Front’s Terms Defined

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31728, 11 July 1968, Page 17

Front’s Terms Defined

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright; GRENOBLE (France), July 10.

A representative of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam said in Grenoble that his organisation opposed elections to form a post-war government until all American and allied troops had left the country, the “New York Times” News Service reports.

In a written interview, Le Quang Chanh, a member of the front’s central committee, also said the front would not accept such anti-Communist political parties as the Dai Viet and Vietnam Kuomintang in the post-war coalition government of “national union” that the front advocates.

Mr Chanh, who is in France at the head of a Liberation Front delegation to a conference on Vietnam being held by the World Conference of Jurists, defined some of the,

front’s political terms beyond the often-vague phraseology of its political programme, published last September. On Monday, Mr Chanh said he would reply to substantive questions only if they were submitted in writing in advance. His answers were delivered yesterday by Mrs Pham Thanh Van, a teacher, who is an interpreter for the Liberation Front’s delegation. Mr Chanh, a square-faced, stocky former teacher, also emphasised and amplified the references in the programme to gradual reunification of the South with North Vietnam.

“Reunification cannot be realised in the very near future,” he said, because of the disruption of the war and the need “to heal the wounds of wars and rebuild the country.” “The time for reunification will be set up according to the aspirations of the peoples of the two zones, and after consultations between the two zones.” He avoided giving a specific timetable or proposing elections on the question of reunification, as provided in the 1954 Geneva agreements on Vietnam. The Liberation Front’s

goal of overthrowing the Saigon regime of President Nguyen Van Thieu was reaffirmed by Mr Chanh, but he sidestepped a question of whether there were any nonCommunist politicians in Saigon with whom it would negotiate. By declining to comment on any individuals active in the present Government, Mr Chanh seemed to be leaving open the possibility of future co-operation with some of them. On the other hand, in a comment that could refer to the Prime Minister, Tran Van Huong, he said that the post-war coalition “should not include individuals who deliberately serve as agents to the United States.” Group Praised He praised the recentlyformed alliance of national, democratic and peace forces, an anti-Government urban group formed this spring, noting that its programme called for co-operation with the front Asked specifically, he avoided saying that the alliance should take part in a postwar coalition or in peace negotiations. In his comments, Mr Chanh seemed at pains to assert the front’s position as the senior anti-Government organisation.