Southeast Asia Dry-Season Rite

An hour after midnight on Christmas morning, the onslaught began. Residents of Rithysen (pop. 66,000), a Kampuchean refugee camp and guerrilla base near the country's border with Thailand, were awakened by the sound of artillery and mortar shells exploding in and around their sprawling bamboo village. By 7 a.m. an estimated 1,000 Vietnamese infantrymen, led by armored vehicles, had fought their way into Rithysen (also known as Nong Samet), about 140 miles east of Bangkok. Their aim: to destroy the camp and other centers of opposition to the Viet Nam-backed Kampuchean government of Heng Samrin, and to drive the refugees into Thailand. An estimated 55 resistance fighters and 63 civilians died in the assault, according to guerrilla sources.

Attacks like the strike against Rithysen have become an annual dry-season ritual in the six years since Viet Nam invaded Kampuchea, then known as Cambodia, and installed the Heng Samrin regime in Phnom Penh. Even though the brutal former Khmer Rouge government of Pol Pot had been blamed for the deaths of as many as 2 million of the country's 6 million people between 1975 and 1978, many Kampucheans fought back against the Vietnamese invasion as best they could. Some 500,000 civilians and several thousand guerrillas took refuge in camps close to the Thai border. Year after year, the Vietnamese attacked the resistance centers during the dry season and fell back when the rains came. This year the Communist Khmer Rouge counterattacked during the rainy season, moving deep into Kampuchea and harassing Vietnamese troops and supply lines.

Accordingly, the current Vietnamese offensive, which began in mid-November, has been notable for its intensity. The campaign is aimed at the Khmer Rouge, who are supported by China, and at a smaller guerrilla group loyal to Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the former head of state. But Viet Nam's primary target appears to be the non-Communist Khmer People's National Liberation Front. This group, led by onetime Prime Minister Son Sann, is supported by the U.S. and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It has formed a loose coalition with the Khmer Rouge and the Sihanouk forces, aimed at overthrowing the Heng Samrin regime and driving out the Vietnamese. Though the resistance organizations, fielding an estimated 50,000 lightly equipped fighters, have no chance of doing that for the present, they constitute a challenge that the Vietnamese are continuing to take very seriously.

In their Christmas Day offensive, the Vietnamese attacked three camps almost simultaneously, sending tens of thousands of Kampucheans fleeing into Thailand. The resistance forces staged a counterattack, though they were no match for the opposing Vietnamese troops. The Vietnamese attacks were denounced as "contemptible" by the U.S. and as "cruel and savage" by Thailand, which put its border forces on full alert. As in the past, the offensive is likely to continue until the monsoon returns in late spring. This time, however, the Vietnamese are evidently hoping to end their annual campaign in a far stronger position than in previous years.