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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
The Provisional Government of National Union (PGNU),
Laos's
third experiment with coalition government, was finally
constituted
on April 5, 1974, following one last desperate coup
attempt by
rightist officers in exile against Souvanna Phouma.
Cabinet posts
were assigned, with a vice premier and five ministers from
each
side plus two chosen by mutual consent. Under each
minister was a
vice minister from the other side. The makeup of the
National
Political Consultative Council, an unelected
pseudo-National
Assembly, was similarly balanced.
Paragraph 14 of the September 14, 1973, protocol
provided for
the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Laos within
sixty days of
the PGNU's formation, the same deadline as for prisoner
exchanges.
Once again the United States met the deadline. Although it
terminated the mission of Group 959 after the cease-fire,
North
Vietnam did not withdraw its estimated 38,500 regular
troops from
Laos. Among other provisions that occupied the Joint
Central
Commission to Implement the Agreement was the demarcation
of the
cease-fire line and the neutralization of the two
capitals.
Because of the Pathet Lao ministers' opposition, the
PGNU
barred the traditional opening of the National Assembly on
May 11,
Constitution Day. The king voiced his displeasure over the
PGNU's
decision to circumvent the constitution and not convene
the
National Assembly, elected in 1972. The dissolution of the
National
Assembly and the holding of new elections, matters that
had not
been specifically included in the Vientiane Agreement or
its
protocol, embroiled the PGNU in endless argument. The king
did not
attend the session of the National Political Consultative
Council
in Louangphrabang, which, under the chairmanship of
Souphanouvong,
adopted a far-ranging eighteen-point political program.
One of the
points in the National Political Consultative Council's
program was
a demand that the United States pay reparations for war
damages.
Data as of July 1994
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