With reporting from Kiên Trịnh.
All the news circulating about Đồng Tâm has been difficult to understand. There has been little to no information released, and on top of that, the government has barred all independent media from entering the area, leaving state media and social media as the main sources of information. The Loa team got together to make sense of what went down. Here's what we have:
1. A deadly clash broke out after riot police and armed forces raid Đồng Tâm commune
Loudspeakers blared in the middle of the night, warning “retaliating forces” not to “go over the limit with their actions” as 5,000 police and armed forces stormed the village of Hoành in Đồng Tâm commune.
Their first stop was the home of Lê Đình Kình, referred to as cụ Kình in his community, a respected 84 year old village member who long led a local protest movement against corruption. They shot through his home and killed him with one shot to the head, and two shots to the body.
Source: Twitter @AnhChiVN
2. Đồng Tâm had been friendly with officials until land seizures starting in 2017
Things weren’t always tense between the government and the people of Đồng Tâm, but tensions began rising over the construction of a military airport in 2017, a move by Viettel, a military-owned telecom company. Even during this contentious time, locals of Đồng Tâm still continued to show support for the government. A photo featured on BBC Vietnamese shows signage created by the community that read, “The people of Dong Tam completely trust and believe in the Party vision.” In fact, cụ Kình, the elder who was killed by the police after his home was raided, was a Communist Party member for more than 50 years, and also served as the head of the Village’s police force.
However, in April 2017, the relationship changed when local authorities started to section off 59 hectares of disputed land for the Viettel project. In a confrontation, the police attacked and broke cụ Kình’s leg which resulted in local residents converging and holding 38 officials and police officers hostage for a week.
The chairman of the People’s Committee of Hà Nội, Nguyễn Đức Chung met with local residents to promise no reprisals and to resolve the land dispute peacefully.
However, in December 2019, Chung issued an order further pressuring the people of Đồng Tâm to relinquish their land.
This leads to fact number...
3. Village leaders released a call to action weeks before the raid
Residents of Đồng Tâm organized a town hall in late December 2019 and accused Nguyễn Đức Chung of dishonesty and corruption. During the town hall, cụ Kình spoke on Chung’s corruption, and declared that the people would stand their ground and protect their land.
“I’d like to inform everyone: Nguyễn Đức Chung is two-faced, a person who distorts the truth, and because of this we the people of the Đồng Tâm commune must be strong and determined. Even if Nguyễn Đức Chung is lying, the people must still consider the land of Sênh to be the agricultural land of the region, and we must protect it to the end. Anyone who purposely threatens or violates this -- any dishonest people who comes to steal this land, we must be determined to fight, even if we bleed, we will be ready. Though 59 acres of land is not a lot, but the integrity, the honor of our Dong Tam people as a heroic community is much larger than the land.”
Lề Đình Kình was deeply respected by the members of the community. After he was killed and his body was returned to the commune, hundreds of people gathered to grieve the sutured body.
4. Villagers used livestreams and social media updates to call for public attention
In a video released at 3 am on the night of the clash, three village leaders, including Lê Đình Công, the son of Lê Đình Kình, helped paint a picture of what was happening. In it, they called for the attention and support of the Vietnamese people.
Screenshot from video courtesy of FB Nguyen Anh Tuan
“The Hà Nội government has sent in so many troops, police forces, vehicles carrying barbed wire and fencing to Ba Thạ, which is 3 kilometers from Đồng Tâm. It is 3am here...we want to let everyone in the country know to be ready to fight against invaders -- the invaders have repeatedly attempted to seize our land and failed, but now they have deliberately sent troops in to oppress us and rob our land. We hope that the people of our country are watching, are concerned, and will support us.”
Công was arrested on the charge of murder along with 19 others.
5. Three officers and two civilians dead, and a media blackout
Authorities shut off the internet and phone connections in Đồng Tâm and blocked roads leading to the village to create a media blackout surrounding the event, causing most information to remain unverified throughout the clash. Despite several recounts, information as to how three officers were killed during the raids has not been confirmed. Radio Free Asia reported that Youtube issued a strike against its channel regarding a webcast that included news about Đồng Tâm for unspecified violations of their community guidelines.
State media outlet Hanoi Mới quoted a Ministry of Information official stating that Google and Facebook were responsive in government requests to take down content deemed as “fake or inciteful” over the past two weeks. The three Vietnamese policemen who died have been buried with honors in Hà Nội. The government blamed the officers' deaths on "rioters."
In the end, outlets across the board have extremely restricted access to what happened in Đồng Tâm, leaving more questions than answers.
Reporting with Kiên Trịnh, I'm Chris Lê, this is Loa.