Thai border is under pressure after fighting

Press, 16 April 1979, Page 8

Thai border is under pressure after fighting

I NZPA-Reuter Bangkok ! The fallen regime of the) i former Kampuchean Prime (Minister, Mr Pol Pot, (claimed yesterday that its! (forces had killed more than] '9OO Vietnamese soldiers.! (destroyed five tanks, and (had “liberated 336 families( from Vietnamese control! during the fighting in Kampuchea last month.” The Voice of Democratic ( Kampuchea radio claimed] that its forces had won five I battles. Clashes and ambushes were reported in Ratanakiri in the north, Panomsernsarn in the southwest, Battambang in the north-west, and three places in the west. The radio said its forces also had captured 378 weapons. Thai officials at the Thai-' Kampuchean border near the] key Kampuchean town of Poipet said they had turned; back hundreds of Kampu-I chean civilians and Pol Pot; troops who had wanted to! enter Thailand after a heavy] offensive by the forces. Officials at Aranyaprathet] said they had succeeded in!

persuading the Kampucheans ; who had arrived in small [groups to turn back, but ; they admitted that they j might not be able to push back those who arrived in greater number. ! One of the Kaumpuchean civilians told the Thai authorities that more than 25,000 Kampuchean civilians and Pol Pot troops were massing along the border preparing to enter Thailand (if the fighting worsened. I Military sources at Aranyaprathet said the Vietnamese forces were advancing from the north towards Khao Farang Thok Thai while another column was pushing south in an attempt to entrap the large concentration of the Kampuchean troops and their families along the 40km stretch south of Poipet. Officials also reported that an officer of the Thai-Kam-puchean Liaison Office at [Aranyaprathet. identified as Prakob Chutiyanchanin. had been killed on Saturday after he had stepped on a land-mine in one of the “sensitive areas” on the border.