Vietnam’s final
farewell to
General Giap
HANOI.—The highest-ranking leaders
of state and the Communist Party of Vietnam presided
during the funeral of Senior General Vo Nguyen Giap
on October 13 in his native province of Quang Binh,
amid tens of thousands of compatriots who gathered
to pay their last respects.
|
TheVietnamese
people gathered at military
garrisons throughout the country to pay
their last respects to the famous General.
In Havana, Vice President and
Second
Secretary of the Communist Party Central
Committee José Ramón Machado Ventura
signs the book of condolences at the
Vietnamese embassy. |
Giap, who died this past October 4
in the Hanoi Military Hospital, was buried in a
ceremony of heartfelt emotion, and headed by
President of the Republic, Truong Tan Sang.
The altar, decorated with an image
of Giap wearing the uniform of Commander in Chief of
the People’s Army, displayed the medals he received
during an entire life of service to an independent,
reunified and socialist Vietnam.
An oration to his memory given by
officers from the Armed Forces recalled the feats of
the eminent combatant in the wars against France and
the United States.
From the early hours of the dawn,
Vietnamese gathered en masse at Giap’s former
residence in the capital, at military garrisons all
over the country and at the Reunification Palace in
Ho Chi Minh City, to pay their last respects to the
famous general.
"Long live General Vo Nguyen Giap,"
people chorused as the casket, covered with the
Vietnamese flag and placed on an anti-aircraft
battery towed by a vehicle, passed by.
The funeral procession covered a
distance of 40 kilometers from the National Funeral
Home, in central Hanoi, to the airport, from where
it was flown to Quang Binh province.
According to the Tuoi Tre
newspaper, Communist Party Secretary Nguyen Phu
Trong, President Truong Tan Sang, and Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung headed the initial state funeral
ceremony in the funeral home in Hanoi. The weekend
was decreed as a period of national mourning. (SE).
