HANOI: Thousands of people swarmed across Vietnam on Friday ( Jul 26 ) to pay their respects to Nguyen Phu Trong, the country’s most powerful leader in decades.
The 80-year-old, who died in a hospital in the capital Hanoi next month, led the party since 2011 and oversaw a high-profile anti-corruption pull that swept through the group, police, armed forces and firm.
On Friday at 3 p.m. ( 4 p.m., Singapore time ), a large crowd of people wearing black gathered in Hanoi to see the leader before his burial at Mai Dich cemetery, where many senior leaders in Vietnam lay before him.
” I waited in line for more than four hours last night,” Tran Hoang Nguyet Mai told AFP on Friday.
She said,” Fortunately, I entered the funeral home to bid farewell to a head I actually respect.”
” He was the final real communist who saw no benefit for his home and himself.”