The Rehab Archipelago - Human Rights Watch

Centers commonly issue a detailed list of internal rules (such as those detailed above).
Although physical beatings are not sanctioned punishments, infringements of center rules
commonly result in staff beating detainees with truncheons. Truc Ninh, in her late 20s
when she was detained, told Human Rights Watch of being beaten for gambling.
The supervisor took me to the management room and said that I couldn’t
play cards and gamble alone so I should tell him who I played with. I didn’t
tell him. He put me face down on a bed and beat my buttocks twice with a
truncheon. I cried out. He said that was a warning. 201
Cua Lo, who was released in early 2010, was beaten by staff at Center No. 5 while being
interrogated about selling tobacco.
I was hit on the buttocks and the legs while lying face down on a table. I
was also kicked and slapped. 202
Some infractions of center rules are punished with forms of physical abuse that constitute
torture. Tien Du said he was tortured to reveal how he smuggled tobacco into a center.
Once when I worked outside the center I got some tobacco and I brought it
into the center. I was caught. They questioned me about my supply and
who gave it to me. I was beaten by staff with a wooden truncheon, struck by
hand, and kicked when I was being questioned. This went on for hours. At
the beginning I told them that I didn’t keep any tobacco but in the end I had
to say I did. Then I had to stay in the punishment room for a month. 203
Human Rights Watch received reports of electric batons being used on detainees as
punishment. Con Cuong, who was in his mid-20s when he was detained in Center No. 4,
said he was tortured as punishment for using drugs in detention and to force him to
divulge information about where he got them. He said:
In the camp I injected drugs. When I tested positive for drugs I was taken for
questioning to determine where I got the drugs. The staff beat me with
truncheons on my legs and used an electric baton to shock me on my back.
201 Human Rights Watch interview with Truc Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
202 Human Rights Watch interview with Cua Lo, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
203 Human Rights Watch interview with Tien Du, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
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