'Stop aid to Vietnam'

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33462, 18 February 1974, Page 11

'Stop aid to Vietnam'

New Zealand should stop sending aid to South Vietnam, says Mr !G. Woolford, just back [from Saigon, where he .investigated political imprisonment. He represented a New Zea-1 land organisation known asi 1R.A.V.P.0.C. (Release all ! • Vietnamese Prisoners of Con ! 'science) at an international' !assembly ■ of Christians ini ! Turin at which the Vietnam-1 |ese situation was discussed.! • In Saigon on the way home I he talked with 13 former! political prisoners and spoke! to many people with first-j hand knowledge. “They considered New Zealand should stop sending aid because foreign aid is propping up a repressive Government which does not represent the ordinary people but a privileged and rich elite,” Mr Woolford said. An Opposition deputy, Mr H. N. Nhuan, told him:’“The aid we need is not money, but our independence. “New Zealand should wait until the Paris agreement is implemented before giving any more money. It has helped to build a big cage in South Vietnam, if it continues to give aid, it will make the cage so strong we

■will not be able to break out of it.” i All 13 former political prisoners he interviewed told Mr ! Woolford of torture involving ! oeing beaten by tyres, being given elec-, I trie shocks on sensitive ! parts of the body, and being force-fed with detergent and jwater so that their stomachs I swelled — only to be jumped lon. I Mr Woolford said he (wanted to visit Chi Hoa (prison but was told he could (only do this if he did not j write anything against the II Government. I The former political prisoners were mostly high ■school and university students and teachers — people, likely to be concerned over the present administration and oppose it. One student, Duong Huul Phuoc, was arrested and put in gaol because he was standing for election to the univer-: sity student’s organisation; and his views were antiPresident Thieu. The President wanted only student leaders favourable to . his regime. No organised pol-. itical opposition was allowed. The Commission for security could hold anyone in prison for as long as it I wished, said Mr Woolford. Trials varied in their fair-' ness and were in a military

court. One man was told the day before his trial that he would receive six months This is what he received. Every Vietnamese had to have an identity card on which there was a computer number. Political prisoners who had served their terms .did not get a card, and employers were frightened to employ them. R.A.V.P.O.C. members in New Zealand “adopt” a political prisoner and write letters to authorities ■.eeking their relase. “This is part of an inter national campaign and it is having some effect.” says Mr Woolford. President Thieu is dependent on foreign economic aid ias it supplies 80 per cent of his budget. “He has to recognise a world-wide protest at the injustice to hundreds of thousands of people.”

Tasman shipping.—Maritime unions had not conItravened the Trade Practices Act by their decision tn declare "black” any ships on (Tasman services in competition with State-owned .ships. the Minister of (Labour (Mr Watt) said in I Parliament.—(P.A.)