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p Y. Vasilkov

p Good tidings are now coming from long-suffering Kampuchea. The country is gradually healing the deep wounds inflicted on it during the years of the reactionary pro-Peking regime. The revolutionary government is maintaining strict control of the situation in the republic. The people are participating enthusiastically in the current measures to obliterate the grim legacy of the past, to rebuild the cities, plants and transportation, and to tackle the nation’s serious economic problems.

p A national conference of the country’s administrators was held on March 14, 1979 in Pnom Penh; it examined comprehensively the situation in Kampuchea and the tasks 173 involved in the republic’s political, economic, social and cultural development. One of the speakers at the conference, Pen Sovan, Deputy Chairman of the People’s Revolutionary Council of Kampuchea, who is responsible for national defence, stated that the Kampuchean people supported the policy of the United Front for National Salvation and the People’s Revolutionary Council. This is a major factor in the revolutionary movement, a guarantee of success in building a new society.

p Discussing the priority tasks of the revolution, the speaker pointed to the need to eradicate the remnants of the destroyed Pol Pot bands, who are still hiding in some of the country’s mountainous and rural districts, to maintain constant vigilance and secure law and order.

p He called for an accelerated stabilisation of life in the country, the extension of all-round aid to people returning to their home towns, the creation of the conditions for setting up production, with the emphasis on agriculture, an explanation of the political course of the Front and the People’s Revolutionary Council to the popular masses, and constant concern for consolidating the bodies of people’s power in villages, communities and districts.

p Pen Sovan stressed that a constant strengthening of Kampuchean-Vietnamese solidarity was imperative, this being a vital political task for ensuring the triumph of the two people’s revolutions, and that a foreign policy aimed at heightening the international authority of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea was essential.

p The young republic is faced with tremendous, at times unimaginable, difficulties.

p The bungling of the Pol Pot people has brought the country’s economy into complete chaos. When liberation came, almost the entire population of Kampuchea was actually starving, lacking any real means of subsistence. Agricultural production had been dealt a ruinous blow, particularly the once rich rubber plantations. A considerable proportion of industrial enterprises had been destroyed or put out of order. Enormous capital investment will be required for the cities, turned into ghost towns under the Pol Pot regime, to get back to normal.

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p One tremendously difficult problem facing the revolutionary government is the almost total lack of administrators and technical and engineering personnel, agronomists, doctors and teachers. These were the people who first fell under Pol Pot’s axe.

p In short, the builders of the new Kampuchea have virtually to start from scratch.

p All these difficulties are temporary, of course. The new Kampuchea has many faithful friends. It is receiving decisive support from the countries of the socialist community, the newly-free states and all progressive people in the world. In accordance with their internationalist duty, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Soviet Union are extending vast and multifarious aid to the People’s Republic of Kampuchea.

p Of great importance for the further development of fraternal solidarity and long-term collaboration was the official friendly visit paid to the People’s Republic of Kampuchea in mid-February 1979 by a government delegation from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, headed by Prime Minister Pham Van Dong. The major outcome of this visit was the signing of an Agreement on Peace, Friendship and Co-operation between the People’s Republic of Kampuchea and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; this document has inaugurated a new stage in the development of mutual relations between the two fraternal neighbouring peoples.

p The agreement, concluded for a 25-year term, obliges both sides to take every effort to develop and uphold the traditions of solidarity, friendship and co-operation between Kampuchea and Vietnam. The two fraternal countries will be building their relations on respect for the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity of the other, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit.

p The parties are to render each other comprehensive assistance consolidating and defending their independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and the peaceful labour of each country’s people from the subversive actions by the forces of imperialism and international reaction. Each of the parties shall take effective measures to implement this part of the agreement, should the need arise.

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p Both sides shall contribute to the development of co-operation in economics, culture, education, public health, science and technology and the training of personnel, as well as in exchanging experts and experience.

p The People’s Republic of Kampuchea and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have expressed their firm resolve to develop relations with socialist countries, pursue a policy of friendship and good-neighbourliness with Thailand and the other South-East Asian countries, and make an active contribution to the cause of peace and stability in the region.

p The sides shall develop relations of co-operation with the newly-free states and national liberation and democratic movement, and will give resolute support to the struggle of peoples for peace and national independence.

p Another successful official friendly visit to Kampuchea was that by a delegation from the Laotian People’s Democratic Republic, headed by its president Souphanouvong, a month later. Agreements were signed concerning multifaceted Laotian-Kampuchean co-operation based on the principles of fraternal solidarity and good-neighbourliness.

p Of great importance for consolidating the position of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea on the international scene were the friendly visits paid by the first delegations from the new Kampuchea, headed by General Secretary of the KUFNS Central Committee Roh Samay, to the countries of the socialist community—the USSR, Vietnam, the GDR, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Cuba.

p The delegation’s stay in the Soviet Union demonstrated the fraternal friendship and solidarity between the Soviet and Kampuchean peoples. The delegation was received by the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and met with the public in Moscow, Leningrad, Byelorussia and Uzbekistan. Underlying the numerous talks and speeches by the Kampuchean and Soviet officials was the confidence that with the victory of the popular revolution in Kampuchea, friendship and solidarity between the Soviet and Kampuchean peoples would continue to develop and strengthen for the benefit of both countries, and in the interests of peace, social progress and socialism. “The ideas of 176 the Great October Socialist Revolution have exerted a powerful influence on the development of the revolutionary process in our country,” Roh Samay stated. “Marxist-Lenininst teachings inspire us today as well. In implementing our extensive programme for building a new society, we shall proceed from the experience of the USSR and the other socialist countries. The Kampuchean people express their profound satisfaction that solidarity and friendship between the USSR and Kampuchea has been restored for all time and that, now, no one will be able to destroy ’our fraternity and unity.”

p The enemies of the new Kampuchea, specifically the Chinese leaders and reactionary circles in the West, have unleashed a furious, hostile campaign against the revolutionary and patriotic forces of the country in a bid to make their work even more difficult, create an international climate unfavourable for them and halt the process of the worldwide legal recognition of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. Peking has become the inspirator and leader of the struggle waged by the remnants of the Pol Pot bands against the Kampuchean • revolutionary government supplying them with arms, ammunition and personnel. One of the objectives of the treacherous, 30-day aggressive war waged by the Chinese leaders against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in February and March 1979 was to envigorate the flagging activities of the Pol Pot bands in Kampuchea and to prevent the Kampuchean revolutionary government from suppressing the last strongholds of opposition belonging to the pro-Peking reactionary forces.

Yet all the attempts by the enemies of the new Kampuchea have been in vain. The triumph of the national revolution in Kampuchea is irreversible. A guarantee of this is the wide support given by the country’s population for the political programme and the practical measures of the United Front for National Salvation and the People’s Revolutionary Council, and the consolidating international position of the country, which is enjoying the internationalist support of the socialist countries, of its fraternal neighbours—Vietnam and Laos, and of progressive people throughout the world.