Believing that their commune’s over-100-year-old bell was exchanged fraudulently, thousands of people in Bac Ninh surrounded the office of local commune government and assaulted an official.

VietNamNet Bridge – Believing that their commune’s over-100-year-old bell was exchanged fraudulently, thousands of people in Yen Phu commune, Bac Ninh province surrounded the office of local commune government and assaulted an official.

The so-called “fake bell”.

Local people said that the old bell at Yen Phu commune’s pagoda was replaced by an unclear-origin bell and they easily recognized the difference between the two bells. They brought the so-called “fake bell” to the commune government office’s yard.

Old people said that local people’s concern about the “fake bell” has been stirred up a long time ago. Apart from the bell, some ancient documents and stone steles at village temples have disappeared.

On May 2 local residents surrounded the office of Yen Phu commune government, asking officials to explain about the bell. A district-level official named Hien saw the local people to announce the conclusion of Bac Ninh province’s historical relic management board that the “fake bell” is the “true bell”. However, local people didn’t believe him and suspected that Hien was “bribed”. They arrested, beat, and confined the official at the commune government’s office. Meanwhile, commune officials including the chairman and vice chairman escaped.

Some people went to Yen Phu pagoda to search, saying that monks lent a hand to exchange the bell.

On May 4 some people broke down the commune government’s office to rescue the official was rescued but the commune office was devastated.

The assaulted official.

Nguyen Thanh Khoi, chief of the Culture Department of Yen Phong district, said that in late April, some Yen Phu commune’s residents raised their voices about the “fake bell” so the commune invited experts to verify it’s age.

On April 29, Khoi and two experts from Bac Ninh Province Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism went to Yen Phu to assess the bell. However, they didn’t release the assessment result until May 2, when local people surrounded Yen Phu commune’s government office, the local government invited Khoi to come to announce the result. Khoi assigned his employee named Hien to do this job.

The devastated local government office.

Hien is now at a local hospital. He said that when he arrived in Yen Phu commune, the commune chairman asked him to read the conclusion made by experts. Local people didn’t agree with the conclusion and they arrested him.

“If the people still don’t agree with experts’ conclusion, Yen Phong district and Bac Ninh province will invite experts of higher level to make clear this case,” Khoi said.

PV