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Railroads in some countries are
considered unreliable. There are many reasons for foreign tourists to be afraid
of traveling on such cross-country trains. Possible accidents might be tragic
crash with automobiles at crossings, fire, jumping the rails or even attacks by
armed robbers.
But
in Vietnam today, train passengers are threatened by stone attacks from young
boys in remote areas and neighborhoods along the railroads, particularly on the
trans-Vietnam route portion from the Northern border areas to Hanoi and
fartheer to the South.
The
deadly rock throwing has Vietnam railroads known as the only train
transportation in the world that is under the danger of rock attacks. Railroad
authorities have to cover car windows with steel mesh to protect passengers
from injuries by rocks and bricks, according to reports on the state-controlled
newspaper Lao Dong (Labor), August 2, 2003
edition.
The
report is a surprise to foreigners, not to the Vietnamese. In June 1976, the
trains carrying former South Vietnamese officers to the many prison camps in
the regions north of Hanoi. The former officers had been incarcerated since
Saigon succumbed to Communist forces on April 1, 1975. When the trains were
crossing the provinces north of Hanoi, they became targets of many a rain of
fist-size rocks shot at the open windows. A dozen prisoners suffered cuts and
bruises, some in critical conditions but no one was fatally injured.
The
former RVN officers all thought that the attacks had been planned by Communist
authorities to retaliate against their South Vietnamese enemies, or at least to
frighten them. Later on, when the officers had chances to talk with people in
villages near the camps, they put the question to the villagers as whether the
former RVN prisoners were targets of
stoning planned by the Communist Public Security.
The
civilians' answers were a surprise to them: "They hit any train they meet
when they feel like stoning, they don't care who the passengers are; of course
not because you are South Vietnamese military men."
A
year later, one of the Nhan Dan (People) daily news reports on train attacks
with rock appeared in late 1977. Details in the 1977 report were not different
from the most recent articles in Nhan Dan and Lao Dong. So far since 1976,
there have been many similar reports, but the barbaric attacks seemed
unchanged. The reports of stoning incidents before August 2, 2003 had already
appeared to be more alarming (Lao Dong daily August 29, 2002; Nhan Dan daily on
April 15, 2003; Lao Dong on June.5, 2003).
The
most remarkable detail is that the mischievous crime has not been actively
punished nor prevented by local authorities for the last 25 years. In the related
articles in 1977, in 2002 and on Aug. 2, 2003, all confirmed the same fact:
Local authorities are lacking of determination and necessary action to solve
the problem.
Directives
for solutions from higher authority consist mostly of theoretical measures such
as educating the youth, launching campaigns to teach school students about
railroads protection (We Love the Tracks at Our Home Village, Conference on
Railroad Safety...) But all such non-practical solutions seem to fail.
The
August 2 report is especially causing concerns. As the attacks sharply
increased, not only rocks are used.
According to the Lao Dong article, attackers now are hurling mud and human
waste at passengers if car windows are protected solely by steel mesh. Rocks
are used against double-pane windows.
The
increase is worrying the Communist government as more and more foreign tourists
are traveling on railways. It must be an unforgettable experience for a foreign
tourist who is hit by such injurious stinky projectiles. News of the incidents
might be causing heavy blows to the tourist industry. That certainly renders Communist leaders' much
concerns.
The
state-owned railroads administration has spent a lot of money for installing,
repairing and replacing glass windows without much success, as admitted by Tran
Thanh Cuong, deputy chief of military protection service, a division of the
General Railroads Administration. He admitted that all efforts to deal with the
problem have not changed the situation.
The
incidents take place mostly in remote areas. Catching culprits is almost
impossible, and if one is caught, it is also impracticable to bring the case to
the court. Most attackers are teenagers from the poorest families.
Sources
from Hanoi's Ministry of Communications and Transportation on August 1, 2003
assert that in the first 7 months of 2003, there were 126 stoning incidents,
among which 32 in Quang Binh, 9 in Yen Bai and 9 in Lang Son provinces,
injuring 13 victims, damaging 122 windows. The attacks rose 150 percent higher
than in 2002.
It
should be noticed that railroads stoning has spread into the region below the
17th Parallel of the former Republic of (South) Vietnam only in the
last decade. In the above-mentioned
sources, there are 4 cases in Binh Dinh, 3 in Thua Thien and 3 in Quang Tri,
the three northernmost provinces of the former RVN.
Hoang
Tran Manh, a high ranking official of the Railroad Administration and some
others like him, have to admit that "the more conferences, the more
stone attacks" and everything fails "despite our highest ability." And "the
more modernized trains are sufferring the more attacks."
It
is not very difficult to have an explanation even though Hanoi newspapers said
they don't know why. For most of the last 50 years, the Northerners have lived
in extreme poverty and in a society where ethics and moral standards were
deliberately lowered to meet Communist political requirements. Young people
were taught to be faithful to the Party more than to become honest and benevolent
citizens. In fact, hunger and immorality under a Communist regime beget
brutality.
Such
factors contribute to the symptom that could be called Communist sadism. The number of gristly murders (dismembering,
eviscerating, beheading) is far higher than in the South even now. Public
security police were allowed to torture criminal prisoners with much more
brutality than treating a mad dog. People seem to enjoy a mental pleasure when
seeing another being painfully hurt and suffering hardships, even verbal abuse.
Some
may say that such sadism derives from brutal suppressive measures by security
institutions of the Communist regime. The bloody Land Reform in 1953-55 is a
good example. In the reform, the scenes of at least 15,000 opponents executed
in public by lapidating, burying alive beside hanging and shooting have
imprinted deep marks of atrocity on the minds of many generations.
Local
authorities don't react positively to the stoning as they are having many other
things to do with much higher priorities. Political security and making big
money for the Party and government always go first. Besides, local governments
are often overburdened with many tasks assigned by the Party central
authorities. To implement so many given tasks, local officials are entrusted
with high autonomous ruling power that sometimes overrides central orders. In
that situation, safety of train passengers is not one of their concerns.
The
Communist revolution has engendered many social problems, and stoning at
railroads cars just for fun is one of them. Such teenagers' behavior is like a
tiny black spot on a tooth that usually goes unnoticed but it may be a sign of
a very serious disease of the entire jaws.
In
South Vietnam, there have never been attacks at railroad passenger cars before
April 1975. In the South, severity and rate of crimes as well as of social
evils have always been much lower than in the North. It is true, even today.
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