50 years of "Victorious return" of detainees from Phu Quoc prison
(VOVWORLD) -A ceremony was held on Sunday to mark the 50th anniversary of "Victorious return" of Vietnamese communist revolutionaries, who were imprisoned by the enemy in Phu Quoc prison dubbed "Hell on Earth".
 General Luong Cuong, Politburo member and Director of the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army presents gifts to former prisoners. Photo: VOV
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The Phu Quoc Communist POW Prison started operating on July 6, 1967 and was the largest US prison in South Vietnam, which detained more than 40,000 patriotic soldiers and civilians. More than 4,000 prisoners died at this place. In January 1973, after the Paris Agreement was signed, the two sides exchanged prisoners.
The ceremony is of profound political and humanistic significance as it remembers the great merits and silent sacrifices of the patriots.
Nguyen Hong Quan, former prisoner from Ho Chi Minh City, told VOV, “Meeting my teammates I am very happy and touched. We review the old days of hardship of being imprisoned here, where we were beaten a lot. Who can't help but reminisce about unforgettable memories. The most worrying thing is that our comrades died here and now we do not know where they are because the enemy took them away in the middle of the night. Thousands of people are now missing and their family can not receive their remains.”
On this occasion, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense presented gifts to former prisoners and disadvantaged students in Kien Giang province.