Hanoi (AsiaNews/Agencies) – In the name of "public interest" and urban development, government officials in Vietnam are seizing peasants' land in return for ridiculous compensation sums. The practice is serving to fuel corruption and speculation in the construction sector. For experts, subsequent popular unrest is a symptom of social discontent, just like what is happening in China.

In June, residents of Khuat Duy Tien Street in the suburbs of Thanh Xuan held a sit in to protest an order from the authorities to demolish their homes to built the new "Road-Belt N° 3". Despite a ban on public gatherings, on 19 July, hundreds protested in front of the People's Council of Hanoi, asking for rapid payment of compensation. 

The deputy chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee, Le Quy Don, had previously promised that that the land would be classified as "residential" – this means 13 million dong (820 US dollars per square metre – and paid for accordingly. But the authorities now want to consider the land as "farmland" hence it is valued at 225,000 dong (14 dollars) per sq m of farm land.  In the past 10 years, hundreds of homes have been built on these lands.

Pham Thanh Xuan, a local official, said the blueprint for the planned road already existed in 1981 and the homes had been built after that date. The people have countered this by saying the project was kept a "secret" and their status of residents has been officially recognised by several public deeds.

In large cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, land seizure with the stated aim of implementing works "of public interest" is widespread and is fuelling growing mass protests. Many experts discern the emergence of a social problem similar to what is happening in China, where more than 80,000 protests and social uprisings take place each year, often sparked by seizures of homes in cities and rural land.

In April, thousands of people living in the three southern provinces of Can Tho, An Giang and Kien Giang sent an open letter to the government and the Party, accusing local authorities of illegally depriving them of their land. At the beginning of 2006, several public officials from Phu Quoc, a rapidly developing tourist island, were arrested for fraudulently obtaining a large piece of land in front of the beach and selling it to speculators. In August, the legislative assembly session of Ho Chi Minh City tackled the problem and many deputies criticized complicated land regulations, saying they provided "fertile soil" for corrupt officials. According to Trinh Xuan Thu, deputy director of the security department, some 1,300 state officials have been arrested over the past five years for illegal land scams. The practice is so widespread that people working in this sector describe the property market as one of the "least transparent in the world".