Guerrillas harass long supply lines

Press, 26 January 1979, Page 6

Guerrillas harass long supply lines

! NZPA-Reuter Bangkok I I Khmer Rouge troops loyal I i to ousted Kampuchean i i (Cambodian) Prime Minister,! ' Pol Pot, are fighting along I routes leading to the vital! seaport of Kompong Som, 'held by Vietnamese-led | ; forces, diplomatic sources in 'Bangkok have said. j They said that as the con-1 jflict entered a new phase of: 'Khmer Rouge guerrilla warifare, the Vietnamese-led side: j might be having to resupply its forces by water at Kom!pong Som because land I ’.access was becoming in-; jcreasingly insecure. I However, the leader of the | new Hanoi-backed revolutionary committee in Phnom ’ I Penh, Khang Sarin, in a iradio interview projected a! j picture of rapidly-returning jnormalcy inside Kampuchea.' | He said the first priority I now was rice and agricui-' tural production. Informed sources in Bangkok say the fighting appears! to have settled into a pat- • tern of widespread but • small-scale attacks by guerrilla forces especially in' areas where the pro-Viet-'

Inamese garrisons are weak-’ est. I Many of the attacks are in [the north-west and west 'where the Vietnamese forces 'are at their thinnest and at the end of lengthy supply I lines, the sources said. Evidence if continued 'fighting in the north-west 'came yesterday from the 'eastern Thai border town of ’ Aranyaprathet where Thai I sources said shooting was heard across the border i throughout the night. It iapparen'.y came from the (bitterly-contested village of ' Nimit only 14km from the border. I The diplomatic sources Isaid they doubted whether • the Vietnamese-led forces 'could safely use Highway 4! which links Kompong Som to Phnom Penh. They said the j jroad could easily be cut at! the Pech Nil Pass east of Srey Umbell where they be-; jlieved Khmer Rouge forces; were still active. I Other informed sources; said Highways 5 and 6 head- 1 ling into the north-west on either side of the great lake of Tonle Sap appeared to be: 'particularly vulnerable to i ambushes by Khmer Rouge • units.

-j Mr Sarin's interview with the Voice of the Kampu i;chean People radio station . said the situation in Phnom s Penh was returning to nor- ; mal. His Revolutionary People's Committee, aided by armed I forces, was trying to devel- . op the sanitation system, ret'pair electricity and water f supplies and general!) clean j up the city and all buildings. . schools and hospitals, he said. The city was virtually de populated after the Khmer Rouge marched in and took control in April, 1975. It was captured by pro-Viet-namese forces earlier this ' month as the climax of a drive to capture most of the [country and install Heng ; Samrin as head of a new I Administration. , Khang Sarin said his committee had arranged forces for defending the city and 'developing facilities He added: "The first thing that ;we should do is to deploy efforts to grow rice, gather /agricultural products, and [prepare the land for the forthcoming rice cultivation jin order to improve the people's standard of living."