Blast Hits Soviet Center While Shevardnadze Visits Vientiane

An explosion shook the Soviet cultural center in the capital of Laos while Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze was visiting the city, Western diplomatic sources said today.

Japan’s Kyodo News Service, quoting unidentified Laotian sources, said Monday’s explosion was caused by a bomb and occurred 12 hours before Shevardnadze was scheduled to visit the cultural center in Vientiane. The sources were quoted by Kyodo as saying the bomb was set to go off at 6 p.m. but went off prematurely at 6 a.m.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Gennady Gerasimov said: “We only have quite preliminary information that there was an explosion in the center of the city. We have no information as to causes and results.”

He said Shevardnadze had left Laos for Cambodia, the next stop on his southeast Asian tour.

The Western sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, quoted unconfirmed reports as saying one Laotian guard was killed and another injured in the explosion.

“There was a blast in front of the Soviet cultural center, apparently a bomb,” one source said. “You can suppose it was linked to Shevardnadze’s visit, but who knows?”

An official of the Thai Embassy in Vientiane, reached by telephone from Bangkok, said the blast caused minor damage, mostly shattered windows, to the three-story concrete building in a commercial area.

The Communist government of Laos faces opposition from a number of resistance groups, but they are not regarded as serious security threats. Some sources speculated that the explosion was designed to embarrass the Soviet or Laotian government during Shevardnadze’s visit.