Laotians attack Thai vessel

Press, 17 June 1980, Page 8

Laotians attack Thai vessel

NZPA-Reuter Bangkok A Thai Navy official was killed and : two others seriously wounded when Laotian troops attacked their patrol, boat in the Mekong River, Navy sources said yesterday.' The incident took place when the Thai vessel was on a routine patrol in Thai territorial waters near the north-eastern province of Nong Khai on'Sunday. The sources said the attack came from - Communist troops on the Laotian bank of the river with several kinds of weapons, including M 79 grenade-launchers and Ml 6 rifles, causing some damage to the boat.,-. • r -' . The Thai boat returned the fire. Casualties' among the Laotian side were not known. ' * *.. The shooting was the most serious border incident since December. 1978, when three Thai Bailor* were

killed, three wounded and a Thai Navy patrol boat sunk in a Laotian attack in the Mekong River which formed the border of the two countries. Also in 1978, three Laotian boats were grounded during a clash with Thai Navy patrol boats in the river. Relations between Thailand and Laos, strained for some time after the' 1975 Communist victory in Laos, have improved since visits by the former Thai Prime Minister (General Kriangsak Chomanan) and the Laotian premier (Mr Kaysone Phomvihane) to Vientiane and Bangkok last year. A - Foreign Ministry spokesman in Bangkok said the Government had not decided what would be done over the latest incident as it was still waiting for -official details from the Thai embassy in Vientiane, ■ ■ ;