Viet Assault on Cambodia Rebel Base Expected; Civilians Flee

In long, weary lines, more than 23,000 civilians trekked deeper into Thailand on Friday, away from the Cambodian resistance stronghold at Ampil where a major Vietnamese assault is expected within days.

Describing Vietnamese preparations, a Thai general said the attack is shaping up to be the biggest clash in the six years since Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia.

The Thai Foreign Ministry in Bangkok said Vietnamese air strikes are expected against guerrilla resistance forces along the Thai-Cambodian border. “They could attack very soon,” a ministry spokesman said Friday.

Thai army officers and guerrilla leaders said there was relatively little fighting along the border Friday but that the Vietnamese were resupplying units at Rithisen camp and reinforcing those facing Ampil for an attack expected by Monday.

Monday, Jan. 7, will be the sixth anniversary of Vietnam’s takeover of Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, where the Vietnamese replaced the Communist Khmer Rouge government of Pol Pot with the Heng Samrin regime.

A coalition of three anti-Vietnamese guerrilla organizations, including anti-Communists and the Khmer Rouge, is fighting the Heng Samrin government and its Vietnamese allies.

Thailand’s 1st Army regional commander, Lt. Gen. Pichitr Kullavanijaya, said Friday that Vietnam has readied five regiments, helicopter gunships, Antonov 26 supply planes, tanks and artillery for the assault on Ampil.

He told reporters after a tour of border installations that the battle is shaping up as the biggest clash in six years of war and is likely to spill over the frontier.

Correspondents at the scene saw throngs of refugees, trailed by their water buffaloes, pigs and household pets, move off under a blazing sun at 8 a.m. Most walked, although some had their belongings stacked high on oxcarts. Others pushed small children on bicycles. Mothers kept pace while breast-feeding babies.

Clouds of dust swirled behind the columns in the now-familiar scene of civilians trying to stay out of the way of Cambodian combat.

Most reached their goal by dusk, an already prepared area called Site 2, several miles from Ampil. The U.N. Border Relief Organization had expected such an exodus and had already trucked in drinking water, medical supplies and other necessities.

The organization coordinates humanitarian relief efforts for civilian refugees on the Thai side of the border.

Unlike the panicky rush by 62,000 civilians out of Rithisen camp when the Vietnamese attacked on Christmas Day, Ampil residents had enough time in the last week to gather their belongings for departure.

Ampil is headquarters of the non-Communist Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, one of the three resistance groups in the coalition.

Boun Say, economic minister of the Liberation Front, said Friday that 33 of the front’s guerrillas were killed and 229 wounded in the previous 10 days of fighting.

A correspondent who visited Ampil camp Friday found about 5,000 guerrillas well dug in with bunkers connected by a network of trenches.

The camp forms an arc 5 miles long, jutting into Cambodia from the Thai border. The front line is just over 1 1/2 miles away from the camp, said Duong Sakaon, commander of the 216th Battalion of the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front.

Gen. Dien Del, the Liberation Front commander, said his men face only Vietnamese regulars and no Phnom Penh troops, who have played a marginal role at other points along the border.