OUT THIEU, SAYS KY

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33807, 2 April 1975, Page 1

OUT THIEU, SAYS KY

(New Zealand Press Association —Copyright)

SAIGON, April 1.

The former South Vietnamese Prime Minister. Air Vice-Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky, has called for a change of Government, which he said could stop the country from falling to pieces and serve to reopen negotiations for a political settlement with the Communists.

i Only the “spirit” of the J 1973 Paris peace agreements 'jremained in force today, he said at his home at Tan Son >|Nhut air base on the outf, skirts of the South Vietnamese capital. ■ This spirit of Paris was i “the will to end the war i through conciliation.” The ; j other provisions were ■ i “absolutely out of date.” i “The majority of the Viet)!namese people is against the! .war and it is not possible to; .lead this country without, , being in agreement with the' I people’s will,” he said. President Thieu had to i leave as soon as possible to I intake way for a new Govern:.ment. “We must have a ; change of command at all II costs. When a leader is as unpopular as this, all that] remains is to replace him.”; I The Air Vice-Marshal, who I

■ was the strong man in the ; Saigon Government after a > coup d’etat brought him to i power, said “some people” • thought President Thieu ■ should be removed by force, if necessary. . Last Thursday, after a . dozen civilians were arrested , on charges of plotting a coup, ! he had called for a Government of national unity during a joint press conference with ’ the Roman Catholic anti!i corruption movement leader. '!Father Tran Huu Thanh. ; All of South Vietnam’s ! ! current woes stemmed from a j “leadership problem,” he 1 affirmed today. “We have bad I leaders.” He described President i Thieu as “completely isolated” and said the President’s entourage was “very J bad.” '! The former Prime Minister II saw little likelihood of the

United States playing a military role once again in Vietnam. “What could they do now?” he asked. Hanoi Radio, monitored in Tokyo, repeated today the Viet Cong offer to negotiate with Saigon if President Thieu was overthrown. It also repeated its sevenpoint programme for lenient treatment of soldiers, policemen, .and officials of the Saigon Government who defected to the Viet Cong’s Provisional Revolutionary Government.

"The Nguyen Van Thieu junta — main obstacle to the settlement of political questions in Vietnam — must be overthrown,” Radio Hanoi said, quoting the P.R.G.’s news agency.

In Cannes, Bao Dai, the former Emperor of Vietnam, who has lived in France since

his exile 20 years ago, is reported to be willing to act as mediator to end the fighting.