Vietnam people remembers My Lai massacre

Thousands gather in memory of victims of the infamous 1968 massacre.

QUANG NGAI — More than 2,000 local residents, Buddhist monks and foreign visitors participated yesterday in a grand memorial service in Son My Village to commemorate the 504 villagers killed by US troops in 1968 in the My Lai massacre that shocked the world.

On the former site of the massacre, parts of which have been turned into an open-air museum, local residents sang a popular verse that described the atrocity during the memorial service in the presence of reporters from 15 overseas newspapers, radio and television stations.

Earlier, the monks burned incense and prayed for peace for souls of the victims.

Forty years have passed since the massacre took place in this poor village in central Viet Nam, a horrific event never forgotten by those who survived both sides of the war.

Survivors’ stories

On March 16, 1968, US troops came to My Lai (now Son My) on a ‘search and destroy’ mission, looking for Viet Cong guerrillas. Despite the absence of enemy fire, US troops began mowing down villagers and setting fire to their homes. Members of Charlie Company slaughtered as many as 504 villagers including unarmed women, children and elders.

"Early that morning, as villagers were about to leave home for a day’s work, we heard gunfire at the entrance of the village. My family then moved to the shelter pit," Pham Thanh Cong, a local resident who survived the atrocity said to Gilam N. Halsted, a reporter from Wisconsin Public Radio in the US who visited Son My for the anniversary.

An hour later, three American soldiers appeared at the mouth of the pit, ordering them to come out, Cong said.

"Then they told every member of our family to come back to the shelter before throwing grenades and opening fire on us," he said.

At 4pm that day, when all the American troops had withdrawn from the village, the then 11-year-old Cong was found by other villagers, the only survivor of his family.

Cong, now 51, said he survived because the bodies of his mother, elder sister, two younger sisters and younger brother protected him from the US troops’ bullets.

As head of the Son My Museum, Cong has talked with many visitors including American veterans, but he never imagined that one day he would meet one of the men who killed the villagers that day.

Then last Saturday, Qatar’s Aljazeera English TV channel videotaped a discussion between Cong and Kenneth Schiel, who Cong imagined was an American veteran like many others he had welcomed over the years.

The conversation heated up after two hours when Schiel admitted that he was one of the US troops who opened fire on locals during the massacre in 1968.

At the end of the talk, Schiel and Cong shook hands, but Cong said, "My handshake is just for human relations. I still wonder why someone of a civilised society like yourself could have done something so inhumane."

"For the future, we’d better bury the hatchet. But the sin you committed can never be forgotten."

Among the crowd of several hundred people at the memorial service was Do Thi Buong, 67, who fled from the marauding US troops 40 years ago and whose mother was shot to death during the massacre.

"We just want peace," she said. ‘We don’t want this sort of thing to happen again anywhere else in the world. Every year when this day arrives, I always feel a terrible sadness, and always remember my mother."

Visitors’ feeling
Among foreign visitors to the Son My memorial service were two American veterans Lawrence Colburn and Mike Boehm who have both returned to Son My Village several times to the warm welcome of local people.

Colburn was a machine gunner whose helicopter landed on My Lai in the midst of the 1968 massacre to help stop the slaughter. Boehm was based in a Sai Gon suburb during the war time, but after the war ended he regularly paid tribute to the Son My memorial to show repentance for the crimes committed by other US troops.

"We’re supposed to learn from history’s mistakes, but we keep making the same mistakes," said Colburn. "That’s what makes My Lai more important today than ever before," the Associated Press quoted Colburn as saying.

Ten years ago, Boehm was the main character in a documentary film The Sound of Violin at My Lai directed by Nguyen Van Thuy. Back then, he played the violin in the "Ashcan Farewell" piece at the foot of Son My memorial. The song originally depicted the sufferings of American women whose husbands had to join the US civil war more than 200 years ago.

Every year on March 16, he comes to Son My to play the song with his violin.

Several years ago, Boehm founded an organisation called Madison Quaker, Inc. For years he has gathered funds to help local women eradicate hunger and alleviate poverty as well as build houses and present gifts to Agent Orange victims. He also led a demonstration in the US in mid-2007 to show support for the lawsuit filed by Vietnamese Agent Orange victims.

On this anniversary, Boehm heads a delegation of 100 people from his Madison Quaker, Inc., 77 of whom are from Japan and children of victims of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities 63 years ago.

On this occasion, Madison Quaker, Inc. will inaugurate a Peace Park at Son My, break ground for the office for Tinh Khe No.1 primary school, and provide free dental care and treatment to local people in six communes in Son Tinh District.

During the memorial service yesterday, Boehm had five minutes to once again play his heart-rending violin.

Several English letters by Billy Kelly, an American veteran, are also on display at the Son My Museum.

Cong said, "Billy has been here on March 16 each year for almost the past decade, bringing along 504 roses to place in front of the memorial monument and kneeling down for a long time. Despite not fighting in Son My, he seems so attached to this land and shows repentance."

Kelly signed one of his notes, "With love, Billy Kelly" It reads:" Quang Ngai March 16 2000. I have brought some flowers for you and hope you will look upon them as a symbol for all the flowers that you could have received if your lives had not been stolen 32 years ago. For those who would be older, they are meant to represent the flowers you would have received from your children and grandchildren.

"And for you who were so very young , these flowers represent those that you should have received from your first boyfriend or girlfriend. I hope they will make you smile and be happy today . You are not forgotten. Please pray for us.

Quoted from: Vietnam News
Vietnam information
Vietnam voyage