STUDENTS ANGERED BY CHAU CASE

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32235, 2 March 1970, Page 13

STUDENTS ANGERED BY CHAU CASE

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright ) SAIGON, March 1. The Saigon Students’ Union has sent a letter to the American National Students’ Association, warning its members about what it calls “the Saigon Government’s dictatorial attitude towards nationalists.”

The letter echoes continuing press criticism of the Thieu Government’s handling of the Chau case. In Washington, Senator J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee has said that the American Embassy in Saigon bears at least partial responsibility for the arrest of Chau, a Lower House deputy Chau was taken by South Vietnamese police from the National Assembly building on Thursday after being sentenced in his absence to 20 years hard labour by a military tribunal on charges of' consorting with Communists He will face a retrial on the same charges, tomorrow, because he was convicted in his absence. Senator Fulbright said that United States officials had been ordered to keep away from the case, apparently because of American unwillingness to displease President Thieu. Chau was sentenced “osten-; sibly because of contacts with his brother, a North Vietnam ! ese intelligence agent," he said.

Senator Fulbright had pre- ' viously said that Mr Chau revealed the contact to the Cen- ' tral Intelligence Agency, with which he had been in touch The circumstances of the Chau case seemed to show; . that the charges against Mr[ i Chau by President Thieu were politically motivated, Senator ’ Fulbright said. 1 "Furthermore, it appears i[that the American Embassy I [bears a measure of responsitlbility in this matter. ■ ; “In spite of warnings of iChau’s intention to disclose: i[his past relationships with '[Americans, and 1 know that

there have been such relationships, and in spite of recommendations from some American officials that the Embassy assist Chau, mission officers have been ordered to keep their hands off the Chau case,” Senator Fulbright said. ‘Dictatorship’ The Saigon Students' Union said in its letter that South! Vietnam's leadership had! turned into a dictatorship) and was practising the suppression and cruelty of the late President Diem's regime' by falsely ■ charging nationalists with being Communists, and imprisoning, those who opposed its! policies. “We earnestly warn you and the students throughout j the world of the growing dictatorship and cruel suppression advocated by the Government," the letter said. 1 Even newspapers which normally support the Governfment have written hostile editorials. The opposition daily “Cong Luan” (Public Opinion) said that the Government had lost the support of the people. Police strong-arm tactics, it added, had driven home to the people “the deteriorating nature of this regime, when every idea or decision is carried out by violence.”