THIEU SEES PEACE WITHIN THREE YEARS

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32407, 21 September 1970, Page 15

THIEU SEES PEACE WITHIN THREE YEARS

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SAIGON, September 20. President Nguyen Van Thieu today said that his country would have peace within three years “even if the Communists remain stubborn” at the Paris peace talks, United Press International reported.

“If the Communists have the good will to sign a treaty that contains guarantees, then we are ready to sign. But even if the Communists remain stubborn ... there will be peace in two or three years,” he said.

President Thieu made his most optimistic pacification claim to date, contending that “95 per cent of the hamlets and villages (in South Viet-

nam) are under Government control.” “A peace that includes coalition or neutralisation, is a peace consisting of surrender to Communism,” he said. FIGHTING IN THAILAND Guerrillas ambushed and

killed five Thai Army soldiers and wounded several others in northern Petchaboon Province, Police sources in Bangkok said today, Reuter reported. Petchaboon is the headquarters of a combined Army, Air Force and Police Regiment formed to suppress the guerrillas who are reported to have infiltrated into northern Thailand three years ago, after being trained abroad. American counter-insurg-ency experts in Thailand estimate their strength to be about 1600 armed men. CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM The news-agency of Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s govem-ment-in-exile in Peking said today that local pro-Sihanouk revolutionary governments had been set up in threequarters of the villages in the key Cambodian provinces of Kandal and Takeo, Reuter said. The governments, the agency said, had abolished taxes set by the Phnom Penh Government; forbidden "evil social practices,” and confiscated property belonging to “reactionary elements” and distributed it to the poor.

Kandal Province surrounds Phnom Penh, and Takeo is the neighbouring province, to the south of the capital on the South Vietnamese border. TROOPS IN LAOS A division of North Vietnamese troops has infiltrated into Laos during the last fortnight, a Lao Defence Ministry spokesman said in Vientiane at the week-end. He said that the diyision was now stationed along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, 50 miles east of the Mekong River town of Savannkhe, in southern Laos. COMMENT FROM PARIS The chief'Viet Cong negotiator (Mrs Nguyen Thi Binh) said that her new peace proposals were worked out in continuing contacts with other South Vietnamese groups and individuals, including members of the Government and the Army, Reuter reported from Paris.

Asked whether past contacts had included members of the Saigon Administration, she replied: “Taking your question in a very broad sense, the answer is yes.” Mrs Binh made these other points in a wide-ranging interview:

The United States should give clear reasons if it found unacceptable the Viet Cong offer to halt attacks on withdrawing American troops, if they leave by June 30 next year. As well as stopping attacks on troops who are actually withdrawing, the Viet Cong would immediately start discussions with the United States on the safety of troops waiting to leave, if their proposal was accepted.

The new American peace negotiator (Mr David Bruce) had brought nothing new with him.

“We are firmly convinced that time is on our side, and not on the Americans’ side,” she said.