The pre-destined bonded reconcilers

Update: 28-10-2022 | 15:59:09

“People never listen to the straightaway citation of laws as they are really knowledgeable of them. They can constantly learn online to cover whatever they do not know. So as to be successful with reconciliation, the person in charge should make the related parties at peace which may eventually resolve all disputes,” said Nguyen Van Co – an 22-year experienced reconciler of the grassroots.

Vi Van Tho (on the left) and a member reconciler of Bung Thuoc hamlet at Long Nguyen commune in Bau Bang district, is recollecting the process of land dispute reconciliation of two local families

To bear the hardest words

Nguyen Van Co, now 70 years old, has 22 years of experience in reconciliation at Ba Phai hamlet of Long Nguyen commune in Bau Bang district. People say that Nguyen Van Co (aka Tam Co) is a very cool in reconciler. According to Tam Co, at present, due to the high price of land, most of the disputes are related to land. In the past, people left a line of 1-2m of land without anyone competing; now, the countryside is concreted, so people fight for every inch of land at the court.

In order for the conciliation to achieve high results, the reconciler must go to the place where the dispute is being to grasp the situation, and see to the dispute. If the conciliation is not successful once, then the second conciliation will be sought. “Sometimes it's also a place for people to vent their anger, and when they're all settled with their anger, we reconcile. Doing the job requires patience and hard work. Just like that, I have dug into hundreds of family conflicts and neighbor disputes. Each successful case and the trust of neighbors is the motivation for me to do my best in the career of reconciliation,” Tam Co confided and noted that people are now very good as they can go online to find out about their case very quickly, so the reconciler must be skillful to get the best results. If you do well at the grassroots conciliation, you will reduce litigation to your superiors.

As a member of the conciliation team at Hieu Liem commune in Bac Tan Uyen district, Nguyen Thi Diem Phuong said that in 15 years of participation, she has resolved hundreds of cases, but none of them was the same. Since then, she has learned from the experience of working in reconciliation that she should not allow herself to stay out of conflicts and must always listen, sometimes to words that hurt her but not give up. Recently, the reconciliation team of which she was a member helped a couple in danger of divorce. The reason was that the husband's business loses getting him to boredom and drinking. When the wife saw that, she was jealous and cursed at her husband, so the conflict was getting greater and greater. On knowing the situation, the members of the reconciliation team talked and encouraged the wife a lot, who then has understood how to advise the husband. Seeing the family's problems, the members of the reconciliation team also bought milk and gave gifts to the children. Seeing the enthusiasm and sincerity from the members of the reconciliation team, the couple happily made up.

According to Phuong, now that the economy is developing, and rural land is valuable, so the major disputes are on land, road, and property between husbands and wives. When the two disputing sides think they are right, and no one gives up, the conciliation team needs to come up with a plan for both sides to choose from. The secret to successful conciliation is to listen to each party's opinions for analysis, explanation and persuasion, but all must be based on the provisions of the laws.

Threatening to spread video online against reconciliation

By appointment, we went to Bung Thuoc hamlet of Long Nguyen commune in Bau Bang district to meet Mr. Vi Van Tho, the head of the hamlet and also the leader of the reconciliation team. When he turned to the story, Tho told about his predestined relationship with reconciliation work, which has just completed 10 years in tense cause. He himself was scolded and scared away when he went to conduct the reconciliation, but he had no intention of give up the job he had chosen and loved.

Tho informed that his team had just finished conciliating a land dispute that lasted 10 years. The parties involved in this dispute submitted an application to the court, which was then withdrew to be reconciled in the hamlet many times but failed as everyone thought they had a righteous position.

The incident began with a lawsuit of V. against C. for encroaching on the end of V.'s land by a built fence, which C. claimed that the land where she built the wall had been approved by V.'s family before, and when she built it, no one commented; now V. has no reason to reclaim the land. If V. wanted C. to return it, he must gave another VND 100 million. The case went on like this for decades. With many years of experience in reconciliation,. Tho went to the disputed land to see through the situation, and at the same time, borrowed the land book of V. and C.. Based on the location drawn in the land book, Tho analyzed that the land book of C. was drawn straight and square, so it was not reasonable for C. to receive her ‘back-expanding land portion on V's land. Disagreeing with the analysis from Tho, C. said she would file a lawsuit to the court. Tho explained that the court only relied on the evidence of the land book, plus the fact that the commune cadastral officers had just re-measured C.'s land, which was not lacking but redundant. At the time, C. just accepted to ‘lower the voices’ and signed the minutes of reconciliation.

Another case that also made Tho remember forever when conducted the reconciliation was being cursed and videotaped with a threat to post online. The cause of the incident was that being angry at Nguyen N.'s family's frequent car entries and exits, Dang Thi L. pulled two large wooden trees to block the entrance and threatened: " I’ll chop those who dare to touch the logs!”. Hearing N. asking for help, Tho rushed to grasp the situation. As soon as L. saw Tho, she shouted loudly and threatened: "I will record a video and post it online to let people know, will you be able to do it then?". Knowing L was angry, Tho had to withdrew for safety. The next day, Tho asked for police force of the commune, militia and members of the reconciliation team to meet L. for a rightful talk, after which L. no longer found faults with N's family.

Tho emphasized that Bung Thuoc hamlet is the most populous hamlet in Long Nguyen commune with 437 permanent and 736 temporary households, so he knows each household well if problems arise. With more than 10 years of experience in reconciliation at the grassroots level, Tho always and skillfully uses the village friendship combined with legal knowledge to gently talk things right and rationally explain each dispute. “When people are in anger, we have to cool them down. You have to determine that you are the one who comes to reconcile, not to quarrel, so there is no need to fight," Tho confided.

Talking about grassroots conciliation, Vo Thi Tong - Head of the Justice Division of Bau Bang district, said that in recent days, the work in the district has received special attention. The district Justice Division has organized many training courses and disseminated legal education to reconcilers to update new documents. In the first 9 months of 2022, the team received 18 cases, 9 of which were resolved.

Reported by Quynh Anh – Translated by Vi Bao

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The pre-destined bonded reconcilers

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