The decision was made public at a meeting held at the office of the Ministry of Information and Communications on July 28.

The General said that the original charges, followed the arrest of seven people for allegedly causing public disorder at the historicTam Toa site, will be filed by police in Dong Hoi city, Quang Binh province.

Those arrested, mostly Quang Binh residents, confessed their guilt and pleaded for clemency, said police. They also acknowledged several others, including Father Le Thanh Hong and Vo Thi Thu Thuy, 52, who were involved in the illegal building of a house on the site.

According to police, at 4am on July 20, over 200 Catholics illegally built a house at the site of the historic Tam Toa site without the local administration’s permission.

The house was rapidly dismantled the same morning. There was a brief scuffle when some radicals attacked non-Catholic locals and police with stones and sticks.

Recently, several priests from the Xa Doai Church in the central province of Nghe An alleged that Dong Hoi police had beaten up a number of Catholics. They incited fellow followers from surrounding churches to head to Dong Hoi City to pray and protest against the police. They also called for the release of those arrested for breaking the law and that the ownership of the historic Tam Toa site be given to their church.

A statement sent by Father Pham Dinh Phung, Head of the Xa Doai Church Office, acting on behalf of the church, conveying these allegations and demands to the Quang Binh People’s Committee, was a total distortion, said police.

The Tam Toa church, which was left dormant after most of the parishinoners had moved south, was built in Dong Hoi in 1886. It was later almost totally destroyed by US bombs on February 11, 1965, leaving just the bell tower on the site, scarred by shells.

 On February 26 1997, the Quang Binh People’s Committee, along with Xa Doai bishop’s office, issued a decision to recognise the bell tower of the Tam Toa Church as a war monument. The tower will be preserved for research and education purposes.