Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Ha Noi, May 31 (VNA) -- Former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey and others who committed war atroccities during the war in Viet Nam should take specific and practical actions to help heal the wounds they caused, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Phan Thuy Thanh in Ha Noi on Friday.

Ms. Thanh made the comment in response to an AP correspondent who asked for Viet Nam's view on former Senator Kerrey's newly released book entitled "When I Was Young". The book recounts details which are contradictory to Kerrey's previous statements on an incident in which U.S. troops killed many Vietnamese civilians of Thanh Phong village is the southern province of Ben Tre.

The former U.S. Senator's book says vaguely that Thanh Phong villagers were killed because they were "caught in the crossfire", not because they were round up and shot by his unit.

Ms. Thanh said:

"We have already expressed our view on this incident. The truth about the massacre has been clearly told by our compatriots in Thanh Phong village, Ben Tre province. We profoundly sympathize and share the incomparable suffering and losses of the families in Thanh Phong caused by crimes committed by Mr. Kerrey's unit.

No matter what Mr. Kerrey has to say now, he can not change the truth. Mr. Kerrey himself once confessed that he felt ashamed by his crimes. In our view, what Mr. Kerrey and those Americans who were involved in the Vietnam War should do is to take action to make concrete and practical contributions to healing the war wounds in Vietnam which they themselves caused."