The entrance to Lê Thị Riêng Park, where authorities suspect a mass grave of fallen soldiers may be located. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — HCM City authorities have surveyed a suspected mass grave site of fallen soldiers at Lê Thị Riêng Park in the city centre following fresh witness testimony and historical evidence.

The survey, conducted on Saturday by the HCM City High Command, brought witness Võ Huy Thịnh, 70, to the site in Hòa Hưng Ward, where he said he had witnessed the burial of multiple soldiers at the former Đô Thành Cemetery, now Lê Thị Riêng Park, during the 1968 Tết Offensive, a major campaign in the resistance war against America.

Thịnh said he was 12 at the time and had gone to the cemetery with friends from the Ông Tạ intersection area shortly after the offensive, when schools were closed due to intense fighting in central Sài Gòn.

He recalled seeing trucks belonging to the former Republic of Việt Nam military entering the cemetery from Lê Văn Duyệt Street, now Cách Mạng Tháng Tám (August Revolution) Street, carrying around a dozen decomposed bodies, some dressed in black bà ba clothing.

According to his account, sanitation workers used stretchers to lower the bodies into a rectangular pit more than 10m long and about five metres deep before covering them with a layer of white powder to reduce the smell.

An image from 1968 indicating that there was a mass grave in central Sài Gòn. — Photo from the HCM City's Military Command

“The bodies were arranged neatly in layers, then bulldozers filled the pit with earth,” he said.

He identified the burial site as about 50m from the cemetery gate, slightly to the left when viewed from Lê Văn Duyệt Street.

Comparing his recollection with historical cemetery maps and the current layout of Lê Thị Riêng Park, he believes the site is near the park’s traditional house and Thê Húc bridge behind the main gate on Cách Mạng Tháng Tám Street.

Major General Nguyễn Thành Trung, political commissar of the HCM City High Command, said the renewed search effort was prompted by a historical photograph recently provided by a former Associated Press photographer in the US.

The image shows two men and three children observing the burial of soldiers at what was then Chí Hòa Cemetery, also known as Đô Thành Cemetery.

Drawing on historical records, Trung said the area now occupied by Lê Thị Riêng Park was used after the 1968 Tết Offensive as a burial ground for fallen special forces soldiers and Sài Gòn commandos, with bodies reportedly placed in two large rectangular trenches.

Before the park was built in 1983, authorities had already recovered more than a dozen sets of remains from the site.

Witnesses and the working group re-identified the location of the mass burial of martyrs at the former Đô Thành Cemetery. — Photo from the HCM City Military Command

Based on historical documentation, photographic evidence and witness testimony, military officials have preliminarily identified the area near the traditional house and Thê Húc bridge as the most likely location of the suspected burial site.

Trung said the HCM City High Command would submit its findings to the steering committee for the search, recovery and identification of war martyrs’ remains under Military Region 7 and convene a workshop to consolidate evidence and narrow the search area.

The command is also expected to coordinate with the Faculty of Geophysics at HCM City University of Science to conduct underground geophysical surveys using sonar equipment before drawing up a recovery plan. — VNS