Vietnam: Communist Party Addresses Land Law
By UCA News
Communist Party leaders yesterday discussed amendments to the Constitution and reforms to the land law during the fifth plenary session of the 200-member Central Committee in Hanoi.
“The meeting will summarize the implementation of the 1992 constitution and discuss basic amendments and supplements to it,” party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said during his opening remarks.
“Amendments should only be made on issues which are of great importance to society and enjoy high consensus,” Trong said.
Regarding reforms in the land law, the party leader said that land belongs to the people and the state acts on behalf of the people to own and manage it.
Trong asked the meeting to discuss the land law and policies in ways to “ensure harmony among the interests of the state, people and investors,” and to maintain political stability and social order.
“This is a very big and complex issue with diverse points of view,” Trong said. “It’s important to point out what aspects of land use law have been institutionalized, what is good and what is not good, and what changes should be made.”
Trong asked the committee to seek answers to why nearly 70 percent of citizen complaints and denunciations in the country related to land issues.
The discussions come in the wake of several violent land disputes in recent months.
On April 14, Father Joseph Nguyen Van Binh was beaten unconscious by a mob in an alleged dispute over land on which he had built a home for orphans.
Peter Doan Van Vuon, a farmer from Tien Lang district in Haiphong City, was arrested in February following a violent confrontation with police and soldiers attempting to remove him from land he claimed to own.
