“If Thach sincerely wants to overthrow the government, what did he jion the national anti-America troop for in his twenties?” Nguyen Thi Chuong, wife of prisoner of conscience Tran Duc Thach, rhetorically wondered.
When the investigation finished, Mr. Thach was transferred to prison No. 5 in Thanh Hoa province, about 200 km from his family. Every month, Ms Chuong regularly rides her motorbike 200 km from home and 200 km back home for a family visit with her husband, unless extreme weather.
It typically takes nearly a whole day for a family visit. “Usually, after my daily work at the market, I buy fresh food to prepare for him until 10am. It would be around, let’s say, 2pm when I reach the prison when food is still hot and in fine condition. When I get home, it is nearly 10 o’clock at night,” Mrs. Chương recalled.
Mr. Thạch is never abandoned, always in stable health with ruddy skin, for Mrs. Chương is a well-planned person and the best caregiver ever. On days when there was chicken at home, Mrs. Chương would boil it well and bring it to the prison. On other days it might be a kilo of mackerel stock if it wasn’t sweet and sour pork ribs. In the winter, Mrs. Chương treated Mr. Thạch with a pot of jellied meat. Mr. Chương keeps cooking a lot of food so that Mr. Thạch can share it with his inmates. They understand that some less frequently have family visits. There was this one time when Mr. Thạch’s food record from his family was overweight, bringing the prison authorities to notice; Mrs. Chương stated, “I wouldn’t have to send this endless amount of food if Mr. Thạch was in good hands. You are not good at this then, return him to Nguyễn Thị Chương!” to leave them with nothing else to do but laughing it off.
Mr. Thạch becomes a homemade singer every time his wife pays a visit, despite the glass partition separating them. His go-tos would always be either Nhac Vang (music composed between 1954-1975 in South Viet Nam) or boleros. Some of his favorites are Thao thuc vi em, Tu tinh, Sao em no ra di. Those singing scenes between the old couples sometimes moved even the prison guards.
When not singing to his wife, Mr. Thạch talked about his health and living conditions inside the prison. He has been allowed out for only two hours per day for fresh air for three years, except Saturday and Sunday. “In the summer, two inmates would live in a 15m2 room outside. Two layers of shields prevent wind from getting in, which is harsh even for healthy people. Therefore, Mrs. Chương is distraught that his high blood pressure disease will not be handled in time. Mr. Thạch is aged; we can’t say if he will overcome the next 9 years in prison. I’m longing for Mr. Thạch’s right to live to reunite with this old family,” his wife added.
Mrs. Chương is aged, and family visits are always a long trip. Yet, she insists on traveling on the motorbike herself. All the money is for Mr. Thạch. All the hardship she takes is second to being imprisoned, in her opinion; therefore, Mrs. Chương never missed any precious thing that his wife earned to have. “Firstly, he is mentally supported seeing me like this. Secondly, I am still free, and I can speak out to ask for the rights of inmates. Thirdly, Vietnamese people have the right to freedom.”
The prison authorities have always forced Mr. Thạch to make proper confessions, but he is not guilty. “If Thạch sincerely wants to overthrow the government, what did he join the national anti-America troop for in his twenties? Three generations of Thạch’s family were all Communist soldiers,” Mrs. Chương rhetorically wondered.
***
Trần Đức Thạch was born in 1952. He served as a soldier at the 266th Regiment, 341th Division of the People’s Army of Vietnam. 8 years after being released from prison, Mr. Thạch was arrested for the second time on April 24th, 2020 and sentenced to 12 years for “conspiracy to overthrow the government,” under broadly worded article 109 of the Penal Code 2015. On November 4, 2022, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention from the United Nations adopted an opinion concerning the case of Trần Đức Thạch. The Woring Group requests the Government to release Mr. Thạch immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.
