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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 33 No. 11. 22 July 1970

Saigon Govt. Repressive

page 4

Saigon Govt. Repressive

"Students in Saigon who do not pass their exams are drafted into the army. Students who protest are taken to the front and used as unarmed messengers or decoys."

This statement was made by Mr Brian Brooks, a senior lecturer in law at Auckland University at a press conference at Wellington Airport on 14 July.

Saigon Govt. Repressive banner

Mr Brooks is one of a group of three New Zealanders who have recently returned from a fact finding visit to South Vietnam. The other two are Rev. D. Borne, General Secretary for the New Zealand Student Christian Movement, and Mr T. Dyce, past-President of the University Catholic Society.

Elaborating on his statement Mr Brooks said that students find it hard to pass exams as they have to serve two months of military training during the year. "Students who protest are either drafted or put in Con Son prison," he said.

Rev. Don Borrie claimed that the police use a "secret weapon" in order to break up demonstrations. "They fire a cylindric aluminium tube at the demonstrators. The tube skids across the ground for about thirty yards and then explodes, often breaking demonstrators legs," he said. He said that the Saigon police use the strongest tear gas in existence.

Mr Dyce said that students are tried by military field courts, with no jury, counsel, or right of appeal. "These courts have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, but the ruling is ignored by the Saigon government."

Mr Dyce went on to say that one student, who had written, in the Government's opinion, a subversive song, was given five months' hard labour.

The party endeavoured to visit Con Son prison (which is the prison of the current tiger cage controversy) but their request to do so was refused consideration. The group did, however, meet people who had been detained in 'tiger cages' and the group was certain that such cages exist.

Mr Brooks said that interviews in Saigon were arranged for them by the fellowship of Reconciliation, members of which are engaged in aid work in South Vietnam and have formed close links with Buddhist and University leaders there.

"People who we interviewed can't be identified as we would jeopardise their existence." he said.

The three claimed they had been followed by secret police during their week in South Vietnam. Their hotel, they said, was also watched, and on one occasion the people they were going to interview failed to turn up as they had been "scared off" by the presence of secret police outside the hotel. There were also indications that their hotel room was bugged.

Mr Brooks said that the people interviewed consisted of a broad spectrum of occupations, and that they did not hold polarized opinions. "There is an important middle group who want an end to the war and a return to a democratic form of government. Communism is a non-issue in South Vietnam," he said.

These middle people, continued Mr Brooks, include trade unionists, students, Buddhists, Catholics, lawyers and bankers.

Mr Brooks stated that "the economy of South Vietnam is shot—inflation has increased by 30%, and agricultural production has decreased by 50%. American aid is now the economy." He added that he did not see any evidence that American economic aid had been given to the people. "The housing problem is shocking," he said.

Mr Brooks also claimed that by the Constitution peace groups are unable to form a political party. By way of illustration he referred to a Buddhist lawyer who was a peace candidate at the last election. He was struck off the ballot roll and put in prison. He also heard of a case where a Catholic lawyer had been prevented from participating in the election because there were allegedly too many Catholic candidates.

Mr Dyce said he had interviewed the head of the Vietnamese Federation of Labour. Even though he was a Government appointee and supporter of the war he had admitted "that torture was very bad, and that the Government had failed to obtain the support of the people."

Mr Dyce said he was struck by the fact that the "ordinary people loathe the American presence in South Vietnam. I spoke to some peasants who were working in a paddy field. They mistook me for an American and told me to go back and tell my fellow countrymen to get their troops out of Vietnam," he said.

Mr Dyce maintained that some students had joined the NLF rather than be drafted. But he added that Saigon students generally "don't want to be forced into any camp, and they regard themselves as Vietnamese and not Communists, as Ambassador Bunker and the Saigon Government claims." He claimed that there is a complete mixing of North and South Vietnamese in South Vietnam, and that many of the NLF are South Vietnamese people.

At the conference a press statement was read out. Some of the claims made in the statement were:

There is a wide range of Vietnamese people who have a passionate desire for peace and who are opposed to the foreign presence in their country.

There is widespread opposition to the Saigon Government.

The Vietnamese resent being forced to fight Vietnamese.

There is a campaign of repression on the part of the Saigon Government and the Americans. Saigon is a police state; at the moment there are 89,000 police and provision has been made for 122,000 by the end of the year.

There are serious infringements of human rights in South Vietnam: any newspaper that attempts to speak out against the Thieu Government is confiscated. Political suspects can be imprisoned without trial for up to two years and Police have tortured students who had protested against the Government and forced them to sign statements admitting that they were communists.

All those who oppose the Saigon Government are branded as communists.

Universities enjoy no autonomy: police can raid them whenever they like.

Student protesters are drafted into the army or imprisoned.

All protest is illegal.

The quest for peace has united traditional rival groups. Catholic priests, Buddhist monks have formed up with the students to form an anti-war coalition.