World: AN EFFICIENT SLAUGHTER

The Communists executed hundreds of civilians during their Tet offensive, but the slaughter was particularly marked in and around Hue, where estimates of those put to death range from 200 to 400. British Journalist Stewart Harris, who opposes U.S. policy in Viet Nam and declares . that "my instinct is not to sustain it by writing propaganda," recently visited Hue and vicinity to investigate the executions. Last week he reported his findings in the Times of London:

THE North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong executed many Vietnamese, some Americans and a few other foreigners during the fighting in and around Hué. I am sure of this after spending several days in Hué investigating allegations of killings and torture. I saw and photographed a lot for myself, but inevitably I relied on many civilians and soldiers, Vietnamese, Americans, Australians and others. All seemed honest witnesses, telling the truth as they believed it.

On a lovely sunny afternoon in the green valley ot Nam Hoa, about ten miles southwest of Hué, I was with Warrant Officer Ostara, an Australian adviser with the South Viet Nam army, standing on the sloping sides of a recently dug hole. In the bottom were rush mats over sheets of plastics. Ostara drew them back and I saw two bodies dead Vietnamese, with their arms tied behind their backs just above the elbows. They had been shot through the back of the head, the bullet coming ou through the mouth. The faces would have been difficult to recognize, but the day before 27 women from the village walked out three miles carrying mattocks to dig for their missing husbands and sons, having heard about this patch of disturbed earth near the roadside. Ostara told me that the enemy had come through on their way to Hué. They had taken 27 men. Some were leaders and some were younger, strong enough to be porters or even ancillary soldiers.

∙ "Men were simply condemned by drumhead courts and executed as enemies of the people," said Bob Kelly, the senior province adviser in Thua Thien province. "These were the leaders, often quite small men. Others were executed when their usefulness ceased, or when they didn't cooperate they were shot for their trouble. Some of my staff were badly mutilated, but I am inclined to believe this was done after they were killed. Their hands were tied and they were shot behind the head. I helped to dig one body out, but I have been told by Vietnamese whom I respect that some people were buried alive."

Lieut. Gregory Sharp, an American adviser with the Viet Nam 21st Ranger Battalion, told me that his men had come across about 25 new graves in a cemetery five miles east of Hué on March 14. From half a dozen of the graves the heads were sticking up out of the sandy soil and, according to Sharp, "there wasn't much left of them—buzzards and dogs, I suppose. Some had been shot in the head and some hadn't. They had been buried alive, I think. There were sort of scratches in the sand in one place, as if someone had clawed his way out. At Quan Ta Ngan three Australian warrant officers saw seven men in one of three graves they found. The seven, I was told, had been shot one after the other, through the back of the head, hands tied.