Vietnamese Villagers Release 15 Police Hostages

Vietnamese Police said on Tuesday the villagers outside Hanoi had released almost half of the police officers they were holding hostage in a land dispute.

Hanoi’s Deputy Chief of Police, Bach Thanh Dinh, told a news briefing that 15 officers were released by the villagers, another 20 were still being held and three others escaped.

Villagers in the Hanoi suburb of My Duc are demanding that Hanoi’s chairman considered their grievances in what they said was an unlawful seizure of their land.

Four villagers detained in the dispute were released on Monday.

Report says disputes over land are common in Vietnam, where the ruling Communist party considers all land to be the property of the state.

People pay for usage rights, but activists complain that the government favours wealthy developers over small-scale farmers.

The arrest on Saturday of Le Dinh Kinh, an 83-year-old community leader, has been particularly aggravating for the hostage takers.

“Authorities have made video clips labeling him as bad person but even the kids in this village know he is good,” villager Nguyen Luong Bang told newsmen.

Nguyen Van Luan, a lawyer representing the villagers, said Kinh was in hospital with a broken femur, an injury that had occurred during his arrest.