Vietnamese a keen to push bauxite mining / processing and looks like they are prepared to stomp on anyone who gets in the road. I think MM has done the right thing distancing ATI from the Vinanacomin projects for now and talking to the Natural Resource and Environment. Sounds a safer play to me.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/303679,vietnamese-police-question-bauxite-mine-critics.html
Hanoi - Security police in Hanoi on Thursday questioned one of the editors of a website that has criticized Chinese-run bauxite mines in the country's Central Highlands. Writer Pham Toan is one of three administrators of the website Bauxite Vietnam, which has published articles criticizing the mines on environmental and security grounds.
Contacted by telephone, Toan said he was "working together with authorities at their offices" and declined to say more.
On Wednesday, police questioned one of the site's other editors, literature professor Nguyen Hue Chi, and searched his house in Hanoi.
Lawyer Cu Huy Ha Vu, also an opponent of the bauxite-mining projects, said police did not have a warrant to search Chi's house in violation of Vietnamese law.
He said police had confiscated Chi's computer, a frequent step taken by Vietnamese authorities in investigating political activists.
The original Bauxite Vietnam website was knocked out by unknown hackers two months ago. A replacement site can be accessed at boxitvn.wordpress.com.
The Chinese state aluminum company Chalco has opened two mines and processing plants for bauxite, or aluminium ore, in central Vietnam in the past two years. Four more are under consideration.
The mines have been controversial since January 2009 when retired Senior General Vo Nguyen Giap, a veteran of the Vietnam War and respected former politician, wrote a letter to the prime minister opposing them on security grounds.
A number of Vietnamese scientists and National Assembly deputies also have criticized the mines for environmental reasons and for employing Chinese rather than Vietnamese workers.
The government promised a full environmental impact assessment of the projects last summer but has not published any so far.
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