News from Hoanh village, Dong Tam village, said that on January 25 (the 15th day of the 15th lunar month), relatives and family of Mr. Le Dinh Kinh held a simple death anniversary ceremony like every year.
So, four years have passed since the early morning of January 9, 2020, when thousands of riot policemen of the Ministry of Public Security attacked Hoanh village and shot elderly Le Dinh Kinh – spiritual leader of the people of Dong Tam commune- to death.
This attack by about 3,000 police on Hoanh village was related to a land dispute. This is a dispute between villagers and the government, which should have been resolved according to the Civil Law. But the Vietnamese government and the Ministry of Public Security have advocated using violence to solve the problem. As a result, the attack killed Le Dinh Kinh and three police officers were reportedly killed also.
Le Dinh Kinh, a veteran, then 84 years old and 58 years of the communist party membership, was shot dead by his own comrades in his bedroom, with a bullet through the heart. In addition, his descendants and dozens of Dong Tam people were arrested and prosecuted for the crimes of “murder,” “illegal possession and use of weapons,” and “resisting people on duty.”
Not stopping there, the authorities also had Kinh’s body dissected, as seen in clips and pictures shared by the family when receiving his body.
In the “Criminal Denunciation” sent to the People’s Procuracy and the Hanoi Police Investigation Agency, related to Mr. Le Dinh Kinh being shot and killed in Dong Tam on January 9, 2020, of the people – including famous intellectuals of Vietnam, said: “Mr. Kinh was shot from close range in the heart, in the head, his knee was dislocated and died, and his body was dissected and given back to his family for burial.”
Domestic and international public opinion assesses that this is the incident that has caused the most serious crisis in the relationship between the government and the people ever. Even the Dong Tam incident was much more serious than the uprising of tens of thousands of farmers in Thai Binh province who stood up against corruption in 1997. Because in the Thai Binh incident, no one died.
By the time the above incident ended, public opinion and critical intellectuals felt that the Politburo of the Communist Party and the National Assembly of Vietnam needed an urgent meeting, as well as the need to open a separate and independent investigation committee to clarify who made the decision to carry out the attack in Dong Tam commune, in the early morning of January 9, 2020.
On the open encyclopedia page Wikipedia, the section about “Land dispute in Dong Tam”, quotes Associate Professor, Dr. Hoang Ngoc Giao, Director of the Institute of Policy, Law and Development Studies, under The Vietnam Union of Science & Technology Associations (Vusta) told BBC News Vietnamese from Hanoi, January 11, 2020:
“A certain interest group is sabotaging this country and is sabotaging this regime by ordering the use of force to oppress the people. In my opinion, it is such a problem and the way out is here, I note that the Politburo needs to meet urgently.”
Furthermore, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA), something that is considered quite surprising has been revealed, which is Plan 419A. It is known that this is a plan by the City Police, drafted by Hanoi and approved by the Ministry of Public Security, this is evidence that the Vietnamese government has given the “green light” to allow the police force to mobilize thousands of police to surround and attack Hoanh village, Dong Tam commune, in the early morning of January 9, 2020.
But up to now, Plan 419A is still a secret. Legal experts feel that it is necessary to clarify whether the armed forces of the Ministry of Public Security’s attack on Dong Tam commune exceeded the functions, tasks, and public duties of the police or not?
If the 419A Plan is illegal, then the people responsible, the people who created that plan, must be held accountable before the law.
Lawyer Dao Tang Duc from Australia, in the article “Dong Tam case and crimes against humanity” assessed that “Dong Tam meets all the elements for criminal elements, from police officers to involving top members such as Minister of Public Security To Lam, and even General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong, should be prosecuted for the most heinous crime in human history: It is the crime evil against humanity.”
As a reminder, at the time of the incident, Human Rights Watch International issued a statement, calling on the Vietnamese government to open a public and objective investigation into the forced bloodshed in Dong Tam. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper, January 15, 2020, in its news article, called the event in Dong Tam as “Dong Tam Massacre.”
Vietnamese people have a saying, “Heaven has eyes”, referring to a philosophy, an eternal belief: “Humans, those who are merciful and charitable will be blessed by God, and those who are evil will be punished by God.” Those who committed crimes in Dong Tam yesterday, wait for “retribution” to come in the near future./.
Tra My – Thoibao.de
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Four years after the “Dong Tam Massacre”: To Lam’s crimes against humanity still not punished
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper, January 15, 2020, in its news article, called the event in Dong Tam as “Dong Tam Massacre.”
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