Speech #920268827

I should like to read some information into the RECORD. to let it be known that his charges and accusations do not go unchallenged. and that his criticisms of the United States are not supported by fact. This is a United Press International news report dated yesterday. August 8. 1972. with a Washington dateline: The State Department says that North Vietnamese troops engaged in mass murder of South Vietnamese civilian refugees durIng the beginning stages of Hanois spring offensive. Department spokesman John King also confirmed reports Monday that Communist plitical officers publicly executed hundreds cf South Vietnamese government officials and imprisoned thousands during their occupation of Binhdinh Province. Concerning the attacks on refugees. King said that American military advisers and Red Cross members saw from 1.000 to 2.000 civilian refugees fleeing south along Route 1 from Quang Tri killed by the North Vietnamese troops between April 24 and 30. King said that a convoy of refugees. making their way on motor scooters or on foot. were ambushed by North Vietnamese forces a few kilometers south of Quang Tri. "The North Vietnamese ambushed the convoy." King said. "They blew the convoy to pieces" with weapons normally used against combatants in battle. he said. The North Vietnamese attack on the refugees "littered the fields with bodies." King said. King said that on April 29 and 30. another convoy of refugees fleeing Quang Tri were ambushed by North Vietnamese. "They were attacked. ambushed. and there were considerable casualties." he said. King said the North Vietnamese fired shells into the convoy of elderly women. children and other noncombatants. "literally shredding the refugee column. The shells fired numbered in the hundreds." The spokesman said that more than three months later Buddhist and Roman Catholic priests were still combing the area. trying to identify for relatives the bodies still strewn on the fields. and conducting funerals. Mr.