Chuong informed her that at the moment all the political prisoners had been transferred to a new unit positioned beside Camp 2 – of Z30 A. Amongst them is Vo Minh Tri (or Viet Khang); many other political prisoners from Camp 1 also been transferred to this new unit.
New prison division for new torturing system
According to Doan Huy Chuong when he was visited by his wife: The security police detains political prisoners as if they were “crickets”; their cells are similar to a cricket box: tiny, extremely hot, causing them problems with breathing and sleeping.
Chuong added “Security has been extremely harsh to everyone, as if they were still in the interrogative stage. Song Writer Viet Khang could not sleep for many days in this torturous environment after being transferred to this new unit. The transfer occurred a week ago.
Tuong Manh said that Doan Huy Chuong has had stomach aches and breathing difficulty, and showed symptoms of heart problems. When Chuong was talking about his life in the prison and about his own health, the prison warden cut him off.
Following is Tuong Manh’s account after she left the prison camp:
I myself used to be imprisoned in Z30 Prison for many years. So when I heard Tuong Manh’s story I knew straight away that the prison has been using “soft torture” tactics. These cause many living difficulties, which directly impact on the prisoner’s health.
Right now the prisoners have been isolated as if they were in the interrogative stage, each room containing two or three people. It is hard to talk to the people next door as the prison authorities have already built thick concrete 4 meter high walls between the cells. In the time I had been there, we all joked that we were “in a prison inside a prison”. That’s true, our cells were enclosed between the two layers of concrete walls, with the outer wall more than 6 metres in height.
When the 5pm gong rang, all prisoners were returned to their confined cells, behind another iron door. So we were kept behind three concrete walls altogether.
More than five years has passed since the day I was released from the prison, the world has changed a lot…
Today, Vietnam is a member of The United Nations Human Rights Council, and not too long since, the Vietnamese Government has already signed the Convention Against Torture. But towards their own people, towards their own political dissidents, the Vietnamese Communist Authorities’ harsh treatment and varied forms of torture remain unchanged.
There are some big questions regarding whether the Vietnamese Communist Authorities deserve their new role, and if they are capable of knowing right from wrong.
