The Rehab Archipelago - Human Rights Watch

Vu Ban was in his late 20s when he was detained in Center No. 2 (Lam Dong province). He
told Human Rights Watch:
My team was 30 to 40 who did cashews, forming part of the cashew work
force of 400. I operated the machine that broke open the hard cashew
shells. Others skinned them. I had a quota of 30 kilos a day and worked
until they were done. If you refused to work you were sent to the
punishment room and after a month [there] you agreed to work again. 120
Kinh Mon was in his early 30s when he was detained. He was at the Phu Van center for all
but the first month of his five years in detention, which he described as “a waste of time.”
He said:
I did cashew husking for three years. I worked six and a half to eight hours a
day to finish my quota. After I got used to the work it was easy to meet my
quota of 20 to 30 kilos of unhusked cashews, but the fluid from the cashew
shells burned my skin. They gave me one pair of rubber gloves a day but if I
needed a new pair I had to pay for it. 121
Like Kinh Mon, Lang Giang (who was also detained at Phu Van) said that the work was
done for a private company. She continued:
We began work at seven in the morning and when each woman had done her
portion of cashews she could stop work, usually after four and one-half to
seven and one-half hours. We worked six days a week. If someone refused to
work the group leader reported this to the center management. One woman
refused to work. They discussed it with her. She still did not work. She was
sent to the solitary confinement cell for a while. Then she agreed to work. 122
Both Kinh Mon and Lang Giang said the cashew processing company they worked for in
Phu Van center (Binh Phuoc province) was called Son Long. 123 A 2005 Vietnamese media
article shows a photo of detainees processing cashews, with an explanation that the
cashew workshop in the photo was in the Binh Duc center (in Binh Phuoc province) and
120 Human Rights Watch interview with Vu Ban, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
121 Human Rights Watch interview with Kinh Mon, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
122 Human Rights Watch interview with Lang Giang, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
123 Human Rights Watch interviews with Lang Giang and Kinh Mon, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
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