VIETNAM ACCORD Supervisory teams inspect stations

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33141, 3 February 1973, Page 15

VIETNAM ACCORD Supervisory teams inspect stations

GV.Z.P A.-Reuter—Copyright) SAIGON, February 2. The first group of International Control Commission teams flew out of Saigon today to inspect their observation stations in northern cities of South Vietnam, where fighting is still raging five days after the cease-fire accord went into effect. 1 hree teams of eight men—each with two Canadians, two Poles, two Indonesians, and two Hungarians—left Tan Son Nhut airport aboard three small United States propeller-driven aircraft for Da Nang, Hue, and Pleiku.

The teams will inspect facilities prepared for them and make sure everything is in order to enable them to observe the cease-fire and report back to their central office in the capital. As the teams left, the deputy representatives of the three parties to the war were meeting at the airport and the Saigon High Command reported 200 more Communist truce violations in the last 24 hours. A South Vietnamese military spokesman said that 3301 Communists had been

killed up to dawn in the post-cease-fire fighting and 124 captured. Government casualties were 528 men killed, 2162 wounded, and 262 missing in action. Military sources said that the first Viet Cong flag to be publicly displayed in Saigon

since the cease-fire was tom by police from the third storey of a building in suburban Cholon yesterday. It was not known if anyone was arrested. The last hurdle standing in the way of a full J.M.C. meeting was cleared yesterday with the arrival in Saigon of the chief Viet Cong delegate, Lieutenant General Tran Van Tra. General Tra and 29 aides were picked up by United States helicopters from the Communist-controlled town of Loc Ninh, north of Saigon on the Cambodian border. His arrival came ironically on the eve of the Tet lunar New Year festival. Five years ago General Tra used the same festival as a cover to launch a massive offensive that gave the Communists virtual control of most of South Vietnam for a few weeks. The 1160 men of the I.C.C.S. force — made up of Canadians, Indonesians, Hungarians and Poles — have been unable to go into the countryside to police the truce because of the J.M.C.’s failure to hold a full-scale meeting. Tire I.C.C.S. is dependent on the J.M.C. for transport, securitv and other facilities as well as instructions on what areas are controlled by either side so that demarcation lines can be policed.