I went to Lao Bao prison

(Baonghean) -Carefully counting with my fingers, I counted 88 names of prisoners from Nghe An on the list of 267 political prisoners against the French (including 112 communist party members), in the exhibition room of Lao Bao prison (Lao Bao town, Huong Hoa district, Quang Tri province). There were 2 names that became symbols of patriotism: patriot Ho Ba Kien (from Quynh Doi, Quynh Luu) and comrade Nguyen Sy Sach (from Thanh Luong, Thanh Chuong).

I stood for a long time in front of two brick pillars built over 100 years old on the street named after a prisoner of Lao Bao prison: Le The Tiet - the first Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Quang Tri province. The vicissitudes of time seemed to want to erase the traces of crime, these two pillars only have a mossy part left that has been restored by later generations, so that today any resident of Duy Tan hamlet (Lao Bao town) can point to them and affirm: In the past, any prisoner who stepped through this gate was considered no longer human.

I have a reason to allow myself to imagine the feeling of “having been here” when I step into the Lao Bao prison relic. Because this place has appeared many times in my young mind through the painful thoughts of my uncle, a veteran revolutionary (a favorite student and also a fellow villager of Xuan Lam commune, Thanh Chuong district of comrade Nguyen Sy Sach when he was a teaching assistant at the French-Vietnamese Primary School in Ha Tinh from 1924 to 1926), that he had never been able to enter Lao Bao prison to find the exact documents about the last moments of the heroic sacrifice of the young teacher (a student, but my uncle was only 4 years younger than comrade Nguyen Sy Sach)…

Surely when Sai Vuong Nguyen Phuc Nguyen, the second Nguyen Lord of the Dang Trong government in the history of Vietnam (reigning from 1614 to 1635), established the Ai Lao garrison to guard the border area west of Quang Tri in 1622, he did not expect that 286 years later (1908), the first border post west of Dang Trong was established by foreign invaders to imprison and brutally torture patriotic citizens. Based on documents about the achievements of this lord in opening up the land, the Ai Lao garrison was formed in the middle of a deep green forest, where there was only a primitive, sparse life of "natives" who lived by hunting and gathering, moving in the border area between Dang Trong and the ancient Ai Lao land.

There is a lot of data that they were the Bru - Van Kieu ethnic group. But, in our opinion, it is also very possible that they were the Ta Oi - Pa Co people; because, when the Bru - Van Kieu people migrated to the West of Quang Tri, they lived concentratedly around the foot of Vien Kieu mountain (to get the name of the Van Kieu ethnic group later), that area belonged to the new Dakrong district below Huong Hoa now... At that time, the "natives" lived in the Ai Lao citadel area in a village called Bao village; gradually they called it Bao Tran Lao, and then to get the name Lao Bao now? Anyway, the "u ti quoc" style of seclusion as the poet Xuan Dieu said still lingers in the Lao Bao prison relic area.

Monument to political prisoners by sculptor Pham Van Hang
performed at Lao Bao prison.

It seems that those houses and walls were built only a few decades ago, including the group of statues of prisoners' faces erected by sculptor Pham Van Hang in the relic site, cannot help to overcome the dilapidated and desolate scene of Lao Bao prison relic. The head of the Lao Bao prison relic management board - Vo Thi Thu Hang is a young girl, knowing that we came from Nghe An, immediately led us to the memorial stele of Ho Ba Kien to burn incense for him. I could not hold back my emotions when Hang looked out into the distance at the green mountains and forests and said: "Here is the memorial stele, but his remains are still somewhere in the mountains and forests of other people's land, my dear!".

Ho Ba Kien was later recognized as a martyr of the French resistance, from Quynh Doi village, Quynh Luu district. Originally a patriot of the Van Than movement, from 1905 he and other patriots worked to promote the Dong Du movement initiated by Phan Boi Chau. He was arrested by the French in Hung Yen and exiled to Lao Bao. At Lao Bao prison, in 1915, Ho Ba Kien contacted fellow prisoners and soldiers, led an uprising to break out of prison, steal guns, and go into the forest to find a way to Siam (Thailand) to operate, but was continuously hunted down by the French colonial authorities, and he and his comrades sacrificed themselves in September of that year in the Ban Ta Tha mountains (Thailand) at the age of 43. In addition to being a symbol of indomitable patriotism here, Ho Ba Kien is also recognized as the first and only person to lead a successful uprising to escape from Lao Bao prison.

Perhaps the most impressive natural landscape of the Lao Bao prison relic is the ancient, thorny copper trees, which according to Hang were a torture device used by the French colonialists on prisoners when they were forced to take off all their clothes, climb dozens of meters, then hug the tree trunk full of sharp thorns and slide down, their skin and flesh torn apart, blood flowing profusely, many prisoners were left to bleed to death. The cruelty and harshness at Lao Bao prison was described in his memoir by comrade Tran Huu Duc, former Secretary of the Quang Tri Provincial Party Committee since 1930, a prisoner of Lao Bao prison: When arriving at the prison, the first thing a prisoner does is to be taken to the forge, shackled, chained, and have their heads shaved.

In many cases, the knife was so blunt that it tore the scalp, causing bleeding. Then they were taken to the prison and shackled. Each new prisoner or group of prisoners had to lie face down on the ground in front of the prison warden's office door. The soldiers searched everything. All the new prisoner's belongings, no matter what, dry or wet, were wrapped up, recorded, and thrown into storage. By the time they were taken out, almost all of the items were damaged... Each prisoner had to wear iron shackles and iron chains around the neck, two iron rings on both legs, with iron chains attached to the three iron shackles. After work, when they returned to prison, they were immediately shackled. Only after being shackled could they eat. After eating, they had to lie down, and if they wanted to sit up, they had to ask the guards for permission.

In prison, as well as when working outside, prisoners were not allowed to speak, not even whispering. Anyone who wanted to speak had to ask permission from the guards; when urinating or defecating, they had to use a bamboo tube with a strap on the shackles. Prisoners had to eat rice in wooden bowls. Over time, the fish sauce and salt seeped into them, and when they brought them to their mouths, they smelled something that made them want to vomit, very unpleasant. Soup bowls had to be made from copper pots with very toxic rust, very dangerous to eat. They accepted whatever food they were given, even if it was rotten rice or rotten fish sauce. People who went to get pig and rabbit vegetables also took prison vegetables, sometimes there was some, sometimes there wasn't.

Each prisoner was given two sets of green clothes, very ugly, a blanket, a mat, also ugly. The only medicine was quinine water. Every Saturday afternoon, after work, nurses and soldiers stood at the door, forcing each person to open their mouths, and they poured a cup of quinine water into their mouths, and only after swallowing could they leave. When working outside, there were two prisoners and one soldier, five meters apart. The soldiers held guns, their index fingers always on the triggers. A group of prisoners going to work did not hear a single word, only the clanking of iron chains and the curses of the soldiers. The labor regime for prisoners was very hard and cruel. Beating, torturing, and even shooting prisoners were normal...

Because of such harshness and barbarism, political prisoners always showed resistance and fought for improvements in their prison conditions. During one such direct struggle with the enemy on December 19, 1929, while loudly denouncing the brutality of the prison and making demands, comrade Nguyen Sy Sach was cowardly murdered by the enemy right in the cell of the prison warden (that year he was only 21 years old, and was a member of the General Committee in charge of domestic affairs of the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth League). Comrade Nguyen Sy Sach was confirmed to be the first communist to die in Lao Bao prison. In the exhibition room of the prison, there is currently a painting depicting the struggle and sacrifice of comrade Nguyen Sy Sach, painted in 1999, based on the most authentic documents in Lao Bao prison and the stories of some former prisoners who were still alive at that time.

Vo Thi Thu Hang took us to visit the remaining vestiges of the prisons. When it was first established, Lao Bao prison had only two rows of wooden cells, roofed with tiles, and plastered with cement, called Lao A and Lao B; each row was 15m long, 5m wide, and 2m high, very narrow but held up to 60 prisoners. At the end of 1934, the French colonialists built an additional system of solid concrete and steel prisons, called cells C, D, and bunker E; Each cell was 30m long, 6m wide, holding about 180 prisoners. And the solitary confinement area had 13 cells, each cell was 1m wide and 2.14m high. The entire structure was surrounded by a system of 3.5m high walls and many protective bunkers at the corners of the wall and important locations...

Later, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam built a revolutionary base during the Route 9 - Khe Sanh campaign (1967-1968) at the prison. The US bombed to destroy the Vietnamese soldiers hiding here, causing most of the prisons to collapse. In 1995, the State built a memorial monument, a soul altar, and a memorial stele in memory of Ho Ba Kien. In 1991, the prison was recognized as a national historical site. Right in the basement is a gallery, a cluster of statues erected by sculptor Pham Van Hang, depicting the heinous crimes of the enemy by showing the faces of hatred, indomitability, and determination to fight for freedom of the prisoners, as if to soothe the pain and loss of countless patriotic scholars and communist soldiers imprisoned in Lao Bao prison.

In the middle of the monument, there are four lines of poetry written in To Huu's scribbled, sinewy handwriting in June 1938, during the time he was imprisoned here: "Let me enjoy the fighting spirit/ Let my skin be seasoned with tomorrow/ Let me devote my blood to the end/ To dye the gray landscape red with sorrow". And the famous poem "The one-eyed fish" by To Huu was also written during these days.

The Lao Bao prison relic is now a pilgrimage site, educating the indomitable tradition of patriotism of the revolutionary predecessors; at the same time, it is also a destination for many foreign visitors, especially Thai visitors. The elder of Duy Tan hamlet, Lao Bao town - Mr. Tran Nhon Nam said that the prison relic is very sacred to the local people. The people always remind their children and grandchildren to respect the relic. On holidays of the year, the government and people at all levels here come to burn incense at the memorial...

Mr. Nguyen Nhon Nam also told many memories about the strangely lush ancient forest of copper trees here, which after 1975 was gradually replaced by residential areas and hills of trees with abundant fruit. That strangely lush copper tree forest, like many things about Lao Bao prison, has not been clarified; however, I came here to somewhat ease the worries, if any, of my uncle's soul, that: His beloved teacher, comrade Nguyen Sy Sach, had bravely sacrificed himself when facing the enemy, and was not shot dead while climbing over the wall to escape from prison, as some books and newspapers have said.

Article and photos: Dinh Sam