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World War II-Era Cemetery Found



World War II-Era Cemetery Found

GAUHATI, India (AP) - Villagers in northeastern India have discovered
what is believed to be a long-forgotten World War
II-era cemetery for Allied dead, including Americans, officials said
today.

The graves were hidden in thick forests along a historic road in
Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian state bordering China and
Myanmar, local archeologists said.

The road was a vital communications link to South Asia for the Allies
when Japanese troops closed in on Myanmar - then
Burma - through China during the war. The road was named for Gen. Joseph
Stilwell, who headed U.S. forces in China,
Burma and India during the war. It has since fallen into disuse and
become inaccessible.

British, Chinese, American and Indian soldiers are believed buried in
the cemetery. Similar cemeteries in the area have
become war memorials that attract hundreds of tourists and relatives of
the dead every year.

Villagers stumbled onto the graves - several hundred arranged in rows -
earlier in the week at the site, 1,600 miles east of
New Delhi.

Archeologists said one of the slabs bore a Chinese inscription
identifying it as the grave of a company commander in a
Chinese army engineering regiment who died in 1943.

Malaria or other disease may account for the deaths of some of the
soldiers, the archaeologists said.