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The Vietnam War has left so
much unforgettable sorrow in many hundred thousand families, Vietnamese and American.
The death of a soldier or a civilian killed in battle areas was a great grief
to his or her relatives. But they were driven to a still greater grief if he or
she was missing without any trace or clue. As the years have been going by,
they are still waiting for his or her coming back with their flickering tiny
ray of hope. Or at least, they wish for
some concrete news of his or her death that could end their sorrow of waiting.
Last
week, a report from Vietnam on October 9, 2002 sent to the overseas Vietnamese
community media contains a story of such a case. The time was 6 months prior to the 1968 Tet season (Vietnamese
Lunar New Year celebration) when the bloodiest battles took place in January
1968.
The
media outside Vietnam has known the village of An Truyen near Hue City in the
last few years as a hot spot of the movement struggling for religious freedom
led by Rev. Nguyen Van Ly, the brave Catholic priest, who is now in prison.
During
the 1968 Tet Offensive, from three to four thousand victims most of them
civilians were slain by the Communist soldiers in the Thua Thien province,
Central Vietnam. In An Truyen village, the Rev. Buu Dong, head of the parish
was buried alive and his death was confirmed. But a parishioner Ho Thi Xuan, a
young girl tailor of 19 years old at the time, just disappeared on July 4, 1967
leaving nothing that could have helped track down her whereabouts, or to be
more exact, her remains.
The
story runs that in August 2002, an An Truyen villager visited a friend in the nearby
village. He happened to ask the friend if he knew Miss Ho Thi Xuan.
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"Which Xuan?" the friend asked. The An Truyen man said, "Xuan,
who was missing before the 1968 Tet Offensive."
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"Yes, I do. In 1967, four guerillas brought her here to kill her. When
they arrested her at her tailor's shop, they said that she had to go with them
for a meeting. After a long walk, she asked the guerrillas, 'Have we reached
the meeting place?' One of them said
that he didn't know."
The
friend continued, "Upon their arrival at my village, the four guerrillas
blindfolded her, tied her arms behind her back and pushed her down into a pit
and buried her alive."
"How
come the VC arrested her?"
"Because
they saw her standing up and walking away from her sewing machine when they
passed by. They suspected her of having left home to report their presence to
the government soldiers. So they tricked her into following them to a meeting
and killed her lest she should pose any danger to them."
The
An Truyen man asked, "Why do you know it so well?" His friend said, "One of the four
guerrillas has just told me. The three others have passed away. He is still
living but he is suffering dementia. Every night this man hears Xuan's voice of
34 years ago echoing at his ears, 'Have we reached the meeting place?' The man has not been able to sleep. He told
me how to get to the killing site and asked me to relay the information to
Xuan's family."
Her
family quickly gathered at the site and dug up the remains, but only parts of which
could be collected and brought home on August 31. Xuan's remains stayed at her
home in three days for services and visits.
After
that, she was reburied at the village cemetery where many villagers voiced
their protest against the Communist atrocity. Local Communist authorities dared
not intercept the mourning services and funeral. But in an action that might be
taken as retaliation, the Communist village authorities decided to close down
the parish-sponsored elementary classes that helps poor children with regular
education.
As
to the bloody Tet-1968 massacre, the horrible images of the mass graves have
deeply imprinted on the memory of those who witnessed the scenes. Among eyes
witnesses, a former South Vietnamese lieutenant is still feeling the horror. He
told his story, which is somehow accurate and credible, is printed in some
overseas Vietnamese magazines including ones on the Internet. We could find his
article in Vietnamese posted on the web site http://ngothelinh.web1000.com/HoiKyNguoiLinhGia.html
under pseudonym Nguoi Linh Gia (An Old Soldier).
At
the time, he was a company commander of the Republic of Vietnam 3rd
Battalion, 3rd Regiment, First Infantry Division. He was wounded in the battle
at Hue Royal Citadel. According to his
knowledge, about 5,600 people were massacred at dozen sites, the two largest of
the mass graves were Khe Da Mai (gorge) and Xuan O Dien Dai (sand bar). Some documents
reported the total missing at more than 9000.
He
joined the team of Thua Thien province military command searching for the
missing remains in Xuan O Dien Dai, a few kilometers North of Hue. The site was
in the area of his responsible for the city security before the Tet-1968
attack.
On
the sand bar, the victims were transfixed with pointed stakes (bamboo, wood, or
metal) running through the trunk from the bottom up to the head. The stakes
kept the dead bodies up right in about 40 groups; each group had five to ten
victims. Some were beheaded; others were dismembered up to the groin.
Beneath
the sand floor, the team dug up remains of the victims who had been buried
alive. Those victims were found one facing another as if they were talking to
each other while their arms were firmly tied behind their back.
In
several underground shelters filled up with sand, victims' limbs were seen
sticking out. Each shelter contained four or five strings of corpses. Their
enemy soldiers strung them together with metal wire piercing through their
palms. They hammered at the back of some victims' skulls with hard objects
while many other victims' faces were smashed up beyond recognition.
His
narration proved that people who know the events would never forget atrocities
such as the 1968 Tet massacres in Hue. It's reasonable to call on them not to
harbor thoughts of revenge. But they will never be able to blot the horrible Hue
killing out of their memories as the massacre has been recorded in history.
It's a hypocritical behavior of one who calls on people to forget such
atrocious historical events including the smaller massacre by the American
soldiers under Lieutenant Calley at My Lai in the same year.
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