Authorities in Da Nang say they will cross-check a veteran's claim that about 200 sets of remains lie buried on a hill in Phước Năng commune, after the account was discussed again at a commune workshop on October 29, Tuổi Trẻ reports. The site is the Ngok Tavat hill, where a battle was fought in May 1968.
The veteran from Phú Thọ, who first raised the claim, reconfirmed the figure at the workshop, according to the report. He says he took part in clearing the battlefield, that burials were rushed because of fear of renewed bombing, and that about 120 of those buried were fallen comrades. He bases that number on a commander's summary.
Other former soldiers are less certain. A former cadre of the Military Region 5 operations department told Tuổi Trẻ he has found no solid evidence for the 200 figure and that Division 2's battle records do not show casualties on that scale. A former sapper of Regiment 1, Division 2 has not confirmed the number; when the commune military command contacted him, he confirmed the battle but put friendly casualties at about 30.
The commune military command cites a local history of the former Phước Sơn district, which records the battle from the night of May 9 to the afternoon of May 10, 1968. The commune says the accounts match the terrain but the casualty figures differ considerably.
Colonel Đỗ Nguyên Hoài, deputy political commissar of the Da Nang Military Command, praised the local effort and said verification will draw on several sources alongside document collection. Once there is enough basis to identify a burial area, localities will report to the command, which will decide on search and recovery steps. The command had earlier appealed publicly for witnesses and families holding diaries, maps or casualty lists.
Sources
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