CONFIDENTIAL
ANNEX B
POLITICAL PRISONERS IN SOUTH VIETNAM
1. The Paris Agreement contains explicit provisions for dealing with
civilian prisoners detained in South Vietnam.
Article 8c of the
Agreement specifies that this is for the two South Vietnamese parties themselves to resolve. The signatories to the Act of the International Conference (of whom HMG was one) approved the provisions of the Agree- ment and therefore expected that the problem of civilian detainees would be dealt with by the only people in a position to do so, the Vietnamese
themselves.
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2. The Protocol to the Agreement on the treatment of captured civilian and military personnel provides (Article 9b) that two or more national Red Cross authorities should visit all places where such
personnel are held. The Canadian Red Cross were ready to make the visits for military prisoners, but were unable to do so because of
No Red Cross action in disagreement between the Vietnamese parties. respect of either category of prisoner has since been possible. illustrates the difficulty of seeking to help from outside. 3. With the completion on 7 March of the latest exchange of prisoners in Vietnam, both sides (i.e. the South Vietnamese and the Communists) maintain that they have handed over all the prisoners taken up to the time of the signature of the Paris Agreement in January 1973.
No further exchanges are contemplated.
1.
President Thieu's Government have returned 26,880 prisoners-of-war and 5,081 civilian prisoners. They have also recently released some non-Communist prisoners who had earlier refused to be returned to the Communist side. These include Tran Ngoc Chan, a former Deputy. Communists have returned 5,336 prisoners-of-war and 606 civilians.
The
5.
The Saigon Government claim that the PRG are still holding 26,645
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CONFIDENTIAL