BANGKOK Thailand: A wreath laying ceremony for deceased Vietnamese Communist Party leader Le Duan began Sunday with mourners filing by his glass coffin in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Hall the Vietnam News Agency said.
Le Duan who died Thursday at the age of 79 is to be buried Tuesday. A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said in Tokyo that Vietnam would allow only special envoys from the Soviet Union Laos and Cambodia to attend the funeral
The official agency said Vietnam’s top leaders most of them men in their 70s observed a minute of silence and then slowly walked around the coffin which was on a dais and draped in red velvet.
Members of Le Duan’s family and many Hanoi-based diplomats also were present at the large hall the agency said.
The official Soviet News Agency Tass reported that Soviet Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkoy left for Vietnam Saturday to attend the funeral Vietnam and the Soviet Union maintain extremely close.
Le Duan who led the party for 17 years died of what Hanoi called a serious illness. On Friday Vietnam began five days of mourning flying flags at half-mast and halting all artist is and entertainment activities.
The news agency cited of condolences received from pro-Soviet nations and Communist parties around the world. It also said India had decided to hold a day of mourning Tuesday.
Special prominence was given to message from Laos and the pro-Hanoi government in Cambodia.
Cambodian President Heng Samrin lauded Le Duan for his “noble contributions to the revolutionary cause of Cambodia.” Buta broadcast from the Khmer Rouge guerrillas fighting the Vietnamese in Cambodia called Le Duan a murderer and urged his successors to pull Vietnamese troops out of their country.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 18, 1986
