OFFENSIVE IN VIETNAM Disclosure of heavy civilian casualties

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32945, 17 June 1972, Page 15

OFFENSIVE IN VIETNAM Disclosure of heavy civilian casualties

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, June 16. The American Ambassador to Saigon (Mr Ellsworth Bunker) has reported to Washington that South Vietnam’s civilian casualties resulting from the present heavy fighting are running far ahead of those in the 1968 Tet offensive, and “present a formidable challenge,” the New York Times News Service reports.

The ambassador’s report on civilian victims, providing for the first time a fairly detailed picture of the impact of the offensive on South Vietnamese society, was contained in a cable sent to the Secretary of State (Mr William Rogers) this week.

- A copy of the unclassified telegram, which also estimates that the 'number of civilian war casualties admitted to South Vietnamese hospitals will double in the second part of 1972 from that of the first six months, was obtained yesterday by the “New York Times.” • The ambassador’s report, emphasising that all the figures are incomplete and do not cover the April civilian

. casualties in the severe . battles around Quang Tri, Kontum, and An Loc, says f that 23,463 war victims were ' admitted to hospitals in the ► year’s first five months. They . included 4038 women and , 2942 children under the age ; of 13. ‘ The incomplete hospitali admissions figure for April is | put at 8699, three times the , February number. These statistics relate only to war casualties. While the ambassador says , that “it remains patently im- : possible to document the I number of civilian casualties i of war killed outright, or who

die after admission to hospitals,” Senator Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Sub-com-mittee on Refugees, said in a statement yesterday that his panel estimated that as many as 25,000 deaths had occurred since the Communist offensive began on March 30. Senator Kennedy said that his sub-committee calculated that the total civilian war casualties in South Vietnam since then was near the 80,000 mark. Senator Kennedy said that he had been informed by the Administration for International Development, which is responsible for refugee care in South Vietnam, that the number of new refugees in the country, had risen by 100,000 since May 8. “A daily average of 3000 refugees is being generated by the heavy fighting, and, based on unreported data, the sub-committee, including displaced persons in enemy-con-trolled territory, estimates up to 1.2 million new refugees since April 1,” Senator Kennedy said. “Needless to say, the full extent of civilian casualties in South Vietnam cannot be measured by hospital admissions alone—even if all the hospitals report their admissions. For the record is clear that the bulk of civilian casualties never see a hospital. They are treated elsewhere, not treated at all, or they die.”