Search teams are using ground penetrating radar to survey locations around the Hue Imperial Citadel where a mass grave of Vietnamese soldiers is believed to be located.
Lieutenant General Ha Tho Binh, commander of Military Region 4, directs the survey for mass graves at the Hue Imperial Citadel heritage site (Photo: Vi Thao).
On June 25, authorities scanned two sites, one along Xuan 68 Street and the other near the Chanh Tay Gate of the Hue Imperial Citadel in Phu Xuan Ward.
In the coming days, the radar team will continue surveying additional locations around the citadel, covering a total area of about 1,350 square metres.
The sites were identified after authorities gathered information from witnesses, war veterans and local residents, while also cross checking historical records related to the fighting during the spring of 1968.
The ground-penetrating radar team surveys Xuan 68 road, near the Dong Ba Gate area (Photo: Vi Thao).
One key witness, Le Van Luot, born in 1956 and a resident of Tran Van Ky Street in Phu Xuan Ward, told investigators that on the 25th day of the first lunar month in 1968, he and his father passed the Chanh Tay Gate area and saw a bomb crater.
According to Luot, the crater contained the bodies of about 15 North Vietnamese soldiers who had been killed in action. He said engineering troops of the former Republic of Vietnam later gathered the bodies and buried them in the crater at a depth of nearly three metres.
After receiving the testimony, Hue City authorities met with the witness and conducted an initial survey of the suspected burial site.
Further verification led investigators to identify several additional locations that may contain mass graves of fallen soldiers around the Hue Imperial Citadel and the former Tay Loc Airport, both in Phu Xuan Ward.
