“There’s never been a cease-fire”

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33445, 29 January 1974, Page 17

“There’s never been a cease-fire”

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) . SAIGON, January 28. South Vietnam marked the first anniversary today of a cease-fire that never worked as new fighting was reported near Saigon’s rice road to the Mekong delta. The four-nation Inter-! national Commission of Control and Supervision!

['(I.C.C.S.) held a special ceremony to mark the anniversary.” but otherwise the day passed uneventfully with no special ceremonies by either the Saigon Government or the Viet Cong. The head of the Indonesian delegation to the 1.C.C.5., in a special news conference to mark the anniversary, said: “There’s never been a ceasefire.” Mr H. R. Dharsono, head of the Indonesian delegation, said that there must be a real cease-fire between the! Viet Cong and the Saigon;

side before the I.C.C.S. could carry out its role effectively. The commission has been generally ineffective for the last year. Saigon’s two million population was just coming out of a festive mood after celebrating the Tet lunar New Year festival, only to face new economic woes, including the doubling of the price of petrol, the second increase in the last month. The Saigon Command said that 52 Viet Cong troops were killed in two clashes with Government infantry

and armoured forces at points 45 to 50 miles south-west of Saigon. The fighting swirled through rice paddies off Highway 4 which connects Saigon to the delta. The command said that Government casualties were two men killed and three wounded. In another battle near the provincial capital of Vi Thanh in the Mekong delta, 110 miles south-west of Saigon, 10 Viet Cong were reported killed while Goviemment forces suffered 13

;men dead and seven ; wounded, the Command said. I The Command said that [45,057 North Vietnamese and j Viet Cong troops had been: 'killed in the one year since i the cease-fire went into 1 effect, but these casualties are believed inflated. The Communist side has; Ibeen asked several times to report their loses, but has never responded. ' The Saigon Command said that its own casualties during the same period were 13,778 killed, 56,009 wounded, and 4215 missing. I