Vietnam orders provinces to prevent protests by hearing complaints

Hanoi - Vietnam 's government has ordered officials in 11 northern provinces to stop a growing trend of public protests by deploying inspectors and meeting with citizens about their grievances. A directive sent by telegraph was aimed at preventing demonstrations from disrupting the ongoing Communist Party Central Committee meeting and next week's opening of the National Assembly session in Hanoi .

"Quite a few large groups of people, well organized, have converged to and gathered at the state and government offices, and private residences of party and state leaders, causing social disorder in Hanoi," reads the directive, signed by General Chief Inspector Tran Van Truyen.

The order sent out Saturday directs provincial leaders to monitor dissatisfaction among the populace to prevent disgruntled farmers and others with grievances from taking their complaints to the central government.

"Do not let people to gather in huge crowds in Hanoi ," Truyen said in the message, published on the official government website, which specifically mentions the Central Committee and National Assembly meetings as potential targets for demonstrations.

"Be active in finding the real situation of what's happening, checking all of the unsolved cases so as to deal with it in compliance with the law and regulation," the message read.

Once rare in the one-party state, small public protests over land rights and allegations of corruption have become more common in Vietnam in recent years.

In Ho Chi Minh City , hundreds of people protesting the seizure of their lands for development projects have been camping out in front of the local National Assembly office since June 22.

The demonstrations have been heavily covered by New Horizon radio, a broadcaster linked to overseas Vietnamese groups that call for the Communist Party to give up its monopoly on power. New Horizon also reported at least 100 people protesting land seizures in the southern Mekong Delta province of Can Tho .

Unauthorized public demonstrations are officially banned in Vietnam and police in the past have broken up demonstrations in Hanoi and elsewhere.

The recent government directive made no mention of a coming crackdown, instead urging provincial officials to "persuade" demonstrators to go home.

"Any provinces that have people gathering to file complaints and petition to the central level, the provincial People's Committee must send authorized officials with full responsibility ... to meet and persuade their people to go back to the province for resolution," the directive read.