Lao Issara

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Flag of Lao Issara, the national flag of Laos since 1975 .

The Lao Issara movement (also Lao Itsala , Laotian ລາວ ອິດ ສະ ຫຼະ , [láːw ʔítsáʔláʔ] ; translated "free Laos") was a national liberation movement that wanted to prevent the French colonial power from recapturing Laos after the Second World War .

government

The Lao Issara, which were partly recruited from Laotian deserters of the Guards indigène and activists of the resistance organization Lao Pen Lao , took over government in August 1945 under the leadership of Prince Phetsarath (1890-1959) before the French reconquest had begun. They thought the monarchy was friendly to France and formed a 34-member council of the people in Vientiane . At the initiative of Prince Souphanouvong , who later became leader of the procommunist Pathet Lao , they allied themselves with the Vietnamese freedom fighters of the Viet Minh on November 1 . According to the Franco-Chinese agreement of February 28, 1946, the Chinese Kuomintang troops had to withdraw from Indochina by the end of March.

The French advancing northward took Savannakhet on March 17th against little resistance from the Lao Issara, who had to withdraw. However, they then presented themselves to battle in Thakhek on March 21st. The attacking colonial troops bombed the town's market and conquered the town by house-to-house fighting. Survivors from Lao Issara who wanted to flee across the Mekong were shot at by low-flying planes. A total of 700 soldiers killed and 300 civilians dead are assumed. Slight armed resistance under Thao O Anourack was maintained in the southern provinces until he too had to flee to Lao Bao in Vietnam.

Members of the government were able to flee to Bangkok , where a government in exile was established under the protection of the Thai government of Pridi Phanomyong . Pridi, who himself was a former leader of the Thai resistance group Seri Thai , had sympathy for the Laotian independence movement. However, King Sisavang Vong agreed to the re-establishment of the French protectorate (May 13 / August 27, 1946) and stayed in his residence in Luang Prabang . On July 19, 1949, the Franco-Laotian Treaty was signed, which should make Laos an independent member within the Union française . The government-in-exile dissolved on October 24th and its members returned to their homeland. Some, like the Minister for Public Works Prince Souvanna Phouma , have been given offices in the new government.

Government members

The Lao Issara government officially held office in Laos from October 12, 1945 to April 23, 1946, then in exile in Bangkok until October 24, 1949.

Departments:

consequences

Members of the Lao Issara went on the one hand to the Pathet Lao , on the other hand to the right wing in the civil war , according to the later general and defense minister Ouane Rattikone . Prince Souvanna Phouma became Prime Minister of the nominally neutral royal government several times until 1975. August 13 is celebrated today as Liberation Day ( Lao Issara ).

literature

  • Oun Sananikone (Author), David K. Wyatt (Ed.) The Memoirs of Oun Sananikone (Data Paper of the Southeast Asia Programm; 100). Cornell University Press, New York 1975, ISBN 0-87727-100-3 (reprinted from New York 1971 edition).
  • Martin Stuart-Fox (arr.): Historical Dictionary of Laos (Historical dictionaries of Asia, Oceania and the Middle East; Vol. 67). 3rd ed. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Md. 2008, ISBN 978-0-8108-5624-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Stuart-Fox (arr.): Historical Dictionary of Laos , p. 25.
  2. ↑ Martin Stuart-Fox (arr.): Historical Dictionary of Laos , p. 397ff.