HUE
- The heady scent of incense filled the airr. A group of Buddhist monks began to
chant an elegy to the slow and muted beat of a drum. Beside them, a Roman
Catholic priest almost inaudibly said a prayer for the dead.
The
religious rites by representatives of two faiths last October 14 at the foot of
a barren hill was held so that the souls of unknown victims of the Communist Tet
offensive in 1968 could know peace snd tranquility.
Under
a scorching sun, the mortal remains enclosed in simple, hurriedly made coffins
were arranged in neat rows for the mass burial.
Beside
each coffin, two black clad members of the Popular Force of Thua Thien province
where this northernmost city of South Viet Nam is located, stood at attention,
awaiting for the funeral to start.
Grief
was common.
Some
15,000 mourners in white nourning clothes milled around the sun- drenched area.
Some wept in silence, others hysterically - occasionally looking at each other
as if in search of assurance that this was not stark reality but merely a bad
dream.
Over
2,000 victims of the red massacre have been found, many of them unidentified. It
is estimated that more than 3,000 residents of Hue perished at the hands of the
Communists during their occupation of this former imperial city.
Suddenly
a hush descended over the area and all eyes turned to a spot where government
officials had gathered to pay homage to the dead. President Nguyen Van Thieu
stood behind a lectern to deliver a eulogy for the departed. The President, who
had flown 1,079 kilometers from Saigon to attend the mass burial for 400 victims,
stood silent for a moment.
"Look
at these sad faces, then look at these coffins," he said. "Is this the
final freedom offered by the Communists - to lie in a coffin in the ground?"
The
President spoke of grief, suffering, sorrow. And he pledged renewed
determination never to allow the perpetrators of the brutal murders to again
beguile his people with false promises that usually culminate in death for those
who oppose them.
This
oft repeated and sad scene began in the latter part of last year with
discoveries of mass graves where victims were hastily buried before the
Communists retreated in the face of a determined onslaught by allied troops to
oust them from this city.
Last
April 25, 342 bodies, 142 of which were identified and claimed by relatives,
were found in a shallow, sandy grave in Vinh Luu hamlet, about 10 kilometers
from this city. The 142 unidentified remains were buried some five kilometers
from Hue in Nam Giao hamlet, where this latest burial was held. Province and
city officials say this cemetery of the unknown dead will become a national
shrine.
The
400 recently buried victims were discovered last Sept. 29 in a heavily forested
area in Nam Hoa hamlet, about 15 kilometers from Hue. Woodcutters stumbled
across the grisly discovery after a heavy rain exposed bodies in a common and
shallow grave along a creek. The woodcutters hastily reported to their hamlet
chief who in turn informed Thua Thien province officials.
Volunteers
from the Popular Force were dispatched to the area to exhume the bodies. More
than two dozen mass graves have been found in the vicinity where the Communists
fought their last big unit battle with the allies (April 30 to May 2, 1968). The
more than 2,000 bodies exhumed in and near this city usually were in areas where
some of the heaviest fighting during the abortive Communist attempt to take over
Hue in February 1968 occurred.
City
and province officials said that before the Communists pulled out or were killed,
they indiscriminately picked their victims for the massacre.
They
said that documents and prisoner interrogation show that the enemy, beside
singling out policemen and military men for killing, also murdered farmers, aged
women, young girls, and children.
Medical
examination of the remains revealed that the majority had their heads bashed in
with rifle butts, many had been shot after they were trussed up with wire, their
hands behind their backs, and some buried alive hurriedly in shallow graves.
Hoi
Chanh (returnees) who rallied to the government side under the Chieu Hoi (Open
Arms) program pointed out many of the mass graves. These returnees told of a
"death march" of innocent civilians. They related seeing on February
5, 1968 more than 300 persons, young and old, led away by their Communist
captors from the Catholic diocese of Phu Cam village where they had sought
shelter.
Later
in the day, those rounded up had their hands tied behind their backs, were
chained together, and forced to march to a site near a tributary of the Perfume
River to face a kangaroo court. Some 30 were found "guilty" and were
killed on the spot. This was borne out by the discovery of their remains in
early August last year.
Those
spared were given a long lecture by the Communists and warned that the reds were
giving up the city after 25 daye of occupation only "temporarily."
Tbey said they would be back and expected the people to stay "loyal to
Communism." Failure to do this, they warned, would mean
"liquidation" upon their return.
Editor's
Note: A total of 230 more bodies, among them those of 15 school children, have
been recovered since November 12 in Phu Thu district, 14 kilometers southeast of
Hue. The children, all about 15 years old, were kidnaped by the Communists from
various schools in Hue during the battle for the city during Tet 1968.
Farmers
of Duong Mong village vividly remember one night 20 months ago. "They
marched the children to the bank of a stream," one elderly farmer related.
"We could hear their cries and screams. Then they killed them."
On
November 14, these newly-found victims of the Communists mere buried along with
170 others exhumed recently in Phu Thu district. Some 50,000 lined the roads to
the former imperial city. And again, Hue wept openly and unashamed.
Figure
Captions.
Relatives
of victims of red mass murder during 1968 Tet view remains recently unearthed.
President
Thieu delivers address before rows of coffins at Hue mass burial held last
October,
Residents
of Hue watch funeral cortege.
Madame
Pham Thi Cuc, 32, weeps at the coffin of her husband, Pham Duc Do. he was taken
prisoner by the Viet Cong and executed with others defending Hue during
Communist Tet offensive in 1968.
Peasant
folk on street weep after sight of bodies found with arms behind them and
chained together. Some were shot, some bludgeoned to death and some simply
buried alive.
Two
young sisters tearfully watch ceremonies of their father, who served with the
French military. (TT Comments: the reference to military service for the French
is meant to indicate his age, and that he is not a military man in 1968!)
Rows
of rough plywood coffins with unidenfified bodies lie in a school. Grave diggers
pulls wire used to tie red victim.
Skeletal
remains are unloaded from trucks in bundles. Widow mourns before husband's
numbered grave.
Coffins are readied for mass burial.
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