Inciters of disturbance of social order should be strictly punished

Ho Chi Minh City (VNA) - Social order in Ho Chi Minh City was disrupted on May 1 and 8 after some mass gatherings were held in the name of environment protection using the context of the unusual mass fish deaths in the north central provinces.

Residents in Ho Chi Minh City and people across the country are asking why some are trying to fuel public sentiment about the incident even though the government has taken prompt actions to deal with it. All relevant ministries, agencies, local governments and research institutes have sent experts to the site for investigations. F oreign experts were also invited from the US, Japan, France, Germany and Israel to join the process.

Affected fishermen and farmers have been provided with rice, cash and low-cost loans to continue production, and local authorities have set up outlets selling fish meeting safety standards.

While the majority of the people appreciated the government’s response and chose to listen to official information released by responsible agencies and mainstream media on the incident while pending final conclusion on its causes, some intentionally distorted the nature of the incident and incited credulous persons to their own purposes. Who are they and what are their schemes?

According to Ho Chi Minh City police, the US-based terrorist organisation Viet Tan was the real culprit behind the social disturbances. Viet Tan members inside and outside the country i ncited people, including juveniles and ex-convicts, to gather at public places. They even set up support teams to deliver water, bread and money to participants, with the hidden intention of blowing up the protest into a riot, thus hindering the upcoming general elections.

Some participants at the mass gathering on May 8 even used tear gas to attack the authorities. Four members of the city’s youth voluntary forces were injured.

The Viet Tan members also used social media to look for the addresses of those police officers and youth volunteers who worked to ensure social order at the gatherings with the aim of threatening them, and declared rewards for threatening acts.

The terrorist group’s plots cannot fool patriotic citizens. Their schemes and acts go against the will and aspirations of the entire Vietnamese nation for successful general elections in a stable and orderly atmosphere./.