Socialist Republic of Vietnam

March 20 (VNA) -- The journalists arrived in Dac Long commune of the central highlands, or Tay Nguyen, Kon Tum province where it is said that a cock crowing can be heard in the three bordering countries, Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos, on a sunny February day.

That evening, sitting around a fire with his fellow Ba Na and Gia Rai villagers, they heard old A Lai's heart-felt stories.

During the years of war first against the French colonialists and then American aggressors, he said the people of the Tay Nguyen saved their very small amount of salt and food for the soldiers of Uncle Ho. They did so despite their own hunger and poverty because they cherished the hope that the national salvation war would soon end with the victory for Uncle Ho's soldiers and the beginning of a peaceful, happy life in their homeland.

The old man said that since following the revolutionary path chosen by the Communist Party and Uncle Ho, the minority people of the Tay Nguyen had, in all circumstances, trusted in the unity of Viet Nam.

But A Lai said some ill-intentioned people had coaxed, incited and forced the light-minded to cause social disorders.

Their deeds should be condemned, he said. He himself had told his fellow villagers to be vigilant and not be trapped by the agitators, who wanted to establish a so-called "De Ga autonomous government". The agitators did not represent any of the Tay Nguyen's minority groups but were reactionaries serving hostile outside forces, wanting to sow division among Viet Nam's diverse peoples.

But when agitators made nonsense requests, most people had realised their reactionary nature and understood that they, the innocent, had been deceived. These people had immediately left for home. They then told their local administrators about the reactionaries and their organizations.

The old man told his guests that the leaders of the incitors had confessed their bad deeds and promised not to repeat them.

A resident of Kon Klo village, Kon Tum township's Thang Loi ward, A Blu was adamant that the treachery of the reactionaries should be unmasked.

"We, the Ba Na people, pledge to follow the Party," he said.

He said that thanks to the Party and the revolution, people in the Tay Nguyen now enjoyed a peaceful and comfortable life.

The Ba Na man said he was confident the enemy would never succeed in shaking the loyalty of the Tay Nguyen people.

He said the local people had known that it was a shameless deceit when the poorly-educated exiled reactionary, Ksor Kok, titled himself leader of the Tay Nguyen people.

"We explained the treacherous schemes and tricks by ill-intentioned people to the locals so as to enable the latter not to be trapped and to stabilize their production," he told the journalists.

Minority people in the Tay Nguyen, who met by the journalists all expressed their trust in the Party, the revolution and Uncle Ho to build Viet Nam into a peaceful and independent country where people of all ethnic groups join hands to work and live happily.

The Tay Nguyen people asked the Government to severely punish the leaders of the reactionary force and to foil the scheme to set up "the De Ga autonomous government".--VNA