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Exclusive Interview with Nguyen Chi Thien
(Part I & II)

Former Amnesty International 'Prisoner of Conscience' attends the Human Rights
Torch Relay events in San José and San Francisco

By Nataly Teplitsky

Epoch Times San Francisco Staff

Apr 06, 2008

Nguyen Chi Thien, a prisoner of conscience from Vietnam, speaks at the Human Rights Torch Relay in San José on Mar. 29, 2008. (Mark Zou/The Epoch Times)

Nguyen Chi Thien spent a total of 27 years imprisoned at the hands of the Vietnamese
communist regime due to his speaking the truth to his fellow countrymen. The Epoch Times had a chance to speak with him at the Human Rights Torch Relay events in San José and San Francisco.

Epoch Times: Mr. Nguyen Chi Thien, thank you for coming to the Human Rights Torch Relay events and for your moving speeches at both the San José and San Francisco rallies. I know that it took you more than six hours to get here. What motivated you to join these events?

Nguyen Chi Thien: These rallies have a very righteous cause, and I support them with all my heart. I am very happy that CIPFG (Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong) has organized such a great event all over the world.

In 1936, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) made an unforgivable mistake, in that it had not cancelled Germany's privilege to host the Olympics in Berlin. This encouraged Hitler to provoke World War II three years later. As for the Beijing Olympics, the actress Mia Farrow was very right, when she called it "The Genocide Olympics."

In order to fool people in the free world, every dictatorship, especially in China and Vietnam, always talks about peace and social stability. But we shouldn't be so naive and take barbarous oppression for peace and stability. All communists, Chinese, as well as Vietnamese, are blatant liars.

ET: Last year, you were among several hundred survivors of communist regimes that
gathered near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C., for the dedication of the city's 2 first-ever memorial to the victims of communism. The Foreign Ministry of Communist China and the leader of the Russian Communist Party both denounced the Memorial, prompting VOCMF (Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation) Chairman Lee Edwards to comment: "When you are denounced by both the Chinese communists and the Russian communists, you know you're doing the right thing."

NCT: Jun. 12, 2007 was a historic day—a day of remembrance of more than 100 million
victims who had died under communism's cruel yoke. Communism is worse than Nazism.
Communists have been murdering people in times of peace, not just during war, and the
number of victims was incomparably larger. Communists are very, very cruel to their own people.

The Goddess of Democracy, which was sculpted as a memorial to the Chinese democracy
movement of 1989, stands in Portsmouth Square, in the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown.

ET: San Francisco sculptor Thomas Marsh, in 1989, after viewing on TV the brutalities of the Tiananmen massacre, vowed to rebuild the statue of the original Goddess of Democracy,which was destroyed by a tank in the moment that was witnessed throughout the world. The first bronze replica was unveiled in 1994 by Chinese dissidents and Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco. And now, the Goddess of Democracy crowns the center of the memorial in Washington D.C.

On the front of the pedestal is carved: "To the more than one hundred million victims of communism and to those who love liberty." On the back of the pedestal the engraved words are: "To the freedom and independence of all captive nations and peoples."

NCT: I was deeply touched, when I saw this monument. It is a very important reminder to young people, who have to learn their history lessons. Here, in America, there are no victims of communism. Nazis' crimes are exposed everywhere,both in the U.S. and Europe, but not so with communism. Communist crimes should not be forgotten. Actually, communists are always afraid of exposure. And today, one-fifth of the
world's people still live and suffer under communism.

As the Olympics come closer, they (communists) are escalating oppression everywhere, even in Vietnam. In Saigon city, South Vietnam, people are planning demonstrations of protests against Beijing's torturing. Torture is a symbol of tyranny.

ET: Your new book of essays about prison life at the so-called "Hanoi Hilton" Prison in Vietnam was published at the end of 2007 by the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University in their Monograph Series. Where and when did you write it? Did you memorize your stories, while imprisoned, like you did your poems?

NCT: After my release, I was invited by the International Parliament of Writers (IPW) to spend three years in France (1998 -2001). I was welcomed by the prime minister of France, Mr.Jacques Chirac, Mr. Christian Salmon, Secretary of IPW, and many kind French people. Their generosity and care not only helped to restore my health, but also gave me the peace and quiet that I needed to recollect, conceive and write the book of essays about the bitter life of prisoners in communist Vietnam.

ET: Where can readers buy your new book of essays?

NCT: They can buy the new English edition of Hoa Lo/Hanoi Hilton Stories from Amazon.com . They are being sold through the publisher, Yale University Press.

Epoch Times: You were twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and were called "The Solzhenitsyn of Vietnam" by Michael Lind, in his essay in New America Foundation. What keeps you going?

Nguyen Chi Thien: My lifelong "duty" is fighting for a better life for my fellow-Vietnamese. Opposing evils is the responsibility of human beings to the end of time. I hope to witness true justice in my country in the near future.

Now I'm writing my memoirs about Vietnamese society, about the suffering of the Vietnamese people from 1945 until 1995. It is very important to have a truthful description of Vietnamese history under communist tyranny, because in our history, there was never a time so tragic, so miserable and so barbarous. Not only in prisons, but in that society, life did not deserve to be called life, especially before the so-called renovation, in 1995. All peasants, without exception,
have been starving, during all those years.

ET: When and where are you going to publish your memoirs?

NCT: I think it will take two more years. There are many publishers who want to publish it, but most probably I'll have it published through Yale University Press, publisher of my essays.

ET: What helped you survive those agonizing 27 years in communist jails?

NCT: I was put in leg shackles in a dark cell for eight years, and I was given a tiny portion of rotten rice with salt water once a day. In those terrible conditions, it was meditation that helped me to survive the madness all around. It helped me to reach a tranquility of mind.

Also, I had great passion for poetry, so lying shackled in leg fetters, I had been concentrating all my efforts, all the power of my mind, creating poetry. It kept me alive, and helped me not to become insane. I've learned to take advantage of every adversity, every misery, so I could extract something beautiful, something useful.

They exiled me to the heart of the jungle
Wishing to fertilize the manioc with my remains.
I turned into an expert hunter
and came out full of snake wisdom and rhino fierceness.
They sank me into the ocean
Wishing that I remained in the depths.
I became a deep sea diver
And came up covered with scintillating pearls.

NCT: Poetry cannot be translated well into other languages, because it's impossible to preserve the original rhythm, and the rhythm is the soul of poetry. But I still want to recite to you in English one of my favorite verses. It is about a destiny, a fate that every human being has. And I believe that every human being has a soul.

Poet, my friend,
You must know how to keep your soul always unsullied
Like that proverbial pink lotus that spreads fragrance
Even in the midst of slime,
Like a lone star shining in a pristine night sky
Twinkling far, far away, and glistening with dew…
You must also know, my friend,
How to live in this world as if you were deathless
In spite of all its misery and cold, dangers and tragedies.
And though your body may be ravaged by illnesses
And shrinking day by day,
Your spirit must still be stronger than rock or steel
Standing firm in the midst of destructive time.
Only then can you let your poetic mind roam free
Flying high and wide even in an iron trap.
As for dying or getting out of here—
That's heaven's decision, not one that is up to you!

I always firmly believed that the communist regime is contradictory to human nature. I had a strong belief that if I survived, I would see a better day.

Source: http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-4-6/68716.html