Hanoi appeals to U.N. after big offensive

Press, 19 February 1979, Page 1

Hanoi appeals to U.N. after big offensive

NZPA-Reuter New York Vietnam charged yesterday that Chinese troops had launched a war of aggression against its territory, and sought the help of the United Nations Secretary-General (Dr Kurt Waldheim) to force withdrawal of the attackers.

But a message to Dr Waldheim from the Vietnamese Foreign Minister (Nguyen Duy Trinh) contained no request for an immediate meeting of the Security Council. Vietnamese forces have checked the Chinese advance in a number of border areas, according to a Hanoi Radio report monitored in London. Chinese troops and vehicles had been reduced to charred remains and were lying scattered on streets, rice-fields, arid hills on Vietnam’s northern border, it said. The radio, which was quoting a report in the Vietnamese “Quan Doi Nhan Dan” (People’s Army) newspaper, said: “The Army and people in various border provinces have checked the enemy advance.” Vietnam had earlier charged China with launching an aggressive war against northern Vietnamese border areas. Radio Hanoi said a large Chinese Army force, backed by planes and tanks, had crossed into Vietnam’s territory.

A Government statement carried by the radio called on the Soviet Union and all friendly countries to show solidarity with the Vietnamese.

According to official

Vietnamese accounts, Vietnam suffered heavy losses but its troops had killed several hundred Chinese and knocked out dozens of their tanks. The Chinese were conducting an offensive on the towns of Lao Cai, Mong Cai, Dong Dang, Muong Huong, and had captured the frontier posts of the districts of Trang Dinh, Loc Binh, and Van Long in the Lang Son province, Tra Linh and Bat Sat in the Hoang Lienson province, Phong Tho in the Lai Chau province, and Binh Lieu in the Quang Ninh province

Vietnam’s Ambassador to France (Vo Van Sung) told French Television that the Chinese attack stretched 1000 km from Mong Cai on the Gulf of Tonkin to Lai Chau province near the Laotian border.

Peking yesterday had nothing to say about the state of battle. Twelve hours after announcing that its forces had gone on the offensive, China was not saying what they achieved. But it hinted that the action would be brief. “After hitting back at the (Vientamese) aggressors as far as is necessary, our frontier forces will turn to guard strictly the frontier of our moth-

erland,” the “People's Daily,” organ of the Communist Party, said in an editorial. Chinese leaders had been warning Vietnam for some time that some punitive action might be taken. The Senior Vice-Pre-mier, Deng Xiaoping (Teng Hsiao-Ping) has often spoken of the need to “teach them a lesson.” In New York the Vietnamese Ambassador (Ha Van Lau) yesterday discussed developments in a 30-minute meeting with Dr Waldheim, after which he told reporters it was the responsibility of both the Security Council and the Secretary-General to take appropriate measures. In his message to Dr Waldheim, the Vietnamese Foreign Minister said a grave situation had arisen, constituting a threat to world peace and security.

Mr Trinh said the Chinese had advanced 10km inside Vietnamese territory and “committed bloody crimes against the Vietnamese people.”

Vietnam was determined to exercise its right to self-defence and the Chinese authorities must bear all responsibility for “their war of aggression.”

China had submitted an official explanation to the United Nations giving the Chinese, position on the Sino-Vietnamese border conflict, China’s official news agency, Hsinhua, reported. Chinese frontier troops had been forced to rise in counterattack against the Vietnamese who, ignoring China’s repeated warnings, had of late continually sent armed forces to encroach on Chinese territory, China’s statement said. The United States yesterday condemned the outbreak of fighting and urged China to withdraw its troops from Vietnam. “We are opposed both to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and to the Chinese invasion of Vietnam,” a State department spokesman, Mr Hodding Carter, said.

The Soviet Union has denounced China’s attack on Vietnam as “brazen aggression” and says that it endangers world peace. In the first Soviet comment on the fighting, the Communist party daily, “Pravda,” said Vietnam was capable of standing up for itself and “furthermore, its friends are not few.”

N.Z.’s view, page 6