'True and false mixed together' in implementing war invalids policy

(Baonghean) -Among the 277 war invalids in Nghe An who had to collect back benefits and policies, many war invalids have sent complaints to authorities at all levels.because he thought he was a "real person, real story" and informed: there are many people who are not disabled but are not suspended. This problem of mixing truth and falsehood causes a lot of controversy.

» The journey to claim honor of suspended veterans

At this time, many officials of Vinh Thanh commune (Yen Thanh district) are having to thoroughly verify whether Mr. Nguyen Th (Ngoc Thanh hamlet) is a real war invalid or not. "The district's Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has sent a document requesting the commune to verify to come to an accurate conclusion, but we do not have enough expertise," said Mr. Tran Trong Tiem - Chairman of the Association of War Veterans of Vinh Thanh commune.

Mr. Vo Van Sam (right) and Mr. Minh said that they each gave Mr. Th 2 million VND to "run" the war invalid regime. Photo: Nguyen Tung

More than a month ago, a number of petitions addressed to the “Leading Board of the Veterans Association of Vinh Thanh Commune” were sent to many authorities, accusing Mr. Th of being a fake war invalid because he did not directly fight and was not injured. In addition, he was also said to have received money from many other people to “run” for policies, then failed to “run” but still did not return the money.

According to Mr. Tiem, although the complaint was determined to be a fake, the Veterans Association of Vinh Thanh commune still organized an inspection and concluded the case. "The leadership of the Veterans Association has learned through a number of channels from the people and the Veterans Association and has come to the conclusion that many of the accusations are true, including the fact that Mr. Th received money from the people to "run" for policies and regimes," Mr. Tiem said. And Mr. Thai Huy Hoang - Chairman of the People's Committee of Vinh Thanh commune said that the commune leaders also sent officials to meet Mr. Th to find out, but he did not cooperate.

Regarding Mr. Th receiving money to “run” the policy regime, Mr. Vo Van Sam (74 years old, in Vinh Thanh) said that he was one of the “victims”. “About 6 years ago, Mr. Th came to contact to make a profile of Agent Orange. I thought that I fought in that battlefield, right in the years when toxic chemicals were sprayed, so I deserved to be recognized as having suffered from Agent Orange. So I asked Mr. Th to do it for me”, Mr. Sam said and said that after that, his family gave Mr. Th 2 million VND to “run”. However, many years have passed, there has been no result. Many times I have come to ask for the money back from Mr. Th but to no avail.

Meanwhile, when contacted by Mr. Th, he said that in November 1978 he joined the army and fought near the border with Cambodia. And just a few days later, in the second battle since joining the army, he was seriously injured. “During the battle, I was hit by many pieces of shrapnel, lost consciousness, and had to stay in the hospital for more than a month,” Mr. Th said.

After being discharged from the hospital and returning to the unit, he was injured again. However, this time the injury was less severe. “After that, I was taken for a disability assessment. With the result of the disability rate being only 31%, I thought the assessment was incorrect. Because my injury was more severe, I did not agree with the result and requested a reassessment. However, in July 1983, I was discharged from the unit. At that time, I had not been reassessed even though I had full injury certificates and hospital discharge papers,” Mr. Th added.

In the early 90s of the last century, when there was a policy to resolve the regime for people with meritorious services, Mr. Th said that at that time, he brought all these original documents to a neighbor to help him. However, before he could complete the documents to recognize war invalids, this neighbor passed away.

All of Mr. Th’s original documents, including his injury certificate and hospital discharge certificate, were also “missing”. It was not until 2004 that Mr. Th decided to file a case to be confirmed as a war invalid. Based on his military record still kept in some units and other documents, in 2006 Mr. Th was officially recognized as a war invalid with a disability rate of 33%; currently he receives nearly 1.5 million VND in monthly allowance. “However, since then people have begun to suspect me. They say I am a fake war invalid, a lobbyist,” Mr. Th said…

Cases of confusion between truth and falsehood occur not only in Yen Thanh district but in most localities. Mr. Dinh Bat Tien (Nghi Cong Bac commune, Nghi Loc) has submitted his application to authorities at all levels many times but has not yet been approved for the war invalid regime even though his application is complete according to regulations. "Because I lost all the original documents, since 2004 I had to ask a man from Ha Tinh to help me. It cost me 4 million VND, but I couldn't get it done," said Mr. Tien.

The demobilization certificate is the only original document that Mr. Dinh Bat Tien still has. Photo: NVCC

When Mr. Tien went to the district military command to ask, he was told that because the signature on the discharge decision and the injury certificate were the same color, he needed additional legal procedures to authenticate it. After that, he personally went to his old division-level unit to restore it. Luckily, he had all the required documents, but to this day, it has not been recognized.

When asked about the person who would do it for Mr. Tien, he said that this person was in the army and had many connections, so he would go to the division to find the original documents for him, and he promised to find a way to help with other procedures. "So even though it was a real person and a real job, because of my health condition, I wanted to ask someone who was good at this job to help me," Mr. Tien said. According to Mr. Tien, this person had also helped many people in the commune to successfully complete their war invalid records through a private channel."

Or like many cases in Vinh City, although the inspector of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs decided to suspend the allowance because there were some discrepancies compared to the list of soldiers in the division, or there were many suspicious points in the procedural records of the wounded soldiers, among the 132 wounded soldiers whose allowances were suspended, many wounded soldiers said that they were "wronged". For example, the case of Mr. Thai Khac Ba (Hung Dung ward).

Mr. Thai Khac Ba believes that he was wronged in the conclusion of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs that he forged documents to receive benefits for war invalids. Photo: KN

“When I received the decision to suspend the allowance from the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in April 2015, with the charge of falsifying documents to receive war invalid benefits, my legs went limp. I didn’t understand what basis they had for saying that I had falsified documents.” Then he said that he used to be a soldier in the Armored Corps. In December 1978, he was ordered to fight in the neighboring country of Cambodia. “When we fought on the Cambodian battlefield, we didn’t think about returning. Out of 22 tanks in my squad, only 7 remained. When the Company Commander died, I was appointed by my superiors to replace him as Company Commander.

During the fighting, most of us were injured. After I was discharged from the army, my disability rate was assessed at 38%. But now if you ask me to fake it, I really don't know how to clear my name. The regime is one thing, but the honor of a soldier is another," Mr. Ba explained.

The decision to suspend the war invalids allowance of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs for Mr. Thai Khac Ba. Photo: NVCC

Mr. Tran Dinh Lan - Vice President of Nghe An Veterans Association said that because the previous circulars were sometimes not strict. Only two witnesses were needed to be legally valid, it created conditions for some subjects to create fake war invalid records. "Meanwhile, there are also many subjects who are "real people, real events" because they no longer have original documents, so they have to "run" through these channels in the hope of being recognized as war invalids. Therefore, the confusion between real and fake is a reality and the classification of subjects needs more scientific solutions. Currently, there are many subjects whose support policies have been suspended but they are war invalids." Mr. Lan said.

When asked how to help wounded resistance fighters to be restored to their status, Mr. Le Anh Tuan - Deputy Chief of Political Affairs of Nghe An Provincial Military Command said: "Up to now, we have not received any documents or policies from superiors to re-verify the files of the suspended subjects but have not been able to supplement the evidence. Therefore, although we know that there is a situation of confusion between truth and falsehood, we have not been able to intervene to clarify this issue."

(To be continued)

Khoi Nguyen - Hien Tung