Camp VI (Phu An Camp)

Saturday - 16/07/2022 00:41

Camp VI is 29,394m2 wide and divided into two areas: Zone A and Zone B, each of which has two rows and 10 rooms with each being more than 100 m2 wide.

Zone A was put into use in 1970. In August 1970, the former South government established the Con Son Pilot Psychological Operations Battalion at this camp, which was directly monitored and instructed by the US and Taiwanese advisors. The camp is located on a sand cave near the mountain. It was hot during the day, and it was impossible to cross two rows of cells barefoot at noon, but the temperature dropped suddenly at night, and the wind from the holes in the mountain formed a harmful wind area, which had a great impact on the prisoners’ health.

Zone B was originally the place to detain political dissidents that were purged from the first Pilot Psychological Operations Battalion. The strongest impression on this camp was recorded in December 1971, when the detained political prisoners’ force was brought back from Camp I. This was a resilient fighting group that had been screened from hundreds of waves of struggle against the tactics of denouncing and forcibly seceding from the Communist Party since the Diem regime. On February 3, 1972, the Party Committee named after Luu Chi Hieu was formed at Camp VI, Zone B. The Party Committee had 62 members organized into 10 branches in all departments and organized the executive committee from the whole camp to the department level to maintain activities according to the guidelines of the Party Committee.

The monthly magazine named Xay Dung (which means Construction), the voice of the political prisoners of Camp VI, Zone B, was formed in mid-1972, providing news, current affairs, commentaries, memoirs, poems, and articles about conspiracies of the enemy, the higher educational solidarity and fighting spirit of political prisoners. Holidays and historical anniversaries were solemnly held, with publicly displayed flags, revolutionary slogans, cultural activities, traditional stories, political lessons, etc., as a liberated area in the prison.

At the end of 1974, having known the contents of the Paris Peace Accords that the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the United States had agreed to, the Party Committee of Luu Chi Hieu established the Military and Security Committees to prepare for the opportunity to self-liberate. Thanks to the strong party committee, tight organizational structure, collective solidarity and high fighting spirit, confined political prisoners in Camp VI, Zone B successfully organized many typical fights and gained political prestige, among which there were a 19-day hunger strike (in October 1972), the celebration of major holidays in December 1972, the fight against fingerprinting, taking photos and changing the sentence of political prison to "evildoers who want to unite different parties” (May 1973).

In early 1975, the enemy transferred all political prisoners confined in Camp VI, Zone B, to Camp VII (the American Tiger Cage). Members of Luu Chi Hieu's party committee actively contributed to directing the rebellion to liberate Con Dao on the night of May 30 and at dawn, May 1, 1975.

Source: Department of Culture and Sport of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Provice; Photo: Internet