COUP IN LAOS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29361, 14 November 1960, Page 15

COUP IN LAOS

Royal Capital Seized

WASHINGTON, November 11.' An apparently anti-Communist military coup had seized power in Luang Prabang, the Royal capital of Laos, according to reports reaching the United States State Department.

A spokesman said the department had no confirmation of a reported military coup in Vientiane, the administrative capital of Laos.

The department said the reported take-over in Luang Prabang seemed to be a seizure of the local administration there and not a coup against the Throne.

The State Department press officer, Mr William Blair, told reporters: "We have had a report to the effect that military units in Luang Prabang have assumed control of that city without fighting.”

He said the units apparently were anti-Communist. but that it was not clear how they were allied with other factions struggling for power in the country.

Mr Blair said the State Department’s “preliminary report” indicated “that this seizure of control of Luang Prabang does not represent a coup against the Throne.”

He said earlier reports of a coup in Vientiane seem to be “garbled and erroneous.” It was not clear whether the group reportedly taking over Luang Prabang was under General Phoumi Nosavan, the proWestern leader, who has been trying to seize power from Prince Souvanna Phouma. Prince Souvanna, a neutralist, became Prime Minister after a pararoopers" revolt overthrew the earlier pro-Western Government.

As news of the paratroopers’ surrender filtered through Hie city crowds came out into the streets to walk and talk.

Government offices were operating again late this afternoon after the national radio broadcast an appeal to all civil servants to return to work.

Newspaper editors reported this afternoon that they had received threatening letters from the “People’s Revolutionary Committee” if they published false news about the situation. They said the circular from the committee—which was made up of a group of army loyalists—threatened them with “extermination” if they published this news. A hand grenade had also been sent with the death threat. A plane carrying two revolutionary colonels was forced down at Nhatragn, Central Vietnam. Government. sources said.

They said the colonels’ plane was heading westward when it was intercepted by two fighter planes from Bienhoa air base, just north of the capital. The fighter planes had forced the Dakota carrying the colonels to land. The two colonels were arrested. ''

President Diem tonight made a radio appeal to the nation asking people to remain calm. He said the Government would continue to perform its mission on the same republican basis as at present. President Diem said he was sorry for the dead and wounded in the coup, who were the victims of the criminal ambitions of the military coup leaders and some politicians. He said the paratroopers who surrounded the palace yesterday morning had been misled by officers who told them the' President had been made a prisoner by his palace guard. The President said those who had taken part in the coup would be punished by law. Several members of the opposition group were reported tonight to have been arrested.

However, the Government today granted an amnesty to all rebel elements who took part in an abortive coup d'etat, the Vietnam Press Agency reported. The news agency quoted a

Government announcement saying that all rebel remnants who report within “the required deadline” would be installed in their former units. The announcement, however, did not say whether the amnesty would also be extended to the leaders of the coup.