South East Asia

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A sharp attack came last week from the Stalinistdominated government in Laos on the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in the country. Official statements denounced its reactionary role and emphasised that Catholicism was brought into Indochina in the first place as one of the weapons of French imperialism.

The hostility to the Church on the part of the Laotian government stands in striking contrast to the amiable relationship between the Communist Party and the Church in neighbouring Vietnam.

There, the Catholic heirarchy was singled out for warm New Year greetings by the Hanoi authorities and, more recently, the Vatican reciprocated by disowning some of the extreme right wing clergymen who had fled Saigon as the fall of South Vietnam approached last year.

Catholic officials also denounced a 'plot' against the Saigon administration, centred on one of the city's churches, which was recently unmasked by security But - reflecting the conflicting national policies pursued by the governments of Indochina - the si mation in • Vientiane. the The attacks on the Catholic church there are certainly connected with the sabotage operations being carried out by right wing nationalists. On March 27th they blew up an important bridge across the river Lo, less than a hundred miles south of Vientiane.

It is thought that their main bases are on islands in the Mekong River, which for a considerable distance forms the frontier between Laos and the northern area of Thailand.

These forces have, of course, the declared support of the thousands of Laotian 'refugees' - capitalists, speculators and functionaries - who fled across the Mekong into Thailand as it became clear that imperialism was on the point of being driven out of the Indochinese states.

But they also have the more discrete sympathy of the Bangkok agents and government advisors' whom they the numerous permit in Thailand, and important sections of the Catholic church.

PRESSURE

The armed pressure on the Indochinese revolution. in Laos (together with recent reports from Cambodia and China that US aircraft based in Thailand had bombed •coastal areas of Cambodia) reflects the desperate attempts of US imperialism to scratch together the social and political forces in South East Asia which can prevent the Substantial US forces - particularly warplanes and marines -remain in Thailand with the permission of the Pramoj government even though the official 'final deadline' agreed for their withdrawal has already passed.

And at the same time the government continues a vicious war against liberation forces in the hills in the northern areas of the coun try, and openly connives in a series of attacks by ultra-right gangs on student and working class political organisations in Bangkok.

ANGER

The border attacks on Laos are not yet of decisive military importance. But what they highlight is the danger posed to the advance of the social revolution in South East Asia by the Stalinist, nationalist policies of those who lead the liberation While Thailand continues to serve as a base of operations for imperialism those - like the regimes in Laos and Cambodia - who are directly threatened are forced to react.

But at the same time the Vietnamese leadership are vigorously pursuing a policy of "peaceful coexistence' with Thailand - as well as many of the other puppet regimes of imperialism in the area.

Where what is above allrequired is a common, internationalist funamante the

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SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesdey 7th April 1976