VIETNAM 10,000 STILL IN 'REEDUCATION' CAMPS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000200730008-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: April 23, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST^T
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-R
LRSZCLE AFFZA M
Old PAGEA -I__-
* * * EXCERPTED
WASHINGTON POST
23 April 1985
people, for slaughter and for war crimes" by merely
sending them to reeducation camps, he said.
"After the liberation we did not attempt to take re-
venge," Mai Chi Tho said. "We did not establish tribu-
nals or secretly execute them, even though some, are
war criminals and should have been punished like the
fascists in Europe" after World War II.
Explaining why these inmates still have not been
tried, Justice Minister Phan Hien said, "If we put them
on trial, they will risk a-death sentence, and we don't
want to have a bloodbath."
He also seemed to rule out a deal with Washington to
send- reeducation camp detainees to the United States,
although it was Vietnam that originally proposed the ar-,
rangement.
"I believe it is not wise to free somebody if you can,
foresee that this, guy will harm you afterward," Phan
Hien said in colloquial English. "We can't release them
if once they return to their villages or hometowns they,
create a danger for people in those places. And if now
we send them abroad, we must have the guarantee that
those people will not do harm to our interests. It is log.-
ital."
He said his response to the argument that demon-
strations a ainst the Vietnamese government cannot
prohibited under U.S. law was that "the CIA and t e
F I have the means to avoid those regrettable acts.".. Plian Hien said some of those released were recid-
ivists" who "committed crimes against the security of
the people" after they were freed.
As an example he cited the case of former prime min-
ister Nguyen Van Loc, who he said was released from a
reeducation camp after complaining that he was sick.
"He tried 16 times to go abroad by boat," Phan Hien
said, "and on the 16th time he succeeded. Then when
he was in Singapore he' made a statement. against us,
and he complained of ill treatment."
1
Asked why there was so much concern about su-CK-
statements, the justice minister replied, "The Vietnam-
ese are a people who don't want ingratitude in society.
We want people to be truthful and constant."= 7 =, '
Phan Hien insisted, however, that the number of "old
residents" in the camps, was diminishing "month by. -
month."
According to Mai Chi Tho, "30,000 former officers -
have been released from the camps, including four gen-
10,000 Still in `Reeducation' Camps
Although South, Vietnam fielded well-equipped armed
forces and local units by the end of the war totaling
more than 1 million men and including the world's
fourth-largest Air Force, the Communist takeover was
so complete that no counterrevolutionary- threat arose.
Instead, as many as 1 million former government of-
ficials, military men and others associated with the Sai-
gon government were sent to "reeducation" centers, ac-
cording to Hanoi's justice minister, most for a few days
or weeks.
"Not more than 10,000" inmates remain in the reed-
ucation camps, justice Minister Phan Hien said in an in-
terview in Hanoi. But he refused to say how many were
"old residents since 1975"-in other words, detainees
associated with the former government-and how
many were "newcomers not worth putting on trial."
Other estimates put the number of reeducation camp
inmates upward of 40,000.
In addition, nearly 1 million Vietnamese have fled the
country by various means-mostly by boat-since
1975, with almost half of them eventually resettling in
'the United States. The Vietnamese account for the bulk
of an Indochinese refugee exodus in the last 10 years
totaling about 1.6 million people, including Cambodians
and Laotians who have fled the Communist takeovers
and continued fighting in their homelands since 1975,
according to-the U.S. Committee for Refugees. .
Mai Chi Tho, the chairman of the People's Commit-
tee of Ho Chi Minh City and a senior Communist Party
official, blamed this "very' unhappy, complicated situ-
ation" on American "economic, political and propaganda
measures" directed against Vietnam.
"American propaganda ? made a great fuss about a
bloodbath aimed at getting revenge against all those
who collaborated with U.S. imperialism," he said this
month in a news conference. But Hanoi showed lenien-
cy toward those "responsible for the suffering of our
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200730008-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200730008-5
a.
erals," but he did not mention over what period. He
blamed Peking for some prolonged detentions.
"The release of those people would have been much
ea if we were not faced with the hostility of the
Ch~se authorities," he said, without elaborating.
any case, Mai Chi Tho said, "at present, all our en-
emie$ fiave been wiped out of Vietnam," This has
"helped the reunification of our country a lot,! he said.
"We don't have any antigovernment guerrillas as in
other countries in the area," Mai Chi Tho added. "We
have no public demonstrations against the policies of
the government. This means our security is pretty
good."
Some of the regime's detractors here also think it
means that the Communists run a fairly efficient police
state.
Certainly, the system of informers and surveillance is
so well developed that no antigovernment plots here
have been able to get off the ground. Last November,
for example, after a show trial in Ho Chi Minh City, 21
persons were convicted of espionage and attempting to
overthrow the government with the help of China,
Thailand and the United States. But the trial revealed
that, although they did appear to be involved in some
kind of antigovernment activity, they had not yet corn-
mitted any actual act of violence.
Three of the men were later executed, two had their
death sentences commuted. to life imprisonment, and
the rest received jail terms. The trial was widely. inter-
preted here as a warning to southerners to toe the
Communist line.
Montagnards in Highlands Still Fight---;.7.
Other, less publicized trials have raised questions
about the extent of resistance activity. In December,
for instance, three men were tried in Song Be Province
for allegedly organizing underground military activity'
within a reeducation camp, diplomats said. They are be=
lieved to have been executed, although no announce-
ment has been made, the diplomats said.
So far, the main armed resistance actions in the
south have been attributed to Montagnards in the Cen-
tral Highlands belonging to an organization called the
United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races,
known as FULRO.
-!`in an a arent reference to the itroup, Hoang Tun
a spokesman for the Communist Party secretariat. said
in Hanoi recently that "elements who worked for the
fatmer re e m e sou and are now the reserve.
force of the CIA and China, are actively trying create
internal disorder in our society-7
As part of a U.79. postwar scheme against us in the
south," Hoang Tung said, small tribal groups'"supplied
_by China through Thailand" were "operating here and
there" to carry out sabotage.
X At night they will attack a village to seize property
kill people," he said. "Sometimes they will ambush a
car or a truck, but never a. troop position."
EXCERPT Q
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200730008-5