CORRESPONDENCE - 85A COMBINED REPORTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN VIETNAM 2012

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VIETNAM 15 A 2009 decree offers compensation, housing, and job training for individuals displaced by development projects. However, there were widespread complaints, including from the National Assembly, that compensation was inadequate or delayed. There were also widespread reports of official corruption and a general lack of transparency in the government's process of confiscating land and moving citizens to make way for infrastructure projects. Some members of ethnic minority groups in the Central and Northwest Highlands continued to complain that they had not received proper compensation for land the government confiscated to develop large- scale, state -owned enterprises. For example, in February Pham Thanh Son self - immolated on the sidewalk outside the Danang City People's Committee building to protest the confiscation of his family's property by local officials and their refusal to hear his appeal. On November 3, 50 to 70 police officers tried to remove an "illegal" sign, posted weeks earlier on the roof of the Thai Ha church in Hanoi, which called on the government to return land the church once owned. Security officials reportedly injured one church member while attempting to crash through the front gate. On December 2, security officials detained 30 parishioners and two clergy members, including the head Thai Ha priest, after 150 -200 parishioners peacefully protested for the land's return. By year's end all detainees were released. In January, upon appeal, the Danang City People's Court commuted the sentences of all the remaining defendants in a land - rights protest that led to police clashes with Roman Catholic parishioners in a funeral procession in Con Dau Village in May 2010 and set them free. Police had arrested six parishioners accused of starting the altercation and damaging a police vehicle. The court initially tried them in October 2010 for public disorder and denied three of them legal representation; four individuals received nine- and 12 -month jail sentences, and the remaining two defendants received suspended sentences. L Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence The law prohibits such actions, but the government did not respect these prohibitions in practice. Household registration and block warden systems existed for the surveillance of all citizens. Authorities focused particular attention on persons suspected of being involved in unauthorized political or religious activities.