The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 2

THE VARDIAN Wednesday April 7 lOTfi 3 MARTIN WOOLLACOTT: The new Vietnam 4 After reunification, what? Arab truce at West Bank polls I'nim EMC Jerusalem, April 6 The pictures show green-uniformed soldiers toiling in vast numbers along the old railway line from Saigon to Hanoi, the rehabilitation of which has become a symbol of national unification. The project, involving 70.000 workers, the rebuilding of Win miles of track, I K0 bridges, tunnels, and 200 stations is actually called "Thong N'hat (reunification). is. in the end, a simple physical task, while the real thing is much more than thai. The evidence is skimpy hut it seems to show that there was.

last summer, a serious debate on the subject. The argument was not so much about formal reunification, nor did it resemble the favourite Western scenario in which the Provisional Revolutionary Government and the southern Com The basis is that the whole country will elect members on April 25 who will form a single undivided assembly. That assembly will then elect a new unified government. It stands to reason, however, that the debate on the speed of change in the South is bound to continue after formal reunification. The advocates of the gradual approach no doubt stress the faot that broad sectors of southern society are potentially hostile and that mishandling, partv 'I he of fighting a long and difficult war is perhaps sufficient explanation of that Now that the war is over, tin- oiunuinists their own "erslotl of the Issue thai Mr llaiuhl Wilson was fumbling with when he called for wartime inhesion and a Dunkirk spirit." without war The immediate problem of the peace is the army itself, more than 20 modernised divisions, onlv slightly smaller than the Indian 'The Communists have plans which represent a threat tn virtually cvei'y class or group in the South Perhaps half all urban dwellers face the unpalatable prospect of a ret in to the countrvsidc arguing that the army is the most efficient institution North Vietnam has, and should not be lightly run down, mav have a point.

North Vietnamese agriculture is far from efficient. Mr Pham an Dong himself spoke la't year of the "feeble" performance of the State farms that occupv most of th? best land in tile country. North Vietnamese newspapers have earned frank reports on oiireau.r.itu- stupidity and evasion, laincs-, and corruption among bulb cadres and ordinary people. Maior unemployment is problem in the North as well as in the South. One recent sympathetic visitor tn Hanoi nevertheless spoke of his amazement at seeing the streets full of aimless, jobless youths bilking about and trying tn pick up girls" Kven if the gieat social and economic dislocations of both North and South were set right, the Vietnamese I'liinmunists would then emerge (inallv into the area whiih in China has produced the i onllut oetu i en the and the "moderates" II is at this point that the Communist sense of following through a preordained si heme, which gives them so much strength in the earlier stages, begins to fallei When all tbe institutions of the old -ociety have been cleared away, is it then merely a question of maintaining the strong centralised State that has been created on their ruins Or does the struggle to transform human nature continue in vvavs that are no lunger obvious or simple The Vietnamese Communists are perhaps still a long wav from suih a "religious" crisis Bui their efficiency in war and the foundations for a new in Ihe South which thpv have now laid seem to be lnevi-lablv propelling them towards it.

Series concluded munists attempt to assert their I autonomy against the North. But it was a real argument over (the pace of change the South, with the Prime Minister. Mr Pham Van Dong, emerging as a "moderate" willing to give the South a long period for gradual adjustments. On the other side, it is believed, are Mr Truong t'hmh, the Politburo member in charge of reunification, and General IGiap. Once again, the substantive issues are not who holds I power in the South that has been tbe Party and the Army As to the urban underground groups, again the evidence is there, with Vietnamese reports for instance of 100 arrests at Sue Trang and -to near Bien Hoa, a heavily Catholic area.

Most recently there was the bizarre incident of the gunb.it-tle at Vmh Son church in Saigon. Former paratroopers stopped buses on one raod, according lo refugees, and gave the passengers a lecture which began: "Well, and how do you like Communism The resistance does not represent a maior problem for the Communists. It is small scale, unorganised, and must eventuallv run out of ammunition and equipment, let alone morale. It seems highly unlikely it is receiving covert American support and it is in anv case difficult to sec how such support could he delivered. But it is a pointer 1o the way in which tilings could go wrong the South on a broader scale if.

in spite of 1 he new and formidable organisation described an earlier article, the people were pushed too hard or loo fast Then the Communists might face an enlarged armed resistance More important, they might find they had alienated large sections of the population, encouraging cynicism, apathy, and when what they need despeia-tely is trust, enthusiasm, and hard woik. Tbe Communists have plans which now or in the future lepresenl a threat tn vntually even class and group in the South. Their ultimate iinstilitv lo the Catholic Church and to no Huridhist sects i obvious and it is not so much dramas like Vmli Son that matter as the takeover of the religious educational sv stems I hp atnn-lies arc supposed to say "gup us a ch. Id at four No.v. Hie key institution in tbe maintenance of the faith is being taken away iroin Inem In the case of the Highland minority group the Monlag-nards.

their future is a bleak one. government of Yii-nani. oniniiinist or luuR oin-niiiiiist. can afford to neglect the resources of the Highland-, but thai brings it into enev it.ible conflict with the minorities It seems that alieadv broken Communist primuses have played their part in ere.iimg all armed resistance that region As to the social el isvps fate has alreadv -en -kei. lied The old lippei 1 i.ii es extinction, the muHI" an.

I professional clas-cs a icstruted existence. Perhaps half if all urban dwellers the unpalatable prnspeei of a return to the countrvsidc while the settled peasantrv is destined sooner or later to lose its private plots In all sneieties. covcrnments to a greater or lesser ex'tent coerce their -objects Bui it can be imagined that the argument of the moderates is mi the lines that people must be convinced of the necessity for something hefoie tbev are ordered to do It is an argument about the balance of pei-su isiun and coercion 1 i. miiing on tbe biiriuri is i laiger problem still, in, gbl l.e defined as tbe prnh uf i iimniuitis1 purposes ft is often pointed etit liiat North Vietnam is the onlv Communis! counlrv that lias ever ex'perieneed a real sp'it or nr purge uitlrn the A week before 24 West Bank towns go 1" the polls, the sup-porters of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and of Kins Hussein appear to have struck a tactical bargain. Kach faction will have its place, neither will go for the kill.

Political parties are banned tinder the Israeli occupation, but groups of like-minded candidates are free to campaign as a block. I anvas.sing lists that have appeared over the weekend in the Kasl Jerusalem Arabic press point to unexpectedly broad coalitions in most of the mam tovvns. The trend is alread clear in Nahltis, Tulkarm, Kaniallah, and even Hebron, by tradition the must conservative of the West Bank communities. 3n Nahlu.s. the biggest and mo.st nationalistic, the principal list stretches front members of the dominant business families, who tend to he pro-Hashcmile.

as far left as Mr Haldoun Ahed al Hak, an engmeei' who was once detained without trial by the Israelis and admits to being a Communist. Tr Halem Ahu-Glwaleh. a radical Xahhis physician who lias served his tunc in 'both Jordanian and Israeli piisons, lias alo thrown in his lot vvirh this "National Block." As rinyjnllv as last month he was tolling visitors that he would lead Ins own team, which would sweep out the old oligarchs. What seems to have hap pened is that the radicals weighed their own strength and their own weakness. The sentiment of the Arab street was behind them but the grip of the clan chieftains was still unbreakable.

The old guard for its part, acknowledged that it could no longer keep a monopoly of power, particularly since the" Israeli electoral reforms that brought many young voters on the regi.ste-r. The result is a sophisticated compromise, giung the radicals a new respectability but leaving the traditional elite with much of its old influence It averts an inter-Arab collision for the delectation of the Israeli gal-lerv. and it postponed the ultimate choice between Yasser Arafat and the King over the Jordan. Having established or in cases, such as Ramallah, consolidated a foothold in the municipalities, the radicals will presumably then be content to have demonstrated over the past two months that they can bring life on the West Bank lo a halt whenever the occasion requires it. The will he watching for am compromise.

with the Israelis, who would like to extend the range of Arab self-government in domestic affairs. At the same time they will he keeping their powder dry for a showdown if and when King Hussein tries to negotiate with Israel in the name of the Palestinian people. bullying, or economic problems could turn that potential into a reality. Already the treatment of tbe officer corps and of ethnic and religious minorities has produced an active armed resistance. Resistance groups exist in the Central Highlands, in the area near the Cambodian border where the Hoa Hoa Buddhist sect is strong, in Phuoc Tuy, and in a few other places.

The groups ale not huge, but on the other hand tbev are not negligible. Various Vietnamese sources have made this clear: Nhan Dhan. the army paper, mentioned in one article that a total nf 7.000 rebels had been captured during a six-month period in the Centi.il Highlands Saigon rtadin in November of thousands ol remnant eneiuv troops still operating surreptitiously in the Aimv. and an institution that for vpar.s n.is taken the lion's shaie of nation, il resources, both material and human rhciv has ins-Mi little demobilisation so far and what is clear is that if the armv is maintained at its present so and level of sophistication it will be a maior obstacle to the swift economic development of a united Vietnam The use of soldiers as agiicultural and uiustriu'linn workers would be a wav of lessening the burden Genrral Clap in September last vear called for the army to lake an ai live part tn economic life, and soldiers have reientlv helped in harvesting and in the railvvav More reeenth, another man high in the defence hieiarchv, Mi Van Dien Duong ailed for th" stiengtiiening of the armv and for more modern rrjuip-ment Vet thosp who mac be since last May nor formal reunification itself, which is, after all, merely a detail, but how swiftly southern society should be transformed towards the socialist model. Some time last autumn it was finally agreed that formal reunification should be quickly achieved and after that the pieces fell into place with great rapidity.

Delegations met in September, then in Saiaon in November. Their agreement was ratified in December hv the National Assenihh of North ietnam and by some kind of ad hoc representative assembly in the South. Grounded tanker dispute flows on From PAUL WEBSTER, Paris, April 6 After the tanker Olympic Bravery went aground off Ushant on January 24 the sea was so calm the French islanders could walk over rocks to within a few yards of the world's biggest wreck. At the time she could have been at anchor. Resting on an even keel with her brilliant white paintwork untouched after less than a day at sea, )t seemed impossible that she could still he there two months later, her hull broken in two and 900 tons of engine oil steadily leaking on to the I-'rench beaches.

Insured for $52 millions, mainly through l.loyds of London, and displacing 275,000 tons, the Olympic Bravery is at last becoming a matter nf general concern in I'rance. not hecause of her spectacular sue but because she has shown that Trance's anti-pollution measures have gone backwards since the Torrey Canyon disaster in 19H7. The weeks since the Olympic Bravery went aground have open marked by procrastination by the French authorities and huek-passing between the owners, the Ouassis company, the salvage operators, and a series of French ministries. Fifty soldiers have pi-t been drafted to try to bury the luel oil which had been leaking ashore al a rate of no tons a day, a flow now reported to have been i educed as a result of divers blocking one of the holes in the hulk. Questions are being asked as tn who was really responsible and what should be done in the future, not least because a new record-breaking tanker, the Battilus (SoO.OOO tons) has just been launched at St Nazaire.

The brief sea life of the Olympic Bravery began al 5 30 pm on January 2U when she left Brest In be laid up in Scandinavia even before she had taken on her first load of oil, The ship was to share the late of nearly -101) supertankers made temporarily, useless in the wake of the oil crisis. Flying a I.iberian flag, she was commanded by Captain Tsioros Efotralms. His log, released by the commerce tribunal in Brest under normal legal procedures. counters rumours that the Olympic Bravery was deliberately grounded for insurance gains. The ship, just completed at Saint N'aaire.

had already reported engine trouble at Brest which had delayed her departure and after two hours at sea she had problems with the gyro compass, it took six hours lo correct this before Olympic Bravery could meet the high was. Less than six hours later in heavy weather and just seven miles oil the Ushant light the engines broke clown and Olympic Bravery began drifting on to Ihe rocks. For the time that night, an unknown small ship cut across her path, this time making a distress manoeuvre impossible. The engines got under way at slow speed but after another breakdown the ship dragged her anchors and at 8.07 am she finally went aground. A tug promised by the German firm Bugsier for "am arrived nearly four hours after the mishap.

Immediately afterwards Onassis representatives made it clear that they intended tn refloat the tanker, but on January 27 agreed that the 1.200 tons of heavy engine fuel should be burned off to avoid pollution. Three days later with only 300 tons used up Olympic Bravery was holed in a storm and the engine room flooded, ending the pumping operation. The Dutch salvage company. Smitt. tried to plug the hole, the Cerman salvage tug Heros studied prospects to drag the ship into deep water, and a French company tried to refloat her with compressed air.

On March 3. when Smitt offered to pump the fuel out of the ship as no attempts to refloat her had been successful, no one could agree on who would pay. least of all the French authorities. It was not until March 12 that the Onassis company signed a contract and at that point Olympic Bravery broke in two during a storm and her engine oil began to leak. It took more than a week after that to put into action Pol-Mar.

the French sea-pollu-tion plan prepared alter the Torrey Canyon disaster which had supposedly been on standby since I9B7. Its effect has been derisory. Kqiupped with shovels and huckets the 50 soldiers ran move only 20 tons of fuel a day and the oil has to be buried on tbe beach. The argument is still going on over who is responsible and who will pay. The prefect of Finistcre, Francois Bourgin, who has been attacked from all sides, has defended himself by saying he is the Prefect "for the land, not the sea." An official government inquiry at Brest has said that the Onassis company should be responsible for clearing the pollution.

'Hie Ministry for the Quality nf Life and Us junior Ministry. Environment, both deny responsibility saying they have no funds to carry nut a salvage operation of this kind. The Ministry of Finance says it has no authorisation to subsidise any anti-pollution Patients before Politics A doctor's loyalty is to his patients. That's why the Medical Profession has always shown itself to be completely opposed to any political suggestion that the patient's freedom ofchoice should be tampered with. Such suggestions arc rife today.

The issue at stake is not just one of professional freedom but alsojli "piitjcnt ij'eedoju. Organisations such as BUPA (The British United Provident Association Limited) makeit easy. About 2 million people are protected by BUPA insurance. The average subscription for a single person between 30 and 49 i ndcr 2 a week. nc i porlant reason why BUPA can bring the choice of private medicine within anyone's reach is that BUPA is a nonprofit making organisatipn.

Last, year alone, BUPA paid out nearly X'36 million lo subscribers. This statement has been issued by BUPA in support of the Campaign for Privatcpalienls inNalional Health Service hospitals pay the full costs of their medical treatment. This extra money over and above everybody's national contribution adds up to a massive, multi-million pound annual contributionto the hard-pressed NHS. that's just oneway the private medical sector helps the National Health Service. But, it's not just a matter of money.

Private medicine preserves everyone's right to freedom of choice. More than 8 people out of every .1 0 (82) believe i the right to pay for private medicine. Who uses Private Medicine? Over 4 million people choose to go privately when they need treatment. The vast majority are ordinary men and womdnand theirfamilies. they budget for health protection from Uick earrings.

Independence in Medicine: in the A GOOD JOB interest ol'BUPA "What's the Gm crn tu pJo? If it doesn't make financial sense and the vast majority don't want it, why are the Government proposi ng legislation to phase out pay beds and iiUrA the public at lame. control private medicine? And why do hey want to introduce il in advance of the findings of the Royal Commission on the National Health Service? The British United Provident Association Limited. Provident House, fcsscx Street, London.