Laos govt shows no sign of yielding power

By Matthew Pennington

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP): Communist parties may have gone out of fashion with the fall of the Berlin Wall, but not for the veterans of the revolution in this impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

A coterie of leaders, who earned their stripes as jungle fighters during the Vietnam War, marks 25 years in power Saturday as one of the world's last one-party regimes.

"The Lao people have not yet thought about whether we should have a multiparty system or not," Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavad said in an interview. "They only know that under the party's leadership, life has gotten better."

Indeed, with the regime now communist in name only, Laos has made some progress since it gave up socialism in the mid-1980s and embraced a free market economy, prodded by $200 million-$300 million in annual foreign aid that accounts for 80 percent of public investment.

Even though the rhetoric of revolution lingers, symbols of wealth, especially among the urban elite, are evident. Toyota sedans and SUVs cruise the dusty streets of the capital, Vientiane. Tin-roofed houses in the provinces sprout TV satellite dishes.

"Life is safer now, people have more food and some people are making money," farmer Bountanh Chantahom, 57, said as he harvested rice with a sickle near the relatively prosperous southern city of Pakse.

"But I'm still afraid of the government," he added.

According to official figures, the percentage of people living in poverty dropped from 45 percent of the population in 1992-1993 to under 39 percent in 1997-1998.

But those who have benefited most are members of the communist party and their associates, while much of the country still struggles, said Grant Evans, an expert on Laos at the University of Hong Kong.

Government statistics say the top one-fifth of the population has increased its share of national consumption from 38 percent to 44 percent. The share of the bottom one-fifth has decreased from 9 percent to 8 percent.

Most families still rely on subsistence agriculture and many communities are several days walk from the nearest town and have little or no effective health care.

Laos ranks 140th out of 174 countries in a United Nations index that assesses living conditions based on income, education and life expectancy.

One in every 11 children in Laos dies before age 5.

The ruling Lao People's Revolutionary Party came to power seven months after the April 1975 communist victory in neighboring Vietnam. The takeover in Laos ended 15 years of civil war and nine years of U.S. bombing that dropped 2 million tons of explosives over a country the size of Britain.

Following the fall of its communist allies in Vietnam, the Lao regime experimented unsuccessfully with collectivization in the mid-1970s, then began slowly opening up the economy in the mid- 1980s.

"If mistakes were made in 25 years, it was in the first few years under centralized planning," said Somsavat, the foreign minister.

The emerging market economy was hurt badly by the financial crisis that struck Asia in 1997. Although back under control, inflation soared and prompted murmurs of dissent in the worst-hit urban areas of Laos.

The financial woes put attention on economic mismanagement by the Lao leaders, most of them in their 70s.

The party never loosened its grip, particularly in the countryside where 80 percent of the country's 5 million people live.

A deceptively low-key security apparatus, which keeps tabs on the 12,000 villages across this ethnically diverse and mountainous nation, has muted calls for change and squashed all opposition. Young members in the ruling party who were demanding change were purged.

After the Vietnam War, at least 40,000 supporters of the former U.S.-backed Lao government spent up to 10 years in harsh rural re-education camps. The former king of Laos is believed to have died in such a camp.

According to a U.S. State Department human rights report last February, Laos has four known political prisoners but an estimated 100-200 more people are held on suspicion of national security violations. Most are believed to have been detained without trial.

Still, signs of dissent are surfacing. This year, at least nine bombs exploded in Vientiane and provincial cities, killing one woman and injuring dozens. No one claimed responsibility as rumors swirled with speculation about a nascent opposition or rifts within the government.

Long spared criticism by foreign governments, Laos now is facing calls from aid donors to sign the UN Convention on Human Rights. Yet few people harbor any illusions that would lead to political liberalization.

"The policy we pursue requires only one party," said Khampor Sorchantavong, 54, a party official in southern Sekong province.

Asked when multiparty democracy might reach Laos, his answer was delivered with conviction: "Never."