- Title: THAILAND: VIETNAMESE DESERTERS DESCRIBE ARMY OPERATIONS INSIDE KAMPUCHEA.
- Date: 12th July 1981
- Summary: THAILAND GV EXT Sakow refugee camp with deserters playing badminton. (2 SHOTS) 0.11 SV Camp and badminton game continues. (2 SHOTS) 0.19 GV Deserters watching game from behind wire. (3 SHOTS) 0.31 GV Army officers and Vietnamese deserter entering room in Bangkok. 0.46 GV Deserters sitting down watched by press. (2 SHOTS) 0.53 SV Captain Nguyen Quan (left) speaking in Vietnamese and professor Le Van Loung (right) translating into English. 1.50 SPEECH ON CASSETTE (TRANSCRIPT) LOUNG: "From 1967 the date I became fighting against the Americans in South Vietnam, well he realised at last that only Americans are free humans, and so he wants to be resettled in the United States."
- Embargoed: 27th July 1981 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Thailand, Thailand
- Country: Thailand
- Topics: Crime,Conflict,Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVA6BF1LFE851NU4MR0JVZPP4OBP
- Story Text: INTRODUCTION: A Vietnamese army officer who escaped to Thailand has accused his country's army of using chemical weapons inside Kampuchea. Captain Nguyen Quan was speaking at a news conference in Bangkok on Thursday (9 July) before the opening of Monday's United Nations five-day meeting on Kampuchea. Delegates in New York will discuss proposals put forward by the Association of South-East Asian Nations.
SYNOPSIS: Many deserters from the Vietnamese army are still escaping across the border into Thailand. They are placed in refugee camps like this one at Sakow.
The deserters have told the Thai authorities that their army is short of food, medicine and morale. But they maintained that Soviet advisors are to be seen everywhere except in the fighting zone. They said they had to rely for food partly on relief supplies sent to aid Kampucheans.
At the news conference in Bangkok three Vietnamese soldiers told reporter about their experiences in Kampuchea. They said junior Vietnamese soldiers -- most of them from South Vietnam -- were reluctant to follow orders to go into battle because they disagreed with the occupation of the country.
Captain Nguyen Quan said the Vietnamese army used nerve gas when it invaded Kampuchea late in 1979, causing considerable civilian casualties.
The Captain's comments were translated into English by Professor Le Van Loung, who escaped from Saigon by bribing, Vietnamese soldiers to take him across the border into Thailand.
Source: REUTERS - GARY BURNS - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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