In a society where state officials “eat everything from the people” as former Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan once declared, the news “A commune official in Hai Duong was probed for appropriating money to worship martyrs” as published in Dan Tri newspaper on September 24, is not surprising.
Dan Tri newspaper said “Thanh Mien district police (Hai Duong) have just probed the case, probing the defendant Truong Van Dat, a civil servant of Lam Son commune, for property embezzlement.” Accordingly, Truong Van Dat received more than VND186 million in allowance for martyrs’ worship, but Dat appropriated more than VND172 million.
“According to regulations, people who worship martyrs receive support of VND1.4 million/year/martyr. The above amount of VND186 million will be allocated to those who are worshiping 133 martyrs of Lam Son commune according to regulations. Receiving the money, Dat did not distribute all of it, but only paid 10 people with an amount of VND14 million. Due to debt and difficulties, Dat came up with the intention to appropriate the remaining money by forging the handwriting and signatures of 118 people worshiping 123 martyrs and preparing settlement documents to submit to the district’s management agency. Thanh Mien, to appropriate a total amount of more than VND172 million.”
On social networks, opinions have been widely shared expressing frustration at this case. There are many opinions that even the offerings of martyrs and officials are not spared. Even more ironic, some people still grumbled, “If they even steal offerings from the dead, then there’s nothing left to say, the officials’ ethics have reached the bottom.” Some people even say that, before breeding cows in Dak Lak, they still eat them, so there’s no need to make a fuss about “stealing the rice offerings” of martyrs.
The story of “stealing rice offerings” of the martyr just told makes people think of the story “Even coming to martyrs’ graves to get money” which happened in Bac Kan before. Voice of Vietnam Radio said on December 3, 2019:
“The Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Bac Kan province has excavated 13 martyrs’ graves, in the presence of relatives who were invited to take samples for comparison and DNA assessment, according to the request of the deceased. home. As a result, the local People’s Committee confirmed that 13 martyrs’ graves in Bac Kan had no remains, no clay pots, which are mandatory burial items, but only nylon bags containing soil and stones.”
“These are 13 martyrs, also known as youth volunteers, who died while performing their duties in the dam collapse accident at Tan Minh Lake, Thanh Van commune, Cho Moi, Bac Kan province in 1968. Finally, after 3 rounds of gathering but unable to determine their identities, the remains of those 13 young volunteer soldiers were finally brought back to be buried at the Martyrs Cemetery of Bac Kan province.
This is shocking information, not only for their families but also for many Vietnamese people at home and abroad. Veterans from Vietnam explained to Thoibao.de on condition of anonymity that the relatives of martyrs requested a DNA examination to determine whether they were the bones of their relatives, not the bones of their relatives must be someone else. Because in war, as well as in gathering remains, confusion is understandable. But it’s clear that there are no remains so they keep building fake graves to get funding, which is definitely negative and self-serving, for no other reason.
That is the reason why public opinion is suspicious that, in places where martyrs are buried or reburied in localities across the country, stories similar to the story of 13 graves without remains in Bac Kan, are a common situation.
According to public opinion, responsibility may belong to the Social Invalids, or the Policy Department, or the Policy Department of the Ministry of National Defense. In fact, this cheating is systematic. Because fraud happened right from the beginning, from the stage of making martyrs’ records, even though there were no remains. If we check the total nationwide, there are still a lot. The responsible officials know there are no remains, but still make a list to get money, also known as a fake project, taking money from the budget to divide and pocket.
Currently, officials and party members in the state apparatus are omnivores, not ignoring anything. They couldn’t find the remains of the martyrs, but they still reported that they had found them. Letting people “eat” the graves of fake martyrs is an extremely unconscionable thing.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
