Hung from the ceiling and beaten by police — a rare glimpse into the treatment of Vietnam’s political prisoners

Beatings, solitary confinement, enforced disappearances and denial of medical treatment is the harsh reality for Vietnam’s political prisoners. This image shows non-political prisoners in a local jail in the suburbs of Hanoi. Picture: AFP/HOANG DINH NAM

The beatings were carried out with sticks, rubber tubes, punches and kicks. The authorities used electric shocks and lit a piece of paper and ran it along the length of his leg, burning his skin. They asked him to assume painful stress positions for eight hours at a time.

news.com.au | Jul 13, 2016

DURING the first 10 months of Dar’s five-year detention, he was kept in solitary confinement in a tiny cell, in total darkness and complete silence. For the first two months, he was hauled from his cell each day to be interrogated and beaten.

Dar, an indigenous man from Vietnam’s central highlands, was arrested for organising peaceful demonstrations over religious freedom and human rights.

For the first three months after his arrest, his family believed that he had been killed by the authorities, his body dumped in the jungle. He was tried and convicted without legal representation and without his family present.

Prisoners at Hoang Tien prison in the Chi Linh district. A conservative estimate puts the current number of political prisoners in Vietnam at 84. Picture: AFP/HOANG DINH NamSource:Supplied

The beatings were carried out with sticks, rubber tubes, punches and kicks. The authorities used electric shocks and lit a piece of paper and ran it along the length of his leg, burning his skin. They asked him to assume painful stress positions for eight hours at a time.

On one occasion, he was hung from the ceiling by his arms for 15 minutes while the police beat him. The police officers would sometimes resume their beatings in the middle of night, when they stormed into his cell, apparently drunk.

His story is not unique. Beatings, solitary confinement, enforced disappearances and denial of medical treatment is the harsh reality for Vietnam’s political prisoners.

A new report by Amnesty International, Prisons within Prisons: Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of conscience in Viet Nam, offers a rare glimpse into the torture and traumatic treatment of political prisoners locked up in Vietnam’s secretive network of prisons and detention centres.

So secret is the detention of these prisoners that Amnesty International wasn’t even able to enter the country to gather information for their report. Hours of interviews had to be conducted over the phone.
The former prisoners spoken to were jailed for taking a stance on human rights issues, whether that be writing a blog, or organising a peaceful rally — a freedom of speech that many Australians take for granted.

“Regardless of what someone’s background is and the issue they are working on — some of them might be lawyers, some might be bloggers — ultimately they are all detained and convicted for the same reason and that is for challenging the authority and the interests of the communist party,” John Coughlan, the Amnesty International researcher for Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, told News Corp Australia.

“There are 84 prisoners of conscience currently behind bars, and that’s a very conservative estimate, and these individuals, human rights defenders and peace activists, are regularly beaten up and viciously assaulted on the streets by men who are known to be or believed to be police.”

Many of the former prisoners told Amnesty International their torture and treatment was particularly intense during pre-trial detention, as authorities aimed to extract a confession.

They were also subjected to abuse from anywhere between a month to two years.

Tạ Phong Tần, who was imprisoned for her blogging and advocacy activities, told Amnesty International that during her four years in prison, only her sister was allowed to visit her. After being denied access twice, on 30 July 2012 Tần’s mother, Đặng Thị Kim Liêng, self-immolated in front of a government office in protest, dying as a result of her burns.

Chau Heng, an indigenous land rights activist, told Amnesty International that during four months of detention without any communication prior to his trial, he was not only beaten unconscious several times, but also injected with unknown drugs at least twice which caused memory loss, rendering him unconscious and unable to speak or think clearly.

When he was taken to see the prison doctor, he opened his mouth to gesture that he could not speak. “The doctor hit me in the mouth with a round piece of hard rubber. He knocked my teeth out, including a wisdom tooth. I lost so much blood I passed out again,” Heng said.

When not kept in isolation prisoners have also been left vulnerable to abuse by fellow inmates.

A number of former political prisoners said they were cramped into small cells, where other prisoners known as “antennae” were believed to have colluded with prison authorities and incited to attack them. This kept them under the constant threat of imminent violence.

Two former prisoners interviewed for the report were also not told that their mothers had passed away, and were denied the chance to attend the funeral or mourn with their families.

“Most of them [prisoners] are also subjected to periods of probation after release so a period of up to around five years where they can’t leave their district so even after prison they continue to have severe constraints on their personal liberty,” Coughlan said.

“Vietnam ratified the UN Convention against Torture in 2015. This in itself is not enough. In order to meet its human rights obligations, the authorities must introduce reforms in line with international law and ensure accountability for torture and ill treatment,” Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International’s Director for South East Asia and the Pacific said.

Amnesty has also urged the Australian Government to act on the abuse.

They have urged the Australian Government to press the country to release political prisoners and pending release, to hold prisoners in conditions that meet international standards and to allow access to medical care, family, lawyers and diplomatic representatives.

“Australia has a particular role to play in calling for the release of Vietnamese prisoners of conscience, as it is a key aid and trade partner for the country — Australia gives over $80 million per year in Official Development Assistance to Vietnam, and Vietnam is ranked 14th of Australia’s two way trading partners. Additionally, many Australians holiday in Vietnam each year, and there is a large Vietnamese diaspora community in Australia,” an Amnesty spokesperson told News Corp Australia.

When contacted by News Corp Australia, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Australian Government is committed to working with the Government of Vietnam to improve human rights.

“Australia has continued to express concern over the human rights situation in Vietnam in both the formal structure of the annual Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue, and through ongoing representations and discussions as part of our regular interactions with Vietnamese authorities,” Bishop said.

“The 13th Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue will be held in Hanoi on 4 August 2016. This will be an important opportunity to discuss practical ways to strengthen our engagement on human rights issues and raise human rights concerns, including cases of concern, the treatment and welfare of prisoners, and implementation of international human rights standards.”

Coughlan said for their part Vietnam does seem to have a genuineness to change their ways.

“However people are still being arrested, people are still being beaten up on the street,” he said.

“We’re hearing a lot of the right sounds but on the other hand we are still seeing a lot of the same behaviour.”