Re-education in Vietnam Today
From: Stephen Denney
Date: Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 1:32 PM
Would anyone know if the re-education process is still applied in Vietnam and if so to what groups of people, and are they detained in centers? The re-education process, as applied to former RVN and ARVN officials, consisted of indefinite detention, release depending on one'e behavior rather than a fixed sentence; mandatory autobiographies or confessions, including denunciations of others who might be hiding from authorities; and labor as a way of proving one's merit. I wonder if some kind of re-education process, although not so severe, might be applied to those considered guilty of social crimes, such as prostitutes and drug addicts. My impression is that dissidents normally are either placed under house arrest or imprisoned and eventually tried under the criminal code.
Also, what happened to the major re-education camps that were used in Vietnam?
Steve Denney
library assistant
U.C. Berkeley
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From: Nguyen-Vo, Thu-Huong
Date: 2009/2/22
Dear Steve,
Drug addicts and sex workers are still sent to these centers for re-education which used to be called Trại Phục Hồi Nhân Phẩm for sex workers. Now they are variously called Truờng Giáo Dục Phụ Nữ, Trung Tâm Bảo Trợ Xã Hội, etc. Drug re-educartion is done in "trại cai nghiện," "trại giáo dục nam," among other names. These are still referred to by many locals as trại học tập. I wrote about the process by which sex workers are sent to these centers in The Ironies of Freedom (UW 2008). But briefly, although there are no criminal statutes agaisnt "selling sex," there are administrative measures that will allow the local Công An to send sex workers to these centers for various detention sentences depending on the number of prior arrests (and of course levels of bribes paid by "đối tượng").
As for dissidents, as far as I know, they are either arrested under criminal codes that are security-related and later tried; or they are arrested on unrelated charges. The former process applied more recently to Nguyễn Văn Lý, Lê Thị Công Nhân and Nguyễn Văn Đài. The latter method applied recently to Hoàng Hải (Điếu Cày), the blogger and main founder of Câu Lạc Bộ Nhà Báo Tự Do. Hoàng Hải was repeatedly and quite violently subdued in the streets (this I witnessed), and hauled in for day-long police detention multiple times since December 2007. He was later arrested on charges of tax evasion, tried and sentenced to 30 months in prison.
best,
nvt huong
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From: Bill Hayton
Date: 2009/2/22
My understanding was that is wasn't the Cong An who send people to 05 & 06 centres but the People's Committee. I thought the centres were run by MoLISA not the Public Security Ministry. Am I wrong?
Bill
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From: Nguyen-Vo, Thu-Huong
Date: 2009/2/22
Dear Bill,
You are right, the centers are run by MoLISA, but arrests and initial processing of sex-workers are done by Công An as far as I know. Local T? Dân Ph?, Công An Phu?ng, and other local governmental bodies are involved in the local surveillance and disciplining ("management"/qu?n lý) of those arrested for their involvement in prostitution. (They kept talking about these local entities disciplining the men who buy sex, but that never materialized to any significant extent as far I can tell). The People's Committees might have to sign off on the sentences after Công An process them, or might be involved in other ways that I do not know about. Thank you for bringing this up.
best,
nvt huong
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From: Stephen Denney
Date: 2009/2/22
Dear Thu-huong,
Thanks very much for those helpful comments. I forgot to mention in describing the re-education process, as it was applied to former RVN and ARVN officials, that it also included political indoctrination, the idea being, in theory, that through the process of confession, indoctrination, and labor one could be rehabilitated (similar in a way to Christian doctrine) into a good citizen of the new society. In most cases, this process did not succeed, and those who were interned the longest seem now to be the most bitter in their attitude toward the communist authorities in Vietnam.
Are the sex workers and drug addicts interned in the re-education centers subjected to some form of political indoctrination as well? And are any of the re-education camps which were used for the former RVN officials and officers still being used for this purpose with regard those currently undergoing re-education?
Steve Denney
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From: Robert Schuessler
Date: 2009/2/22
I'm sure that the story of what happened to the camps varies widely. I can speak for one in central Viet Nam. An isolated beach area that harbored one such camp and later served as a jumping off point for many boat people is now being developed as a luxury resort. I was unable to detect evidence of the past during several visits to the location.
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From: Nguyen-Vo, Thu-Huong
Date: 2009/2/22
Dear Steve,
I don't know about drug rehab, but sex workers were subjected to "political and ethical education." In those sessions, they learned the basic government line about the good being done by the party and leadership. But the main content was about what a proper Vietnamese woman should be, and how she should behave. I detail some of this in the book. But what intrigued me was the Orientalist message of Vietnamese femininity and how it's reinforced by work training that fill subcontracted work orders.
best,
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From: Dieu-Hien t. Hoang
Date: Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 9:30 AM
This question contains two separate issues.
Commercial sex workers and drug users are picked up by co^ng an and put into <rehabilitation centers>, known as 05 and 06 centers, which are run by MOLISA. These are ongoing.
As for re-education of former political adversaries (former members of ARVN, government of the Republic of Viet Nam, etc.), I do not know what have become of the large centers.
However, re-education is not a post-1975 phenomenon. It has existed since the 50s. It is an ideological function that dictates people who are deemed to not possess the <correct socialist/communist/class> ideology would be sent there to be indoctrinated of the correct ideology and released when they can recite this <correct ideology>. People who attempted to leave the country without obtaining an exit visa in the period 1975-1990s (vu*o*.t bie^n) were also sent to be re-educated.
That said, I do not know where dissidents are detained nowadays, if they are not under house arrest. Nor do I know what have become of the large <re-education camps> because the number to be <re-educated>, if this classification still exists, has reduced drastically.
My guess is that the lands where these centers were belonged to either the former Bo^. No^.i vu. or the military. These entities subsequently sectioned off the land and gave the pieces to their officers who are now building mansions, or growing tea, coffee, or raising silk worms, or renting them to foreigners, etc. on those pieces of lands. This is a guess based on what I have seen done to large pieces of lands used to sit idle for various reasons, security being one. It is not based on factual knowledge of what happened to these centers.
Would like to hear what these centers have actually become.
Hien
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Hoang t. Dieu-Hien
University of Washington Tacoma
Nursing Program
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From: Vu, Lung Duy
Date: Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 10:31 AM
Steve,
There are 05 and 06 centers for adults who violate the law of Vietnamese
as someone has mentioned (mostly for drug users and sex workers).
However, there is another re-educational system for adolescents. The
system includes 4 re-educational schools: school # 2 in Ninh Binh
province (northern); #3 in Da Nang Province(central); #4 in Dong Nai
province; and #5 in Long An province ( #4 and 5 is located about 40
miles East and West of Sai Gon). (School # 1 was closed). Children in
conflict with the law of Vietnam will be required to stay in these
schools for maximum 2 years. Most of them are street children, orphans,
engaging in drug use and sex works, or children of problem families,
i.e. divorced and imprisoned parents. One emerging issue in these
centers is how to help these children to rehabilitate in community after
they finish their required time at school. These schools are managed by
the Ministry of Public Security (police) and as thus, community always
think these children are prisoners, which is very stigmatizing in
Vietnam and makes it difficult for these children to rebuild their life.
In 2004, I worked for a NGO advocating for change in attitude of these
school staffs (polices) toward these children and to bring health care
services to them. Rehabilitation was one of the issues that almost every
student worried about before they left school. Many of them re-violated
and were forced back to these centers. I also visited many 05 06 centers
when I worked in HIV prevention among injecting drug users back in 2002
and 2003. At that time, compulsory drug treatment and rehabilitation is
a favorite approach and was documented as successful. But by visiting
these centers, I could say it failed. Many drug users were back and
force to these centers like 2 or 3 times (each time= 2 years). Now not
many people talk about this approach due to the high rate of relapse
(most of drug addicts in Vietnam use heroin- very difficult to stop
using). Luckily, the government opens to methadone so I hope it will be
an option soon and thus will reduce the # of people entering the 05 06
centers. Speaking of improving quality of life and helping the drug
users to live a rather normal life, 05 06 center is not a solution.
These centers kill the young and productive years of the detainees.
Dissidents are also managed by ministry of public security. The number
of dissidents is small and as I heard, they were put in a prison in
Thanh Hoa province (North Central).
Post 1975 re-education camps were all closed.
Lung Vu
MD, PhD Candidate
Tulane University