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III. Trang’s Story: From Dong Dau to Ba Vi and Back to the Streets Again

The following is an account from a boy we will call Trang, who was arrested and detained at Dong Dau twice during 2004, when he was 17. He was subsequently sent to Ba Vi for three months. He spoke to us two weeks after his release from Ba Vi.48

First arrest (March 2004): “They never gave me any reason

I was shining shoes at the lake [in Hanoi]. I didn’t see him coming, but a man in plainclothes came up behind me and grabbed me. He took me to the police station. I was there until 11a.m., when they took me to Dong Dau center.

When he was taking me to the station I was struggling to get free. He held me very tightly, and when we entered the station he beat me. He punched me in the head… three or four times with his fist, and he kicked me in the legs a few times. Then I was handcuffed.

They never gave me any reason, but I knew I was arrested because I was shining shoes. When I was in the police station, they made a list of the items in my tool box and confiscated it. They took me in a truck, like a van, to Dong Dau.

Dong Dau was very dirty and smelly. We were locked in rooms all day, and the blankets had not been washed for a long time. There was a bucket used as the toilet—it was there in the room with us all the time. Every day, we were allowed out only twice, for a maximum of almost an hour. But most days, it was just half an hour at a time.

The room had just some plank beds on the floor for us to lie on. The window was always closed. It was in the door, with bars across it…

When we were let out, all we could do was to go to the toilet and eat… We could also shower, but usually we did not have enough time. Anyway, the water was very dirty. The conditions were filthy. When people arrive at Dong Dau, usually they get so sick because of the conditions that they cannot eat for the first few days. They just vomit. But after a few days you get used to it.

“They beat me more when I asked them to stop

There are all kinds of people in Dong Dau, including students and soldiers, and anyone who is picked up sleeping in parks or on the street late at night. There were ten people in my room. The oldest was age 50, and the youngest was 16 years old.

The prison staff saw my hairstyle was fashionable—they beat many people for that. If you had an unusual hair style, they would beat you and cut it. Also they would beat you for many silly reasons, like talking too loudly. If a new person arrived at the center and was recognized by somebody already there, they would be excited and talk loudly. The guards would go into the room, make everyone kneel down, and then beat everyone. They even beat a boy with deformed legs and made him kneel in the hot sun.

Ninety-nine percent of the people wanted to escape. I tried, too. On the third day, they let me out to sweep the courtyard. I tried to jump over the fence, but when I jumped back down I landed on shards of glass. It was put there to stop people escaping. Some people saw me, so I ran into the center to hide. They found me.

They took me to a courtyard, and then went to find a truncheon. First they kicked me twice in the chest, and I couldn’t breathe. I was sitting down. Almost everybody was watching, because all the rooms faced this courtyard. They used the clubs to beat me. They hit me so much and so hard that at the end, the club was bent out of shape.

They stood in a circle around me. Two people were beating me at the same time. After they were finished, one more came with another truncheon. He held it with both hands [he demonstrates the technique: the club is held over his head with two hands, and swung down]. I don’t know how many times they hit me, but it went on for a long time.

I screamed a lot, begging for them to stop. But they just beat me more when I asked them to stop. They hit me everywhere, except my head. They hit me on the front and back.

When they sent me back to my room, I couldn’t walk. The three men carried me back. For one week after, a boy named Hai had to help me go to eat and walk about.

They didn’t even give me a bandage. I was bleeding so much, and they didn’t even give me a bandage. My legs were covered in blood, but it was blood from the cut on my foot [he shows the scar on his foot from the glass]. I was bleeding so much that the nurse secretly brought me bandages and told me not to tell anyone.

I had bruises everywhere—all over both my arms and on my chest and legs and back—everywhere. I was in very bad condition. Some other [prisoners] helped me…

“I have read in the newspapers… they help you go home

After two weeks, when they were getting ready to release me, I had to write a commitment that I would do no more shoe shine. I have read in the newspapers that when you leave these centers, they help you go home, and the government gives your family 150,000 dong [U.S.$9] a month for the next three months. That’s totally wrong. It’s fiction. It never happens. Sometimes the prisoners had no money, so someone else would give them some to help them get the bus. And they’d get a beating from the guards. Nobody was even allowed to share money.

When I left, I went back to shining shoes. I was very afraid, but I need the money to go home to my family.

Second arrest (June 1, 2004): “How bad could 15 days be?

The second time I was arrested was on Children’s Day, June 1. I was sitting by the lake. I wasn’t shining shoes. The security guards and the ward police came to arrest everyone… They saw me holding a plastic bag and knew I had shoeshine tools inside… I saw them and ran across the road into the market. They followed me in and caught me.

They said nothing—they just grabbed me and put me on the truck to Dong Dau. I was never told why I had been arrested. As I entered the grounds [of Dong Dau], all the staff recognized me. They didn’t do anything but asked a lot of questions and checked to see if I was a drug addict. I filled in a form, and they locked me in a room. I was there for 14 days.

I saw a lot of people beaten. Some people wanted to get out of their room, and they were banging loudly on the door. The guards came in, and they beat everyone in the room. There was one man who was joking when he first got arrested. He joked, ‘How bad could 15 days be?’ So the guards showered him with blows from clubs. It was very serious—he couldn’t even walk.

I saw a mother and son—the son was three or four years old. The guard sent his mother away somewhere, I don’t know where, and put the child into my room. He was crying so much. The guards asked us to keep the child. He cried all night. This happened after I had been there for one week, and he was still there when I left.

Nobody in my room was sick. But in the women’s section upstairs, someone had a really bad stomach ache. She was screaming so loudly, but nobody came to help.

The room was just like the last time: dirty. It was kind of cold. There were two fans and one light—both stayed on 24 hours a day—and one window in the door. There was nothing to do. We just talked all day to pass the time. When we weren’t talking, we slept.

The food was terrible. Most people just nibbled at it... The food was old; the rice was often left-over or burnt. We ate twice a day—usually rice and two pieces of meat about the size of my thumb. It was never enough, and it didn’t taste good. It’s cooked by other prisoners and they are not used to cooking for so many people. The staff doesn’t have to do anything—they just call us and we do the work.

On the day I was arrested the second time, I was sure I would be sent right to Ba Vi, but they kept me for 14 days at Dong Dau. I thought I’d be released after that, but I wasn’t. They sent me to Ba Vi.

To Ba Vi (June 14, 2004): Another commitment

I arrived at Ba Vi in a truck with 19 other people. At first I thought everything would be the same as Dong Dau, but it was very different. In each room, people vote for the head of the room. In the first few days I was there, everything was fine.

Every day there was just two hours work outside. Then I could go back to the room and play chess. The water was better and there were more showers. But if you showered too much, you’d develop a rash. One time I had a fever and the staff gave me some medicine. There is a hospital nearby.

I wouldn’t say I liked Ba Vi, but staying there was okay. But there was no freedom.

The staff were okay. They talked to us like normal people. If we didn’t do anything to them, they didn’t do anything to us. But if the staff beat someone, they beat them a lot. I saw this a lot, but only when people didn’t want to wash their dishes after eating, or if we were fighting with each other. I was beaten three times with a stick because I saw a beehive and threw rocks at it. The staff saw and told me to stop, but I threw one more. They called me over and beat me three times on my arm, wrist, and butt.

Afterwards, my wrist was swollen a little, so I put some ointment on it. I went to ask some women prisoners for medicine and they helped me out.

I saw many people beaten. The youngest was 14 or 15. No one was seriously injured—they were left with some bruises. They would beat us in the head or put us against the wall and beat us on our butts with their clubs.

Release (September 14, 2004)

When I was leaving, I signed another commitment that I wouldn’t go to do shoe shine. They advised me to go to the countryside. They used to give people 20,000 dong (U.S.$1.25) when they were leaving, but now they only give 10,000 ($0.62). We got all of our possessions back. I walked one kilometer to the highway and caught a bus from there.

Now, I am shining shoes again. I want to go home, but I don’t have enough money.



48 Human Rights Watch interview with Trang, a 17-year-old shoe shiner, Hanoi, September 2004.