RESULTS OF INQUIRY IN NORTH VIETNAM
(The Rangoon office of the Vietnam News Agency released the following dispatch datelined Hanoi January” 15. J
kok Ok
"The U.S. imperialists are waging an aggressive war against Vietnam with means and methods strictly. banned by international law. These acts are undeniable proofs of the war crimes committed by the. United States in Vietnam." .
Leon Matarosso, French barrister at the Paris court, chairman of the-Law Committee of the Bertrand Russell International Tribunal and head of the first investigation team of. the tribunal, said: this at a press ‘conference held in. Hanoi by the team on January 12.
The team has left North Vietnam after a fortnight visit and investigating U.S. war crimes against. the. North Vietnamese people< . Leon Matarosso went on; Since. our arrival in North Vietnam < on December 30, 1966, we have visited dozens. of localities and contacted scores of witnesses. We have. read many. documents and examined many material evidences. Now we can.conclude with certainty. that the U.S. has conducted: large scale and systematic air raids.on purely civilian targets in North Vietnam. We can assert that large numbers of hospitals, schools, residential quarters, churches, pagodas and temples, dykes and dams have been bombed. - These places bear a marked civilian character and can in no. way:be mistaken for military targets. Through investigation, we have clearly seen that the U.S. has used weapons strictly banned by international law. These weapons are solely intended to massacre the civilian population such as "lazy dog" bombs,: napalm and phosphorous bombs. :
-» Leon Matarosso poin®ea out that "by waging a war of aggression against Vietnam, the U.S. imperialists have sabotaged the 1954 Geneva Agreements on Vietnan which serve as the legal basis of the Vietnam problen.' "
He: concluded: "Be fore arriving here we imagined that the Vietnamese. would pun. cout of strength: in face of the force of steel of the U.S. But contrary to our anticipation, . we have found before us the Vietnamese people as optimistic, courageous and confident. as ever. The. Vietnamese péople, mostly peasants, have risen up arms in hand and fought valiantly and staunchly against.one.of the-biggest industrial powers of the world. We can demonstrate. that they have fought with their absolute confidence in their final victory. And. they” themselves have inspired such a confidence in us. "
Speaking next, John Gerassi, “American journalist and writer, director of the ‘Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation in the U.S.A., listed undeniable proofs of U.S. air raids on the civilian population.in Hanoi, Haiphong, Thai Binh;. Thanh Hoa-and Vinh Phuc. These raids, he said, were exclusively aimed at killing people and shaking the Vietnamese. people's fighting spirit. But it has also been proven that the fiercer the U.S. air raids, the firmer the Vietnamese people's determination to fight them. Never in history has there been a nation which is. so closely united and:so firmly determined to fight to the end against the enemy as the Vietnamese people. " - Probably what: symbolizes the fight we have seen in Vietnam is the fact: that modern aircraft of:a-country with the most advanced science and technique | in the: world have been shot: down: ‘by Vietnamese peasants.
In Thuy ‘Dan (Thai Binh province) we have met peasants going to their fields with guns slung across their shoulders. I asked them with astonishment: "Why don't you have fortifications or gun supports? How can -you fire at them?" A peasant replied: "When the planes come we will use ouriown backs as gun supports. " Such a people will never knuckle under. ; ;
After giving a number of proofs of the use by the U.S. of toxic chemicals and poison gas, dean Pierre Vigier, French physicist and professor of Paris University, pointed out. that these weapons were no use against "concrete and steel" blocks as claimed by the U.S. Instead these weapons which are strictly prohibited by international law are only intended to kill human lives. .
Jean Pierre Vigier introduced to the presemen “two male witnesses: Hoang Tuan Hung, 46, in Quang Ngai province (South Vietnam), victim of phosphorous bombs dropped by the U.S. on May 10, 1965; and Hoang Van Hap, 26, a peasant of Van Kieu national minority in Vinh Linh area (North Vietnam), victim of U.S. napalm bombs on February 22, 1965.
The journalists could see many scars on their bodies which evoked the painful images of the victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 -- victims whom Vigier. had. seen with his own eyes. . ... He pointed out: "In the history of mankind there are peoples who shoulder the burdens for the whole world. At present, the Vietnamese people are shouldering that heavy task. Of course, all peoples have the right to decide their own destinies. But the struggle of the Vietnamese people has also close relations with the struggles of. other peoples. All freedom-loving people who are. watching the Vietnamese people's struggle have seen that the struggle is sure ‘to win.
Another member of the investigating team, Setsure Tsurushima, Japanese professor of economy at Osaka University and assistant secretary general of the International Tribunal, also gave many evidences. and listed concrete figures on the U.S. air raids on dykes. and irrigation works, rural markets and cooperatives with the aim of sabotaging North Vietnam's agricultural economy. He warmly praised the achievements of North Vietnam's agriculture, particularly in raising paddy output per hectare in a year to five tons in many localities. , .
Setsure Tsurushima added: "Me U.S. bombing of dykes ana irrigation works could not prevent the agricultural development in North Vietnam. It is clear that U.S. bombs and bullets have failed to shake the fighting will of the.Vietnamese farmers. Meanwhile, South Vietnam which was known as.a granary of Indochina and was a former rice exporter now has to import rice due to the U.S. occupation."