Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message -----
From: Walter
Lippmann
To: CubaNews
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 2:33 PM
Subject: [CubaNews] Waging War From California This sounds very much like the
counter-revolutionary
Cuban groupings in Miami who are allowed full freedom
of action by Washington. Read this all the way
through.
_____________________________________________
Waging War From
California
Vietnam, Cambodia Urge U.S. to Curb Exile Groups By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, July 30, 2001; Page A01
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Armed with antiquated AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, the ragtag band of self-proclaimed freedom fighters set off shortly after midnight, marching in columns along one of this city's main boulevards to storm the Defense Ministry. It was supposed to be the first stage of Operation Volcano, a quixotic plan concocted by a Cambodian American accountant in Long Beach, Calif., to topple the government here by recruiting peasants with no military training to attack military installations and other strategic locations across the country. But the 50 guerrillas were quickly repulsed by scores of heavily armed government troops behind a three-foot-thick stone wall ringing the ministry. When the shooting ended an hour later, three rebels and a civilian lay dead. Although the raid last November was a spectacular failure, the accountant, Yasith Chhun, has vowed to try again. "We'll be back," he said. "We're planning another one." A little more than a quarter-century after Communist forces swept to power in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, fringe groups of U.S.-based dissidents have stepped up militant campaigns to force political change in the three countries. Their ranks are relatively small and their attacks have not amounted to much, but the groups are viewed as significant security threats by Southeast Asian governments, which accuse the United States of doing little to clamp down on violence-minded emigres. The Government of Free Vietnam, an exile organization headquartered in Southern California that wants to overthrow the leadership in Hanoi, said it has secret bases along Vietnam's border with Cambodia and Laos where rebel fighters are training. The group's leader, Nguyen Huu Chanh, one of the most wanted men in Vietnam, boasted in an interview that his supporters placed several bombs around Hanoi last month to protest the arrest of a prominent dissident. Chanh said the bombs, whose timing devices were not operational, were intended to send a message about the group's growing clout. Vietnam recently sentenced several members of the organization to long prison terms for attempting to blow up landmarks and government buildings in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. Thai authorities said that in response to the convictions the group planted two bombs outside the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok last month. Vietnamese officials also contend that recent anti-government protests by members of the Montagnard ethnic group in the country's Central Highlands were instigated by Montagnards who live in the United States. The Montagnards were recruited by the CIA during the Vietnam War and fought against North Vietnamese forces alongside U.S. and South Vietnamese troops. Although American Montagnard leaders denied the Vietnamese allegations, U.S. officials said telephone and e-mail communication between Montagnards in the United States and those in Vietnam played a role in sparking the demonstrations. In Laos, the biggest anti-government attack in years -- a raid on a customs post last year by fighters who briefly raised the old royalist flag -- reportedly was partially funded by Laotians living in the United States. Exile leaders said they have stepped up their efforts to overthrow governments because of political changes across the region -- and in Washington.
The ruling Communist Party in Vietnam recently appointed a general secretary who is regarded as more moderate than his predecessors, while the party's counterpart in Laos has been beset with factional infighting for a year. Although Cambodia has a democratically elected government, critics like Yasith Chhun contend that Prime Minister Hun Sen won because of rampant ballot-box fraud. "Part of what's going on is an attempt to push these governments because they see this as a moment of political transition," said a U.S. diplomat in Southeast Asia.
"But it is also an opportunity for them to test the Bush
administration, to see how far they can push things." The diplomat said exile leaders may hope "to get more sympathy from members of the new administration who believe [President] Reagan conquered communism in Europe and now Bush can do the same thing in Asia." There also is the age factor. Many of the people who fled Indochina in the 1970s are now well into their sixties and seventies. "They want to see their country be free before they die," said Le Chi Thuc, a spokesman for the Government of Free Vietnam. "They have nothing to lose now."
Thuc and his boss, Chanh, a compact man who speaks with a sergeant's intensity, insisted that they are not terrorists. "We don't want to kill people," Chanh, 50, said in an interview in his Garden Grove, Calif., office. "We've had enough war. We just want to get rid of the Communists." In the years immediately following the Communist victories in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, many exiles were involved in paramilitary groups based in Thailand that sought to destabilize the new governments with quiet assistance from the United States. But those efforts had largely faded away by the late 1980s. Even unofficial U.S. support for those actions had ended by the 1990s, when Washington established diplomatic relations with all three countries. Although the exile groups have elaborate plans for political destabilization, and say they have thousands of supporters, Western officials and analysts are not sure whether to take them seriously. The attacks in Phnom Penh and at the Laotian customs post failed, and the attempted bombings in Vietnam were foiled without a single blast. "They talk big, but they're relatively incompetent," said a Western diplomat in Bangkok. "But then again, it's dangerous to say that they pose no threat. They do have followers and weapons and money -- and they are committed to their cause." The exile activity has nonetheless alarmed Southeast Asian governments. "We believe them when they say they will try to attack again," Col. Sim Hong, the deputy military police commander in Phnom Penh, said of Yasith Chhun's group. "They are a threat to our peace and stability." The Southeast Asian organizations are not nearly as large or as well funded as Cuban exile groups in Florida. Their support among Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants in Southern California is mixed, and some community leaders deplore the violent tactics. But analysts said they have enough money and members to stir up trouble. The Government of Free Vietnam operates out of a 10,000-square-foot office, where it hosts community gatherings and produces an anti-communist short-wave radio program. Elaborate organizational charts are tacked to the walls, and leaders boasted that they have a "transition plan" to run Vietnam as soon as they assume control. Le said the group has enlisted several former South Vietnamese army officers to help train troops and select targets. Yasith Chhun's group, the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, appears far scrappier. Although he said they have 500 members in the United States and tens of thousands in Cambodia, there is little to suggest that his windowless office is the drafting room for a revolution except for a lone machine gun near the door and a homemade resistance flag tacked to the wall. The file cabinets are filled with tax records, not battle plans. A law called the Neutrality Act prohibits American citizens or residents from using force to overthrow a foreign government. In an effort not to run afoul of U.S. authorities, exile leaders said they coordinate their operations from other countries, often Thailand. "Our office in the United States is not directly responsible for what happens in Vietnam," Le said. "It's only a liaison office. We don't want to put the U.S. government in a difficult position." But it has, say American diplomats and political analysts. Even though the State Department has condemned the attacks and the FBI has launched investigations, it appears to
some
political leaders in Indochina that the insurgencies have the support of the U.S. government. "In countries like Cambodia, there is little distinction between the individual and the state," said Kao Kim Horn, a political analyst in Phnom Penh. "The perception is that Washington is behind this, or at the very least, it is dragging its feet in investigating." The FBI is looking into the Cambodian Freedom Fighters -- the bureau sent an agent to Phnom Penh to investigate the November attack on the Defense Ministry -- but has not taken any legal action. In Cambodia, however, justice has been swift. Last month a court convicted Yasith Chhun in absentia. It also sentenced two other Americans of Cambodian descent captured during the raid -- an aid worker from Oregon and a travel agent from Long Beach -- as well as 27 Cambodian citizens for their involvement in the assault. Cambodian leaders have urged the United States to extradite Yasith Chhun, who admitted organizing the attack and directing the operation from a hideout in Thailand. These days, the soft-spoken 44-year-old, who looks more like an accountant than a field commander, is back in his Long Beach office, where he eagerly showed visitors a spreadsheet listing the 291 intended targets of Operation Volcano, including hospitals, bridges and the homes of top officials. "How can the United States say it promotes democracy and peace around the world if it lets these groups operate?" Chea
Sophara, Phnom Penh's governor, asked in an interview. The State Department has said that it "strongly deplores and condemns" the attack, but U.S. authorities have ruled out handing over Yasith Chhun because Cambodia and the United States have no extradition treaty. In addition, a U.S. official said, "it's not easy to establish these groups are carrying out activities that are illegal." Chanh, the leader of the Government of Free Vietnam, said his organization is trying to create a new "incident" that will lead people in Vietnam to rise up against the government. Such an event, he said, will be accompanied by paramilitary action from his group. "Look at Tiananmen Square," said Chanh, referring to the peaceful pro-democracy protests in China that were crushed by the military. "You cannot fight a communist regime with just demonstrations." � 2001 The Washington Post Company
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