REBELS DRIVE SOUTH ON LAOTIAN TOWN

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28963, 3 August 1959, Page 11

REBELS DRIVE SOUTH ON LAOTIAN TOWN

Communist Vietnam Denies Complicity In Fighting

(-N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) SINGAPORE, August 1. . ast-movmg rebel columns are now north and south of the loyalist north Laotian city of Samneua, Western diplomatic sources said here today. The sources said one column had reached Muong Het, 30 rm es north of Samneua, and the other was at Muong Son Pao, 31 miles to the south-east. The rebels are distributing leaflets as they march.

Government reinforcements, including paratroops, are reported to have reached Samneua, where morale is good. The city could hold out if it was surrounded.

The main rebel forces appeared to come from the Muong Son mountain region, north of Samneua z and on the border of Communist North Vietnam. They are said to be armed with new, modern light weapons.

The Government of North Vietnam, in a communique broadcast by its official news agency, denied complicity in the fighting.

The communique said the Laotian Government had issued a statement “which brazenly claims that there have been forces launching attacks against the Samneua area, and that these forces are ‘new troops, well equipped, well organised and placed under the command of the Democratic Republic of (North) Vietnam.' ‘Everybody knows that, with a view to having a free hand in carrying out the U.S. imperial-' ists’ scheme to turn Laos into a colony and military base, thereby kindling anew war in IndoChina and South-east Asia, the Laotian Government has sought by all means to annihilate the armed units of the former (Communist rebel) Pathet Lao and Neo Lao Haksat party, which represent the progressive and patriotic forces in Laos.” The communique continued: “It

is precisely the U.S. imperialists and the U.S. henchmen in Laos who have kindled the civil war, which is going on more and more seriously in Laos. “However, in an attempt to deceive public opinion and to evade its responsibility for having kindled this civil war, thereby creating tension in Indo-China and South-east Asia, the Laotian authorities have many times spread slanders against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. “This time, with a view to concealing their scheme to carry out military reinforcements in the regions close to the Vietnamese borde-, threatening the security of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and achieving their plan to expand the civil war in Laos, the Laotian authorities again cruelly slandered the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as having interfered in the internal affairs of Laos.”