TNAG-1066-FCO40-1316-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 213

E/CN.4/1503

Annex II page 30

90. During those years, propaganda continually proclaimed that were the South to be taken over by the North, large-scale violence would ensue. Many talked with conviction of a blood bath. It was not to happen, and although the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) consistently gave

consistently gave assurances to that effect, a deep syndrome of fear persisted, a genocide so great that when the 'liberation' troops were about to enter Saigon, a general panic ensued. People scrambled to leave aboard US vessels or aircraft or by means of an airlift organized from the USA. Even the orphanages were emptied and the children evacuated.

91. The tasks of reconstruction and reconciliation facing Viet Nam were monumental, and were to be attempted concurrently with a socialist transformation in the South

the South for which the popu- lation was little prepared. With the disappearance of the life support system of the country, no government could have been expected to reanimate the economy and restore its social fabric without massive external aid and the active support of all sectors of the population. The new government, however, was deprived on the one hand of the reconstruction aid it had expected, and on the other introduced a socialist system to a population ill equipped to accept and adapt itself to the stringent new measures. The South had to recover from years of military conflict. War damage, high unemployment guantified at over three million, the existence of a private capitalist economy, the survival of bourgeois ideology and the prevalence of small-scale production were the main problems.

92.

were

Among the intial steps taken by the PRG administration the the confiscation of all property of the previous govern- ment and

and the seizure of private and foreign-owned banks and of some foreign-owned companies. Foreign bookshops were closed and all newspapers except the official press banned. A

currency levelled the holdings of the wealthier classes. An ambitious programme of "re-educating" the members of the former South Vietnamese army and civil service began with a million people being told to report for the re-education"

courses.

93. On 25 April 1976, Vietnamese from both North and South went to the polls to elect the new 492-member National Assembly for Viet Nam. Candidates included a broad, if carefully- chosen, group ranging from high-level party and government officials and several Communist generals to workers, peasants, intellectuals, ethnic minorities and even several Catholic priests.

opposition candidates. Adults over 18 were entitled to vote, except for some former high- ranking officers, senior civil servants and members of the former South Viet Nam's political parties. The newly-elected National Assembly met in Hanoi from 24 June to 3 July 1976 and declared the nation formally unified.

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