Witnesses recall terror of Vietnam raid as Kerrey denies gruesome account
Sunday, April 29, 2001
Witnesses recall terror of Vietnam raid as Kerrey denies gruesome account
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134290096_kerrey29.html
By Tini Tran
The Associated Press
THANH PHONG, Vietnam - Bui Thi Luom says she was 12 years old when seven
Americans with guns stormed into her Mekong Delta village, rounding up women
and children. She says she watched helplessly as the soldiers opened fire,
despite her grandmother's pleadings for mercy.
She was the only survivor in her hut of 16 people - 11 children and five
women, she said.
Luom's account, told for the first time to journalists yesterday, follows
the public acknowledgment last week by former Sen. Bob Kerrey that civilians
were killed during a commando raid by his Navy SEAL team on this coastal
village 32 years ago.
Through a spokesman, Kerrey denied Luom's version of events. "This account
is absolutely false," he said yesterday.
Kerrey, a Democrat from Nebraska, said he has been privately haunted ever
since by the memory of killing civilians, but he insisted the SEALS opened
fire only after being fired on.
However, The New York Times and CBS's "60 Minutes II," in a joint reporting
project, quoted another former member of the SEAL team, Gerhard Klann, as
saying the civilians were herded into a group and massacred. Kerrey, who ran
for president in 1992, received a Bronze Star medal for the Feb. 25, 1969,
raid.
`Free-fire zone'
Now the president of New York's New School University, Kerrey says the
village was a declared "free-fire zone" where everyone was regarded as
hostile. The attack was prompted by intelligence reports that said Viet Cong
officials planned a meeting there that night and that no civilians would be
present, he says.
Luom, now 44, told reporters there were no Viet Cong in Thanh Phong, and
only the Americans fired weapons. "They only killed civilians, women and
children. No VC," she said. Altogether, 20 people were killed, she said.
Luom lives with her husband and five children in a nearby fishing village.
Local officials arranged for foreign reporters to meet with Luom and another
witness, Pham Thi Lanh, who was interviewed by CBS in its original report. A
provincial official was present during the interviews.
The Mekong Delta was the wartime stronghold of the Viet Cong, homegrown
Communist insurgents who sought to overthrow the U.S.-backed South
Vietnamese government.
In 1969, there were no men in the village; many had been killed in bombing
raids and others had joined the Viet Cong, Luom said. Viet Cong sympathies
were strong, other residents say. One recalled that the first sea shipment
of arms from Communist North Vietnam to the south arrived in Thanh Phong in
1964.
Witness hid in grove
The second witness, Lanh, 62, said she hid in a banana grove as the
intruders killed an elderly couple and their three grandchildren. The
adults, Bui Van Vat, 65, and Luu Thi Canh, 62, were decapitated, she
claimed.
She said she ran to her house and stuffed her children's mouths with cloth
to keep them quiet. After the incident, she said, she found a pile of
bodies, including eight of her relatives. The next morning, she and other
survivors gathered the bodies and buried them in a common grave. "We didn't
even have coffins for them," she said.
Lanh, whose account had inconsistencies, said she could not positively
identify the men as Americans. "They spoke a language I didn't understand
and they wore helmets and big clothes," she said.
Luom said the victims in the hut where she lived included her pregnant aunt
and grandmother. Luom was the oldest of 11 children, the youngest 3 years
old, she said.
"That night I was sleeping inside the shelter. My grandmother woke me up,
calling everybody in the shelter to come outside," Luom said. "I counted
them - seven men with guns."
Women, children rounded up
The men rounded up the women and children and seated them in a circle near
the shelter's entrance, Luom said.
"One woman started coughing and the American soldier put a gun to her
throat. My grandmother told her not to cough or the soldier would kill her."
Luom said they pulled a young girl to her feet, and the girl screamed. Other
villagers told her later the girl had been disemboweled, but Luom said she
did not see this.
"My grandmother turned to help her. I saw her kneel in front of the
Americans, pleading for mercy. After that, the soldiers began to shoot,"
Luom said.
The Americans stood about a meter (3 feet) away, she said, and as gunfire
erupted, she fled into the dugout shelter. Before leaving, she said, they
threw an explosive into the shelter.
"I just heard an explosion. I'm not sure if it was a grenade or gunfire. It
hit my knee," she said, showing a scar on her left knee. "I don't know if
they knew I had escaped. I think they tried to kill anybody left in the
shelter."
"Of course they had to know" it was only women and children, Luom said
bitterly. "They should have been punished. At the time I was too small, but
if I could get revenge, I would. If I could have killed them, I would."
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