Crazy story of a young kid going to a Laos prison

[unrealalex]

Serious story, no bel-air or anything
My Young Life Living in a Laos Prison (serious) - Bodybuilding.com Forums

I was 9 and the year was in 1998. My parents and I and my 2 older sisters lived in a village, Areung, located southeast Laos near the Vietnamese boarder. It was late October when this all happend and I'm not quite sure of the whole story because my sister doesn't really like to talk about it but I'll tell you what I remember. We were just settling down for bed at around 9ish and we hear this screaming. My dad is all confused so he looks out the window and I guess a bunch of people were getting beaten and arrested by the Laos military police. It seems that our village got traced back because like 4-5 tourists died from taking some drugs and the military got a lead that it came from our village. Our village was probably about 400 people at the time and was dispersed into many little villages spread out in a 5km radius or so. Anyways, we were in this breakoff village of Areung and our part had about 30-40 people living in it and it had to be the one where they found these unidentifed drugs. The military stormed our house and grabbed a hold of us and we were cuffed and thrown into the back of a truck.

The truck ride was full of crying people and the soldiers kept abusing them telling them to shut the **** up. I still remember watching my friend Bounheng get beaten almost to death by this one officer. I wanted to help him but I had no idea what to do. We weren't allowed to talk or show any emotion on our face or else we would be beaten. I can't remember how long the ride was but it seemed like forever but we finally ended up in a prison just outside the capital city, Vientiane.

This prison was the shittiest of all shit holes. I still remember it very well, they separated me from my family and I was in a room with no electricity just a small opening at the top of the cell to let some light in during the day. It was about 10ft x 10ft with a small cot and a bucket to piss and shit in. I was so confused at this point and was crying like mad. I had no idea wtf was going on because no one was telling me. I just spent what seemed like days crying until the cell door opened and a plate of rice and a cup of water was thrown in.

We were fed almost nothing. Everyday we got a plate of rice in the morning probably half the size of an average fist and then once again in the evening and sometimes during the day if we were lucky. We were also given a litre of water a day except this water was like sandy shit water. I remember it was the end of the monsoon season and when it down poured I was lucky to get some water coming through the window which I drank. I would vomit regularly when I drank the dirty water.

I can clearly remember this one guard who would always abuse me. I don't think he was much older than 20. He would come into my cell every few days and strap my back. I still have some scars on my back. I'll see if I can upload a picture of them, although I think they're pretty faint now. He ended up creating a wound which I think became infected. I couldn't see it but I remember trying to ooze the puss out. They refused to give me any medical attention.

I had no preception of time but I think that about 2-3 months passed and I was taken out of my cell and put into a slightly bigger one with my mom and two sisters. I was confused why my dad wasn't there and my mom had no idea as well. The guards did not tell us anything. I didn't think much about it at the time but I was worried about him. Atleast we had each other right now.

I'll continue in a bit.
I was thrown into a cell with my older sisters and my mom and we were confused on where my dad was. We kinda hoped for the best and expected the worse sort of thing. I began to have really bad nightmares during the night about my father and developed a sleep disorder. Being malnourished and sleep deprived was a bad combination and I started to become very sick. I remember my one sister, was 13 at the time stayed with me 24/7 keeping me warm and comforting me. My mom and my other sister were becoming very sick as well but I guess since I was the youngest my healthy sister wouldn't let me go.

I can remember I was so sick I started hallucinating about all this weird shit. I had such a high fever one night that I thought I was strapped to a sensor and if I moved my family would die. I was in a pretty ****ed up state for awhile. About a week passed and I was beginning to get better but my mom and sister were still in a weak state. A doctor came in our cell that morning and assessed us. He didn't really do much tests he kinda just looked at us and left. A few hours later a gaurd came in and grabbed my mom and my sick sister and left my 13 year old sister and I in the cell. We could hear our mom screaming all the way down the hall. My sister and I started to ball our eyes out.

I was unsure of the date but my sister and I thought it was Feburary and we started marking down how many days we spent on the wall. On the wall were many different markings, many of them cursing the guards with obscene images.

A week later we heard a bunch of chatter amung the guards outside our cell. Two entered and grabbed my sister and I and led us down a hall to a large cell. Here were many of the people from our village who were arrested. Including my sister that I was seperated from a week before. However, my mom was no where to be found as well as my father. I asked my sister but was then strapped by a guard and was forced to be quiet. It was a very tense moment cause I could see the confused look in her face. Once again I hoped for the best but expected the worse.

During the night we were almost free to talk amongst ourselves. There were fewer prison guards during the night and they seemed to come and go. I should mention this isn't a concrete cell now its one of those cells that are in the center of a room with bars all around it. It held about 10 people. That night I got talking to my sister about my mom. She said when she was dragged out of the cell she broke a few ribs. When they were taking them to another part of the prison my mom was shouting and my dad overheard her and shouted back but my sister said she didn't know from where. I was pretty happy now that I knew my dad was still alive but I was concerned about my mom. She was pretty frail because she was very skinny going into this prison and now had lost a lot of weight. My sister said she got separated from her after being in a cell with her for a day.

Morning came and we were awakened by two soldiers. They took everyone in the cell including me out into the scorching sun and put black bags on our heads and told us to kneel down. They then began to give the strap to our backs. I remember it caused many flesh wounds on my back. We stayed out here for the whole morning and afternoon without any food and water. I couldn't see anything and hear barely anything but I knew that if I moved they would do more harm so I just stayed still. With the bag still on our heads I was then thrown back into our individual cells. Just as my wounds were starting to dry and scab the really abusive guard came in and continued to strap my back countlessly.

I forgot to add but the guards would frequently threaten us with death when we did not follow their orders.

The next day was the day I remember the most. I was woken by the sound of a guard replenishing my water. I sat there thinking when will this end? When will I be out of here? and most importantly I was concerned about my family. When just then I heard this very loud yelling. I think it was from the cell next to me. I can't remember what was said but the inmate said something along the lines of "**** you" and then something about raping his relative or something. I then heard the guard yell to his fellow guards and they all came in and all I could hear was countless screams by this man. After about 10 minutes of what sounded like brutal torture I heard a gunshot. I was stunned and just sat in awe. I looked below the crack in the door and the man was being dragged on the ground.

That day was the longest of my life. Every time I heard a guards footsteps coming closer to my door I would shake and tremble in fear. I could no longer function. I started to dry heave. I couldn't puke because my stomach was empty.

That night I could not sleep after hearing the man get shot dead. I couldn't stop thinking about my dad. My dad was a very outspoken individual who always stood for what is right. I had a feeling he would start a protest in some form while in the prison. Since I hadn't seen him, I had a really bad gut feeling. I still had hope though because my sister claimed to have heard him shout.

I lost track of time but I believe it is around March/April

That morning I was once again greeted by the abusive guard. What he was about to tell me was much worse than the physical abuse he had done to me in the past. He told me he raped my sick mother and they wern't feeding her anymore because she was near death. He said the prison didn't want to waste food on some "filthy **** like her" anymore. I became enraged. I could no longer hold in my pain and anger. He left my cell and I continued to yell at him using every curse word my mind knew. I was now starting to feel the shittiest as I have ever felt in the prison. Just knowing that one of your family members is being basically murdered in the building you are in and there is nothing you can do.

I forced my food down me this morning. I was becoming to become so starved I didn't even feel like eating, it was probably over the thought of my mom. I once again slept hardly that night.

The next day I was not awakened by anyone. I sat up at the sun was at high noon. I could not hear much presence of guards outside my cell. I would usually hear one walking by every few minutes. I later found out this day was the Pi Mai Holiday. The entire country pretty much shuts down for the day and celebrates because it is the lunar new year. Tradition is that everyone goes into the streets to be drenched by buckets of water. April is the usually the hottest month in Laos. I prayed to be drenched in water.

Since being in prison I have not bathed once. My body was a mess. I had numerous infections on my back and upper thighs and knees. I wasn't sure but I'm almost certain I had lice, pretty much anyone who spends more than 24 hours in a Laos prison will come out having lice. Not at the time but I now realize how lucky I am to have not contracted any diseases from the food or water.

The prison guards were few during Pi Mai. I just relaxed that day and kept thinking about my family. Today was my last day of relaxation before having one of the most hellish days of my life.

I was waken up at about 5am the next morning. I was given a larger amount of rice and a group of guards came in the room about an hour later, two tied up my legs and two restrained my arms. I had a bag over my head and I started puking out the rice I shouted to the guards to take the bag over my head off but they wouldn't they just igornoed me. I was drowning in my puke. I did what I had to do, I ate my own puke. It smelled like shit, they did another one of their torture excersizes again and left me kneeling in the burning hot April sun all day until sundown. For the first time in my life I wanted to kill myself.

I was then thrown back into the 10 person open jail cell and my hair and face was covered in thrown up rice, water and stomach acid. My sister was in there crying. I went over to comfort her but was thrown away by a guard. I woke up a few hours later and I think I was knocked out by bumping my head on one of the benches. It was nighttime and there were fewer guards so I went over to talk to my sister. She then told me that my mom and dad had been killed. She told me my dad was shot because he started a fight with a prison guard and my mom starved to death. She also had no news on where my other sister was. The sister that was with me was my 13 year old sister.

Right now, I'm thinking what can get worse? I went to bed that night and I didn't cry for some reason. I was sad but I didn't cry, I didn't know why. I think it was because I was expecting it all along, expecting the worst.

Morning I was awakened by my morning ration of rice. Everyone was eating it in the big cell and one ended up fighting another man for a ration. I remember this day being really hot and the guards were really lazy. The heat got to them I suppose. My sister couldn't stop crying. I tried to comfort her but she ended up just shunning me. It seemed like she just wanted some alone time. I can't imagine what she probably witnessed. All along I was really confused on why we were put in large cells for some durations and then we would be grouped together for awhile. However, that night we we were forced back to our individual cells. The guard who got in a fight with my dad came in and started ****ing with me. He kept exclaiming all the shit he did to my dad. This pushed me too far to the edge. I ran at him with my weak 9 year old might and headbutted him in the nutsack. Next thing I know I was grabbed by 3 guards and was walked down into the basement of the jail. They through me into a pitch black room where I waited for God knows how long. I couldn't see shit I can remember hearing critters run through, kinda freaked me out. A light came on and then a voice telling me to go to the furthest wall from the door. I followed what they said and what looked like a high ranked guy came in with the guy I sacked in the nuts. I can't remember what he said but it was loud, and scared the shit outta me. I was however suprised that they did not touch me phyiscally in anyway. They just closed the doors and it felt like they left me to rot.

I've never smelt anything like the smell in that cell ever. It reaked of urine, shit, blood, feces you name it. It was basically just a concrete room, no where to piss, no where to sleep. I knew I was in for a long stay so I just sat stubbornly until I fell asleep.

I woke up I had no idea what time. I just sat there and pondered. I just thought about all the shit I'd gone through the past months. I had no more emotion left in me.

I was really getting anxious, I hadn't eaten in more than 24 hours and I thought I had a water bucket in my room but I couldn't find it. I felt really dehydrated. That night to my relief a guard came in and grabbed me and put me back into my cell. It was flooded, it seemed that the first floor got flooded that night because of a monsoon that passed by that night. There was about of inch of water coverign the ground and it really brought out a bad stench.

The next morning I awoke to an uproar in the prison. It seemed that a few prisoners that morning escaped from the prison somehow. I wished it was me that escaped. I had hope it would be one of my sisters. I had no idea. I can just remember that there were a lot of sirens and scrambling guards.

I prayed that night that this would all end.

The next week was another uproar in the prison, people were shouting and cheering. The day the the three people who escaped somehow got in contact with Amnesty International. They filed a complaint about the prison system and representatives from amnesty came to the prison a few days later. The guards started a large fued with the representatives and would not let us free. Amnesty international would not give up. From what I know, I believe they left the prison and got in touch with many of the embassy's in Vientiane. They recieved an urge to release us by the Canadian embassy, British Embassy and Japanese Embassy. The prison system was in trouble and did not want to start any international fueds. That day, May 6th 1999, I was released from prison. I calculated that I spent a total of 194 days in hell. I was happy to be out but I still had no idea of where to go. When I and the remaining 12 people from my prison had been released we were greeted by some peace workers from amnesty international. I was so happy to see my two sisters again. We were all so frail, we were on the brink of starvation. We were fed fresh food, given clean water. I was very extatic that I was finally free. Words could not describe how happy I was. Think of how happy you would be winning the lottery. Times that by like a million and thats how I felt. We were put in a van and taken to the airport. From the airport we were flown to Kobe, Japan... it was my first time on a plane I was pretty excited. Japan, Canada and Britain accepted us as refugees. Of the 12 who were released, we were the only kids. Amnesty international told us we could go to one of the three and we already had foster parents lined up for us in Canada and Great Britian. My sisters and I decided and we decided to fly to Canada. We flew to Vancouver then to Toronto and we were greeted by our new parents. I now live with them in London, Ontario. I am 19 years old and in Grade 12. I'm two years behind the rest of the kids but I am in the top of my classes. I hope to attend university next year and major in business.

[torenico]

Is this real? its looks.. so horrible, i dont think if im going to sleep well tonight..

[unrealalex]

I think its real but how detailed it is, and how the timeline is so preserved from something that happened 10 years ago makes it kinda dubious. He'll get into any university with a story like that though.

[SiN|ScarFace]

Drugs are bad mmkay.