AN EFFICIENT SLAUGHTER

The Communists executed hundreds of civilians during their Tet offensive, but the slaughter was particularly marked in and around Hue, where estimates of those put to death range from 200 to 400. British Journalist Stewart Harris, who opposes U.S. policy in Viet Nam and declares . that "my instinct is not to sustain it by writing propaganda," recently visited Hue and vicinity to investigate the executions. Last week he reported his findings in the Times of London:

THE North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong executed many Vietnamese, some Americans and a few other foreigners during the fighting in and around Hue. I am sure of this after spending several days in Hue investigating allegations of killings and torture. I saw and photographed a lot for myself, but inevitably I relied on many civilians and soldiers, Vietnamese, Americans, Australians and others. All seemed honest witnesses, telling the truth as they believed it.

On a lovely sunny afternoon in the green valley ot Nam Hoa, about ten miles southwest of Hue, I was with Warrant Officer Ostara, an Australian adviser with the South Viet Nam army, standing on the sloping sides of a recently dug hole. In the bottom were rush mats over sheets of plastics. Ostara drew them back and I saw two bodies dead Vietnamese, with their arms tied behind their backs just above the elbows. They had been shot through the back of the head, the bullet coming ou through the mouth. The faces would have been difficult to recognize, but the day before 27 women from the village walked out three miles carrying mattocks to dig for their missing husbands and sons, having heard about this patch of disturbed earth near the roadside. Ostara told me that the enemy had come through on their way to Hue. They had taken 27 men. Some were leaders and some were younger, strong enough to be porters or even ancillary soldiers.

sb "Men were simply condemned by drumhead courts and executed as enemies of the people," said Bob Kelly, the senior province adviser in Thua Thien province. "These were the leaders, often quite small men. Others were executed when their usefulness ceased, or when they didn't cooperate they were shot for their trouble. Some of my staff were badly mutilated, but I am inclined to believe this was done after they were killed. Their hands were tied and they were shot behind the head. I helped to dig one body out, but I have been told by Vietnamese whom I respect that some people were buried alive."

Lieut. Gregory Sharp, an American adviser with the Viet Nam 21st Ranger Battalion, told me that his men had come across about 25 new graves in a cemetery five miles east of Hue on March 14. From half a dozen of the graves the heads were sticking up out of the sandy soil and, according to Sharp, "there wasn't much left of them--buzzards and dogs, I suppose. Some had been shot in the head and some hadn't. They had been buried alive, I think. There were sort of scratches in the sand in one place, as if someone had clawed his way out. At Quan Ta Ngan three Australian warrant officers saw seven men in one of three graves they found. The seven, I was told, had been shot one after the other, through the back of the head, hands tied.

Soon after arriving in Hue I went in a Jeep with three Viet Nam officers to inspect sites where the bodie of executed men were said to have been found. We went first to Gia Hoi high school in District Two, east of the citadel Here 22 new graves had been found, each containing between three and seven bodies. It is still a horrifying place The officers told me that the bodies had been tied and, again, most had been shot through the head, but "some had been buried alive."

sb There are about 40,000 Roman Catholic Vietnamese in Hue What happened to them? About three-quarters of the Roman Catholics in Hue live in Phu Cam, on the southern outskirts of the city. They resisted strongly when the enemy came in, and some were executed. Four Viet Nam priests were taken away and three foreign priests were killed. Two French priests were actually given permission by the Viet Cong to return to Phu Cam and help the sisters--and then they were shot on the way back. Another French priest was executed, perhaps because he was chaplain to the Americans.

Summing up all this evidence about the behavior of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army in Hue, one thing is abundantly clear and ought to surprise no one They put into practice, with their usual efficiency, the traditional Communist policy of punishing by execution selected leaders who support their enemies. In Hue as elsewhere, they were unable on the whole to capture and execute the more important officials, because these men were careful to protect themselves in heavily fortified compounds, defended by soldiers and police. In Hue as elsewhere, the more defenseless ; little people were the victims--the village and hamlet chiefs, the teachers and the policemen.

Already most of these positions have been filled again, and I find it impossible to write adequately about the courage of men who succeed the executed.

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