Need to clarify the responsibility of Vinh Son commune in the case of ancient trees being cut down along Lam river

People's wishes

Nghe An Newspaper received informationA series of ancient trees along the Lam River alluvial plain in Vinh Son commune were illegally exploited., with pictures of trees being cut down and scattered, sent by citizens of Vinh Son commune, and the incident was quickly verified to be real.

To further understand the situation and feelings of local people, Nghe An Newspaper reporters connected some social networking sites of Vinh Son people. There were many issues worth worrying about, but above all was the sadness and regret for the ancient trees that had been cut down.

Because the ancient trees that were cut down were in the green strip running along the Lam River, which had the function of protecting and preventing erosion for the vast fields of rice, vegetables, sugarcane, corn, etc. of the people of Vinh Son commune. And because the ancestors of the people of Vinh Son commune were aware of the value of the green strip, they always protected and preserved it so that many of the trees, hundreds of years old, were attached to the people like flesh and blood, becoming cultural and historical evidence of a land. From sorrow and regret, they hoped that the local Party Committee and government would be truly objective and impartial when taking action.

Connecting with some of them, most of them are elderly, and are veterans. Like veteran, wounded soldier 2/4 Dinh Sy Vinh, residing in Vinh Lac village, who is 67 years old this year. In his anger, Mr. Vinh said: “We are soldiers, always aware of the responsibility of the veterans association to participate in protecting the Party and protecting the government. But before this incident, we are very upset, the people of Vinh Son are very upset. One word cannot fully describe the incident. If you are interested, please go to Vinh Son commune. Because only by going to the scene can we understand why there is such outrage…”.

Then, on the morning of December 23, 2024, we were taken by two veterans Dinh Sy Vinh and Nguyen Dinh Thu (Vinh Lac village) through the vast sugarcane and corn fields to the scene where the natural trees along the Lam River were cut down.

Here, one can fully feel the pain and regret of the people. The Lam River bank through Vinh Son commune is in a state of severe erosion. The green belt and vegetation along the river are at risk of collapsing and continuing to erode in many places. However, a large area of ​​green trees and vegetation has been mercilessly cut down. In the mess, many large tree stumps are oozing sap, leaving the ground bare, with up to a few stumps with a circumference of 2-3 people hugging. Some trees have been cut down, their trunks cut into many pieces and lying around.

Searching the area, veterans Dinh Sy Vinh and Nguyen Dinh Thu also dug up and discovered two more trees with a diameter of about 60cm, cut close to the base, covered with dust and dry branches to hide illegal logging. According to veteran Dinh Sy Vinh, on November 12, 2024, when he discovered illegal logging, he went to the scene with the locals. That day, the locals checked and determined that 33 trees had been cut down and taken away. While there were trees that had fallen, and trees that were on the verge of falling, they were still intact...

Leading us to the landslide site to certify that the trees had fallen and those at risk of falling, Mr. Vinh said sadly: There were 5 trees that had fallen and 7 trees at risk of falling, so we have no opinion on the organization of the auction to collect money for the budget. However, the commune did not detect that the auction winner had deliberately illegally exploited the trees. It was only when they were transported to sell that the people discovered and reported it.

Then, after many days, the People's Council meeting, the veterans' meeting..., people had many opinions. The commune admitted to the people that it was a lack of supervision, and promised to respond by December 20. But until now, there has been no opinion. Our ancestors have protected this forest for hundreds of years. I have lived here for 67 years now, and these trees are already there. The forest is to prevent erosion and protect the fields, so people are very upset, and share the same wish to clarify the violations...

Police involved

Leaving the scene, we had a few minutes to work with the leaders of the Vinh Son Commune Party Committee, including Mr. Phan Ba ​​Trung - Party Committee Secretary; Tran Khac Le - Party Committee official. According to these two officials, the aspirations of the people of Vinh Son Commune are legitimate and they said that the Party Committee Standing Committee had soon assigned the Commune People's Committee the task of clarifying and strictly handling the matter. At the same time, they affirmed that the Commune Party Committee had listened to the Commune People's Committee's report twice, but did not agree with the results and requested to redo it.

To prove this, these two officials showed Document No. 20-TB/DU dated November 27, 2024 announcing the conclusion of the Party Executive Committee Conference of Vinh Son Commune on November 21, 2024. The document stated that due to landslides, some trees had fallen on the alluvial land, and some were about to fall, so on October 7, 2024, Vinh Son Commune agreed to publicly announce throughout the area the organization of an auction of 12 trees, with an initial price of 9 million VND. On the auction day, the price of 9 million VND remained unchanged, the auction winner was a local citizen; the proceeds were paid into the budget. However, this citizen did not comply with the regulations and cut down more than 20 trees.

Regarding this incident, the Vinh Son Commune Party Committee determined that there was public outrage among the people; therefore, the responsibility was assigned to the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee to directly direct the handling of the incident, clarify the relevant subjects for handling according to the provisions of law; the handling results must be reported to the Standing Committee of the Party Committee before December 3, 2024.

Working with the People's Committee of Vinh Son commune afterward, according to the Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune, Mr. Cao Thanh Luong, after the auction, the commune requested the auction winner to exploit the trees within 7 days under the supervision of the commune. However, this person did not comply because his family had swine fever. About 1 month later, he organized to exploit more trees. Mr. Cao Thanh Luong acknowledged that the People's Committee of the commune was at fault for not supervising. However, when the information was obtained, the People's Committee of the commune organized verification and worked with related subjects. But because there was public opinion behind the illegal exploitation of trees related to commune officials, the People's Committee of the commune realized that it needed to clarify; until it was clarified, there would be no conclusion, so it could not be made public to the people...

With verified information, on December 23, 2024, Nghe An Electronic Newspaper reported the incident through a photo report "A series of ancient trees protecting the Lam River bank in Anh Son district were mercilessly cut down". Receiving the reflection of Nghe An Newspaper, Anh Son District People's Committee promptly took action. By Decision No. 3814/QD-UBND dated December 24, 2024 of the Chairman of the District People's Committee, a working group was established to verify the scene and work with Vinh Son Commune People's Committee on the morning of December 24, 2024.

By December 25, 2024, the People's Committee of Anh Son district had Report No. 722/BC-UBND informing the results of receiving, processing, and resolving information from Nghe An Newspaper reflecting "A series of ancient trees protecting the Lam River bank in Anh Son district were mercilessly cut down".

According to Report No. 722/BC-UBND, the working group inspected the scene of the incident and determined that the location was plot 714, map sheet No. 1, lot 4, Block 8, Sub-area 920; riverbank area of ​​hamlet 1, Vinh Son commune, outside the forestry planning. The scene had a total of 41 tree stumps and 1 fallen tree (including species of trees such as coi, lieu bieu, sung, rang); the trees had a trunk diameter of 10 - 75cm. The scene only had branches and top branches that had no value left.

From the inspection of the working group, also on December 24, 2024, the People's Committee of Anh Son district issued Official Dispatch No. 3219/UBND.NN directing specialized departments, the District Police, the Forest Protection Department, and the People's Committee of Vinh Son commune to focus on handling the tree cutting in the alluvial area along the Lam River. In particular, it requires verification and clarification of violations, illegal contents, volume of wood cut down... to handle promptly in accordance with the provisions of law. In addition, inspect and verify the management, protection and use of assets of the People's Committee of Vinh Son commune; review regulations, procedures, auction authority, and asset management in Vinh Son commune to overcome and cancel policies and procedures that have been organized in the liquidation and auction of assets in violation of the law and handle violations (if any) to ensure compliance with the provisions of law; Develop a plan to remedy the consequences (planting trees to compensate) of illegal tree cutting in the alluvial plain along Lam River...

At the same time, the People's Committee of Anh Son district requested the district police to verify and inspect the case to handle it in accordance with the law (if there are signs of violation).

Question of responsibility of Vinh Son commune?

During the meeting with the leaders of Vinh Son commune, we were shown a number of related documents, in which we especially noted the Minutes of the inspection of the site of the felled trees carried out on November 20, 2024.

The minutes show that the working group of Vinh Son Commune People's Committee determined that 20 trees were exploited in excess of the number of trees auctioned. Of these, 6 trees had a base circumference of 1.2 - 2.4m, the remaining 14 trees had a base circumference of 0.4 - 0.60m. The trunk length of these 20 trees could not be determined because they had been removed from the scene. Therefore, the auction winner proposed the trunk length of 6 trees with a base circumference of 1.2 - 2.4m, the value calculated as the price of firewood and formwork wood. For the remaining 14 trees, this person gave the reason "they were broken during exploitation so they should be collected". And this proposal was agreed by the inspection team of Vinh Son People's Committee, included in the conclusion at 4:15 p.m. on November 20, 2024!

Indeed, in the face of an incident that has caused public outrage, such verification work is superficial, careless and irresponsible, and therefore, it is impossible not to be concerned. To be clear, the working group established by the People's Committee of Vinh Son commune consists of 5 officials. Among them, there are 2 Vice Chairmen of the People's Committee, 3 civil servants of Justice, Land Administration, Finance - Planning. The on-site verification on November 20, 2024, involved the participation of individuals assigned to protect the alluvial tree area. However, the large force responsible for inspecting this scene determined that more than 20 trees had been exploited. Meanwhile, in just a few hours on the morning of December 24, 2024, the working group of the People's Committee of Anh Son district inspected and determined that there were 41 tree stumps and 1 broken tree at the scene, meaning that the subject had illegally exploited 30 trees!

So, is it strange that 5 local officials and the person assigned to protect the area could miss 10 trees? And is it also strange that the working group of Vinh Son commune easily agreed with the proposal of the violator, to draw a conclusion, agree with this person's calculation, and even left out 14 trees that had been illegally exploited?

Because of these concerns, we also gave our opinions to some key leaders of Vinh Son commune. The answer we received was that the commune had noticed unreasonable points in the Field Inspection Minutes, and believed that the officers participating in the working group had limited capacity and lacked expertise and professionalism.

Is this assessment accurate, correct, or is there a hidden problem? We request that the People's Committee of Anh Son district and relevant agencies in the area pay attention to clarifying this!