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HANOI - POLICE in communist Vietnam have launched an investigation into Catholic protests that swelled to about 2,000 people last week, state media and a police officer said on Tuesday.
Parishioners and priests have been holding daily vigils for over a month near Hanoi's main St. Joseph's Cathedral, demanding the return of a block of church land seized by the communist government in the late 1950s.
Police on Saturday launched an investigation against an unspecified number of people for the alleged offences of property damage, causing social disorder and obstructing officials, the police-run An Ninh Thu Do newspaper reported.
Lieutenant-Colonel Nguyen Manh Hung, from the capital's central Hoan Kiem district investigative unit, signed a decision to launch the criminal investigation and sent it to prosecutors, the report said.
A police officer contacted at the unit only told reporters: 'I can confirm the signature on this decision but I do not want to exchange views or comments about this matter with you on the telephone.'
The state-controlled Hanoi Moi (New Hanoi) newspaper accused leaders of the Hanoi archdiocese of 'abusing the belief and trust of followers to turn them into their instruments for their own goals.'
Vietnam's government last week stressed that there is no private property in the communist nation.
'Every piece of land is in the possession of the entire nation, with the state being the representative of public ownership,' said Duong Ngoc Tan, head of the Catholics Department at the Committee for Religious Affairs.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung - who a year ago became the first communist Vietnamese leader to visit the Vatican - met Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet during a prayer meeting in late December and pledged to consider the issue.
Vietnam has South-east Asia's largest Catholic community after the Philippines - about six million out of a population of 86 million.
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