Each ‘Denounce communists’ campaign resulted in hundreds, sometimes thousands, of victims. Thus the total number of people arrested, wounded, or killed was over 2,000 in the Truong Tan Buu campaign, over 3,000 in the Thoai Ngoc Hau campaign, over 10,000 (including 700 killed) in the Nguyen Hue campaign... A number of campaigns were marked by savage massacres.
Some cases of ferocious persecution are given hereunder:
The general persecution in Duy Xuyen district
From late 1954 to early 1955, during four consecutive months, the south Viet Nam authorities carried out the ‘Phan Chu Trinh campaign’ in Duy Xuyen district, Quang Nam province. About 8,000 former resistance members were arrested and subjected to the most savage tortures. On January 21, 1955, in one single day, the agents of the south Viet Nam administration arrested 116 people in Vinh Trinh area, and led 47 to the Vinh Trinh dam where they tied their arms and legs with wire, cut their tongues and ears, gouged out their eyes, cut their throats, opened their bellies, poured oil on their heads, and set fire to them. Afterwards they fastened stones to the corpses, and threw them into the river.
The International Commission sent out Mobile Team 103 for investigation into this massacre, but the team “was not given freedom of movement, documents needed by it were not placed at its disposal and witnesses necessary for holding enquiries were not summoned. This resulted in the Mobile Team being recalled before the fulfilment of its task”. (Ref. IC letter No IC-FB-3 — 49-3-154 dated February 6, 1959).
The destruction of Huong Dien
Like many other communes of the region, Huong Dien was, during the Resistance war, a base of the People’s Army of Viet Nam in the mountainous area of Quang Tri province.
On July 8, 1955, the south Viet Nam administration sent its troops to the commune to encircle the Tan Lap hamlet where they burnt down, or destroyed all dwellings and property, and massacred all inhabitants fallen into their hands, irrespective of age. On the following morning, the authorities summoned people allegedly for a ‘meeting of militia men’, at Tan Hiep, a neighbouring hamlet; 22 persons came, and were foully murdered. On July 14, 15 women accompanied by 10 children, went to the administration’s offices to inquire about their husbands or sons who had not come back from the ‘meeting of militia men’. They were led to the A Che ravine where they were raped, then butchered, disembowelled, beheaded, and thrown into the ravine. Before raping the mothers, the soldiers snatched away the children from their hands, stabbed or strangled them to death or struck their heads against the rocks. Their corpses were thrown into the ravine. On July 16, troops came again to Tan Hiep hamlet where three more grown up persons and 13 children were massacred, and all houses were burnt down or destroyed. On July 20, the soldiers came to Trai Ca hamlet, but all the inhabitants having fled, they seized all property, and burnt down the thirty houses of the hamlet.
Thus within 12 days, the south Viet Nam administration, putting into action one infantry battalion, razed to the ground the two hamlets of Tan Lap and Tan Hiep, killed 92 persons, including 31 children and 32 women, five of whom were pregnant.
Up to the end of 1955, 2,514,482 persons in north Viet Nam signed 17,422 petitions addressed to the International Commission in protest against the Duy Xuyen and Huong Dien massacres. So far the south Viet Nam administration has persisted in opposing on-the-spot investigations by the Commission on this subject.
The burying alive of 21 persons at Cho Duoc (Quang Nam province)
On November 28, 1955, during a wave of ‘denunciation of communists’, the authorities savagely tortured 21 persons out of hundreds of former resistance members in the communes of Binh Lac, Binh Tuy, Binh Tan, and Thang Trieu (Thang Binh district). Afterwards they put them into a cave, and buried them alive.
On December 1, the relatives and friends of the victims, having discovered the cave, came to unearth the corpses in order to organize funerals. They were encircled on orders from the authorities, and shot at. This resulted in numerous casualties. Great numbers of arrests were made.
The International Commission has decided to carry out an investigation into this case; however, the south Viet Nam authorities have so far refused to agree to such enquiries.
The Dai Loc affair
In 1957, the ‘denunciation of communists’ entered an extremely cruel stage, which the south Viet Nam authorities labelled ‘the second phase’. In the framework of this great wave of terror, towards the end of 1957, the Quang Nam provincial authorities carried out mass arrests of former resistance members in Dai Loc district (more than 9,000 according to Saigon press reports). The arrested persons were led to so-called ‘rooms of denunciation of communists’ which were, in fact, concentration camps, and subjected to tortures of mediaeval savagery. They were taken there high-handedly, leaving their businesses and homes, and threatened with blows and death. Driven into a cul de sac, thousands of people rose up and armed with sticks, hoes, shovels, etc. fought off the ‘teams of denunciation of communists’. Their families sent in thousands of petitions to the provincial authorities, to the ‘Government’, to the ‘National Assembly’, and to the press. In spite of the ruling circles’ attempts to hide the truth, the persecutions perpetrated in Dai Loc district were revealed by a number of Saigon newspapers. Public opinion was deeply disturbed, and the south Viet Nam authorities were finally forced to withdraw the teams of ‘denunciation of communists’. In addition, they were compelled to mete out feigned sanctions to a number of cruel agents.
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