stash eedaeastits

a

4]
s >
z

VIENTIANE, Laos — I've
been to several national day
celebrations but never before at 5
a.m, We arrived in the large
Square in the centre of downtown
Vientiane just as the sun was
creeping up over the palms.

Thousands were already there,
singing and waving banners and

3

4th year of Laos independence

~
he

composed of Vietnam, Laos and
Kampuchea. The fact is our three
peoples have a long history of
fighting together for our inde-
pendence and freedom. We have
today formal treaties of friendship
and cooperation which benefit
each of us.”’ é

The spokesman said that in the

eee

TRIBUNE
CORRESPONDENT
TOM MORRIS IN LAOS

Third in a series from S.E. Asia

flags. They had been celebrating
all night, camped in the parks and
by the roadside. The evening be-
fore we had wandered through the
Square and adjoining streets.
Three huge stages were set up
with cultural performances in full
swing. ;
Hundreds of fires were blazi
and food smells cut through the
air. Everyone was in high gear,
Dec. 2 being the fourth anniver-
sary of the establishment of the

Lao People’s Democratic
Republic.
Ceremonies began at five sharp

with speeches by government
leaders being carried across the
expanse of people by huge loud-
speakers. It took about three mi-
nutes before the Chinese ambas-
sador left the reviewing stand and
departed in his waiting Mercedes.
His action was prompted, of
course, by comments about
Chinese incursions into Laos, a

" -subject we were to hear more

about throughout the trip.

Laos was the third country in
Indochina along with Vietnam
and Kampuchea, we visited. Like
the other two it suffered the rav-
ages of 10 years of war. Its sol-
diers and people died in bombings
and sacrificed for the inde-
pendence that is now being built.

Vientiane is a city that bears the
mark of French colonial days. Its
face is similar to Phnom Penh’s —
except it is not deserted but bust-
ling with life. And, as is Kam-
puchea’s Capital, it is built along
the Mekong River which sepa-
rates Laos from neighboring
Thailand.

Another similarity is Laos’
proximity to China which sits

along its northern border. At the

time of the Chinese attack on
Vietnam in Feb. 1979, five divi-

' sions were poised along the Lao
_ frontier. During our visit we were

told new divisions had been ad-
ded, some being formed including
Lao refugees — a tactic Peking
used in Vietnam.

The utilization of refugees and
mercenaries is a key strategy
being used by China, the West
and its Asian allies against the
three socialist states. We were
told that about 1,000 of the 3,000
Lao refugees now in China were
sent from Thailand. There are
also 10,000 Leo mercenaries in

the “‘Golden Triangle’’ (the fam-

ous bit of land which thrives on
the international drug trade and is
formed out of a part of Laos,
Thailand and Burma.)

China wants to split Laos

_ from its ties with Vietnam,”’ a

government official explained.
“Peking has made up a story
about a greater Vietnam empire

‘and...

past Lao reactionaries depended
on U.S. aid but today this depen-
dence is on China which supplies
materiel to bandit groups. ‘‘This
corresponds with Washington's
strategy of using China as a bower
in southeast Asia,” he said.

_ But not all discussions centred
on these matters. Despite the
constant threat of invasion from
China and bandit activities in the
north, the government and people
have registered impressive gains.

On the surface, as you walk
through Vientiane, you get the
impression of a thousand things
happening at once. Unlike Cana-
dian cities, commerce and social
life in Asia spills out onto the
streets. The central marketplace
in Vientiane, a combination of
state and private business, offers
the buyer everything.

There are food stalls galore.
Other stands offer such diverse
products as medicines, cloth,
hardware, liquor and transistor
radios. Many of the traders are
Thais who make the short hop ac-
ross the Mekong each morning to
set up shop in Laos. Lao trades-
people do the same in reverse.

In a small way, this market re-
flects the stage of Laos’ economic
life. The overall economic aim is
the industrjalization of the
country, but this must start with
agriculture and forestry, Laos’

‘going. During French colonial

them is peace and stability. There

main industry. There is a long bat-
tle under way against a ‘‘small
producer’’ concept which is
rooted in the country’s feudal
past.

Like the marketplace in Vien-
tiane, Laos’ economy is
five-sided: State enterprises, Col-
lective, state-capitalist, private,
and diverse. All sectors are en-
couraged to function, but the aim
is to gradually eliminate the 4th
and 5th sectors.

Technology and sufficient capi-
tal are the main obstacles, but
here again, this is a problem faced
by every developing nation after
years of exploitation and foreign
pillage. In Laos’ case, however,
the unity of forces within the
government and long-term plan-
ning offer a guarantee for success.

One example of progress can be
seen in the country’s illiteracy
rate —a fairly good indicator both
of where it began and where it is

rule 96% of Laotians were illiter-
ate. Four years ago the figure was
70%, and today it stands at 30%.
Many similar figures were quoted
concerning other social
advancements, but always with a
caution to journalists of the hard
road ahead.

In my ignorance I arrived in the
Indochinese peninsula with a
vague idea that Vietnam, Laos
and Kampuchea were quite simi-
lar. Their history and culture, I.
quickly discovered are quite dif-
ferent. Their languages are not at
all the same, nor their alphabets.

Each nation within itself is a
complex weaving of national
minorities which interplay in the
social life of the country. Each
nation is very unique, very proud
and very determined.

There is, however, one basic
similarity that is burned into the
minds of any visitor. It is the fact
that the prime need for each of

can be no doubt about the deter-
mination and capacity of these
peoples to defend their inde-

3
3
a
©
5
re)
o
vA
2)
=
°
5
>
o
@
&
Qa.
i°)
ij
=

0

about their capacity to build and wu
create and provide for their fu-
ture.

TRIBUN'

PHOTOS — TOM MORRIS

\
i
4

TOP: Market place in central Vientiane. BOTTOM: Women watch Na-

tional Day celebrations.

By GENNADY GERASIMOV
Political Analyst
MOSCOW (APN) — U.S. Pres-
ident Jimmy Carter, delivering the
traditional State of the Union Ad-
dress, Jan. 23, said that the obtain-
ing situation “demands careful
thought, steady nerves, and resol-
ute action — not only for this year
but for many years to come.”
‘Resolute action’’ is there, for
instance, in the attempt to disrupt
the O ic Games in Moscow or

_ to trip up Soviet livestock breeding

and fishing. However, the chil-
dishly capricious character of such
action gives rise to doubts about
“steady nerves’? and, particularly,
about the preceding ‘‘careful
t?’. >

Indeed, let us see whether the
president has made a sufficiently
thorough analysis of the two main
tests of American ‘‘wisdom

spoke at the beginning of his ad-
dress.

Subject No. One — The Ameri-
can hostages in Iran — is inter-
preted by the speaker as no more
than an act of international ter-

will’, about which he

rorism, with which the president
has been confronted simply for
the purpose of testing his firmness
and resolution.

However, a thorough analysis
would have meant examination of
the recent past of U.S.-Iranian re-
lations, with due account taken of
the statement by Ayatollah Kho-
meini that American imperialism
‘thas insulted the Iranian people
and Iran’s honor’’.

Instead, the president threatens
Iran with penalties of all kinds,
amassing his warships off its
shores. Therefore, resolution, to
be more precise, stubbornness,
prevails over wisdom.

Subject No. Two — The events
in Afghanistan — is presented as
‘a broader, more fundamental
challenge in the region’, which
justifies both all the ‘‘penalties’’
imposed on the Soviet Union for
its actions in Afghanistan and all
the well-known steps. to
strengthen the Pentagon’s war
machine and to increase Ameri-
can military presence throughout
the world.

A thorough analysis, however,

would have taken into account
America’s responsibility for what
has happened, the- earlier covert
and now overt assistance to the
Afghan counter-revolutionaries.
It would be interesting for exam-
ple, to get to know details relating
to the report by the Time
Magazine: ‘‘Since July, Zbigniew
Brzezinski has regarded the leftist
Afghanistan regime as vulnerable
to the insurgents and he has even
enjoyed hinting, without saying
so, that the U.S. might covertly
aid those insurgents.’’ Well, the
Soviet Union has openly assisted
in defending the gains of the re-
volution. ©

A ‘‘thorough analysis’’ would
have also demanded an objective
appraisal of the character of a
threat to peace in the Persian Gulf
area. The Soviet Union has of-
ficially denied as absolutely false
the allegations that it has some
expansionist plans in respect to
Pakistan, Iran or other countries
in the region.

Moreover, az the New York
Times has reported, ‘‘No State
Department official seriously be-

J

lieves that Pakistan is in danger of
invasion by the Soviet Union.”
Who is right, the State Depart-
ment or the president urging the
Congress to save Pakistan by
flooding it with American arms,
and threatening Iran with the
*‘Soviet danger’?

‘The president’s bravado, when
he speaks of an attempt to gain
control of the Persian Gulf region,
saying that it will be repelled by
use of any means necessary, in-
cluding military force, is an empty
bravado, because the ‘‘attempt’’
he mentions is simply non-exis-
tent.

It is a matter of finalizing, pos-
sibly under the name of the Carter
Doctrine, a return in American
foreign policy to bidding for
leadership of the world. Carter
emphasizes the need for America
to affirm its leading role.

By what right? Of course not by
God’s right, or by standards of
international law, or moral law,
but rather on the principle of
might being right. Accordingly,
an extensive militarist program
has been-adopted.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 1, 1980—Page 5