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Part of Viet Buddhists Start Hunger Strike Against Huong

extracted text

Generals Enter Cabinet

Viet Buddhists Start Hunger .Strike Against Huong
By

Beverly Deepe

A Special Correspondent

.
SAIGON.
Five hundred Buddhists
clashed with troops and police
yesterday in a renewal of
street violence after five Buddhist monks began a hunger
strike "to the death" against
the government of Premier
Tran Van Huong.
At the same time, however,
the latest Saigon Cabinet
crisis eased. Brig. Gen. Nguyen
Cao Ky, South Viet Nam's
Air Force comm·a nder, agreed
to accept tempcirarily a Cabinet post as Minister of Youth
and Sports with the under-,
standing that he would retain his military command.
Three other generals who
had backed Gell. Ky in his
rejectJon of the Cabinet job
on Tuesday joined the Cabinet without reservations.
The riot outside Buddhist
national headquarters-latest
in a series of Buddhist antigovernment outbreaks-was

broken up by tear gas after abstained completely from
half an hour. The rioters either food or liquids. The
hurled rocks, brlckt; and scrap fasts themselves have not
iron at paratroopers and riot been particularly effective politically but have served as an
police.
Six ' policemen and one inspiration for demonstracivilian were injurei;i by the tions.
missiles, government sources
Thich Tam Chau advised
said, and 24 persons were ar- the crowd yesterday against
rested on cha1:-ges of inciting , staging demonstrations, but a
-the disturbance .
·
hard core of youths and a few
The outburst occurred after robed monks left the headtwo prominent Buddhists had quarters - a sprawling tinannounced to a wa111ng crowd roofed building-and began a
of 5,000 inside the temple that sitdown which rapidly turned
they were starting an "un- into the riot.
limited hunger strike, until
Another monk, Buu Phueither we die or Huong falls ong (meaning ."Precarious
as Premier."
Path") handed a mimeoThich Tam Chau and Thich graphed statement to foreign
Tri Quang, joined by three correspondents saying that if
other monks, then withdrew Mr. Rll'.ong ignores the hunand began their fast, lying ger strikers' demands Buu
on foam rubber mattresses Phuong will 11lash his chest
spread on the floor beneath a so that a letter in blood can
, neon-lighted white marble be written to President Johnstatute of Buddha.
son and the South VietnamIn hunger strikes 1n the ese Armed Forces Council
past, the fasters have not protesting against the regime.

The Buddhists have opposed :Mr. Huang's 11-weekold government since its inception, charging that it is
not sufficiently representative
and includes former members
of the repressive Ngo Dinh
Diem regime overthrown in
November, 1963. Yesterday's
Buddhist moves signified a
stepup in agitation against
the Huong government after
sporadic strikes and demonstrations.
Thich Tam Chau charged
yesterday that the government had censored or closed
Buddhist newspapers, arrested Buddhist faithful,
plotted to assassinate monks,
nuns and Buddhist laymen
and established a rival Buddhist organi2lation.
He said two Buddhist delegations had called on Chief
of State Phan Khac Suu and
U. S. Ambassador Maxwell D.
Taylor to give their views.
The U. S. Embassy, he said,
expressed understanding for

the Buddhists but "did not
know what to do about
them."
At Gia Long Palace, meanwhile, Gen. Ky and the three
other generals were' formally
sworn in as members of the
previously all-civilian cabinet. Maj. Gen. Nguyen Van
Thieu became Second Deputy Premier, Maj. Gen. Tran
Van Little Minh became
Armed Forces Minister and
Brig. Gen. Linh Quang Vien
took over the I\eW Psychological Warfare Ministry.
Unlike Gen. Ky, these three
gave up their military commands. ·
The changes, worked out
in consultation with the powerful Armed Forces Council,
were designed to confirm military support for Mr. Huang's
harassed regime. Gen. Ky
upset the calcul~tions Tuesday by announcing he did
not want the Cabinet post because the government !had

not committed itsel! to a~
"revolutionary" policy. It'·1
appeared he was unwilling to
relinquish his politically powerful command of the Air
Force.
Yesterday, however, Gen.
Ky told newsmen he would
take the Cabinet post "for
only a couple of weeks ." He
made it clear he would retaih his military command.
Communist North Viet
Nam meanwhile made new
charges of American and
South Vietnamese attacks on
its territory. In a complaint
to the International Control
Commission for Viet Nam,
Hanoi said three :warships "of
the United States and its
South Vietnamese puppets"
shelled the coastal village of
Vin Tai near the north-south
Vietnamese border early yesterday. A Noi-th Vietnamese
news service report of the
protest was monitored in
Tokyo.