The Rehab Archipelago - Human Rights Watch

Beatings and Other Punishments for Refusing to Work
Work in the centers is not optional and center directors are authorized to punish detainees
for refusing to obey center regulations, including the obligation to work. 89 According to
government decrees, such punishments may take the form of reprimands, warnings, or
“education in a disciplinary room.” 90
In practice, those who refuse to work are beaten and/or held in disciplinary rooms (a
punishment discussed below). When asked if any detainees in the centers refuse to work,
some former detainees simply responded: “Everyone worked and no one refused.” 91
However, another detainee, echoed by others, told Human Rights Watch:
Those who refused to work were beaten by the guards and then put into the
disciplinary room. In the end they agreed to work. 92
Dinh Lap is a man in his early 40s who spent four years at Center No. 5 in Dak Nong
province before being released in 2009. He said he witnessed beatings of fellow detainees
who refused to work while detained. He explained:
If you refused to work you were beaten by the staff or by the team leader
chosen by the staff, or both. They beat us with anything nearby. I saw
people beaten with hoe handles. 93
Thach An is a man in his mid-20s who was released in late 2009 after spending more than
two years in detention, mostly in Phu Duc Center. He told Human Rights Watch what he
witnessed when one man at that center refused to work:
[The man] was beaten with a truncheon and then spent a week in solitary
confinement before he agreed to work again. 94
89 Regarding the legal obligation of detainees to abide by center rules, the 2009 decree establishes that
detainees have a responsibility “to actively participate in laboring and production [and] to complete the
assigned target on volume and quality of work.” Decree 94/2009/ND-CP, October 26, 2009, art. 34(1)(b)
[translation by Human Rights Watch]. See also Decree 135/2004/ND-CP, June 10, 2004, arts. 30 and 32.
Regarding the director’s authority to punish detainees, see Decree 135/2004/ND-CP, June 10, 2004, art. 57(1)
and Decree 94/2009/ND-CP, October 26, 2009, art. 43(1).
90 See Decree 135/2004/ND-CP, June 10, 2004, art. 70(3) ; Decree 94/2009/ND-CP, October 26, 2009, art. 31(2).
91 For example, Human Rights Watch interview with Can Loc, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
92 Human Rights Watch interview with Quy Hop, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
93 Human Rights Watch interview with Dinh Lap, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
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