U.S. Veterans Say Vietnam Peace Village Heals Scars

[sfc_darrel]

Sept. 20

? DONG HA, Vietnam (Reuters) - A village is springing up on the soil of one of Vietnam's bloodiest battlefields and U.S. war veterans helping to build it say the project is healing scars.

After two years of construction, the PeaceTrees Friendship village, funded by U.S. humanitarian organization PeaceTrees Vietnam, was dedicated this week Dong Ha, the capital of Quang Tri province, about 370 miles south of Hanoi.

Thirty-four of 100 families targeted for housing have been selected among the poorest in the area including those who have lost relatives in wartime bombings and explosions of leftover mines and other ordnance.

The rest will take up residence in the hilltop village of small brick homes with metal roofs by next year.

"You want to forget about the bombs, the shells, the shootings, about all the negative things you brought here," said Karl Ege, 61, a former U.S. marine officer based in Dong Ha in 1965-1966 and who now works in Washington for an investment company.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20020920_253.html