Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 9. 1ts May 1973
Black Lists of political activists prepared
Black Lists of political activists prepared
The form of identification suggests what the North Vietnamese have called "the white book" of opponents marked for assassination. The Washington Post report notes: "In some provinces, every family has been photographed as a unit ... That photograph is held by the Government, and the presence of extra people in the house, or the absence of people in the photograph who cannot be accounted for, is taken as proof of unlawful activity. In other areas a colour-coding system is used, with each family designated by a colour showing the degreee of loyalty to the Government—a determination that local officials have wide latitude in making".
When Wilfred Burchett was in New Zealand at the beginning of April, he reported that a number of Vietnamese exiles had arrived in Paris with documents showing that the Thieu regime had drawn up black lists of political activists marked down for execution, just as the Nazis towards the end of World War II, shot all those they thought would become political activists after the war was over.
Burchett pointed out that Thieu is not only violating the Peace Agreement by failing to comply with the provision for the release of political prisoners by the end of April, but that he is also trying to sabotage the Agreement by eliminating the neutralist forces, one of the three political forces recognised in the Agreement.
Since the beginning of the Vietnam war world attention has been focused on the military conflict. The fate of Thieu's political opposition in the south has largely been ignored. But now the political future of South Vietnam depends to an important extent on the fate of the political prisoners.
We must demand that the Thieu regime releases the prisoners and stops violating the Peace Agreement, and that the New Zealand Government puts pressure on Thieu to do this. Mr Kirk, Mr Walding, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs still claim there are only 21,000 political prisoners in the south. The New Zealand people will have to wake them up to the seriousness of the situation.
The material on political prisoners in this supplement is based on 'Resource Dossier Number I' of the South East Asia Committee, based in Sydney. The primary objective of the committee is to provide 'a factual basis o for an evaluation of the issues involved in South East Asian politics, especially concerning political prisoners, and to provide, as far as possible, an explanation of the circumstances of South East Asia by way of theoretical analysis'.
"The regime is inhuman. Although Article 7, paragraph 5 (of the South Vietnamese Constitution) stipulates: 'Nobody can be tortured, menaced, or forced to confess', on April 29 1970. an ordinance of the Supreme Court ordered the prosecution of students on the strength of evidence drawn from torture, menace and coercion. I have seen with my own eyes prisoners tied to benches and questioners pouring water, soapy water, sewage and urine into their mouths and noses under their bellies are swollen.
I have seen ropes and iron hooks hanging from ceilings for subjecting prisoners to a kind of strappado called 'airplane flying'. I have seen bloodstained prisoners supporting still bloodier ones by the armpits and helping them limp over from an interrogation room to a cell-block or court-room.
In these interrogation rooms, such trivial things as pins, wooden paper-weights, a length of electrical wire, or a water tank at night suddenly become torture instruments. Pins are driven into the detainee's fingertips, wooden blocks smashed on his head, electrodes applied to his ears, breasts and genitals . . .
They have invented this game: the detainee is put in a tank under a tap from which water falls in drops on his head for hours on end. He will feel as if his head was going to burst and may be driven insane. An official on a careless inspection will find everything quite normal: the water and soap for the detainee to wash, the electric wire for a stove, etc. But I have heard with my own ears the sinister sounds of water dripping, stifled screams, the thuds of blows or of human bodies collapsing on the cement floor . . ."
'(Extract from an article by Saigon Judge Tran Thuc Linh in Prisons in South Vietnam, published by the Movement of Catholics for Peace)
Refugees—Virtual Prisoners
Besides the prisoners and the rural and urban populations at large, the refugees in the cities are a major target for Thieu's repression. According to American sources they numbered 641,000 before the ceasefire, but at least 200,000 have been added since. "President Thieu is said to consider strict control of the people to be the most important task tor his regime in the uncertain ceasefire period. To allow a gradual slipping-away of refugees anxious to return to their native villages, he evidently believes, would loosen his control over the rest of the population", Washington Post January 24th, 1973)
The recent decree threatening arrest and/or shooting on the spot anyone who "urges the population to make trouble or leave zones under government control ..." follows an earlier report that freedom of movement will be curbed severely
in South Vietnam when the fighting stops Such a decree is a clear violation of Article 10 of the Agreement, which binds the two South Vietnamese parties to "ensure the democratic liberties of the people"
"Refugees and officials agree that the government has been unusually efficient in curbing whatever organised activity there has been in the camps for a return to communist-held areas. U. S. intelligence sources said that systematic sweeps of the enclosures have been made by troops and special police to arrest Communist agents and sympathisers identified by informers". (Intercontinental Press, February 5th)
The refugees, most of whom have no means of making a living, and who exist under the continuous watch of police and government troops are virtual prisoners. On this basis the estimated number of political prisoners in South Vietnam must be revised upwards. In addition to the 350,000 who are held in prisons, there are at least 641,000 held tinder armed guard against their will in places known by the more attractive name of "relocation centres".