Ethnic feuds hamper unity in S.E. Asia

Press, 27 May 1978, Page 9

Ethnic feuds hamper unity in S.E. Asia

By

DENIS D. GRAY,

of

Associated Press (through N.Z.P.A.) Bangkok When Communist rebels came out of the jungles to become the victorious rulers throughout Indo-China three years ago, many Asians and Westerners feared the rise of a powerful, united bloc bent on spreading revolution by force of arms. Today, the once fraternal allies, Cambodia and Vietnam, are locked in a fratricidal border war. Laos —! which some observers hesi-l tate to call a national entity: at all — is infested by | some estranged bedfellows:' thousands of Vietnamese troops, Soviet civilian andj military advisers, and armed Chinese road builders. Most recently, perhaps i most seriously, China and Vietnam, which proclaimed: militant solidarity during the; Vietnam war, have publicly I admitted to disputes over' refugees and tension along! their border where western intelligence reports say some blood has already been shed. Not far over the horizon, diplomats and scholars see potential for further fragmentation of * Communist forces in the region through an intensified Sino-SovieL rivalry, conflicts over oil i and other resources of the! South China Sea, and revival] of historical ambitions and suspicions. In Bangkok, a prime IndoChina watchpost, some argue that the Communists in 1000 days have by themselves done more to sap their strength than the United Slates managed in a decade of plotting, bombing, and fighting in South-East' Asia.

: These conflicts among former comrades-at-arms, as well as internal economic and security problems in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, appear to have turned to the advantage of the area’s non-Communist nations. Thailand and its non-Com-munist partners also gained assurances during the recent trip to the area by the American Vice-President (Mr Walter Mondale) that. Washington had not forsaken its former allies as some had feared. The map is changing rapidly, according to a senior European diplomat, who perceives China as taking a more active role by forging I closer ties with non-Com-Imunist countries such as Thailand, keeping Cambodia in its ken, and seeking to : minimize Soviet influence in Vietnam and Laos. This diplomat and others: jwithin the circle of Indo- ! China watchers in Bangkok ! theorise that China, having : put its own political house in order, has decided to warn Vietnam that it has tilted too far in the direction of Moscow and been too ag-i gressive towards Laos and Cambodia. There have been sporadic reports in recent months and | even some Vietnamese admissions of troop build-ups, skirmishes, and a loudspeakei (propaganda) war along the Sino-Vietnamese frontier. A crack-down on free enterprise by Hanoi has led to the exodus of thousands of Chinese from Vietnam to China which has now officially expressed its concern. Laos — the landlocked • country at the heart of the! Indo-Chinese peninsula —, perhaps exemplifies the frag-

• mentation in its extreme form. : By various Western and i Thai estimates, the VietnamI ese have between 26,000 and I 50,000 troops in Laos and ! are known to keep advisers : at the highest levels of the Vientiane Government. The . Soviet Union has 500 to I 1000 personnel in the coun- ; try, while the Chinese have . for years been building a -j network of strategic roads . and gaining influence over ; the north-west. II Through the complex power plays and com-' . binations, some analysts and ! academics see remarkable , throwbacks to the past, a J victory of history over Com- . munist ideology. ! Vietnam systematically: ; encroached on Cambodia in ithe eighteenth and nine- , teenth centuries until only! i French colonial intervention prevented the country from ; being completely engulfed. Laos did not exist in its : present boundaries until the • early 1900 s. It had been di-1 ■ vided into several, often for-! , eign-dominated kingdoms, . one of them annexed to; i 1 Vietnam in the nineteenth. .! century. I China, which historically has regarded South-East : Asia as within its sphere of i influence, crushed the Vietnamese in 111 8.C., forcing them into one or another form of subjugation for ; most of the next 1000 years.: , Suspicions of China and folklore of heroic anti-Chi- > nese fighters are ingrained - in Vietnamese culture. i Finally, Thailand and Viet-! ' nam have for centuries been ; the main power rivals in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, both l| using, abusing, or eyeing! reach other across Cambodia.! ■j which is lodged between; •'them. ' i