7/28/2019 Viet Prison Brutality Documented
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MFosiU N / ig75Viet PrisonBrutalityDocumented
First of two articlesBy JosephNovitskiand Thomas W.
LippmanWashington Post Staff Writers
The U.S. governmentknew of beatingsand large-scale brutality at
some ofSouthVietnam's largestprisons and prisoner-of-warcamps where
"tiger cages"were found as earlyas 1969.A three-foot high stack of
.International RedCross re-ports, recently declassified,and
interviews with RedCross and Americanoffi-cials have provided for
thefirst time a picture fromaneutral viewpoint of SouthVietnam's
prisons, where be-tween 65,000 and 70,000 peo-plewereconfined at
theheight of the war.Writtenin thecool, dryFrench of the Swiss
doctors,lawyersand other profes-sionals who servedon
theInternational Committee ofthe RedCross (ICRC) mis-sion to
Vietnam, the reportsgenerally gavesatisfactoryto good grades
toalmost allfacilities inspected.But there wereseveralsignificant
exceptions.
After each inspection bytrainedRed Crossdelegates,Washington was
given acopy of their report.The reports also docu-ment the standard
Americanpracticeof taking civilianprisoners during
militaryoperations, classifying themSeePR IS O N S, A 16, C oL
5
Cross, which nowhas 150delegates on missionsaroundtheworld,does
notpublish its reports.The reports werereleasedhere at the end of
a2Y2-yearsuit under the FreedomofInformation Actagainst theState
Department, which re-ceived, classified and heldthe documents until
afterthewar ended.Some reports cameto theUnited States through
theSouth Vietnamese govern-ment, but, beginningin 1970,most
camefrom Genevaheadquarters of the ICRCthroughthe U.S.
Missionthere. -"The situation (here) maybe qualified as
catastroph-ic," a Red Cross delegationconcludedin its October,1970,
report on thePOWcamp,on Phuquoc Island,where25,900 prisoners,
oralmost one-thirdof all those
held in the country, werethen lodged.Three POWSwho
hadcomplainedto the delegateswere severelybeatenbycamp guards after
speakingout and had to be flown outon an American airplane
fortreatment.No entirely American-runfacilitywas ever given awholly
unfavorable report,although scattered allega-tionsof tortureby
beatingorelectric shock were madeby prisoners at the
prisoner"collecting points" attachedtoAmericanunits
inthefield.These ."collecting points,"where prisoners stayed__a-few
days at most, were theonly kinds of earnos run byAmericans after
1968, andtheArnerm lieutenants andcaptairc in command were
oftercrinmended in writing by f-ICRC. Red Cross doctorswrote
enthusiastically of the'advanced medical technique:being used in
the treatment ofprisonersat American fieldhospitals."HoWever, the
delegatesfound continuing, systematicbrutalityat-the two princi-pal
Vietnamese POWcampsat Phuquocand Quinhon.American advisers were
sta-tioned inthese camps begin-ning in 1967.TheICRC gradually gave3
visits totte large civilianisons, where almost all po-ical
prisoners- were held,cause South Vietnameseauthoritieswouldnot
letthem talk to prisoners alone.
For this reason, no ICRCreport was made on the
dis-ciplinarycells atSouth Viet-nam's biggest civilian prisonon
Conson Island, where be-tween 9,000 and 10,000 wereheld. Conson's
French-builttiny cells, called "tigercages," made Vietnameseprison
conditions an Ameri-can issue after
twovisitingcongressmensawtheminJuly, 1970.
The ICRC, a permanent,Swiss-staffed body thatwatches.. over
worldwidecompliance with the1949Geneva conventions on warand on the
treatment ofprisoners, has had a "missionin South Vietnamsince1965,
a spokesman said.But ICRC inspectors, inspiteof numerous
efforts,werenever authorized byNorth Vietnameseauthori-ties tovisit
AmericanPOWsheld in the north.Althoughthe prisons inthe South were
run by Viet-namese andthecamps werecommanded by Vietnameseofficers
with U.S. advisers,the RedCrossconsideredthe United States
responsiblefor prisonerstakenbyAmerican forces.In the largest POW
camp,according tothe data rec-orded by the ICRC, that nor-mally
meant just under halfthe prisoners.The United States
specifi-cally-recognized its respons.-bility for POWs and
civilian
pksoners, in a letter to theGeneva headquarters of theRed Cross
in December; 1970,six months after the Conson"tiger cages"
scandal.From 1967 to 1971 U.S. ci-. vilian and military
missionsspent $122 million, oil policeand prison aid and
stationed-hundreds of advisers aroundthe country with orders
tobring' the Vietnamese intoline- with the Genevth
conventions.Those 'conventions,_rati:led by 138 countries,
inelud'ng the United States ane,South Vietnam, 'set out spe-ific
rules for the treatment)f prisoners ofwar and for-aid physical
mistreatment,torture, deprivation of foodor medicine orany
disciplin-erytreatment lastingmorethan '48 hours.The RedCross
delegates,escorted throughout the
PRISONS, From Alas offenders and turningthem over
toSouthViet-namese police, whooftentreated themas
politicalprisoners.The delegates found andexamined North
Vietnamese'andVietcong 'prisonersofwarwho had beenbeaten,sometimes
fatally, by SouthVietnamese guards.RedCrossdoctors describedwomen
prisoners tortured tothe point of recurrent hy-steria.The
International Red
