security guards of the company seized the two women and then dragged them out of the scene. The case was reported to the authorities of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.
Mr. Nguyen Huu Loi, Vice Party Secretary of Can Tho said on May 28 that the city would solve the case properly. The construction company was also criticized for their rough behavior against Ms. Lai and her daughter.
The women’s act stemmed from their family’s discontent with the compensation given to them by the authorities that had reclaimed their land for the sake of the project, under the land withdrawal decisions by the Can Tho City People’s Committee.
In 2003, the city authorities announced a compensation plan for households affected by the project. Two years later, Ho Van Tu, 58, Lai’s husband, was compensated VND300 million (US$14,400) for his 3,000 square meters of land, but he did not agree to the compensation.
In 2010, the sum was increased to VND1.2 billion ($60,000), but Tu’s family still did not accept it.
Tu lodged complaints with many agencies, demanding that the authorities give his family 100 square meters of resettlement land for every 1,000 square meters of land reclaimed.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment rejected Tu’s claim. The Prime Minister also directed the city authorities to carry out compensation according to its plan.
Tu, however, returned to his reclaimed land and set up a makeshift shelter for his family to stay in. In December 2011, the authorities forcibly evicted Tu’s family, to which Tu responded by attempting to commit suicide by drinking pesticide, but he was saved.
Last Tuesday, when construction workers entered the site, they were resisted by Tu’s wife and daughter, who removed their clothes in protest.
Mai Hong Chau, chairman of the district People’s Committee, said he has sent a working team to the commune to work with the company.
The team criticized the company’s guards for dragging the two women across the ground and asked the company to submit a report about the incident to the authorities for resolution.
Chau said he would convene a meeting with relevant parties to handle the incident soon.
