Armed anti-communists tried to enter Vietnam
HANOI - Cambodia has expelled a group
of armed ethnic Vietnamese who were recently caught trying to
enter neighbouring Vietnam to stir violence, a Hanoi official said
on Thursday.
Le Sy Vuong Ha, deputy director of the Foreign Ministry Press
Department, said the group were former soldiers of the
U.S.-backed Saigon regime, which was defeated by communist
forces in the Vietnam War that ended in 1975.
``Recently a number of Vietnamese elements who used to serve
in the Saigon army entered Cambodia from other countries to
attempt to transport weapons and people into Vietnam to carry
out destructive actions,'' Ha told a news briefing.
``Cambodia arrested them and expelled them to the countries
they came from.'' Ha gave no details on the nationalities of those
expelled.
Ha said they had tried to smuggle other anti-communists into
Vietnam through a land border with Cambodia, but gave no
details about when the incident occurred, how many people
were involved or the type of weapons they carried.
The Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review
magazine, in its edition published on Thursday, put the group at
several Vietnamese. It quoted diplomats as saying they were
trying to smuggle motorbikes packed with explosives into
Vietnam.
Many Vietnamese who fled Vietnam during the decade-long
conflict or the subsequent economic misery have become
citizens of their host country and maintain a deep hostility
toward the communist authorities in Hanoi.
However, there have been few incidents of political violence in
recent years, and most overseas anti-communist groups prefer
to make their case on the Internet.
Reuters - August 19, 1999.
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