Bich Hao Commune: Cemetery land encroached upon for planting acacia trees.

Occupying cemetery land to plant acacia trees.

In mid-October, after two strong storms swept through, the acacia forest on Chua Truong hill, which was almost ready for harvest, was broken and felled everywhere. Many tall acacia trees were blown down by the wind, falling onto old tombs. "The acacia trees fell on the tombs and caused damage, but for a whole month the owner of the acacia forest hasn't bothered to clean them up, leaving the trees to rot right on top of the tombs," said Mr. Bui Van Lam (70 years old, Bach Ngoc hamlet, Bich Hao commune).

The Truong Pagoda Hill, only a few dozen meters high and covering more than 5 hectares, is the burial ground for the deceased of the Bach Ngoc and Xuan Hien hamlets (formerly part of Thanh Xuan commune). However, about 15 years ago, households living at the foot of the hill began encroaching on the cemetery land to plant acacia trees. As a result, many graves are surrounded by acacia forests. "According to custom, tree roots penetrating graves is considered very taboo. Yet they planted acacia trees, covering almost the entire cemetery, causing great indignation among the people," Mr. Lam added.

After planting acacia trees, these households brazenly fenced off the road, preventing villagers from bringing their relatives to this cemetery for burial. This has led to numerous clashes.

“Whenever someone comes to dig a grave for burial, these families rush up to stop them, sometimes even lying down in the grave itself. Many times there have been fights between families with recently deceased relatives and those who encroach on cemetery land. Families with many siblings can overpower the others to bury their loved ones there. But some families have to accept burying their relatives right in their gardens,” said Mr. Bui Van Thao (70 years old, Bach Ngoc hamlet, Bich Hao commune), expressing his frustration.

According to local accounts, disputes and obstructions to burials have occurred many times. For example, the family of Mr. Chu Dinh Ha: his father died in 1985 and was buried in the cemetery. In 2011, his mother passed away and they intended to bury her next to his father, but they were prevented from doing so by households encroaching on the land to plant acacia trees. Only after the village security intervened were the family allowed to bury her. Most recently, in 2022, Mr. Bui Van Dan's family was prevented from digging a grave when his mother passed away, and they had to ask the commune authorities for intervention…

Mr. Bui Van Thao said that his father passed away in 1961 and his mother in 1994, both buried here. Previously, his family only needed to follow a small path from the main road to reach the graves. But in recent years, this path has been fenced off. “Now, to light incense, I have to go around to the top of the hill and then back down; the path is long, slippery, and dangerous. Sometimes I have to wait until the owner of the garden is away before I dare go in. My parents' graves are in someone else’s ‘garden’,” Mr. Thao said angrily.

Mr. Phan Van Tuyen, head of Xuan Hien hamlet (Bich Hao commune), said that the Xuan Hien - Bach Ngoc area has about 700 households. “For a long time, the two hamlets have shared two cemeteries: Chua Truong and Dong Ke. After Chua Truong cemetery was encroached upon for planting acacia trees, most people moved to Dong Ke for burial, but recently, Dong Ke cemetery has also run out of space. Therefore, the people are hoping that the authorities will intervene to reclaim the encroached cemetery land and create burial sites in accordance with the plan,” Mr. Tuyen said.

"They mistakenly led surveyors into people's gardens instead of cemetery land."

According to Mr. Bui Van Thao, previously, in map 299, the area of ​​the Truong Pagoda cemetery was nearly 50,000 square meters.²However, it has now been almost completely encroached upon by local residents who have planted acacia trees, leaving only a few hundred square meters.²The hilltop remains untouched by encroachment. Many acacia forests are protected by barbed wire, preventing people from visiting the graves and offering incense to the deceased.

“Immediately after the encroachment occurred, we filed a complaint, but even now, nearly 15 years later, the case remains unresolved,” Mr. Thao recounted, adding that these households only moved to the foot of the hill a few decades ago. Initially, it was just a few small plots, but over time, the boundary between the graves and the garden land has become blurred.

Particularly since 2014, six households living at the foot of Chua Truong hill have claimed that the government has issued them land use certificates for the cemetery area whenever disputes arise. “We don’t know if they actually received the land certificates, but many people have had no choice but to accept burying their loved ones elsewhere,” Mr. Thao recounted, adding that after numerous petitions from the residents, in April 2024, leaders of Thanh Xuan commune (formerly Thanh Chuong district) inspected the site and announced that the Chua Truong cemetery land now only has an area of ​​5,000 square meters.², approximately 43,000m² The remaining land had already been registered and handed over to six households by the commune a long time ago.

However, Mr. Nguyen Khanh Thanh, Chairman of the Bich Hao Commune People's Committee, stated that these six households have never been granted land use rights certificates. “In 2014, during the land survey, there was indeed an error in the surveying process. Therefore, the cadastral map mistakenly included the cemetery land area for these households, but no land titles have been issued yet. Now we are in the process of separating the land to return it to the cemetery,” Mr. Thanh said, adding that the Chua Truong cemetery has existed for a long time. When the new rural commune was being developed, Chua Truong was one of seven cemeteries in the former Thanh Xuan commune whose planning was approved by the former Thanh Chuong District People's Committee.

Mr. Thanh said that after the cemetery plan was approved, the former Thanh Xuan commune government assigned the Bach Ngoc and Xuan Hien hamlets to mark the boundaries and manage the area. “Clearly, the commune assigned the hamlets to manage it, but they failed to do so, allowing surrounding residents to encroach and plant acacia trees,” Mr. Thanh said, adding that the commune received a petition from residents at the beginning of 2025, but due to being busy with many other tasks, they have not been able to resolve the issue. Before becoming Chairman of the Bich Hao Commune People's Committee, Mr. Thanh had served several terms as a leader of the former Thanh Xuan commune. In 2014, when the former Thanh Xuan commune surveyed the cadastral map and allocated cemetery land to six households, Mr. Thanh was the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee.

Meanwhile, the residents disagreed with the commune leaders' response. “The commune leaders said it was due to a surveying error, so in the cadastral map, this cemetery land has been allocated to six households. But the surveying error occurred in 2014, and after the incident, the commune didn't separate the land and waited until now without resolving the issue,” said Mr. Bui Van Thao, adding that there are many unanswered questions surrounding this case.

Tien Hung