Slow Justice in a Banana Republic

Forgive me everyone; for intruding into your peaceful space with this tale of woe and misery. It's the second day of the Lunar New Year which is the biggest and most important holiday of the year for many cultures around the world. People all around are wishing others peace and prosperity. Me? I'm hoping a number of people go straight to hell.

This morning I've gotten word that one of my aunts in Vietnam (my mom's only little sister) was brutally beaten on Wednesday. Occuring the day before the Lunar New Year, the local police have refused to do anything about the case until after the three day holiday, leaving the perpetrators to run free causing my little cousins to fear for their lives during what should be the happiest time of year for them.

According to my mom who got the phone call this morning from one of my little sisters who is currently in Vietnam preparing for her wedding there; my aunt's husband and his older brother had a heated argument over land. This argument had nothing to do with my aunt (who is one of the sweetest ladies you'd ever meet), she wasn't even there. However, her husband's older brother's wife (her SIL if you will) decided to get involved by going to my aunt's business and berate her. Suddenly, the woman attacked my aunt (who of course fought back and defended herself). Customers pitched in and helped stop the fight and my aunt, being a busy lady, just let it go. This was, after all a family matter and apparantly everyone knew her SIL was mean.

This was a mistake as later the SIL brought her four grown (college educated but stil thuggish) kids to the back of my aunt's business. The SIL posted two of them at the door and cornered my aunt and my little 14 year old cousin in their back store room. There, the SIL had her kids, my cousins' cousins, beat my aunt to a bloodly pulp with a hard hat of some sort in front of her daughter. My cousin was able to somehow get out of the door and ran for help but was persued by one of HER OWN COUSINS. She finally got to a safe place and was able to get some relatives to come help and said relatives called the police and ambulance.

As mentioned, the police did a cursive search but let the matter drop until the end of the New Year's holiday. My aunt is currently in the hospital with wounds so serious that my little sister upon seeing her immediately fainted. According to my mom from my sister's information relay, there is probably brain damage and perhaps even paralysis. My cousins are living in fear and have not been able to stop shaking.

We here in the US are trying to figure out what we can do to help. We haven't let my grandma know yet as we're afraid she might worry but for those of us who do know, we're all both outraged and resigned to the fact that justice in Vietnam is not swift and many times completely blind. I'm worried that this will be put aside as a family dispute and no one will be punished. When you are beaten so badly that you end up in the hospital, you can't just "let it go". I don't care where you are, assault is generally illegal even if the perpetrators are family. My mom's siblings have all gathered by my aunt along with her husband (who is curiously absent from this account isn't he?) My youngest sister (a lawyer) is going to be heading to Vietnam to engage one of her Vietnamese lawyer acquaintences to build a case against these people and to get the police to actually get off their asses and do their jobs. My mom will most likely follow soon. The only thing that I can do from here, is help support my mom and sister by looking up information on emergency travel and legal recourses prior to their trips.

We are going to do everything in our power to make sure my aunt gets some justice. I haven't spent much time in Vietnam but when I am there, she has always been kind and gracious. She's one of those people you hear about who are almost saintly in their kindness and gentility and when you meet them, you find out that it's true. I have a lot of relatives in Vietnam, but the thought that this has happened to HER has caused a flood of emotions from outrage to sadness to hope. I hope that she is ok and will recover. I hope that she that the emotional damage from this is not lasting. I hope I can help.

Back to normal programming with responses in the next post.