Voice Of The Chinese Asylum Seekers
In Tai A Chau Detention Camp
Greetings to Master!
We are originally a group of unfortunate people who have, for more than 10 years, suffered the oppression and torture of the Vietnamese communist regime. Crossing the sea and after much hardship we fortunately arrived in Hong Kong. Due to the 'screening policy', we have been wrongly labelled as non-refugees. We are facing the crisis of 'forced repatriation', once again to be swallowed and crushed by the wicked claws of the communists. We, the asylum seekers in Tai A Chau, really don't want to return to the dark hell of the communists.
Because we have lived under communist control all these years, we are fully aware of its vicious and cunning tactics. The Vietnamese communist regime is agreeing to the terms of the free countries only in order to salvage its poor economic condition. Meanwhile in order to prevent the worldwide trend of peaceful evolution, and hoping to keep its dictatorship and autocracy, they have agreed to take back these wandering outsiders so as to capture them all in one net. If we are allowed to be scattered around the world, then we, the unneglectable, will be able to force the strategy of peaceful evolution. At the very least, we can be the historical witnesses to their tyranny and dictatorship.
It would be hard to believe that the communist party has no intention of 'later revenge'. Looking back, those captured after failing to escape were all charged with 'treason' and jailed for two to three years, or even longer. These hard facts cannot be denied by the communist party. So what kind of torture are they going to use against us in the future? They are not taking revenge on those who have recently returned, only for fear that the asylum seekers scattered throughout southeast Asia would be even more frightened and dare not return. In that case, the financial gains of the high officials would be jeopardized.
As the idiom says: 'It is not too late for a person to take revenge after 10 years'. So, what's the need for the communist party to hurry? They might as well wait until all the asylum seekers in southeast Asia are repatriated, then they can then capture them as if 'catching turtle in a pot'. At that time, the United Nations' observers will have moved out. We shall be helpless, our cries useless, and they can persecute us at will.
For this reason, the refugees in Tai A Chau have been going on hunger strikes since February 8th protesting against repatriation and the unfair screening process. We are determined to exchange for freedom with our blood, tears and even our lives. Up to today, 147 days have gone by, and hunger strikers number up to 2027. However, the governments of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, and the leaders of the free world are still not moved, treating us as nothing. Poor us! Only You Master, care for and sympathize with us, working and travelling ceaselessly on our behalf. Apart from being grateful in our whole life time, we cannot repay Your spirit of endurance toward hardship.
Also, since we are isolated on an island, what happens here is unknown to the outside world; and this often leads to misinformation. Therefore some of the writers here in Tai A Chau have grouped together to form the 'Chinese News Agency'. The aim is to serve our countrymen with our devotion by expressing in Chinese the feelings of the asylum seekers and appeal to all righteous people in the world for help. After several months of hard work, we have finally compiled a special news report. We are sending it to You Master to express our gratitude. Though only a small volume, it is full of our deepest feelings as it has crystallized from the blood and tears of everyone of us in Tai A Chau.
Respectfully Yours,
Dao Thoai Thanh
Representative, Chinese News Agency
July 5, 1994 in Tai A Chau
<Chinese News Agency Special News Report in Tai A Chau>
By Long Hien Hieu
I am an unaccompanied minor youth in Hong Kong. Children of my age in the free democratic countries should be studying in schools. But the golden age for learning has been snatched from my life by the violence of communism. Since the time I could distinguish right from wrong, I have had to stand up and fight against tyranny. Finally in grief and struggle, I had to abandon my relatives and my mother who nurtured me amidst much hardship, and flee by sea.
The memories of my childhood would make one shiver. According to our elders, the inhumane, miserable situation started on April 30, 1975 when the Red communists conquered south Vietnam, turning it from a free, democratic, magnificent society into sorrow and grief everywhere. Since the communists took over, the educated people, those who worked for the old army and government, workmen, businessmen with liberal, democratic views and those with culturally different backgrounds have been black-listed as dissident people and rejected and tortured at will. Therefore within the iron curtain of the communist society, an unknown number of people who worked for the old army and government have died in re-education camps. An unknown number of educated people and capitalists have also died in jails, being accused of unfounded crimes. Moreover, the communists listed the relatives of the above people as having the same blood with 'decaying' and 'rebelling' potentials. On the excuse of developing the socialist economy, they were sent into exile to the 'new economical zones'. The so-called 'new economical zones' were actually like hell on earth. They were only wild abandoned mountainous areas with nothing except an 'infectious mountain air'. As there were not even simple medical clinics, the people were forced to live or die there, struggling like primitive people in this naturally infectious environment. Hence many died there, leaving widows, widowers and orphans in a continuing tragic situation.
However, this persecuted group under the tyranny, besides needing to adapt to nature to struggle for their survival, yet they still had to live in slavery. Enduring the blood-and-sweat-laden labors which were exploited by the Red devils. They had neither human rights nor dignity. Also in order to govern the people more easily, we were also robbed of our rights to study. It was so strict that even teaching in private by our elders was forbidden. The aim was to make us all illiterate and lacking in reasoning power to be more easily enslaved by them. How can one endure such arbitrary and unscrupulous tyranny? Knowledge is a basis of man's daily dealings. It can help to remove discrimination and bring about a harmonious and civilized society. But the communists robbed us even of our entitled basic education in order to manipulate us more easily. How can we possibly live with them?
We, this group of victims oppressed by the communists, fled in deep fear by sea and arrived in Hong Kong narrowly escaping death. Unexpectedly, we were labelled as 'boat people' by the Hong Kong government and locked up in camps for several years awaiting screening. More unexpectedly, the screening policy gets stricter everyday. The Hong Kong government views our suffering as something of the past and the confiscation of our wealth and property just as a country policy, thus making careless and wrong decisions about our refugee status. Even more unreasonable, the Hong Kong government ignores our safety and enforce the 'forced repatriation policy' in order to close all detention camps.
But we, who have been subjects of ill-treatment, absolutely cannot, and dare not go in company with the communists for they excel in telling lies and taking revenge afterwards. Today they are under the crisis of an economic setback and collapse. In order to retain their dictatorship, to secure the loans for investment from the European community, they are forced to please the international society by using the old, evil trick of saying that they will forgive all our past. But once the European community has left and our usefulness fully exploited, the communists will expose their original ugly faces and victimize us who rebelled and fled.
If still not convinced, you can review the program broadcast on the B.B.C. and “Voice of America” in the middle of February, 1994 and see how the Vietnam communists are still disregarding human rights. From the report on Hong Kong's T.V.B. on March 8, we learn that the communist security force openly against their promise arrested repatriated Nguyen Van Thai. This proves that as long as the communist regime still holds on to its name, it will never change its tyranny, nor relax its grip on dissidents. Hence facing the Hong Kong government's inhumane forced repatriation policy, we can only appeal loudly hoping the world's kind people who protect human rights, freedom and democracy can recognize clearly the false pretense of the communists. Do not trust their "lies". Please extend your righteous hands to save these condemned sheep who will be forcibly repatriated into the tiger's mouth!
P.S.: 'The Cries Of An Orphan' - A special news report by the Chinese News Agency is printed at the back.
S.O.S. Letter