REPRESENTATIVE OF WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL GREETED IN CUBA
Professor Jean Pierre Vigier, a well-known French physicist who served as a menber of the first commission that went to Vietnam for an on-the-spot investigation of U.S. war crimes there, is visiting Cuba as a representative of the International War Crimes Tribunal initiated by Bertrand Russell.
He was given a warm welcome by the Cubans. Granma, the official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Cuba, carried an extensive interview with Vigier (in the March 26 English edition) in which he described the activities and international scope of the committee. Asked about the object of his visit to Cuba, Vigier responded:
"I came to discuss the possibility of Cuban eyewitnesses testifying concerning the case. of Viet Nam and to look for evidence that can be used during the course of the trial by the International Tribunal -- evidence concerning both South and North Viet Nam."
Vigier reported on the remarkable growth of the Vietnam Movement in France. There are now more than 90 committees, he said, and thousands upon thousands of young people have attended meetings. The basis of the policy followed by the Vietnam movement in France is as follows:
"The war in Viet Nam plays a role similar to that played by the war in Spain in relation to World War II, in relation to Hitler."
"The error committed in Europe," he continued, " -- thinking that by not intervening in Spain peace would be preserved -- must not be repeated again now because Viet Nam today is what Spain was then."
“Another point of our movement," he added, “is to support the action of university students in the United States concerning the war in Viet Nam."