50 years of violations of Human Rights in Communist Vietnam 1945-1995 (29)
hytran
Chinh, Nguyen Dai Tuong
Vietnam Human Rights Watch November 1995
P.O. Box 2185
Montclair, California 91763
CHAPTER VIII
LIFE IN PRISONS AND REEDUCATION CAMPS
Statistics on Deaths at Camps
Witnesses reported cases of execution and death of the military and
civilian personnel of the old Republic of South Vietnam at camps and
political prisoners after the Communist takeover of South Vietnam. The
Vietnamese Federation of Veteran Political Prisoners (1995) has
compiled 718 cases of executions and deaths at camp. Although the
causes of death were not specified, in most cases, statistics show: 165
(22.98%) of 718 prisoners were reportedly executed at camp; 72 (10%)
died as a result of hard labor and lack of medical treatment or of cold
and starvation; 31 (4.31%) committed suicide; 33 (4.59%) were murdered
or tortured to death; and 24 (3.62%) died soon after release from camp.
Among those prisoners who died for unspecified reasons were Prof. Vo
Van Hai; Trinh Quoc Khanh, dignitary of Hoa Hao Buddhism; Sen. Tran The
Minh; Ta Nguyen Minh, Leader of the Dai Viet Quoc Gia Xa Hoi (Greater
Vietnam National Social Party); Phan Ba Cam, Secretary General of the
Vietnam Dan Xa Dang (Vietnam Democratic Social Party); Congressman Bui
Minh Nghia; Lieutenant General Lam Thanh Nguyen; Hon. Nguyen Manh Nhu,
Presiding Judge of the Court of Appeal; Sen. Son Thai Nguyen; Major
General Doan Van Quang; Lawyer Tran Van Tuyen; Catholic Priest Nguyen
Quang Minh; Hon. Nguyen Ba Luong, Chairman, the House of
Representatives; Hon. Vu Tien Tuan, Presiding Judge of the Supreme
Court; Rev. Nguyen Van Thang of the Evangelical Church; Hon. Duong Duc
Thuy, Secretary of Justice; and Dinh Van Bien, member of the Viet Nam
Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnam Koumintang).
Among those prisoners who were executed without trial were Tran Thanh
Dinh, member of the Duy Dan Party (Vietnam National Party); Colonel Ho
Ngoc Can, Province Chief of Chuong Thien; Le Quang Cho, Village Chief;
Doan Van Chau, Rural Restitution Cadre; Lieutenant Colonel Duong,
National Police; Captain Dot, Company Commander, Regional Force;
Councilman Hieu of Kien Hoa Province; Lawyer Nguyen Van Huyen; Nguyen
Van Nghiem, Leader, National Restoration Forces; Vo Van Nghi, Member,
National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam; Tran Quang Pho, Civilian;
Lieutenant Colonel Le Chon Tinh of Hoa Hao Buddhism; Nguyen Duy Tam,
Canton Chief; Master Sergeant Thai Van Ut; Major Nguyen Duc Xich,
Deputy Chief of Bien Hoa Province; Pham Hong Ung, Village Chief; First
Lieutenant Nguyen Ngoc Thanh; Nguyen Van Sang, Cadre, Open Arm and
Information Service; and Vo Thanh Nhon, Village Chief.
Among those prisoners who died as a result of hard labor, lack of
medical treatment or of cold and starvation were Colonel Pham Van Son,
Historian; Lieutenant Colonel Doan Van Anh; Captain Nguyen Van Chuong;
First Lieutenant Le Quy Ky; Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Nam; Nguyen
Dang Bai, Vice District Chief; Colonel Chung Van Bong; Lieutenant
Colonel Doan Van Anh; First Lieutenant Do Rang Dong; Second Lieutenant
Nguyen Tan Hoang; Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tran Louis; Lieutenant
Colonel Ha Hau Sinh; Colonel Le Van Tho; Colonel Lu Phung Van; Hoang
Kim Quy, Businessman; Colonel Pham Ngoc Loi; Colonel Pham Nhu Hien;
Nguyen Dang Bao, Village Chief; Pham Ngoc Thanh, Administrator; Ngo
Ngoc Loi, Government Official; Colonel Dang Quang Tiep; and First
Lieutenant Tran Duc Quan.
Among those prisoners who were murdered or tortured to death were
Lieutenant Colonel Vo Vang, Regiment Commander, Regiment 911; Nguyen
Duc Diep, Sculptor; Minh Ky, Musician; Captain Tien of the Signal
Corps; Colonel Dang Van Thanh, Regiment Commander, Infantry Division
21; Captain Tran Van Thang of the National Police; Captain Mao; Le
Quang Lac; Major Le Thom; Congressman Dang van Tiep; Doan Van Xuong;
Captain Tran Canh Dien; Captain Kha, M.D.; Colonel Dang Van Thanh; Bao
Trong, Assistant to the Commander, National Police; Captain Tran Van
Thang; Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Thanh; Captain Nguyen Van Tho;
Captain Nguyen Duc Tho; Lieutenant Nguyen Hong Viet alias Paul; and
Lieutenant Colonel Sam.
Prisons and Camps
There are hundreds of prisons, camps, and sub-camps in each city and
province throughout the country. Among the most infamous detention
camps and prisons are: Quyet Tien Camp in Hoang Lien Son Province;
Thanh Liet (B4) in Ha Son Binh Province; Nam Ha (Ba Sao), in Ha Nam
Ninh Province; Thanh Phong (K1, K2), Thanh Lam (K3), Thanh Cam (K4),
Thanh Son (K5) in Thanh Hoa Province, Gia Trung, Pleibong (T15) in Lam
Dong Province; Xuan Phuoc (A20) in Phu Yen Province; Phu Khanh (A30);
Ham Tan (Z30C, Z30D) in Thuan Hai Province, and Chi Hoa and Phan Dang
Luu prisons in Saigon.
Not only do former prisons remain in use, but also new ones have been
constructed and other buildings transformed to hold the growing number
of prisoners. Camp A20 in Xuan Phuoc (Phu Yen Province), for instance,
was divided into eight separate sections: one building was demolished
to be enlarged. One building was used as a warehouse and clinics. Six
remaining sections housed an average of 80 people each, allowing
approximately 70 square centimeters per person. Phan Dang Luu prison in
Saigon, under the Thieu regime, held 200 prisoners. It now has 2,000
prisoners behind its walls. Prisoners are classified into the most
fortunate, the less fortunate, and the least fortunate. The most
fortunate are housed in cells built by the French more than 30 years
ago, measuring 20 meters long by 5 meters wide, with a ceiling of 6
meters high. The front and back of the cells are fitted with bars
allowing the circulation of air. The prisoners have their own water
supply. Under the former regime, these cells contained 20-25 prisoners
each. Today, 60-70 prisoners are crammed into each cell. There are
eight such cells, which form Zone A of the prison. The less fortunate
are held in newly constructed zones C1, C2, and B, built in October
1965 by the [Republic of Vietnam] Secret Police. Each cell measures 8
meters in length, 5 meters in width, and 3.50 meters in height. The
ceiling is only a sheet of corrugated iron, creating an unbearable
temperature. All sides are blocked, and the only air supply for all
30-40 prisoners comes from an air vent in the wall measuring 10 cm x 15
cm. There is no water supply. The least fortunate are thrown into
dungeons which measure 2m long, 1m width, and 2 m height. The only air
hole measures 10 cm x 15 cm. Prisoners are kept handcuffed with the
left foot attached to the left hand. These cells are reserved for new
arrivals and for those who have committed some breach in discipline
(Washington Area League for Human Rights, 1978: 17).
Dang Chi Binh related how he suffered from the lack of air in a tight
cell when he was detained at Hoa Lo prison (Hanoi Hilton):
One of the most unsuspected impediment I have to overcome now is ...
the lack of air. Before, I was never sick due to physical exercise, and
air was the main remedy. I was hungry because of the lack of rice, but
I still had sane air for compensation. Here, they don't prevent air
from coming in, but it is polluted. A foul smell is much more harmful.
The more we breath it in, the faster we will have the chance to say
farewell to this world. This is a serious problem. I tried hard to
solve it, but I could not find a solution (Dang Chi Binh, 1987: 93).
Camp Measures
There are no official statistics on the political prisoner population.
Estimates vary from hundred to ten thousand. Veteran political prisoner
Nhat Tran reported that there are different measures on criminals and
political prisoners. In the South, while being detained for
interrogations, criminals are confined in separate cells. Criminals'
lives are not respected. However, they are not strictly controlled
since they are not politically dangerous to the regime. Officials and
officers of the Republic of Vietnam were detained under the
surveillance of the Communist troops. Many members of political parties
who did not report themselves with the Communist military authorities
were arrested, charged on grounds of counterrevolutionaries, and
detained under the supervision of the security police. These prisoners
were strictly controlled--their thoughts as well as their ways of
thinking (Nguyen Tri, 14 (December 1992)).
Political prisoner Pham Van Thanh reported that at A20 Camp, the
prisoner population, at present, was 500, including 200 political
prisoners. Among these prisoners are: the Reverend Dinh Van Hieu;
Nguyen Dac Chuong, Buddhist monks Thich Tue Sy Pham Van Thuong, Le
Hien, and Ho Huu Tin; and the Reverend Le Hoan Son. Other personalities
are: Nguyen Van De, Caodaist Ho Huu Khanh, and Professor Doan Viet
Hoat. There are also overseas Vietnamese: Ly Tong, Tran Manh Quynh
(simultaneously transferred with Professor Doan Viet Hoat and seven
others), Peter Tran Vu, Vann Nelson Do Huon, Michael Nguyen Van Muon,
Do Hang Van, Pham Duc Hau from the United States, Nguyen Ngoc Dang from
Canada, Nguyen Nghiep (released with ten other prisoners from Thailand)
from Germany, Pierre Pham Anh Dung, Le Hoan Son, and Pham Van Thanh
from France. Sixty percent of the political prisoners at Camp A20 were
sentenced to 15 years in prison or more (Pham Van Thanh, 1994).
Doan Viet Hoat, Tran Tu, Tran Manh Quynh, and Ly Tong reported from
Z30D in Ham Tan that criminals and political prisoners of all
backgrounds, including priests and intellectuals, are detained together
and bear the same policy regarding daily activities and labor. This is
a common practice in almost all prisons. This policy leads to many
negative effects and is detrimental to the reeducation of the
prisoners. Human dignity, morale, and social behavior are not enhanced
but decayed. People of dignity are penalized by acts of violence of
cruel criminals. These people are used to the life of the "black
society." Since there are too many prisoners, the living space is
overcrowded (50 cm x 60 cm per person). The hygiene standard is very
low, and personal safety is not guaranteed--theft, fight, robbery (Doan
Viet Hoat, Tran Tu, Tran Manh Quynh and Ly Tong, 1994).
Tran Manh Quynh reported that at Camp Z30D (Ham Tan, Binh Thuan) he was
put among a group of criminals under strict restriction. This was a
group of murderers and thieves sentenced to at least 10 years in
prison. All of them were ferocious pirates and notorious cadres of the
most dangerous elements of the society, and he was the only political
prisoners in the group (Tran Manh Quynh, 1994).
Alimentary Deficiency
Veteran political prisoner Buu Lich reported that after a few months
under detention, alimentary deficiency became critical. Camp detainees
saw their health alarmingly deteriorating while they were subject to
forced hard labor. In the beginning, their monthly food apportions were
18 kgs of rice, but it was gradually reduced to 15 kgs, then to 12 kgs,
and then to 8 kgs, and sometimes none. That is, rice was lacking in the
ration and was compensated by manioc, sweet potato, flour, or barley.
All these foods were of the worst quality. Sweet potatoes were rotten.
Rice was moth-eaten, and one cooked it with worms hidden in the rice.
The only sauce that went with it was a kind of fish sauce which was, in
fact, water with dark salt. The detainee had a right to a small
quantity of vegetable a day, a piece of fish of a thumb size a week,
and a piece of meat of the same size bi-weekly or even a month.
However, meat was too expensive to be replaced by other produce. In the
beginning, when the "scraps" left over during the American-created
puppet government were not yet exhausted, there was still sugar, and
four people shared a small box a month. Fish and meat became a luxury;
and they were always saved and boiled over many times to make soup. The
craving for sugar was a torture. How could detainees have survived with
such a food ration? They survived on their relatives' packages of food
after a year under detention (Buu Lich, 1984: 4).
Ho N. reported that at Suoi Mau Camp (Bien Hoa Province, South
Vietnam), during the years of 1975-76, camp detainees were only fed
with decayed rice brought from secret zones in the jungle. That was the
kind of rice the Communists stored in caves during the Vietnam War. It
floats when soaked in water and is without nutrient (Van Chuong, 10
(June 1992)).
Dinh Phu lamented:
I'm a Caodaist. I have faith in Cao Dai Almighty. It was the faith in
him that helped me brave difficulties, starvation, sufferings, and
shame during the years in camps. It was also brotherhood that we shared
among officers and officials of the Republic of South Vietnam that had
enabled me to survive until the day I was released. My wife died while
I was in camp. No one came to see me, and no one sent me a bit of food
or a capsule of medicine. The Almighty bestowed on me courage, and
friends came to help. There were times when hunger and illness tortured
me, excruciating my stomach and mind with starvation and death! An
excruciating hunger that deprives you of reasoning and personality. I
witnessed six camp detainees who could not resist hunger and died from
eating wild fruit. Death could happen to you anytime and in many ways
you just don't know when and how. I can still see in my mind the ugly,
haunted cart that carried corpses of camp detainees who died of hunger
and illness across the camp every night (Van Chuong, 11 (July 1992)).
Hoang Xuan Hao reported that the prisoners were so hungry that they
would eat whatever they thought they could. Many prisoners became
seriously sick from consuming pestiferous plants or foods. There was no
medicine for treatment. Because of this, the number of prisoners
declined. We were all so hungry that we looked for any insects that we
knew were not poisonous or any plants that were digestible and ate
them. Some criminals even ate indigestible vomituss of sick people.
They unearthed diseased hog for food and devoured vegetables that were
still fresh with humane urine and excrement. (Hoang Xuan Hao, Thuc
Trang Viet Nam, 1993)
Pham Quoc Bao described how hunger tortured the camp prisoners and how
it drove him into insanity:
One day, the family of a cook, who was an insane northern Communist
invalid detained there, came to visit him and gave him some gifts.
There was a jackfruit among it. He cleaved it into halves, had his
friends share one half. He gave one-fourth of it to the camp nurses and
hid the remaining piece to give to us in secret so that we could have a
little share just for a flavor. A moment later, he came back to our
room and talked with us about his family. Right at that moment, a nurse
from the criminals' dispensary came by. The cook suddenly asked the
visitor:
-- Eh! Did you throw away the jackfruit hull?
-- Yes.
-- Where did you throw it?
-- Well, in the urine pail ...
-- Damn it! You kill me!
Exclaiming in alarm, the cook rushed outside. It was too late,
nevertheless. A sick inmate had sneaked out and had already taken
several good bites of it (Pham Quoc Bao, 1985: 153).
Food Rations
Each detainee is given only one meal per day that features one bowl of
rice with water and salt, and without further supply. This cruel
prescription did indeed kill Father Nguyen Quang Minh (Catholic St.
Vincent Order). Father Nguyen Luan, Father Nguyen Van Vang, among
numerous others. These priests died between 1985 and mid-1986 for their
unyielding courage against the authorities of the Ministry for the
Interior.
Vo Dai Ton related that the inmates at Thanh Liet camp were classified
into categories. Their food rations varied according to their health
conditions and whether or not they were honest in their confessions. An
inmate who was accorded 47 dong for food and 9 kilograms of rice per
month was given a bowl of cooked rice and plain soup from boiled
vegetable daily. An inmate who was accorded 60 dong for food and 12
kilograms of rice per month was given more than one bowl of rice, a few
blades of vegetable, some soup of boiled vegetable daily, and a mince
of meat monthly. An inmate who was accorded 120 dong for food and 15
kilograms of rice per month was given 2 bowls of rice, a few blades of
vegetable, some water of boiled vegetable daily, and 2 minces of meat
monthly. An inmate who was accorded 180 dong and 15 kilograms of rice
per month was given 2 bowls of rice and boiled vegetable daily, and 3
minces of meat monthly (Vo Dai Ton, 1993: 174).
Pham Van Thanh reported from A20 Camp (Xuan Phuoc, Phu Yen Province)
that each inmate was allotted a portion of meat of 300 grs (!) monthly.
He wrote:
Our lives in this camp were utterly woeful. Prisoners were subject to
forced labor from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with all the hard work under
the sun and in the rain. We were always in want of food. Without help
from the family, a prisoner only had 12 kilograms of rice a month and
salt water (in principle, each prisoner was supplied with 15 kilograms
of rice a month). It was in this situation that cruel fights among
criminals occurred almost daily. There were 39 to 40 political
prisoners, including our two groups in this camp (Pham Van Thanh, 1993).
Labor Exploitation
Ta Ty gave a description of how man and animal labored at camp:
The water-buffalo with two long curved horns dully followed the
laborer. Hardly had the animal seen the ground, it bolted up and tried
to break loose. The laborer tried to hold the rope fast to control it,
but he could not hold it long. Another laborer lashed out at it,
driving it into the ground. The animal jumped up, pushing the laborer
onto the ground... It ran across a small stream and into the bushes at
the foot of the tea-growing hill.
-- Not only man, water-buffalos are also scared of labor! (Ta Ty, 1985:
468).
Living scenes as such also exist in accounts, stories, and memoirs of
Ha Thuc Sinh, Dang Chi Binh, and Pham Quoc Bao, or interviews with
veteran political prisoners. They denounced the savage treatment that
cannot be found in famous stories about the lives in camps and prisons
by international authors such as Dickens, Dotoevsky, Stendhal Georghiu,
Chariere, Solzhenitsyn, Silvio Pellico, Bevenuto Cellini, ... Why? The
reason is simple: The wardens in those camps and prisons still have in
them an innate sense of human love. The Vietnamese Communist wardens,
quite inhumanely, treat their defeated adversaries in the eyes of
hatred; they are a special instrument that the Communist party produces
and manipulates to trample underfoot those who are charged with such
crimes as "traitors and counterrevolutionaries." The prisoner is
treated as equally as an animal. And, being an animal-man, he must
labor and produce under a special regime of labor corresponding to his
"class of animals (Thien Chuong, 1995)."
Buu Lich related that at Xuan Loc Camp, every day the reeducated went
to work in the forest 15 kilometers from the camp to gather firewood.
The weight that each of them had to gather was 20 kgs (the middle-sized
Vietnamese weighs 45 kgs). With rudimentary tools--saws, billhooks,
hatchets made by their own hands--the reeducated experienced much
difficulty and were more prone to accidents. One day, a tree trunk fell
on a prisoner. Everyone hurried to crowd around him. The cadres
remained quite impassive. The reeducated proposed that the victim be
taken back to camp, but the proposal was ignored. The victim remained
lying there unattended. About five or six hours later, he was
transported on the back of his friends. The result was foreseeable: he
was dying and expired his last breath on the way back to the camp (Buu
Lich, 1986: 7).
Truong Ngoc said:
Prisoners were summoned to reeducation camps for brainwashing. They
were prisoners of war but, in reality, they weren't treated as
prisoners of war. The Communists say that 'one gains accordingly from
one's labor,' but prisoners exhausted their labor and weren't given in
return the minimum amount of food they desperately needed. The
Communists maliciously starved prisoners. Their purpose was to force
prisoners to do nothing but think about food. Many prisoners were so
hungry that they would eat whatever living things they could find (Van
Chuong, 10 (June 1992)).
Pham Sy said:
The Communists set up standards for different categories of forced
labor according to the Communist motto, 'one gains accordingly from
one's labor.' A prisoner under separate confinement was given 2 kgs of
rice per month. A light forced laborer was given 4kgs of rice per
month; a normal laborer, 6kgs of rice per month; and a labor hand with
a special skill, such as a carpenter or brick layer, 8 kgs of rice per
month. The rations of rice were later replaced with manioc, maize, or
sweet potatoes of the same quantity (Van Chuong, 10 (June 1992)).
Pham Van Thanh reported that at A20 Camp in Xuan Phuoc, Phu Yen, as a
case in evidence, the prisoners' labor is exploited to the maximum to
profit a small group of prison officials. A good example is the bricks
work crew where each crew member is expected to produce 1,400 bricks.
These bricks are sold outside at a retail price of 14,000 dong for
1,000 bricks. Nevertheless, the crew member only receives 30,000 dong a
month. If he is sick for a day, 1,300 dong are deducted. Each month,
the crew deposits one million dong with the overseer out of the average
receipts of four million dong per month. The remaining three million go
to the 'quan giao' (camp custodian) personally. This is the worst work
duty in the prison. The situation of the carpentry crew and the
agricultural crew is also to line the pockets of a small number of
overseers or 'quan giao,' while no attention is paid to the health of
the prisoners. Besides the time spent on work for the prison, the
forestry and agricultural crews have to hold private jobs for the 'quan
giao' officer, or the 'quan giao' officer sends the individuals out to
private individuals outside the prison and pockets one hundred percent
of the payment (Pham Van Thanh, 1993).
Doan Viet Hoat, Tran Tu, Tran Manh Quynh, and Ly Tong, in their letter
of protest to the Vietnamese Communist leadership on March 1, 1994,
denounced that the current form of organized labor and its intensive
coercion in the labor camps they have lived through are totally
intended for punishment and financial gain. In each camp, the result of
prisoner's labor is calculated as if it were in a commercial company.
At Nam Ha Camp, prisoners are outright assigned the duty of "making the
camp rich." This condition leads to harmful results. Prisoners always
have the feeling of being exploited. In addition, the miserable living
conditions in the camp further derails the effort to educate the
prisoners. They believed that the way labor is organized as well as the
living conditions in the camps today fail to achieve the "reeducating"
effect it is intended for. Forcing hard labor on the prisoners for
financial gains of the camp and contribution to the government's
operation budget create a bad image of the country and prison policy.
Laboring during the detention only earns its value when it benefits the
prisoners. To achieve those purposes, labor must be accompanying
vocation, learning to elevate knowledge, and general literacy must be
accompanied with a living environment that reflects humanity,
civilization, and progress. This requires an overhaul of the policy on
labor and education as well as positive improvement on activity in the
camp.
Health Care--Medical Treatment
Doan Viet Hoat, Tran Tu, Tran Manh Quynh, and Ly Tong reported:
The health of the prisoners is not protected. Prisoners perform hard
labor, but the supplies for clothing, living space, and resting time
are below standard. When sick, there lacks medicine. The clinics are
often overcrowded and unclean. Patients with light sickness are put
together with contagious patients. The human relationship in the
prisons lacks sympathy and cultivation. The language used by the cadres
toward the prisoners is usually rude and harsh. There are many cases
where cadres beat prisoners using canes and rods, forcing the prisoners
to serve them (Doan Viet Hoat, Tran Tu, Tran Manh Quynh, and Ly Tong,
1994).
Doan Viet Hoat's relatives, in particular, informed that he constantly
has pain in his back but is forced to work in the field all day long.
He is severely myopic but has never been given an eye examination. He
is not permitted to replace his old eye glasses which have become unfit
for the weakness of his eyesight due to malnutrition and long period of
imprisonment. It is worthy to note that Doan and his associates in the
Forum Freedom, Pham Duc Kham and Vuong Duc Le, were deported from Camp
Z30 in Ham Tan, South Vietnam to Xuan Phuoc Labor camp in Phu Yen
province, Central Vietnam. The location is a remote mountainous area,
about 700 kilometers north of Saigon.
On August 10, 1994, Jackie Manthorne, executive director of the
Canadian Center International PEN, wrote to Hanoi Ambassador Le Van
Bang at the United Nations urging the Communist government of Vietnam
to release the seriously ill political prisoner Nguyen Van Thuan.
According to the director, Nguyen Van Thuan was arrested in 1990 when
he returned to Vietnam from Canada to promote democracy. At the age 60
and after serving an 18-year prison sentence in hard labor camps, he
suffered a stroke. He was then temporarily returned to the care of his
family. However, Vietnam's authority said he would be taken back to
prison camp later. Upon the news of Nguyen Van Thuan being returned to
Ham Tan labor camp in the last week of September while he was still
very ill, PEN Canada, an international association of writers, on
October 1, wrote to Raymond Chan (Secretary of State, Asia Pacific,
House of Parliament, Ottawa, Canada) urging the Canadian official to
intervene for Nguyen Van Thuan's release. Following, in an excerpt of
the letter, the organization feared that by returning Nguyen Van Thuan
to the labor camp where he suffered his first stroke, his health and
perhaps his life, would be placed in extreme jeopardy. There was then
no way of knowing whether he would be receiving adequate medical care
or forced to perform physical labor.
Illness
According to Buu Lich, illness was the natural consequence of
starvation. Besides, inmates usually become ill secondary to exposure
to the unhygienic environment in the camp. The most common illnesses
were ascites and edema of the extremities due to lack of nutrition,
dysentery, diarrhea, and malaria. The camp did not supply any medicine,
and the detainees only relied on the medicine they might have brought
with them. However, they had register them with the camp office and
could only have it every time they needed to use it. They had to apply
for it with a written form.
Each camp had a dispensary. Sick detainees had a little better food
ration and were excused from work and services. The health personnel
obviously had a competence far inferior to the nurses of the old
Republic of Vietnam. The following story would give the reader an idea
about the professional knowledge of the North Vietnam medical
personnel. One member of the medical team trustingly said to his
friend: "You have to learn constantly, to quest for progress as Uncle
Ho advised. Take me as an example! I am a medical doctor; still, I
continue to study. I am attending an in-training cultural course at the
7th grade level(!). Under these situations, the most common illnesses
such as influenza and diarrhea might cause death.
Illnesses did not constitute a motive to return the reeducated home.
Many sick camp detainees who were at the point of death were returned
home. They died after reaching home. There were many reasons to explain
these cases of death: hatred and revenge, ineffective administrative
formalities for final decision, cadres' authority at camp, their
irresponsibilities (Buu Lich, 1984: 6-7).
Punishment
Bruce Stanley of the Associated Press, on September 28, 1994, reported:
Political prisoners at a Vietnamese detention camp are beaten by
guards, denied medical care, and forced to survive on a diet of rice
and salt. The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, based in
Gennevilliers, France, quoted a document reportedly written on July 25
(1994) and smuggled out of Vietnam by Pham Van Thanh, gave a rare
glimpse of what it says are conditions inside the country's camps for
political prisoners. Security police beat up political prisoners with
unbelievable violence. The prisoners are beaten like animals.
It is not unusual, though, to see a Communist suffering in the Party's
jail. Ngo Duc Mau, a veteran Communist who had 10 year experience of
French jails, gave the following description of his sufferings in a
Communist prison:
When we were in our dark, damp cells, we would comfort each other ...
for there is a vast difference between the imperialist jail and our
own. In an imperialist jail, I suffered only physical pains with my
mind being comforted and at peace... But how was I treated in this
place? I was tramped underfoot both physically and mentally. Those
around me considered me to be an enemy, a traitor and a spy, and no one
understood my situation (Hoang Van Chi, 1964: 214).
Buu Lich said that maltreatment--beating and torture--has never been an
element of the politics declared by the regime. Reeducation, that is,
"to educate the military and civil servants of the puppet
administration, so that they will be aware of the new politics, that
they will repent, and that they will return to live in the bosom of the
people." On the contrary, cadres never ceased screaming, insulting,
abusing, humiliating, and, if necessary, beating and torturing. Mental
torture lived on several preferred subjects: the puppet government and
people who served it were considered creatures harmful to the country
and traitors to the fatherland; they are oppressors against their
people. What was even more strange in the language of cadres was that
they never ceased accusing the reeducated of lack of civilization and
breach of manners. Thus, according to cadres, the puppet administration
servants had maltreated and abandoned their wives and children. They
were rude towards women. They ate and drank without observance of rules
of hygiene.
It is not necessary to say that such an idea resulted from the
propaganda and brainwashing. It aimed at persuading the peasant
military of the North that the history of Vietnam began in 1945 or
1975, and South Vietnam broke away from all progress beginning from
that date. Born in the 50's and 60's, they had known nothing but the
Communist universe of North Vietnam. They thought the way propaganda
had taught them. Thus, there was no surprise when a young and naive
military of the North thought that South Vietnam was still in the
prehistoric stage and that his duty was to educate the people of the
South about the most basic rules of hygiene, clothing fineness, and
good behavior.
Concerning the beating and torture that lead to death, Buu Lich said he
would only cite a case of which he was an witness. That day, in the
Camp of Hoc Mon, a reeducated detainee, became delirious out of a high
fever, and in a loud voice, provoked the Communist military. He
insulted Ho Chi Minh, Vo Nguyen Giap, Truong Chinh, Pham Van Dong for
having invaded the South and engulfed the Vietnamese people into
slavery, starvation, and misfortune. He was immediately led to a
container. He was beaten up by the crosshead of the gun all night. In
the morning, he expired (Buu Lich, 1984: 10-11 ).
Separate Confinement
Vo Dai Ton described how he was under separate confinement at Thanh
Liet camp:
Each inmate was detained in a cell. His hands were not shackled, but
his feet were kept in fetters. His mouth might be stuffed with a piece
of rubber fastened by a string that is pulled toward the back of his
head and kept by a lock. In this way, the inmate could not cry out. The
security police in Hanoi and in prison have techniques of torture
without causing death. Their beating cause internal injury that is
serious enough to gradually wear out the inmate's bodily strength so
that within several days of recovery the inmate would be resistant
enough for the next beating. They did not apply electric shock; they
tied up the inmate, cornered him to the wall, forced his head down to
the ground, kicked and trampled on him. Fettering inmates' feet,
cutting daily food ration, and starving of inmates are common practices.
The bitterest and cruelest torture was loneliness. Vo Dai Ton said that
for more than 10 years he had been under solitary detention, he had
never allowed to any activity, even a simplest one. Day and night, he
was scooped up alone in the cell. Time of emptiness appeared endless,
exerting on one's nerves, and making one lose one's mind and become
insane. As always, the food ration remained the same--rice and salt.
Tediousness and despair were always in pair, really! In addition, the
inmates were also toyed with psychological and sentimental tricks. They
were never allowed to write to their families. No news from home! Every
now and then, they show you pictures of your wife and children. Then,
they put them away again, just to corrupt your mind! (Vo Dai Ton, 1993:
191).
Pham Sy recalled:
I became blind during the days I was under separate confinement. I was
cooped up in a tight-shut cell, 1.8m long and 0.6m wide. It was
pitch-dark inside. My eyes got so accustomed to the darkness that I
lost my eyesight when I came out again into sunlight. It was a kind of
special cell. The floor was paved with cement which was glazed with
salt. When it is hot, the floor moistens, sweating your body with ache
and drying your throat. A prisoner under separate confinement, with his
hands and feet tied crosswise to the back, could only lie on his
stomach. He wasn't allowed to have visitors. Each day he was given only
a small bowl of rice and a lot of water mixed with salt. The more one
drinks it the more the stomach becomes protruded. At Phu Dong Mo and
Thien Lanh Camp (Quang Nam Province, Central Vietnam), prisoners under
separate confinement were fettered in groups of five. In such extreme
conditions, I don't know how many of them could survive (Van Chuong, 10
(June 1992).
Nhat Tran, who was arrested and charged with masterminding activities
against the Communist rule, noted that the Vietnamese people in the
South writhed with pain when seeing their homeland falling into the
hands of the North Vietnamese Communists. The so-called 'national
reunification,' was, in their views, an invasion.
Upon seizing power in the South, the Communists said that they would
practice a "policy of leniency" towards officials and officers of the
old regime. In reality, they treated them as "debtors of blood to the
people." They summoned them to "reeducation" camps set up in regions
far from the cities. In Saigon, Phan Dang Luu prison became a
concentration camp. Thousands of political prisoners, arbitrarily
labeled as "reactionaries," were arrested and confined without trials.
Being accused of "activating" subversive dissidence against the regime,
Nhat Tran, as many other prisoners, was tortured and cooped up in a
dark cell with his hands and feet tied behind his back for many months.
Interrogations were conducted day and night. Many prisoners died during
these interrogations because of savage torture. After that, the
prisoners are often transferred to a concentration camp for
"reeducation" and forced labor, whether he is guilty or not. There is
seldom a trial. Nevertheless, he is considered a convict. At camp, they
are tacitly "reeducation" camp detainees. The people in the North are
fearful of such term! There will be no fixed term of detention for a
person who is under "reeducation." A man's life at camp is worthless.
During the time Nhat Tran was detained at Quyet Tien camp, which is
known as Cong Troi (Gate to Heaven), in Hoang Lien Son, a cadre once
told him: "Your life is only worth a sheet of paper of a student's
notebook." He only told the truth. The Communists don't kill prisoners.
They only starve them and enslave them into hopelessness, instilling in
them the idea that they will never be released. Many healthy prisoners
became insane and died of hopelessness (Nguyen Tri, 14 (December 1992).
(continued)
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