Nguyen (not her real name) has been displaced by the planned development since April 26. Her comments were taken by RFI’s Vietnamese service

The land grab has been like a foreign invasion. For us country people, the land is our sole means of earning a living and feeding our children.

Up until now, we haven’t been able to dialogue with investors or the authorities about the project’s parametres. It’s as if they’re stealing our land. In the beginning, they offered to compensate us with 19.5 million dongs [around 700 euros] and 360 square metres [around 0.09 acres] of land. Offended, we contested the sum. The offer then went up to 54 million dongs [close to 2,000 euros]. These days, a rural family with two children spend on average 100 million dongs [3,600 euros] per year; in other words almost twice what was offered. What would we live off for the last six months of the year? The authorities explained to us that they would give us job training in different fields, but I just don’t see how that would work for those of us who are already 40 or 50 years old. Besides, there are very few opportunities in the area.

"No one has ever explained to us how this project will be useful in the future, and why it is justified"

We’ve protested against this project for the past eight years on an administrative level, no one has reacted either locally or nationally. No one has ever explained to us how this project will be useful in the future, and why it is justified. What’s more, we know that it’s not essential. It’s clear that the very powerful company that’s been pushing the project is hoping to make profit on real estate speculation.

The way things were done shows that there’s been an abuse of power. The government mobilised a lot of police. They went as far as to pay off thugs to destroy our crops. They were mowed down by a bulldozer. Our fields looked like they had been hit by a war, or swept clean by a tsunami. It was so sad.

We will continue to fight for our rights and for the fair application of the law. The foreign press has recently began reporting what the Vietnamese authorities have subjected us to. The Communist Party [which is currently the ruling party in Vietnam] is supposed to be an extension of the people. They’re supposed to come from agricultural backgrounds like us. It’s unfathomable that they would now steal our land.