THE OPPOSITION

THE OPPOSITION

By Van Nguyen

  After the takeover of Saigon, the communist administration executed strict measures to eliminate “the remnants of American imperialism and the puppet government.”   Cadres and servicemen of A 16 in Saigon and other provinces were given orders to sweep off any opposition that might arise. They ought to eradicate then quickly and cleanly, punished them mercilessly at their very bases or sent them to reeducation. All political organizations affiliated with the American imperialism and the puppet government had to be destroyed. This campaign for pacification was carried out in line with the XI and II2 operations expropriating all Churches’ properties and closing all their abbeys, seminaries, and cultural, humanitarian, and educational establishments.

    Non-cooperation and Sabotage

Political security control was rather inefficacious. On September 3, 1975, reports to the General Security Directorate revealed that only a small number of personnel of the old regime at the base registered for reeducation. The “gang of military chaplains” was thin. Only 2/1,000 chaplains, 46/150 psycho-warfare officers, 142/100 intelligence agents, and so on   presented themselves in person. During the first phase, only 4,800/10,200 reactionaries registered themselves for reeducation. Arrests were affected to deal not only with the reactionary elements serving in the administration and the military but also elements in the cultural social and political organizations in the South.   

In fact, right after the fall of Saigon, multifarious anti-communist groups were voluntarily associated with one another to fight back the communist administration. They operated clandestinely inside the city and in the suburban areas, largely in Catholic parishes in Tan Binh, Phu Nhuan, and Thu Duc. One of the most active group was the Dan Quan Phuc Quoc (Civil and Military National Restoration) led by Nguyen Viet Hung. Their activities targeted individual cadres and troopers stationing in each street post or ward military headquarters with sabotage. On February 10, 1976, Nguyen Viet Hung, the leader of the group was arrested.  His men dispersed, but continued to fight.

  On February 13, 1976, the security forces of Ho Chi Minh City launched attacks on the Vinh Son Cathedral on Tran Quoc Toan Street. Gun fires exchanged. The security overwhelmed the cathedral, seized radios and loudspeakers, printed materials, and other properties. The Catholic priests Nguyen Quang Minh, Nguyen Huu Nghi and three collaborators were arrested. The attack on a Catholic cathedral aroused awe amid full appropriation of the Catholic Church’s properties.

Clashes exploded openly. The explosion at Ho Con Rua (Tortoise Square) was most phenomenal. The place is a historic sight constructed by the French administration in 1878. The incident was t raised concern over the new administration’s capacity to secure the peace and order in the city. The explosion remained a mystery, Authorities failed to bring into light the evidence or proof of whether or not the incident is an act of wishful sabotage.  It caused one dead and four injured. The official journal Saigon Giai Phong (Saigon Liberated), on April 3, 1976, ran a short paragraph, accusing the reactionaries for vile acts of sabotage to cause public disorder and insecurity. It announced that authorities had laid hands on the criminals, but produced no proof of the sabotage   Twenty-four hours after the explosion, the poet Tran Da Tu and his wife, the female writer Nha Ca were arrested. On the same night; two other writer, Trinh Viet Thanh and Nguyen Manh Con were detained. A mass arrest of waters lasted until April 28 1976. Doan Quoc Sy, Duyen Anh, Mai Thao, Vu Hoang Chuong, Nguyen Sy Te, Hoang Hai Thuy, Duong Hung Cuong, Duong Nghiem Mau, Nhu Phong Le Van Tien, Khuat Duy Trac, and many other writers and intellectuals were one by one arrested. The writer Nguyen Manh Con, the novelist Duong Hung Cuong, the writer Nguyen Hoat, the scholar Ho Huu Tuong, the poet Vu Hoang Chuong, the film actor Kha Nang, and the essayist Le Khai Trach died in prison.

In reality, the people in the South, in general, had an aversion for “the Revolution.” Opposition to it was commonplace. The administration opened attacks on the “hangouts” of the reactionaries. On April 6, 1976, the authorities killed six reactionaries in an operation in the area of Tung Nghia, Lam Domg Province. The leader Tran Duy Ninh and eight other reactionaries were taken alive. On April 8, 1975, 43 targets in Saigon were eliminated across the board.   Operations for pacification prior to after a big event, the general sections day, for example, mass arrests of people for unfounded reasons still occurred. Until his release from a reeducation camp or prisons, “the criminal did not understand for what reason he committed a crime.  

   After April 1975, prominent politicians and leaders of political paties in the South were the primary target of elimination. Among them were the former prime-minister Phan Huy Quat, the leader of the National Party Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang Vu Hong Khanh, the leader of Greater National Party Dai Viet Tran Trieu Viet alias Tran Viet Son, the leader of Greater Social National Party Dai Viet Quoc Gia Xa Hoi Ta Nguyen Minhl, and the prominent member of the Greater Viet National Party Duy Dan Tran Thanh Dinh.  Three last leaders of the Association of Lawyers of the Republic of Vietnam--Tran Van Tuyen, Ly Van Hiep, and Vu Dang Dung--became prisoners of the Communists for their national cause. Tran Van Tuyen sacrificed himself in the Ha Son Binh reeducation camp in 1976; Ly Van Hiep was sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of propaganda against the regime presumably in 1981 or 1982. (The date was uncertain since the trial was conducted behind closed door). Vu Dang Dung spent 6 years in reeducation camp without a trial for his participation in the Lawyer Tran Danh San's organization of human rights activities.

     On April 18, 1977, two years after the fall of South Vietnam, the lawyer Tran Danh San openly read to the public the Disinherited Vietnamese's Manifesto on Human Rights in front of Saigon Cathedral. He was arrested and detained for 10 years without trial. During the first five years, he was lastingly put in fetters, which caused him disabled.  The lawyers Nguyen Huu Giao and Tran Nhat Tan were also detained for 10 years. The lawyer Trieu Ba Thiep and Vu Hung Cuong were detained for 6 years.  The lawyer Nguyen Huu Doan and the slate lawyer Nguyen Quy Anh were detained for 18 months. The first lawyer to be brought to stand trial in court was Nguyen Khac Chinh. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with forced hard labor on charges of "treason and activities intending to overthrow the people's administration. Members of the Saigon Association of Lawyers were coerced to attend ‘thought reform” programs. The association was outlawed, and those lawyers who refused to abide by the new law and order were detained and sent to reeducation camps.

  Demands for Respect for Freedom and Human Rights

 Personalities representing various social and political organizations continually denounced the Communist crimes and pledge to firmly struggle for the respect for freedom, democracy, and human rights for Vietnam. Typical of these denunciations is the manifesto signed by eight personalities, including Lawyer Tran Danh San, President of the Anti-militarist Progressive Youth Force in 1965; Professor Pham Bieu Tam, Vice-President of the Association of Patriotic Intellectuals; Professor Ton That Duong Ky, Vice-President of the National Liberation Front South Vietnam, banished to North Vietnam by the Saigon Government on March 19, 1965, for pacifist activities; Huynh Thanh Vi, President of the Vietnam Press Association; Lawyer Nguyen Huu Giao, Vice-President of the Students Union in 196; Lawyer Trieu Ba Thiep, President of the Students Struggle Committee; Lawyer Nguyen Huu Doan, Professor of the Saigon Students Union; and Professor Nguyen Van Thang, Secretary-general of the Saigon Students Union in 1969 rallied in a protest on April 18, 1977 to voice demands for freedom and human rights. Six of them read out a manifesto on the steps of Saigon Cathedral. The manifesto specified the utter tragedy these public figures suffered in excruciating terms as follows:

  

      “We, with what remains of our failing strength, with what remains of our mutilated spirits, resolve to struggle nonviolently for the respect of Human Rights in Vietnam. Our strength is diminished by hunger and privation. Our spirits are mutilated; with heads bowed and back bent, we must obey blindly, unconditionally, and irrevocably the orders of one Party and a tyrannical government we have chosen nonviolence, as it is the only way of avoiding the bloodshed and sacrifice of a people martyred relentlessly over the past decades.

Peasants of the world! Look at your brothers in Vietnam. The Vietnamese peasant labors in the sweltering heat of the tropics, at the mercy of nature, only to find fields is forced to spend his rare moments of leisure undergoing indoctrination lessons and senseless discussions. His harvest confiscated in the name of building a so-called "socialism." The water buffalo, after pulling the plough all day is allowed a few moments of rest.

Workers of the world! Imagine the working conditions of the Vietnamese laborer.  Forced to work all month long without hope of a different week, all week without hope of a different day, all day without hope of a different hour, he is to receive in the end nothing but a pittance of a wage and, on top of this, be obliged to declare that he is working of his own free will. He has to offer his sweat, blood, and tears to the Party leaders and, for propaganda's sake, must publicly proclaim that his acts are guided by the providence of the government, of the omniscient, all-clairvoyant Party. The most sacred right of the worker is the right to strike. In Vietnam, even this basic right has been denied.

  Clergymen, scientists, artists, and progressive intellectuals of the world! May all those praying in churches leave their prayers! May all those engrossed in their research come out of their laboratories! May all those who create break up their pens and throw away their brushes! All!  All! Look at the tragedy of Vietnam! A country where churches and pagodas are turned into indoctrination centers--where all principles, even the very laws of nature, are distorted to fit the regime's propaganda--where writers and journalists are forced to put their pens to the service of the Party and Government, to cover up the cruel errors they have committed.

All Vietnamese, whether they be peasants, workers, or intellectuals, have no other alternatives but to: - Resign to the inevitable and blindly obey the orders of this new race of peculators--Communist cadres--in order to receive a miserable wage, the meager crumbs of a meal and perish in despair; - Die of hunger and exhaustion in one of the many concentration camps that have been set up all over the country. The entire harvest of the peasants and all goods produced by the workers are taken over by the State and redistributed according to the State's own criteria.

We have seen: - Workers and peasants forced to work unpaid during their leisure hours for fear that their family's rice ration be cut and that they will die of hunger. - Old people and women feigning smiles and enthusiasm in meetings and gatherings for lack of enthusiasm can be punished by the refusal of rice rations and basic necessities for the whole family.- Prisoners who, even after their release, must keep silent, not daring to tell about the horrors they have seen in the prisons. They are haunted by the constant fear that if they are caught speaking out, their wives and children will be deprived of their rice rations and die of hunger. One might find the courage to sacrifice one's own life, but who can bear to see his loved ones sacrificed because of his own acts? This is the reason behind so many pathetic and unthinkable cases, such as the case of the father who, in order to ensure a proper rice ration for his son, urges his son to denounce him. Otherwise, both of them will die. This is only one of many, unimaginable to those who have not lived in Vietnam (e.g. a woman denouncing her husband, a man denouncing his own brother). Murdered or tortured to death. Moreover, the Government has confiscated all private property, even that of the workers who have been chased out of towns and now have to work on country sites and in the camps.

   

Intellectuals in the world! Wake up! The present regime uses food as a pressure to govern the people, compelling them to obey, breaking all resistance. Any individual thought, however constructive it may be, although it may never be put into action, is branded reactionary and can entail arbitrary imprisonment for he who dares express it. Those who run the Law Courts, the Police, representatives in the National Assembly are all, in fact, political cadres who follow the directives of the one Party. Whereas the propaganda machine grinds out principles of tolerance, humanity, freedom, and democracy, the reality is completely different. More than twenty percent of the former regime's officials detained in concentration camps have been

 Proletarians of the world! Wake up! To save the human being, this conscience is inherent in man; you must all struggle to put an end to the barbaric cruelty and the violation of human and civil rights by the government in Vietnam today. There is not a moment to lose, and, on the basis of clauses 13 and 63 of the United Nations Charter, you, progressive nations, governments, international organizations, and, particularly, U.N.O must intervene to end by all means this savage violation of human rights, this calculated extinction of liberties, this policy which reduces man to the state of an animal, resigning himself totally, blindly obeying orders.

Every hour that passes marks the death of thousands of people in concentration camps and prisons. Every day that passes is one more day of torture and suffering for millions of Vietnamese. They live in waiting for the outcry and action of humanists all over the world (The Washington Area League for Human Rights, 1978: 5-7).