A fishing community in central Vietnam is uniting to oppose a container port after police and workers for the development injured several fishermen who were rallying against the project.
Hundreds of residents of the Binh Thuan commune in Quang Ngai province’s Binh Son district gathered on Dec. 17 to block National Highway 1A to demand the release of fishermen arrested earlier in the day for protesting construction of the port.
Project developers and provincial police had attacked protesters, leaving many seriously injured, said one woman named Nguyen Thi Be. She had tried to go fishing that morning but found her way cut off, she said.
“When I asked why we had to leave, they said we were no longer allowed to stay here, as they needed to start building the port,” said Be, whose name has been changed to protect her from retaliation by authorities.
“Other fishermen then gathered in large numbers and began to shout to oppose the construction, saying that we had to earn a living and that if the company was going to take the sea away from us, they would have to give us something else to live on.”
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https://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/access-12232021180110.html