VietNamNet Bridge - On August 6, 2013, Vietnam’s first execution by lethal injection took place.

And for the first time in decades, the execution ground, where firing squads once did the work now performed by deadly chemicals, was silent as a condemned man met his end. But, while the now-closed grounds are just a faint memory to most, they still haunt many of the men who once worked there.

We met Mr. Ba Son at a small cafe near the Long Binh execution ground in Tan Phu Ward, District 9, HCM City. Slowly sipping coffee, he began telling his story.

Terrible memory

Before leaving the Long Binh execution ground, Ba Son noted the names, ages and the addresses of the tombs of executed prisoners, and conveyed this information to their families.

According to Ba Son, who worked at the execution ground for 30 years, the place actually stopped operating about two years ago. Since then he has moved on to other jobs. But on occasion, when he has free time, he does return. He comes to burn incense for dead prisoners.

After retiring from the execution ground, Ba Son became the guard for a company in District 9. The income was not high but it was enough to cover his daily life. After that he switched to selling gasoline for a shop on Hoang Huu Nam Road, just 1km from the execution ground.

"At first, I did not like my new jobs much. Perhaps because I was born to do the odd job of cleansing and burying executed prisoners," he said.

Before leaving the Long Binh execution ground, Ba Son noted the names, ages and the addresses of the tombs of executed prisoners, and conveyed this information to their families. He hoped it would afford them some closure.

Some coffin shops invited Ba Son to work for them but he refused because his age did not allow him to continue in the job. "Moreover, after so many years doing this ‘bloody’ work, now I feel terrible," he says.

After undertaking the job of cleansing and burying dead prisoners, Ba Son brought in nearly 10 people to help him with both the bodies and the caretaking of the execution ground. When the ground was closed, Ba Son left his profession, and his colleagues moved on to other jobs.

Mr. Le Van Hoa worked at Long Binh for nearly two years. Hoa said he had to quit the job because it was too horrible. After that he became a building worker and is now an electric worker.

According to Hoa, whenever a death row inmate was executed, he and his fellow workers had to get up early to dig the grave, prepare the coffin and handle other necessary tasks.

"To bury prisoners, we needed less than one hour. Sometimes we cleaned the execution ground. On the death anniversaries of dead prisoners, their families often gave us some gifts," Hoa says.

Besides Ba Son, Mr. Hai Em is also a veteran worker at the execution ground. After nearly 20 years there, Hai Em turned to selling lottery tickets.

Obsessed with body thefts

After working at the Long Binh execution ground, the group of workers led by Mr. Ba Son are still obsessed by the thefts of prisoner bodies because according to the law, the bodies of prisoners must be buried at the execution ground. Frequently, after an inmate was executed, their relatives and juniors tried to rob their bodies and clashes occurred between them and the workers.

"In the past, after the execution, the bodies of prisoners were buried at the execution ground and this created jobs for workers like us. However, many gangs saw this job lucrative so they came to fight with us to take this job,” Ba Son says .

According to his former co-worker, Ba Son was the most senior of the workers at Long Binh execution ground, with more than 30 years. As a novice, every time a prisoner was buried, Ba Son could not eat for one week, vomiting whenever he took food to mouth. He also could not sleep on the same bed with his wife and kids.

When the group of workers at Long Binh was formed, there were about 30 people. After a few years of operation, the number declined for various reasons.

In over 30 years working there, Ba Son cannot remember how many prisoners he buried.

According to Ba Son, Long Binh was one of the largest execution grounds in the south. Since 1976, all death row inmates in HCM City were executed here. Normally, burying a prisoner, workers were paid VND250,000 - VND300,000.

"Now, though I’m retired, the faces of the death row inmates still haunt me," Ba Son says.

This special job made Ba Son familiar with the slow lifestyle. For a time he did not cleanse and bury corpses of prisoners, but only took care of graves. Every day, he went to the execution ground to pull weeds, clean up the steles and repair graves. He and his co-workers even contributed money to replace the damaged steles of tombs, so that the families of the dead could recognize the tombs.

Just before the execution ground was closed, Ba Son visited the families of the dead prisoners to inform them of the shut-down.

"Despite any job you do, you must do it well to keep faith to your children," he says.

NLD