Vietnam’s President Quang mourned at state funeral
Hundreds pay tribute to hardline leader who died after unspecified illness
Hundreds of black-clad mourners, weeping or lighting incense and laying wreaths, gathered early Wednesday for a sombre final tribute at a state funeral for Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, who died last week after a prolonged illness.
Long queues of officials, family, police and monks in golden robes streamed through the National Funeral House in downtown Hanoi where Quang’s flag-draped coffin lay beneath a large portrait of the leader who died at age 61 on Friday.
His family sat vigil next to the coffin, dressed in black and wearing white headbands, and were greeted by stone-faced mourners, many of whom wept as they passed his body.
The country’s top party cadres led tributes with large red, yellow and white floral wreaths, including Prime Minister Nguyen Xhan Phuc and Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, who lit incense and bowed their heads before the coffin.
A two-day national mourning period opened Wednesday.
Vietnam’s communist leaders praised Quang’s long devotion to the party, which he joined in 1980, and his more than four decades of service in the country’s powerful security apparatus.