The passing of this law which was to compensate (as much as possible) former Vietminh prisoners for the suffering inflicted during their imprisonment and its psychological and physical consequences was one of the main goals of the founders of ANAPI as well as one of their most striking successes.

This action was led by a group of people. Although it is impossible to name everyone, hundreds of ANAPI members fought together for success and even the smallest contributions helped the key players to succeed.

In 1985, René Navarre took the first steps with the Ministry for war veterans and requested an investigation of the consequences of the captivity of former Vietminh prisoners. The ministry did not take on the project.

Also in 1985 André VICHARD got in touch –thanks to Mr BILLARDON, MP and mayor of Autun – with Mr LAURAIN, minister for war veteran and MP for Metz, to file the same request. In the meantime Colonel BONNAFOUS defended a PhD thesis that focused on the far reaching and serious consequences of imprisonment.

Early 1986 a private bill was drafted by Dr Jean-Louis Rondy

During the summer of 1986, MP Jean Brocard finalised the draft based on Dr Rondy’s work as well as on an older paper from MP Jean Laurain. Jean Brocard brought in the bill before the national Assembly (French lower house) for the first time on March 24,1987 and for the second time on July 6th 1988. Several political parties supported the bill.

Pierre Mariani then entrusted General de Sesmaisons, chief general physician Gilbert Pérot, colonel Eric Weinberger and André Saint-Georges (who are the four members of the Paris board) to initiate contacts and take the necessary steps to achieve this goal.

These four people went on to meet with a great number of officials from the presidential team, the Prime Minister’s team, the Sénat (French upper house) and the ministry for war veterans. Jack BONFIS sent information leaflets to many politicians.

The private bill then became a bill drafted by Miss Doucet who was an adviser in the ministry for war veterans and who had often consulted with Eric Weinberger and André Saint-Georges.

In spring 1989, Eric Weinberger and André Saint-Georges designed a second information leaflet with the help of the SIRPA (Service d’Informations et de Relations publiques de l’armée - French Army’s Information and Public Relations Service). The leaflet was sent to 1000 MPs of the two houses. They also staged the official handing of the leaflet to the MPs in their constituencies by ANAPI members who are their constituents.

After all sorts of incidents the bill was submitted to the cabinet on November 22nd 1989. It was approved unanimously, and passed on December 15th in the Senate after an introduction by Mr Prouvoyeur and on December 18th in the National Assembly after an introduction by Jean Laurain.

Law 89-1013 was signed on December 31st 1989 by President Mitterrand, Prime Minister Michel Rocard, Defence Secretary Jean-Pierre Chevènement, Treasury Secretary Pierre Bérégovoy, and minister for war veterans André Méric.

The law acknowledged the rights of most of the former Vietminh prisoners. But it excluded a significant number of prisoners from the status, i.e. those who had been imprisoned less than three months. In Autumn 2000, General Bonnetête created a committee of prisoners who were excluded from the status and entrusted the leadership of the committee to Serge Fantinel.

In 2002, Serge Fantinel investigated the matter and came up with a project that he submitted to the ministry for war veterans on April 30th. In August Hamlaoui Mekareche, minister for war veterans, declared that the former prisoners in question were now officially recognized by the French government.

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Read law n° 89-1013 (in french)