.jpg)
Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 9. 1ts May 1973
Kirk Continues To Aid Thieu
Kirk Continues To Aid Thieu
The major aim of the New Zealand anti-war movement at present is to demand that the New Zealand Government and its allies in Saigon and Washington respect the provisions of the Paris Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam.
Although the Agreement lays down procedures for the ending of military conflict, the release of all prisoners, and the establishment of a temporary administration in South Vietnam pending free and democratic elections, the United States and the Thieu regime have flagrantly violated it. The articles in this supplement concentrate on the fate of political prisoners in South Vietnam, and the need for medical and reconstruction aid for all Indochina.
While the United States Government makes wild and threatening allegations about North Vietnamese troop movements into the South, its airforce is breaking the Agreement by continuing to bomb Laos and Cambodia. With Nixon's encouragement, Thieu is trying to sabotage the Agreement by refusing to release political prisoners, and carrying out a programme of murdering all his political opposition.
Despite the "anti-war" sentiments it has expressed in the past, the New Zealand Labour Government has also refused to respect the Peace Agreement. New Zealand has not recognised the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, even though the Secretary-General of the United Nations recently called on all countries recognising the Thieu regime to do so. The Government has refused to recognise the seriousness of the problem of political prisoners in South Vietnam, and claims that there are only 21,000 prisoners. Reputable international and Vietnamese authorities have estimated the number at 350,000. After the first Cabinet meeting in December Mr Kirk boasted that the Government would double the amount of its aid to Indochina over the next five years. In March an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs admitted that most of this aid would be going to the American puppet regimes in Saigon and Phnom Penh.
| 1) | Demanding that the New Zealand Government call on its ally Thieu to release all political prisoners immediately, |
| 2) | Calling for New Zealand recognition of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam. The COV is bringing a joint DRV - PRG delegation to New Zealand at the end of the month to publicise the demand for diplomatic recognition of the two governments. |
| 3) | Supporting the National Appeal for Medical and Reconstruction Aid to the DRV, the PRG and the liberated areas of Laos and Cambodia. It is vitally important to ensure that rehabilitation aid owed to the Indochinese people by the aggressor nations is paid in full and in a form acceptable to them. |
Michael G. Law, Chairman, Wellington Committee on Vietnam
.jpg)