Fighting continues on Cambodian border

Press, 12 December 1978, Page 8

Fighting continues on Cambodian border

NZPA-Reuter Bangkok Cambodia yesterday said its troops were opposing Vietnamese forces in various areas of the country including the north-east, where diplomatic sources in Bangkok have reported a continuing Vietnamese advance.

The official Radio Phnom Penh, monitored in Bangkok said in a commentary that Cambodian troops at advance fronts in the southwest and eastern regions as we’l as the north-eastern provinces of Kratie and Mondolkiri were “actively and courageously defending the country.” Indo-China analysts in Bangkok said the mention of these areas appeared to suggest there was a great deal of fighting on a number of fronts in Cambodia. Radio Phnom Penh

claimed that Cambodian troops were destroying “all expansionist acts of the Vietnamese agressors.” It said the troops were using both old and modern weapons to fight the Vietnamese, who it alleged used modern, Russian-made weapons.

Western diplomatic sources said that Vietnamese troops were continuing their push inland from enclaves they already held in the eastern Fish Hook salient that juts into southern Vietnam.

In one specific news item on the broadcast Radio Phnom Penh claimed Cambodian troops had defeated a Vietnamese advance in eastern region districts along Route Seven, and driven enemy forces back to their territory. In another item, it des-

cribed Cambodian troops in southern Kampot province as energetically defending and patrolling the province, and said they had made many weapons, including bamboo traps and bows and arrows.

The diplomatic sources in Bangkok believe a possible target of the Vietnamese advance, which is reported to be backed, by frequent air sorties, is the vital Mekong River port of Kratie, about 100 km from the border.

Capture , of this town would make it extremely difficult for supplies to reach Cambodian troops in the north-east, allowing for the possible establishment of a “liberated zone” in this region under the control of a newly-created Hanoi-backed Cambodian insurgent movement.

Radio Phnom Penh claimed that in all areas the Vietnamese Army had been dispersed, and that its troops were running away.