The Cococnut tree prison.

The Coconut tree prison-it sounds sort of idyllic, right? The truth is somewhat different. The prison was originally built by the french on the Phu Quoc island just outside the Mekong delta. Later it was taken over by the Americans and the south Vietnamese who turned it into a camp for Viet Cong prisoners. It is that period which is told about in what now has become a museum not for the fainthearted-until not long ago, it was in use as prison. The story told here-with a solid dose of typical socialistic rhetoric-is one about abuse and torture. A prison with several mass graves surrounding it. a reburial ceremony was held in 2008. Welcome to the Coconut tree prison.

The camp consist of many primitive barracks surrounded by several layers of barbed wire. some of it electrified. There are guard towers, and guards patrolling between the barbed fences.

The latrines-to be emptied by inmates every day. No walls-easier to keep track of the prisoners that way. This was a daytime service only. At night one had two choices-suck it in-or do it in the barracks.

A segregation cell-one of several built when the inmates resistance movement gained momentum in the middle of 1968. One mug of water and two handfull of rice was the daily ration received from the enemy. Prisoners were employed in both cooking and collecting of firewood and as the boards state "it was a good place for our cadres and militants to exchange information and to make struggle and jail-breaks".

The segregation cell. Either glowing hot or freezing cold.

There is actually a camp kitchen there, even though the amounts of food delivered to the barracks were at the minimum.

The famous tiger cages of barbed wire. The unlucky ones were allowed only a shorts and had to be undressed except of that. No matter the conditions-rain or sun. Several prisoners died. What is not mentioned anywhere, is that this invention "created by American puppet administration" also was a favourite with the Viet Cong itself.

Some camp guard exercise. More than 40 methods of torture was established into the routine.

The ultimate cruelty, hammering nails into the skeleton of  prisoners. The next photo shows a bone with a nail trough it. It is retrieved from one of the mass graves and shows clearly this tableau is not free fantasy...There was an uprising in the prison-with elements such as hunger strike, self embezzlement and the killings of informants. In the aftermath of it, an extra lot of torture and tiger cage confinement was used. More than 4000 prisoners were killed during the almost five year period from July 1967 to march 1973-by "the enemy" as the Americans and the south Vietnamese collectively are called in all the exhibits. 

Medieval ways-boiling in a kettle.

The great escape happened on January 20th 1969. Inmates managed to dig a tunnel and 21 succeeded in escaping. In all there were 7 attempts of digging a tunnel, resulting in 5 escapes. As a result, the barracks got concrete floors.

The original tunnel digging tools.