Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tuesday, July 25, 1972
REFUGEES RELATE EXPERIENCES
Thousands flee Quang Tri in fear
By THOMAS FOX
Dispatch News Service
HIGHWAY 1, SOUTH OF THE
QUANG TRI BORDER - Viet-
namese refugees coming out of
Quang Tri province- after two
months of the war's heaviest con-
centration of American bombing
report that thousands of civil-
ians have been killed as a result
of B-52 bombing missions.
Nearly 4,000 refugees have been
trucked out of villages in Quang
Tri during the past week and
are being brought to one of two
refugee centers here on High-
way 1 north of Hue for tempor-
ary food, shelter and interro-
gation.
Government officials here esti-
mate that as many as 50,000
peasants may never have left
Quang Tri before it fell to the
North Vietnamese, who gained
control of the provincial capital
on May 1.
Since that time the U n i t e d
Sta tes has flown 449 B-52 mis-
sions over Quang Tri, averaging
three planes a mission, dropping
more than 33,500 tons of explos-
ives from the eight-engine jets.
Additionally, American and Viet-
namese aircraft have flown
thousands of tactical air strikes
against North Vietnamese tar-
gets in the province.
A twenty-six-year-old mother
of three, Nguyen Thi Hiep, burst
into tears as she was lifted down
from a three-quarter-ton Army
truck that had just driven her
from the Phu Xuan hamlet in
Quang Tri province. Under her
arm she clasped a one-year old
boy. Two other children held to
her loose, black, peasant shirt.
She, like the other peasants,
seemed compelled to speak
about their ordeals.
"For two months we never left
our shelter beneath our hut . . .
except to cook rice," she told
several officials. "Days and
nights we listened 'to the B-52
bombs. They shook the earth.
Sometimes they were very near.
Sometimes they fell on the ham-
lets, killing the villagers." She
estimated that of the-forty fam-
ilies in her hamlet, half were kill-
ed by the B-52 strikes.
Peasants from different ham-
lets also reported hundreds of
civilian deaths. "They wanted to
kill the North Vietnamese sold-
iers but they dropped the bombs
on many villagers instead," a
middle-aged man said angrily.
Since families lived' individual-
ly in shelters under' their own
hunts, the peasants explained,
they either liver or died togeth-
er en masse. Few were wound-
ed. The bombs either .missed, or
hit - and killed.
"We were so afraid to die . . .
so afraid," said a forty-year-old
woman. "We never knew when
the bombs and the artillery
would drop on us," she added.
"All we ate was rice and salt,"
said an old man with a wrinkled
face. Another added that in his
village they also managed to
gather some rotten bananas.n
- A dirty-faced ten-year-old girl,
emotionally emptied by what she
had experienced, sat under a
large tree, resting her head on
her knees, sobbing alone. An
old woman, sitting quietly near-
by, suddenly jerked and rolled
to the ground, at the sound of
artillery not far away.
Some refugees said the North
Vietnamese soldiers lived with
them in their shelters. Others,
however, reported that the North
Vietnamese tried to stay apart
from them, coming only to gath-
er food. "They always bought
their food," one woman s a i d .
"But they gave us their own
money., We said we couldn't use
it. They told us ; we were living
in an independent zone where
the money was good," she add-
ed.
Nguyen Doi, a sixty-two-year
old man from a village f i v e
miles south of Quang Tri city
said the NVA regulars were
"very, very polite". Other peas-
ants generally agreed. "T h e y
were proper, the Northern- sold-
iers, but they would not let us
leave our villages," a forty-year-
old mother added. "But the guer-
rillas were more harsh and less
polite,". she went on.
The peasants also said they
were not allowed to listen to any
other radio other than Hanoi
radio or South Vietnamese Lib-
eration radio stations.
The
ann arbor
festival
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CHARLES MINGUS JR. WALKER &ATHE ALL-STARS
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SERIES TICKET $15.00 ALLSHOWS
TICKET OUTLETS--Michigan Union, Salvation Records (330 Maynard & 1103 S. University), Ned's
Books (Ypsilanti), and by mail from Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival Box 381, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48107
WE EXPECT TO SELL OUT! BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!
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Limited time offer. Ticket sales will be limited to Wash- "
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tickets ill be available until that date.
I a
* Number of series tickets at $15 per ticket -
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Total enclosed
* NAME --
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CITY_- - -STATE ZIP -
mail to: Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival
! P.O. Box 381
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ItEHNICOtOO®Fnam Warser 13s..
THESE YOUTHS are all recent refugees from the fighting taking
place in .the northern section of South Vietnam. The children
at right share a drink in a camp set up outside of Hue for the
civilians who fled the fighting around Quang Tri.
Kids program starts July 31
Children in the Ann. Arbor area
will once again have a chance
to participate in physical educa-
tion activities sponsored by The
University of Michigan physical
education department.
The Micigan Daily, edited and man-
aged by students at the4University of
Michigon. News pene: s64-as62. Second
Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich-
lean. 420 Maynaed St., Ace Aebor,
Miehigan 4804. Publised dasiry Tues-
day through Sunday morning Univer-
sity year. Subscription rates: $10 by
carrier, $11 by mail.
Summer Session"- published -Tuesday
through Saturday morning. Subscrip-
tion rates: $5.50 by carrier (campus
area); $6.50 local mail (in Mich. or
Oh:o); $7.50 non-local mail (other states
and foreign).
The program, to begin on July
31, will include lessons on games,
gymnastics and dance. All ele-
mentary school children, kinder-
garttn through 6th grades, are
eligible.
The primary purpose of the
program is to provide a labora-
tory experience for teachers-in-
training. But it also provides a
supplementary educational ex-
,Perience for the participating
children.
Sessions will be held July 31-
Aug. 4, from 12 noon to 1 p.m.
each day, in U-M's Barbour
Gymnasium. Children will be di-
vided lio age groups for in-
struction. They should be com-
fortably dressed in activity cloth-
es and may wear tennis shoes
or go barefoot.
Parents, who wish to reserve
a place for their children, should
call the U-M physical education
department at 764-1342 from 9
a.m. to 12 noon and 1 to 4 p.m.
TV & Stereo Rentals
$10.00 per month
NO DEPOSIT
FREE DELIVERY, PICK UP
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CALL:
NEWA TV RENTALS
662-5671
MICHIGAN REPERTORY 72
TONIGHT-8 p.m.
3~H £'~~ IBRENDA4
IOSTAGE BEHAN
additional- performances: 27, 29Q
INDIVIDUAL TICKETS $2.00, $3,00
in the an;-conditioned
POWER CENTER
FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
Box Office open 12:30-8.00 Mon.-Fri
Phone 763-3333
STUDENT RUSH TICKETS AVAILABLE