Ex-Vietnamese
Political Prisoner Blames Jail Conditions for HIV Infection
RFA -
07/04/2014
A
former Vietnamese political prisoner who had served 14 years in jail says he has
been tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, blaming the infection
on inhumane conditions during his imprisonment, including mass sharing of
shaving razor blades.
Huynh Anh Tri was released in December last year from Xuan Loc prison camp
together with his brother Huynh Anh Tu after they were arrested in 1999 and
convicted two years later of “terrorism” with intent to overthrow Hanoi’s
one-party, communist government .
Tri acknowledged in an interview with RFA’s Vietnamese Service that he believed
he contracted the deadly virus in prison, saying he was too weak to even talk.
“Please talk with my brother, I’m too tired. I can’t talk now,” he said, handing
the phone to Tu, who alleged that the Vietnamese authorities deliberately let
dissidents live in inhumane conditions in jails to make them vulnerable to
deadly diseases such as AIDS.
He said his brother could have contracted the HIV virus between 2002 and 2004
when Xuan Loc prison was run by a superintendent who allowed mass sharing of
shaving razor blades among prisoners.
“[The superintendent] forced people to cut hair and shave faces with the same
razor,” said Tu.
About 100 prisoners were forced to share one communal razor then and “the
possibility of contracting HIV was very high,” he said.
Bribe
Political prisoners who do not bribe prison wardens were also forced to use
shackles which were “unclean” and “stained with blood.” Constant shackling can
cause prisoners to bleed.
“If you did not bribe the prison managers, you would have contracted diseases
because after two weeks, you were bleeding too,” Tu continued.
“Many prisoners had to bargain to have clean shackles and paid for them.
Stubborn prisoners had to use the unclean shackles.”
After their release, Tri and Tu faced great difficulty in finding a place to
stay, but were eventually helped by a church, reports said.
Tu suspects that about a dozen prisoners may have contracted the HIV virus
during the 2002-2004 period, adding that some of them could have even died.
The Paris-based Vietnamese Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) said in a statement
last year that dissidents were subjected to a “particularly harsh regime" and
inadequate medical care in the political section of the Xuan Loc prison
facility.
It identified one inmate, 53-year-old Do Van Thai, as having also contracted the
HIV virus while in prison, saying he was receiving no treatment for the
condition.
Reported by Mac Lam for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Di
Hoa Le.