Original Story


LY TONG'S LETTER to the PRESS  -----  ON HIS HUNGER STRIKE FROM THAILAND 

Thailand (on the day of court hearing) 

March 10, 2003 

The Honorable Siva Saengmanee or Director General Thai Department of Corrections 

Nonthaburi 1 Road      Nonthaburi Province 11000     Thailand 


Your Honor: 

My name is Ly Tong, a Vietnamese-American freedom fighter who has been detained in Rayong 
Central Prison  since January 2001. It was a great honor to have had a chance to meet you
at Lardyao's emergency room when I was on a hunger strike in 2001 to protest against 
the corrupt legal system in Thailand. In that one-hour  conversation, I became convinced
that you are a visionary and responsible leader. I am certain that you care about
the welfare of the prisoners under your administration. That is the reason I permit myself 
to write this letter to  report to you about the brutal abuse of your subordinates inside 
the Rayong Central Prison. It is my hope that you can help to correct and improve the 
current conditions so that they conform to the guidelines and standards  set out by the 
Thai Department of Corrections. 

I am on a hunger strike since February 26th, 2003 to appeal to the peace and freedom- 
loving people around the world. It is my wish that they will support the just war 
led by President Bush to remove the tyrant Saddam Hussein from power and liberate the 
Iraqi people. I will stop my hunger strike only when either Saddam resigns or President
Bush orders the attack. I expect that the latter will take place within the next ten days.
However, on a second  thought, I do intend to continue my hunger strike even when 
that objective is achieved. It is a sad reality that even   when one big tyrant is being
removed from power, there are other tyrants who continue to harass and oppress
cruelly under my eyes and in a free country like Thailand. I dare say you may not 
know about these horrible  violations because each time you came to visit and inspect
the prison, the wardens would have assured that everything was in good appearance. 
If I continue to shut my mouth and blindfold my eyes, or cover my ears, I
should no longer be considered a human rights activist and world-renowned freedom fighter. 
It is for this reason  that I voice my opinion. 

I have to acknowledge that since the new director assumed his office, he has made many 
improvements. Offices have been renovated, walls repainted, water tanks paved with bricks,
trays have been replaced bowls and dishes.   More importantly, it appears that the prison 
guards have been required to follow stricter rules. Even if all this has
contributed to a better appearance of the facility, only two things have been 
accomplished to improve the  prisoners' welfare: 

1. The visit room has been renovated, making it larger and more decent for prisoners
to visit with their families.  This is a big step-up from the old "noisy market" visit
room before renovation. 

2. Prisoners with sentences have been transferred to other prisons, making the 
sleeping areas, especially the cells,          less crowded. 

However, as mentioned above, there are other basic and vital reforms that have
not yet been taking place. Here are other areas that require improvements: 

1. Bathing: 

I understand that there is a plan to install showers for bathing. Before the plan can 
be implemented, the prison should give prisoners water for washing purposes. 
After an 8-hour workday, prisoners are given only 8 liters a day for washing. 
I am sure you can imagine how this is inadequate. That explains why a majority of
prisoners have skin diseases. Expenses for treating these diseases are much more 
important that the cost of water.

It is also very common that prisoners must use water from the well for washing purposes.
The water from the well  has a mysterious dark blood color with a strong odor. 
This could be one of the sources of the disease. I know that on Prachuap Prison, 
prisoners can take a shower with as much water as they need. There is running water for use
almost all day long. There are also water coolers in every room. 

2. Eating: 

a. Rice. The rice that is given to us here is for animals, which is not fit for
human consumption. We can smell its  odor 5 meters away. To think that Thailand 
is the number one country in exporting rice in the world and this is all it
can give the people in its prisons! 

b. Meats. All the meats served to prisoners (e.g. chickens, pork) are rotten meats,
with horrible odors. What is  even worse is that prisoners are often given only fat 
and skin, or the parts that nobody can eat. 

c. Vegetables. 

All vegetables (e.g. beans cabbage, cabbage roots) are also impossible to consume. 

In conclusion, even not enough portions are given to prisoners, there are always
plenty of leftovers simply because the food is not fit for human consumption.
What is interesting is that the former director of the prison
opened a big restaurant on the beach. One cannot but wonder where the money came from 
and whether providing  limited water and bad food had in anyway contributed to his 
business venture. His salary as a public servant  certainly cannot do it alone. 

3. Sleeping space: 

Prisoners in big rooms have only 40cm by 1,6 m to sleep in. They are forced to sleep
like "sardines in a can". The Department of Corrections cannot use its limited fund 
as an excuse to treat prisoners inadequately. With the same surface, you can build
higher buildings; or why not even new prisons. Prisoners need adequate sleeping space
especially after a long day of labor. 

4. Punishment: 

Many of the prison guards here are petty tyrants who treat the inmates like slaves 
or animals instead of people with rights and dignity. Here are some examples of their
treatments: 

a. Prisoners must kneel down in the presence of the guards. Why is it too much for 
the prison to provide chairs for           its prisoners? 

b. Prisoners are being subjected to brutal beatings on a routine basis. These beatings
occur, on an average, every  2 weeks. It is not rare for 2-3 beatings to take place 
in the same week. With big sticks prison guards thrash  prisoners' backs, along their
backbones, legs, hands, and even heads. Prisoners are also being kicked in the face.

Who can tolerate 10 big sticks with full force without suffering some sorts of internal
injuries? And yet some  prisoners get more than 20 sticks. On January 31, 2001,
two prisoners died as a result of internal bleeding and  broken ribs. 
They had been beaten for about half an hour prior to their deaths. 
About 15 minutes after the deaths of these two prisoners, another one from the same 
group who survived the beatings earlier was taken out for some more beatings. 

It was obvious that the deaths of the prisoners did not in away way deter the guards
from their  cruel intentions. I have been told that in Thailand, prison guards have
the right to beat the prisoners to death! It is   horrible to know that no one was
being held responsible after this abuse of authority.

In other countries such as South Korea, when one prisoner was beaten to death, 
the Minister of Justice had to resign. The whole world knew about this incident 
and condemned this violation. Communist Vietnam had to stop beating its prisoners 
since 1991,  which makes one wonder, why a great and free country such as Thailand
still endorses this practice especially when Thailand was one of the countries that 
signed the human rights convention? Beatings should not be considered the only form
of punishment inside prisons nor the only way to solve problems. 

c. In Lardyao and Chonburi prisons, prisoners are chained for six months at most. 
When in Chonburi, I was  unchained after one month of incarceration and was allowed 
to go about my normal activities like other foreign   prisoners. But this changed 
when I was transferred to Rayong. I have now been chained for 2 years and 3 months.

The prison chains their prisoners over a long period of time on the pretext of
"small prison" security. Having  escaped successfully 6 times from prisons in
Communist Vietnam and Cambodia, I can assure you that the smaller
the prison, the more difficult it is to escape. The escapee faces a greater risk 
of having his plan being discovered  within a small and crowded space. 
This is to point out that to use the excuse of small prison's security to chain
prisoners for years is illogical and inhuman. The prison can install other security 
features such as setting up more barbed wire fence on the wall (a kind of razor blade
barbed wire). It can even run electricity on the fence at night.


With these features installed, the chance that a prisoner can escape is almost none. 

I would like now to focus more specifically on my case. The prison guards do not 
force me to kneel down nor do  they beat me. I salute them the military way and do 
not bow like other Thai prisoners. The prison guards have come to know me and my
reputation as a human rights activist and freedom- fighter. I have a strong support
system all over the world that includes many high-ranked officers and generals from
the former Republic of South   Vietnam. 

It is thanks to my supporters that I can sustain this "hell on earth" and continue
my work as freedom    fighter from prison. 

That leads me to the next issue, which is correspondence/communication. At one time,
Rayong prison stopped all   my incoming mail for the reason that none of the prison
guards could read Vietnamese and English. Today, even though I can receive almost all
the letters from my supporters, I still have problems sending out letters. It is only
through a friend that I have my letters sent out. When I was in Chonburi prison, 
my interpreter was able to bring me everything except videotapes and other prohibited
items. I was also able to give her documents and letters
directly without having to go through a checkpoint. 

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science and need to work on my dissertation. 
I need to maintain communication  with my support system partially because of my 
academic work. More importantly, I have the right to privacy in terms of not having my
mail interfered wth. Some of the prison guards informed me that the Department of
Corrections makes the final decision on whether my letters can be mailed to America. 
I find this an abnormal procedure and respectfully ask for your intervention in 
correcting this situation. 

Another related issue is the use of the Internet in prison. You have tested this
idea at the Lardyao Prison.  Unfortunately, this initiative did not go into 
implementation due to the abuses of some drug dealers who used the
Internet to conduct their businesses with the outside world. A friend of mine has 
provided me with a laptop about half a year ago. It would be very important for me to
be able to use my laptop for my academic work. Needless to
say, there is no way I can access the Net in prison and the laptop will be used 
solely to organize and record my  academic work. 

Your Honor, if I cannot accept something that happens thousand miles away like 
the current situation in Iraq   where the people are being oppressed, tortured, 
and terrorized by their leader, then how can I continue to live
when I have to witness the brutal abuses of the prison guards on a daily basis? 
Even though a foreigner, I am more concerned about the welfare of other inmates
than that of my own.

When in Chonburi prison, I shared whatever I  had with Thai prisoners and most
of the times spent more to buy food for them than for myself. It is in that spirit
that I beg your generosity in making the reforms necessary to grant the prisoners a 
decent life. As they are being punished for their crimes, they should not also endure
the inhuman and cruel conditions created by the prison  guards, conditions that are 
not in agreement with the standards defined by the Thai Department of Corrections. 

As Director of the Department, you have the power and authority to take the necessary
actions to improve the prison life at Rayong. I do intend to continue my hunger strike
until such reforms take place. I would rather end my life
than to have to endure the corrupt legal system and witness the inhuman and cruel 
treatment of people on a daily basis. Please understand that I have to no reason
to continue this horrible life. Death is my liberation. 

I would like to express my gratitude for your generosity in giving the time, 
attention, and consideration to this letter. 

Yours respectfully, 

Ly Tong 
  Rayong Central Prison 
  Tumbo Chengnon, Ampher Muang, 
  Rayong 21.000 
  Thailand 

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