~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Vietnam finds mass grave of soldiers

Authorities in central Vietnam have found a mass grave of communist soldiers from the Vietnam War, and removed the remains of six of the 48 soldiers believed to have been buried there, officials said. The remains of the six soldiers, recovered in Hai Lam village in Quang Tri province, some 580 kilometres south of Hanoi, were buried at a military cemetery, said village chief Tran Van Tra. He added that excavators also found some personal effects including rubber sandals, water containers, pens and hammocks.

A villager found the first set of remains while working in his garden last week and reported it to authorities, Tra said. According to villagers, 48 soldiers were killed during a battle in that area in May 1972. The remains of eight soldiers were recovered in the late 1970s, Tra said. Excavation will continue to recover the rest of the remains, Tra said.

Separately, Le Tran Binh, director of the Biology Technology Institute, said his institute has identified 36 sets of remains of Vietnamese soldiers - three killed during the war against the French and 33 killed during the war against the Americans - since 2003. Binh said his institute's proposal to set up a national identification centre was put on hold after officials cited the sensitivity of digging up some 200,000 graves of unknown soldiers. Vietnamese believe the dead should be left in peace and their graves undisturbed. There are an estimated 300,000 communist soldiers still unaccounted for since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

The Australian Associated Press - July 26, 2005.