Hanoi Frees 5,000 Under an Amnesty
BANGKOK, Thailand — Vietnam said Thursday it had released more than 3,100 prisoners and nearly 2,000 re-education camp inmates under an amnesty to mark its Sept. 2 National Day.
The state radio said 30 of those released from re-education camps by a state council decree last month were former officers of the old South Vietnamese government that was defeated by the north in 1975.
In February, Vietnam freed more than 1,014 former officers, security agents, politicians, priests and others involved in the U.S.-backed Saigon government.
More than 100,000 people have undergone some period of political and ideological re-education in the past 13 years, according to Western diplomats.
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