II  The Tragic Journey - The Vietnamese Land People  

The reality of the Vietnamese boat people’s journey is full of tragic experiences, endless natural calamities and brutal man-made obstacles. (Photo: B. McDougall)

In addition to 796,310 Vietnamese Asylees who escaped communist persecution by boats, 42,918 other refugees walked across Cambodia or Laos into Thailand in search of liberty.[1] The conditions that these land people had undergone were no better than those of the boat people. They had to confront countless dangers of the wild forests, to suffer guerrillas’ savage attacks, to pass miles and miles on their own feet over countless cold and deadly roads.

Many lives were lost during the journey on land to freedom.  In June 1981, a severely injured Vietnamese boy barely made it to the Thai border. He was the only one from his group to escape death;  the other eleven people were executed by Khmer Rouge cadres. Trần Văn Phước was another land refugee, who came to Thailand in February 1982. On his way to freedom, he was detained temporarily by Khmer Serei soldiers, who once hammered his head repeatedly but miraculously he survived.

            When the land people finally arrived in Thailand where they thought to have attained freedom, they were imprisoned until the local authorities decided to process their refugee claim. Commencing March 20, 1980, Bangkok refused to allow Vietnamese land people from claiming asylum out of the fear that it would lead to more arrivals by land; it further contended that Cambodia was the first-asylum country, and thus the land people should have been processed there, i.e. outside of Thai territories. As a result, newly arriving Vietnamese Asylees were held captive at various locations on the Cambodian side.  Names such as Camp Non Chan, Non Samet (or Camp 007), Non Makmun (or Camp 204) revoked bitter memories among the land people. In these camps, the refugees’ lives were miserable because they were treated worse than animals.  Food supplies and fresh water were severely limited, and camp security was next to nil. 

At night, the land people became dispensable targets for soldiers and armed guerrillas. Khmer Rouge and Khmer Serei soldiers as well as paramilitary camp security guards (frighteningly known as 'Para') frequently kidnapped and gang raped women at night. Wealthy female Asylees had to pay for overnight hiding places inside Cambodian huts in order to escape the rampant sexual assault. During daytime, male refugees were forced to work for free, and any opposition could bring about a death sentence. The land people were completely defenseless victims of brutality until Bangkok agreed to process their refugee claim and thereafter transferred them to Camp Northwest 9 (or Camp 042) and other similar refugee centres on the Thai border.[2] Camp Northwest 9 was created in early 1980 and run by the Thai army as a station against potential attacks by Hanoi’s tanks.  It started to shelter the land people on April 18, 1980 with the assistance of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC). The Asylees could stay in Camp Northwest 9 from several months to years before being transported to Panat Nikhom Holding Center from where they would receive refugee protection. 

            The followings are excerpts from a letter written to the writer by Mr. Vạn Trường, an old friend currently residing in Texas. It describes in details his appalling experience as a land refugee.

‘.. When everything (the arrangement) was completed, we left Vietnam on a small boat. After cruising the Mekong river, we came to Phnom Penh where the group rested for the night.

The next morning, we began to head for Thailand under the guidance of a local Cambodian. I was told to remain absolutely silent. And if questioned by anyone, I had to pretend to be mute since birth.  It was a very hard role to play; but believe me, if your life depends on it, you would perform it even better than a professional actor.

After a long week full of difficulties, we came to a place near the Cambodia-Thai border. From there, we had to pass through a horrific path about 60 kilometers to get to Thailand. Although we occasionally had use of some old bicycles, but most of the time, we walked.  The road was extremely bad and full of deadly stuffs like booby traps and buried mines. We always tried to join the smugglers, who ran contraband goods across the Cambodia-Thai border.

Cambodia has suffered so much to an unbelievable point. The country is extremely poor and completely devastated.  Countless corpses lied along the path.  Wells were full of skulls and bones. Everyone eventually became senseless because we saw too many of those scenes. Our feelings as well as sympathy seemed to have departed from our heart and mind altogether. 

I was detained and questioned by Khme Rouge infantrymen once. As I was told earlier, I tried to act like a speechless dummy. I was frightened to death.  Fortunately, the Cambodian guide was able to make some arrangements to get me out; otherwise, I wouldn’t be here in North America today. There were so many times that we were stopped, searched and threatened by all types of guerrillas, who had modern weapons in their possession.  They wanted gold and valuables as badly as those pirates in the Gulf (of Thailand).

In the jungle, like elsewhere, women were the ones who suffered the most.  Just about all of them had repeatedly become sexual targets for Thai soldiers and Cambodian guerrillas. Many of those beast-like gunmen were still in their early teens. At their age, they should be in school to learn and have fun like we did.  But what can we say? They are the results of a war that no one would actually benefit from. They are just victims of the circumstance. I feel very sorry for them, but even more for the people who suffered from their savage conducts. During those sad moments, when the gunmen raped the women, I only knew to turn my head away and hid my feelings. We hated ourselves for being helpless; but what could we do?  We couldn’t help anyone, not even ourselves. A small reaction would get us killed.  In that jungle, justice was in the hands of those who had guns.

Many days later, we finally arrived in Thailand.  The Thai authorities put us in a tiny and miserable camp near the border.  Except trees, there was no one and nothing around us.  When the sun was still on, black flies invaded the whole place.  During nighttime, mosquitoes were the bosses and, around the clock, centipedes and snakes acted like masters of the wild forest. There wasn’t any well or spring from which we could get water. For drinking, cooking and bathing, each of us was supplied with two liters of water a day.  It was a hard life;  but miraculously, we managed to survive like that for a long period of time.

The camp wasn’t secured either. Twice we had to leave it to avoid bandits, who equipped themselves with heavy firearms.  It was full of dangers over there. Death was so close to the point that we all could feel it. Most of us were anxiously waiting for permission to leave that place.

I spent eight months in that miserable camp before the authorities allowed me to go to Chunburi where a refugee camp run by the UNHCR located.  I couldn’t believe that I had made it through...’  

            Among the land people who sought freedom by passing through the deadly forest on foot, there were many young Vietnamese, who once were members of Hanoi’s occupying force in Cambodia. They deserted the red army to seek asylum in Thailand but unfortunately, somehow, they were classified as POWs rather than political refugees and were mistreated by Thai soldiers and Cambodian guerrillas.  Their fate was uncertain because they were neither being sent back to Hanoi for punishments nor being processed for transfer to refugee camps.  In another word, they were ‘unwanted.’ 

            In late 1981, there were approximately 400 deserters held in a sealed-off section in Sikhiu camp in Nakhon Ratchasima. There were 26 detainees from North Vietnam, and the rest were escapees from the South. It took a very long time (at least after the 2-year 'sojourn' imposed by Thailand in July 1981) before a few of them could get permission to claim refugee protection; and it took even longer for any of them to be resettled.

            While awaiting for their refugee claim to be processed, the  ‘unwanted’ were detained and deprived of the freedom they had longed for even before they set their feet on Thailand.  They were held captive as criminals although they were just as innocent as anyone else in Socialist Vietnam.  They themselves did not want to join the socialist armed forces; but instead, they were required to do so by the communist regime. They had already risked their lives by deserting Hanoi’s army and passing miles and miles of dangers in search of liberty.  They were simply victims of the circumstance like many other refugees, whose freedom at times seemed illusive.  

Arriving Vietnamese Land People Source: UNHCR

Note: These statistics fail to include many unfortunate refugees, who were murdered by armed bandits or died due to exploding land mines in their search for freedom.

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