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number of adopted prisoners in North Vietnam, but with absolutely no response from the authorities in Hanoi. They include several members of a musical group of "pop" musicians imprisoned in 1971, and two members of the so-called Nhan Van group of writers and intellectuals (named after a newspaper of the same name) given 15-year sentences in 1960 on espionage charges. During the next few months, fresh attempts will be made to get details of the last two cases, first adopted by AI in October 1969, in view of the fact that they are now due for release.
Republic of South Vietnam
On 30 April 1975 the Vietnam war ended and the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) assumed control in South Vietnam. All the tens of thousands of political prisoners held by the defeated regime reportedly gained their freedom. On behalf of Amnesty International, Dirk Börner, Chairman of the International Executive Committee, cabled PRG President Huynh Tan Phat welcoming the return of peace to Vietnam and requesting confirmation of the reported releases. The International Secretariat subsequently advised AI groups with South Vietnamese prisoners to regard these cases as closed.
Early reports from journalists and other observers staying in Saigon after its "liberation" painted a favourable picture. Although the new administration quickly began a moral and material "clean-up” campaign, promising “severe punishment" for a wide variety of “illegal acts”, ranging from "spreading rumours" and "collecting information" to "opposing the revolution", it was intent on emphasizing "national reconciliation and concord" (a concept drawn from the January 1973 Paris Agreements on Vietnam).
Close monitoring of reports from South Vietnam by the International Secretariat, where an expert temporary researcher was appointed to deal with the emergency situation, revealed few substantiated accounts of reprisals or execut- ions in the weeks immediately following the change of government. A PRG re- presentative in Paris assured Amnesty International Secretary General Martin Ennals that the PRG was opposed to capital punishment as a matter of policy. In late May, however, reports began to be received of street executions of criminal offenders as the PRG began to tackle the widespread problems of petty crime. As for prisoners, it seemed clear that in the Saigon area at least, the number of new detainees remained comparatively small.
By mid-May, those whose position was least clear seemed to be higher-ranking military, para-military and civilian personnel of the old regime. Thus in early May a PRG spokesman was quoted as saying that while over 100,000 private soldiers and non-commissioned officers of the old regime detained in Danang since March were being allowed to return home, some 6,000 officers were being held for "re- education". A television team from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation visit- ed one of the officers' camps near Danang, and their report suggested that conditions, while spartan, were not oppressive. In Saigon in mid-May, General Tran Van Tra confirmed that some military and a few civilian personnel were being held in detention; but further details were not forthcoming.
In April and May 1975, discussions took place in Algiers, Paris and London between high-ranking officials of the PRG and members of the International Executive Committee and International Secretariat. The talks centered on finding
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