CONFIDENTIAL
VIETNAM
Report by HM Embassy, Hanoi
General Observations
1. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is composed of the North, which has had little time for anything other than war for 30 years, and its newly acquired (or "re-unified") South; the integration of the two poses enormous economic and social problems. The whole is supposedly a Communist country being organised on the principle of socialist legality. Our impressions are chiefly of the North; our knowledge of the South is more or less confined to "Ho Chi Minh City". In general, however, one's impression is that this is not an inhumane police state. Violent crime is rare and the normal penalties for petty misdemeanour are by social stigma or economic penalties. The system of justice is based on People's Courts, under the supervision of a Public Prosecutor's Office. The accused has the right to a defence lawyer appointed by the State.
2.
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Human rights in the South, in the post-war period, are probably less effectively protected than those in the North. In many cases, this is due to over-zealousness on the part of the petty officials imported from the North rather than Government policy. Rules have been laid down about the "re-education" of the employees of the previous regime, which range from mild lecturing to three years of re-education in confinement followed by periods of surveillance; and, in the case of proved crime against the People, severe penalties up to the death penalty.
Right No.
(i)
(ii)
Rating Suggested
by Post
No figures are available and in the North imprisonment without trial is probably rare. In the South, the "re-education" camps, for those former high-ranking officers in the Thieu army or Government still there, are effectively prisons, and there were no formal trials to establish who should be sent there.
Comment by South East Asia Department: There is no evidence to support the assertion that imprisonment without trial is rare in the North. Moreover, North and South are part of one country. We would suggest a
mark of 9.
There is no torture, in the strict sense of the word, that we are aware of. Some prisoners-of-war are known to have been treated very badly but any American POWS who may be left are probably being well- treated by now, albeit for political rather than humanitarian reasons.
CONFIDENTIAL
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