Cambodians halted

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33213, 1 May 1973, Page 13

Cambodians halted

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) PHNOM PENH, April 30. Communist troops stiffened their resistance today against Government infantry trying to push them back from the Mekong River bank directly opposite Phnom Penh.

Military sources say that the Government’s forces have been held up in their advance by mortar barrages on the bank about four miles north-east of the central district of the capital, and that a fresh battalion of Communist troops—about 300 men—are reported to be moving in from the east towards the river. The Government troops, now in the fifth day of their vital operation to drive off the Communists’ rocket teams, have so far re-occupied only the edge of the river bank opposite the city, meeting hardly any resistance, and they have established only a toehold there, the Communists having pulled back less than a mile into the marshlands, to escape the American bombing. American Fill bombers today flew more than 25 sorties around the besieged provincial capital of Takeo in southern Cambodia, 40 miles from Phnom Penh. Troops defending the town sallied out to counterattack the Communists during the night. In the neighbouring provincial capital of Tram Khnar, beleaguered Government troops in the military compound beat off yet another assault last night. A lone ammunition barge broke the Communist block-! ade on the Mekong shipping route yesterday to reach! Phnom Penh, and a full convoy with food and fuel sup-! plies is due to run the gaunt-i let of the rocket batteries in the next few days. Request refused A Foreign Ministry spokes[man in Saigon said today ; that South Vietnam had; [ turned down a request from Cambodia for air support. Mr Pham Dang Sun said that the request, made several weeks ago, had been turned down because South Vietnam did not want to do anything that might endanger peace in Indo-China, and wanted to abide by the provisions of the cease-fire agreement. Before the cease-fire, South Vietnamese Air Force transport aircraft were flying fooddrop missions over southern 'Cambodia to supply areas) cut off by Communist forces, and there were also some ground-support raids by [ South Vietnamese fighterbombers.

The second exchange of civilian prisoners held by the Viet Cong and the

South Vietnamese Government failed to take place today because of insufficient safety guarantees for a team of international observers. The International Commission of Control and Supervision refused to fly eight of its officials to the Communistheld town of Loc Ninh, the main release site north of Saigon, because the Indonesian chairman of the commission did not consider the three-quarter-mile-wide air corridor from the Bien Hoa air base, 80 miles away, was large enough to guarantee the team’s safety. He asked for a corridor five miles wide.

A Viet Cong spokesman told reporters that it was impossible to widen the air corridor “at this late stage,” and added: “We need time to communicate with our field units.”

The first exchange of 163

civilians took place on Satur-j day, after a 24-hour delay.' Today, in return for the re-; lease of 400 Communists, the Viet Cong had agreed to handi over 322 South Vietnamese. I