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News Briefs

By VVAW

LON NOL REIME WANTS MORE AMMUNITION FOR PUPPET ARMY

The puppet troops of Lon Nol are using approximately $500,000 worth of ammunition daily. The regime is asking the United States for a substantial increase in the amount of military aid being provided to bolster their shabby army. This year the U.S. government is pledged to provide $167 million for military aid and now the administration is asking for a supplemental $150 million in aid for Cambodia. This would bring the total to $317 million in order to continue the war in Cambodia.

TWO AMERICAN SCIENTISTS TOUR QUANG TRI PROVINCE, VIETNAM

Arthur H. Westing and E. W. Pfeiffer toured Quang Tri Province and reported the following: "I was unprepared for the utter devastation that confronted us wherever we turned. Never were we out of sight of an endless panorama of crater fields. As far as we could determine not a single permanent building, urban or rural, remained intact: no private dwellings, no schools, no libraries, no churches or pagodas, and no hospitals. Moreover, every last bridge and even culvert had been bombed to bits. We left Quang Tri Province aghast at the realization that the strategy employed here by the U.S. was one of systematic aerial destruction of a region inhabited by tens of thousands of civilians. We also left with a renewed faith in the ability of these same Vietnamese eventually to overcome even this overwhelming insult to themselves and their land."

PATHET LAO TROOPS ARRIVE IN VIENTIANE AND LUANG PRABANG

As part of the agreement signed on September 14, the Pathet Lao is sending in troops, policemen and officials to the two Laotian capitals, Vientiane and Luang Prabang. The government in Vientiane has provided a marshy area with no buildings or facilities for the Pathet Lao troops. The area is largely under water and is accessible only by a rutted, muddy ox-cart track.

GUINEA-BISSAU DECLARES INDEPENDENCE

The Republic of Guinea-Bissau was declared an independent and sovereign state by PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) on Sept. 24, 1973. The National Assembly adopted a constitution and elected a new President, Luis Cabral, brother of the late Amilcar Cabral. (see April WS)