next photo

prev photo

Torture Victims

“I was forced to confess that I was the chairman of the Front for the Salvation of the Fatherland.  I refused to say anything to my investigators.  They hancuffed my right hand to my left leg 24 hours a day and threw me into a small box – just enough for me to stand up and walk back and forth six steps.  They put electric shocks on parts of my body, poured water inside my mouth and submerged my head into a sink full of water.  They tried to suffocate me.  They beat me up savagely.  I spent more than 14 years in 14 different re-education camps in both North and South Vietnam with my two legs shackled for 4 years, 6 months and 15 days in total darkness.  After they relased me, I contracted tuberculosis.  Fortunately, I have clean lungs right now except that I still have headaches, arthritis, stomach ulcer, and nightmares.”

            These were the painful public recollections of Tran Tu Thanh, a former South Vietnamese officer who spoke at the National Conference of Vietnamese Trauma Survivors and Seniors at George Mason University’s Johnson Center on May 24.  His younger brother, Vong Tran, went through the same prison treatment and suffered from post-traumatic syndrome disease (PTSD).  As their father was a prominent lawyer, a former Minister of Information as well as Vice Prime Minister and Chairman of the Board of Attorneys in Vietnam, Thanh and his brother werre tortured and “re-educated” after the North Vietnamese took over the South in 1975.

            What do private and public agencies do to help Thanh, his brother and the 30,000 torture survivors?  These Vietnamese trauma survivors, former allies of the United States who were left behind at the end of the Vietnam War, were brought to the U.S. to resettle with their families, a total of 150,000, under a special program known as HO, for Humanitarian Operation, throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

            Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bich, chair of Boat People SOS (BPSOS), welcomed the 150 participants from all over the country who registered to attend the three-day Conference.  He addresssed self-help, peer support, and community partnership.  The objectives of the Conference are to promote access to health, mental health, and support services.

Scholars, health experts, service providers and the survivors themselves identified the needs and developed a joint action plan to address those needs.  The conference also offered training to caregivers, mental health professionals, social service providers, government officials, and representatives of  community-based and faith-based organizations on cultural competency and best practices.

Action Plan to Address Needs

            Dr. Richard Mollica, Director of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT) of Massachussetts General Hospital and Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, is the author of a newly published book, Healing Invisible Wounds: Paths to Hope and Recovery in a Violent World.  He said, “The HPRT was founded in December 1981 and has treated over 10,000 survivors of mass violence and torture, with a large majority coming from Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos).  Over the past 25 years, our research and training activities have helped clarify the mental health sequelae of torture.  The consequenses of torture are myriad.  Physical effects of torture range from major orthopedic problems, chronic pain, fractures, motor impairment and paraplegia to increased risk of cervical cancer, HIV infection and AIDS.

            Due to the humility and brutality of the torture experience and the frequency of resulting traumatic brain injuries, major psychiatric diagnosis of PTSD and depression can be readily identified in all cultures.  The humiliation and fear factor used to annihilate the individual are the most potent and damaging instrument; it can devastate not only the individual but also spread to whole communities.

            The best model for HPRT is the primary health care system, involving indigenous healing systems and including community elders and family members, clergy and other religious professionals and traditional healers.  “Rarely do trauma survivors seek help from the psychiatric system,” Dr. Mollica revealed.  “Our program is focused on building working and training capacity in the primary care system, with strong linkages to other community agents.”

            Another expert, Dr. Robert Weigl, a clinical and cross-cultural psychologist who interviews and evaluates both re-education camp survivors and their spouses, added, “There is a peculiar failure to recognize the physiological impact of what the HO folks suffered.  Sometimes, it looks worse among wives, who were never tortured or imprisoned.  There is a host of factors that may account for what look like neurological problems as well as psychological symptoms for survivors and spouses, including moderate dementia and Parkinsons disease, cardiovascular weakening, minor strokes, and drastically premature aging.  I have been shocked at the frequency of physical problems among the survivors.”  He also agreed with Dr. Mollica: “Traditional western psychotherapies are of secondary importance.”

            Nguyen Dinh Thang, Ph.D., Executive Director of BPSOS, devised cluster workshop sessions of 90 minutes each for partipants to discuss various topics ranging from parental involvement, women’s health, counseling the elderly, nutrition, abuse, media training, and peer support to retirement training and emergency preparedness.

            As the workshops’ moderator, he said that several Vietnamese-American doctors would discuss health risks and diseases with high prevalence among Vietnamese, such as cervical cancer, prostate cancer, Hepatitis B, liver cancer, lung cancer, and diabetes.  They also spoke about the importance of preventive health care and a model of collaboration between health professionals and community organizations.  Basic principles, practices and skills in providing counseling to elders were discussed in the context of how family members could contribute to the care of elders.  How can they access services?  How can they get family and community support in terms of translation, transportation and navigation?

            Several nutritionists also explained the dietary habits of the Vietnamese and how to eat in a healthy way and prevent diseases.  As the elderly are among the most vulnerable population in a situation of emergency, American Red Cross and FEMA representatives shared best practices on how each individual, family, and community could prepare for the next emergency.

Celebrations

            To cap off the Conference, the Academy of Asian American Performing Arts in Virginia, choreagraphed by Asa Trinh and her troupe, took the audience back to the mythical birth of Vietnam and wove through the Indochinese and Vietnam Wars, the exodus of North Vietnamese fleeing south in 1954, and the wave of boat people fleeing Vietnam in the aftermath of the Communist takeover.  Accompanied by dramatic music, songs and dances, the story evoked the heroic sacrifices of the South Vietnamese and their American allies and the tough times Vietnamese refugees went through to rebuild their lives. 

That musical odyssey took place at the George Mason University Center for the Arts in the afternoon, then a banquet was held at Lucky Three restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia.  This event honored Cong. Chris Smith, who for the past ten years has campaigned for the resumption of the HO program, the protection of victims of human trafficking, the resettlement of Amerasians, and the promotion of human rights and religious freedom. 

Other honorees included Deputy Assistant Secretary Kelly Ryan, who negotiated the resumption of the HO program with the Vietnamese government; Cong. Tom Davis, the author of the McCain-Davis Amendment, which resettled the adult children of HO refugees; and Senator Frank Lautenberg, the author of the Lautenberg amendment, which established more generous refugee adjudication criteria for the HO and HR programs.  BPSOS will also honor Sen. Jim Webb, a former American officer, who has shown that he still cares for his allies.