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What Peace?

By VVAW

The two South Vietnamese parties... insure the democratic liberties of the people: personal freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of organization, freedom of political activities, freedom of belief, freedom of movement... from Article 11, January 27 Peace Agreement.

On January 28, 1973, Thieu ordered his forces to shoot "on the spot," those considered Communists. On February 8, 1973, Thieu declared that he would continue the pacification program which means the continued confining of civilians in strategic hamlets, imprisonment of dissenters, and attacks on liberated areas. To emphasize these points, the Saigon army initiated 328 infantry and armor assaults, 213 air attacks and 281 shellings of PRG controlled areas, during the first ten days after signing the agreement. The excuse given by Saigon for these actions was that the NLF provoked them by "flying the Viet Cong flag."

This was confirmed by Neil Davis, a cameraman for VIS-News, who visited the liberated areas. "A rickety sampan carried us into the area. Along the river bank, the Viet Cong flag fluttered from the houses and huts." A South Vietnamese helicopter flew over and "sprayed the area, spewing bullets at a rate of 6,000 a minute for thirty minutes, as we sweated underground. Bullets got through the thick earth and bamboo ceiling." - of the shelter. "Before it began to grow dark, one of them (the guides) looked at his watch and said, "There'll be Saigon artillery at 6:00!" He was wrong. Davis said, "The shells came at 6:05."

On top of these overt attacks on the PRG controlled areas, repression in the areas controlled by Saigon has reached the level of Nazi Germany. Fearing the loss of his power, Thieu has arrested and jailed thousands opposed to his policies, be they Catholic or Communist, child or old person. Once jailed, prisoners are tortured in an effort to break their spirit.

Tiger cages are still in use. An American company, Brown and Root, is building new ones at Camps 7&8 on Con Son at a total cost of $400,000. The "improved" models are too low for the prisoners to stand. With three to five prisoners to a cage, they have to take turns lying down while the others crouch. They are kept completely in the dark without ventilation. Most of those who manage to live thorugh this experience are blind afterwards.

Jean Pierre Debris, a French citizen and former Saigon prisoner, described how these prisoners looked. "They had to crawl down because they couldn't walk anymore... they dragged themselves along the ground with little benches of their own making. Their faces were haggard and lined: their bodies gaunt and emaciated. Beside each tiger cage is a container of lime which the guards throw on to the prisoners and which burns their skin. They also use grenades of nausea and tear gas. Then when they've used all this, they beat and handcuff the prisoners with their wrists behind their backs. We know people who've been handcuffed like this for years because they refuse to salute the Saigon flag.

Andre Menras, who was jailed with Debris, continued about the children held in prison. "The youngest among them, whose name is Dong, is six years old. His mother was killed by Americans bombing in the Delta region. His father, suspected of being a Communist sympathizer, was incarcerated in Chi Hoa and brought the child with him. The child had no relatives to take care of him. The last news we have of Dong dates from December 20th, when we heard him cry out in the disciplinary section, where he was imprisoned with his father; with his friends. He was shouting slogans with the adults to protest the living conditions that were forced on the political prisoners...

"We saw how these kids are already adults at an age when little French children are playing marbles. We saw how prison authorities repress them. No difference between them and adults; they were put in the same category; hard-headed rebels."

It is not enough to sign a piece of paper and then declare peace. The war continues until the political prisoners are released. The war continues until the attacks on the liberated areas stop. The war continues until American involvement ends. The war continues until the treaty is implemented.