E/CN.4/1503
Annex II page 26
a coalition Government of National Unity was formed in 1974, following the Vietnamese Peace Agreements, the country was not on an even keel. The LPF gradually increased its power within the government and cleared the way for a total takeover. April and May 1975 saw the expulsion of the US AID Mission and
in favour of popular demonstrations
the LPF followed by thebeginning of the mass exodus across the Mekong. In November, King Savang Vatthana abdicated and the coalition government was formally dissolved. The Lao People's Democratic Republic
was proclaimed on 2 December.
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77. What Vientiane Radio called the "bloodless seizure power" and establishment of the LPDR ushered in the next phase of socialist revolution, the "advance, step by step, to social- ism without going through the stage of capitalist development". The new authorities rounded up thousands of former royalist army and police officers, civil servants and others involved with the previous government, committing them to "re-education centres". These poeple,
These poeple, many of them destined to remain there. for several years, were joined by hundreds of people adjudged to be anti-social elements. Commerce and banking were national- ized, the property of many entrepreneurs confiscated, a currency introduced an attempt made to abolish the free market and a travel ban imposed throughout the country. The population was expected to undergo political education and to participate in public work projects.
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78. As in Viet Nam and Cambodia, the tasks fo reconstruction and development after years of intense
intense conflict were immense. Displaced populations had to be helped to re-integrate. The timber industry had to be rehabilitated, the road system rebuilt, internal air routes in the predominantly mountainous country re-established. The Party (composed of lowland Lao in its entirety, a fact which may have contributed to the disaffection of the hillpeoples), called for the execution of three revol- utions simultaneously: a production revolution, a technical revolution and a cultural and ideological revolution. aimed for a sovereign, self-reliant economy with increased production in agriculture, forestry and livestock breeding and concomitant development of the country's infrastructure.
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79. While committed to a revolutionary transformation of the heavily traditional agricultural sector, the Party envisaged only gradual movement
movement towards collectivization.
Internal measures however controls on private trading, tax on agri- cultural produce, intensification of work on
on irrigation canals and other public works did not evoke the enthusiasm of the easy-going Lao. More disruptive proved to be the resettlement programme devised to move semi-nomadic highlanders from their mountain habitat to lowland areas where they were to be re- deployed on state-controlled activities.
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