The baseless demands of the Yen Lac parish

(Baonghean) - The Yen Lac parish failed to provide any convincing, legally valid evidence regarding the origin of the road or ownership of the land area that was illegally encroached upon on October 5th.

There is no road

The petition from Yen Lac parish states: "In 1987, for reasons unknown, Kieu 1 Cooperative built an embankment blocking the old road from the church's front to the south, bordering the inter-communal road." They request that the Nghi Kieu Commune People's Committee "reopen the old road leading directly to the parish church in accordance with document 229."

This land originally housed the Nghi Kieu Commune People's Committee headquarters. In 1976, it was handed over to Kieu 1 Cooperative. In 2002, the entire facility and land area of ​​the Cooperative were transferred to Cluster 1, Nghi Kieu Kindergarten. In 2007, Nghi Kieu Commune declared the entire land area according to Directive 31 of the Prime Minister, and in 2013, they prepared the necessary documents to issue a Certificate of Land Use Rights to Nghi Kieu Kindergarten with a total area of ​​9,343 m2.

The old road connects Hamlet 9 to Hamlet 10A leading to the Yen Lac parish church.

Comparing map sheet 299 (drawn between 1978 and 1980) kept at Nghi Kieu commune shows that the land area of ​​the commune People's Committee hall and Kieu 1 Cooperative in plots 204 and 209 does not have a road running from the gate of Yen Lac parish church, through the land area to the inter-commune road as stated in the petition.

This map shows that the Yen Lac parish church does not have a road passing through the land of Nghi Kieu Kindergarten.

Many witnesses confirmed that there is no straight road leading from the gate of Yen Lac parish church to the inter-communal road, cutting through the kindergarten grounds.

Mr. Ngo Dac Vinh, head of Hamlet 10A, said: "My family's land used to be within the premises of Kieu 1 Cooperative. I remember that in 1975-1976, when Nghi Kieu Cooperative was established, my family was one of more than ten households that had to relocate to make way for the cooperative's headquarters. From the past until now, there has never been a road running straight from Yen Lac parish church through the cooperative's premises as suggested by Yen Lac parish."

The newly constructed road, built illegally, is located within the premises of Cluster 1, Nghi Kieu Kindergarten.

Mr. Hoang Van Minh (born in 1942, former Deputy Head in charge of planning of the Cooperative in 1977) affirmed: At that time, the road to the Yen Lac parish church was behind the Cooperative. Now, the Yen Lac parish is using the excuse that the road to the church used to pass through the area of ​​Cooperative Kieu 1 (Cluster 1 of Nghi Kieu Kindergarten today) to build a new road, which is incorrect....

Mr. Tran Van Mai (born in 1954, former Chairman of Kieu 1 Cooperative) added: "The boundary wall of the cooperative's premises was built in 1988, and I was the one who directed its implementation. At that time, this area was an empty plot of land, overgrown with bushes, within the cooperative's grounds. The construction of the boundary wall in 1988 was assigned to the hamlets, including residents of hamlets 9 and 10a, with the cooperative participating. No one mentioned anything about the road..."

Unfounded demands

Apart from the petition (signed by Father Anton Le Cong Luong - parish priest of Xuan Kieu and Mr. Nguyen Van Luu - Chairman of the Parish Council of Yen Lac sub-parish), Yen Lac sub-parish failed to provide any convincing, legally valid evidence regarding the origin of the road or ownership of the land illegally encroached upon on October 5th.

The parish priest of Xuan Kieu has repeatedly used his sermons to distort the truth and incite parishioners: “Opening the road for the people is a legitimate act, not a matter of asking for permission or illegally occupying the road,” “this is something the people are doing instead of the government. This locality, this commune, doesn't have enough manpower or funds, so the people have to come out and open it...”; “what the people have done, their sweat, tears, and hard work must be protected at all costs...”.

The sermon by the parish priest of Xuan Kieu:

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The act of destroying fences, cutting down trees, and illegally encroaching on land by hundreds of parishioners on October 5th.

To legitimize the illegally encroached road, over the past few days, some parish officials in Xuan Kieu have been trying to persuade and collect signatures from residents. A witness stated: "They asked me to confirm that there was a road passing through Kieu 1 Cooperative. They even said, 'Even a small road will do, as long as there's a road.' I said that the area used to be an empty plot of land, overgrown with bushes, and belonged to the cooperative's premises, so I refused to sign..."

Before Father Le Cong Luong became parish priest of Xuan Kieu (December 2014), Nghi Kieu was a peaceful rural area where Catholics and non-Catholics lived together in harmony; the clergy and officials in the parish and its sub-parishes maintained good relations with the local government.

Mr. Dang Van Dieu, head of Hamlet 9, where the Yen Lac parish church is located, said: "From time immemorial, the parishioners of Yen Lac have always gone to church on the road from Hamlet 9 to Hamlet 10A, which connects to the parish church. No one has ever said anything about the road being straight or curved."

Mr. Điều added: In 2013, the commune publicly announced the new rural development plan to every hamlet, including the road plan, so that the people would know about it. In 2014, with the unanimous agreement of all the people, the Hamlet 9 Steering Committee submitted a document registering to build concrete roads on 4 routes with a total length of 1,000m. Route 4 runs from the road leading to the Yên Lạc parish church to the inter-commune asphalt road.

At the end of 2014, the commune approved the design drawings and cost estimate for the construction of Route 4 at over 251 million VND, with cement sourced from the province's new rural development support fund, and labor and materials contributed by the people. In both rounds of public consultations, the Yen Lac parish did not mention anything about the road running directly from the church gate to the inter-communal road.

By now, readers should understand who fabricated the story about "the road leading directly to the Yen Lac parish church existing from the beginning" and the reasons behind the incidents that occurred on October 5th and 6th in Nghi Kieu commune.

Reporters' Team

Nghe An Newspaper will continue to report on this case.