THE NATIONAL RESTORATION MOVEMENT
By Van Nguyen
Upon
completing the takeover of the Capital City of Saigon, the communist administration
upstaged campaigns f0r pacification destroying the remnants and vestiges of
American imperialists and their henchmen, dismantling and outlawed all
institutions of the suprstructue and bases of the infrastructure of the South. Leaders of various cultural, religious,
political, and social institutions, personalities and intellectuals of various professional
groups, the personnel of the old administration, and other concerned individuals
from all walks of life met in secret and pledged to serve national integrity,
sovereignty, and independence, struggling against the brutal oppression and
repression of the communist regime. Among them were veteran members of the National
Party for Restoration of Vietnam (Viet Nam Phuc Quoc Dong Minh Hoi) that had
operated under the spiritual leadership of Prince Cuong De and the patriot Phan
Boi Chau during French domination. Symbolized
as pillars of the alliance were Nguyen Phuoc Cuong Hung, Phan Vo Ky, Ho Tan
Khoa, Ta Quang Hoi alias Ta Nguyen Minh, Hoc Nang Nguyen Van Phat, Doan Viet Nhan, Pham Quoc Bao, Tran Van Ha,
Nguyen Van Thai alias Thai Nam, Gian Chi Nguyen Huu Van, Nguyen Van Dinh al,
Nguyen Van Diem alias Ly Thai Nhu, Vu Toan Tu, Tran Thanh Dinh, Tran Huy Phong,
Tran Trieu Viet alias Tran Viet Son, Le
Quoc Tuy, Dinh Van Trinh alias Nguyen Ly Cao Nhan, and others.
Certain fractions in the alliance committed themselves to a struggle in all
forms, militarily and politically, for a free, non-aligned, and independent Vietnam.
They formed the “Mat Tran Thong Nhat
Toan Luc Quoc Gia” (The Unite Front of National Forces). The principles and
methods for operation varied with each affiliated organ’s potential human and
material resources, initiatives, means, situations and circumstances. Cooperation
and coordination were the broad criteria for action among and between various
elements of the same organ and members of different lines of organization. The
Fronts militants engaged the communists, mostly in and around the western
Bassac River provinces. The military components of the Front suffered
disbandment in 1980, subsequent to frequent attacks by the communist security forces
in Rach Gia under the direction of Nguyen Tan Dung. Other underground
anti-communist groups or individuals operating elsewhere also sustained great
losses due to lack of material resources. Many of them operated on their own
initiatives, and some of them were still active until the later times.
The Washing Area League for Human Rights (1978)
published two important documents, the Disinherited Vietnamese's Manifesto
signed by eight public figures and the Testament of Patriotic Prisoners in
Vietnam drafted by Dinh Huy Binh and endorsed by 49 prominent political
prisoners, among whom were 82-year-old revolutionary scholar Phan Vo Ky,
imprisoned by the French; 80-yearold nationalist revolutionary Ta Nguyen Minh,
16 times imprisoned by the French, Diem, Thieu, and Communist governments;
Father Tran Huu Thanh, President of the Anti-Corruption Movement under Thieu;
80-year old nationalist revolutionary Nguyen Van Thang, 4 times imprisoned by
the French, Diem, and Communist governments;. The lawyer Tran Van Tuyen; and
the lawyer Vu Dang Dung, President of the Lawyers Association; Professor Mai
Van Le, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Hue University. The Testament denounces:
“We,
workers, peasants, proletarians, clergymen, artists, writers, and patriotic
intellectuals, presently detained in various prisons in Vietnam, wish, first of
all, to express our warmest thanks to progressive movements all over the world,
all struggling movements of workers and intellectuals; and all those who, over
the past decade, have supported
movements fighting for human rights in Vietnam, and for the freedom and democracy
of exploited and oppressed Vietnamese.
In the name of
our belief in a just cause, we want to alert you, our justice and
freedom-loving friends, as well as international opinion, to a policy of
imprisonment never before applied in the history of mankind and the cruelty of
which no one can measure, a planned cruelty imposed on prisoners in all prisons
throughout Vietnam. In fact, apart from 400,000 soldiers, officers, and civil
servants of the former Government now serving the sentences in the
concentration camps, the present Communist Government has detained close to
400,000 people from other walks of life: laborers, peasants, workers, patriotic
intellectuals whose past is in no way, have connected with the former puppet
Government in Saigon, and, who, on the contrary, have achieved a certain
notoriety among the people for their past struggle for peace.
In fact,
shaken in the face of massive opposition from all social levels, the Security
forces of the current Government has indiscriminately imprisoned old people,
women and invalids. It has also detained without the least hesitation the mad,
children, and even the newly-born. Among thousands of cases, we can cite the
arrest of the journalist Doan Ke Tuong, his wife, and-day-old baby, the
journalist Dang Giao, secretary-general of the daily journal Song his wife and
7-day-old baby, Mr. Phan Vo Ky, 82 years old, secretary-general of the High
Council of Religions in Vietnam, the Venerable Thich Quang Do,
secretary-general of the Unified Buddhist Church in Vietnam (An Quang Pagoda), Reverend Nguyen
Van Bo, director of the Fatima Diocese, Saigon, and so on.
On the other
hand, despite the already impressive number of persons left by the Thieu
Government. The existence of which at one time was severely condemned by
international opinion, the Communist Government can no longer find enough room to
incarcerate their numerous prisoners. Apart from the accelerated construction
of new prisons, the Secret Police has hastily had to transform schools, hotels,
office buildings and even orphanages into prisons. And such has been the case
with Hotel Dai Nam, Dai Loi Building in central Saigon, and Long Thanh
Orphanage.
.... In this
moment of agony, we, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese prisoners, appeal to
you to intervene in Viet Nam through all means to terminate immediately this
situation--and this medieval cruelty of the present Government.
The
holocaust of the Jews in 1945 dying in the crematoria was an enormous wound for
humanity. But in Vietnam hundreds of thousands of people are tortured,
oppressed and living in perpetual anguish, dragging out their lives in
suffering and madness. If it is true that humanity today retreats in fear
before the growth of communism, and above all the so-called 'invincibility' of
Vietnamese Communists who have defeated the all-powerful American imperialism,
then, we, prisoners in Vietnam, request the International Red Cross, world
humanitarian organizations, and men of good will, to send each of us urgently a
dose of cyanide so that we may end our suffering and our humiliation. We want
to die at once. Help us to do this. Help us to die at once. We shall be
eternally grateful to you (Washington League for Human Rights, 1978:
10).
Sources inside
Vietnam reported that right after the Communist takeover of South Vietnam,
numerous members of organizations operated anticommunist activities clandestinely
inside the country. Many were listed as reactionaries. They were arrested and
convicted on charges of "activities aimed at overthrowing the
government."
Tran Tu Thanh, secretary-general of the League for the
Protection of Civil Rights, published four lists of political prisoners who
were detained in prisons and reeducation camps. Twenty-six (26) prisoners were
detained in Ba Ria-Vung Tau; eighty-three (83) in the camps Z30A (K1) and Z30B
(K2), Xuan Loc District, 52 (62.65%) of whom served life imprisonment sentence
and 20-25 years' imprisonment sentence; one hundred and one (101), 37 of whom
(46.98%) served life imprisonment sentence and 20-25 years' imprisonment
sentence in camps Z30D (K1) Ham Tan District, Thuan Hai Province; and two
hundred forty-three (243), 167 of whom (68.72%) served life imprisonment
sentence and 20-25 years' imprisonment in camps A20, A30, and HT1780, Xuan
Phuoc District, Phu Yen Province.
The veteran political prisoner Nguyen Khac Chinh compiled
a list of 105 political dissidents who were detained at Ham Tan Camp. Among
them were: Dinh Cong Anh, Caodaist Le Cong Can, Professor at Can Tho
University; the Reverend Tran Cong Chuc, Catholic priest; Venerable Dong Van
Kha, Buddhist monk; Reverend Tran Khac Kinh, Catholic priest; Reverend Nguyen
Van Thin; Catholic priest Reverend Do Tri Thuyen, Catholic priest; Ho Van Ba,
Nguyen Trung Truc RVN Army; Phan Xuan
Ba, Anti-Communist Patriots' Front; Phan Van Cau, National Self-Determination
Front; Phan Dinh Hieu, Vietnam National Party; Huynh Van Chon, Vietnam
Patriots' Front; Nguyen Van Chung, Vietnam National Revolutionary Party; Nguyen
Van Danh, Youth Organization for National Restoration; Huynh Van Dung, Front
for Freedom and National Salvation; Huynh Van Dong, Front for National
Security; Nguyen Van Duc, Black Dragon Organization; Nguyen Huu Duc, Bao Long
National Restoration; Nguyen Van Duc, Human Rights Front; Nguyen Van Hoanh,
Front for National Restoration; Bui Hoa, Civilian and Military Front for
National Restoration; Le Van Mon, National Restoration Army; Ha Van Hang, Front for National Restoration;
and Bui Xuan Phuong, National Revolutionary Movement.