A resident of central Quảng Bình Province has discovered thousands of human bone pieces that are believed to be of the victims of massacres by the French colonists.

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Quảng Bình resident finds 200 skulls in garden

May 28, 2017 - 20:40

A resident of central Quảng Bình Province has discovered thousands of human bone pieces that are believed to be of the victims of massacres by the French colonists.

A digger and human bones found in Quảng Bình’s garden. Photo tienphong.vn
Viet Nam News

QUẢNG BÌNH — A resident of central Quảng Bình Province has discovered thousands of human bone pieces that are believed to be of the victims of massacres by the French colonists.  The resident was digging the ground for building a home foundation.

Dương Văn Phong, a resident of Ba Đồn District’s Quảng Thọ Ward, said he started digging the soil on May 19 and kept finding human bones underground since then. He tracked the bones, dug around his garden and found a total of 200 sets of human bodies by May 28.

Phong’s digging has continued since.

Phong said the bones were broken and in a mess; the pieces of a single body were hardly identifiable. He counted the skulls to determine the number of human bodies.

Phong collected the bones and took them to be reburied in a local cemetery. At the same time, he took samples and sent them to Hà Nội to be tested for DNA.

The bones were discovered at five sites in the garden. The elderly in the locality believed that the bones belonged to the revolutionists of the Cần Vương Movement against the French colonists.

The movement was an insurgency by the Vietnamese, led by the emperor Hàm Nghi, between 1885 and 1889 against French colonialism. The movement was raided by the French, and many revolutionists were killed either in Quảng Bình or Quảng Trị.

Local authorities have yet to comment on the information. — VNS

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