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The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998
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Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso
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Laos
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Landlocked country in SE Asia, bordered to
the N by China, E by Vietnam, S by Cambodia,
and W by Thailand. government Laos became a
republic Dec 1975 when the monarchy was
abolished. The indirectly elected 264-member
national congress of people's representatives
appointed Prince Souphanouvong (1909-) as
executive head of state (president) to be
served by a cabinet (council of ministers)
led by a prime minister. A 45-member supreme
people's assembly (SPA), chaired by the
president, was established to frame a new
constitution. By 1986 a draft document had
ben completed, but remained the subject of
government discussion. In the meantime,
elections were finally held to the SPA, which
was expanded to comprise 79 deputies elected
for five-year terms and accorded the task of
framing the economic plan and overseeing the
work of state ministries. The controlling
force and only political party in Laos is the
Communist party (Lao People's Revolutionary
Party), which is dominated by its 11-member
Political Bureau and heads the broader Lao
Front for National Reconstruction. history
Occupied from the 4th-5th centuries by
immigrants from China, Laos came under Indian
influence and adopted Buddhism during the
7th-11th centuries. As part of the Khmer
empire from the 11th-13th centuries, it
experienced much artistic and architectural
activity. From the 12th century, the country
was invaded by the Lao from Thailand, who
established small independent kingdoms and
became Buddhists. Laos became an independent
kingdom in the 14th century and was first
visited by Europeans in the 17th century,
becoming a French protectorate 1893-1945.
After a brief period of Japanese occupation,
France re-established control 1946 despite
opposition from the Chinese-backed Lao Issara
(Free Laos) nationalist movement. The country
became semi-autonomous 1950, when, under the
constitutional monarchy of the king of Luang
Prabang, it became an associated state of the
French Union. In 1954, after the Geneva
Agreements, Laos gained full independence.
Civil war broke out between two factions of
former Lao Issara supporters: a moderate,
royalist-neutralist group led by Prince
Souvanna Phouma, which had supported the 1950
French compromise and was the recognized
government for most of the country; and a
more extreme Communist resistance group, the
Pathet Lao (Land of the Lao), led by
ex-Prince Souphanouvong (the half-brother of
Prince Souvanna) and supported by China and
the Vietminh, which controlled much of N
Laos. A coalition government was established
after the 1957 Vientiane Agreement. This soon
collapsed and in 1960 a third, right-wing
force emerged when Gen Phoumi Nosavan, backed
by the royal army, overthrew Souvanna Phouma
and set up a pro-Western government headed by
Prince Boun Gum. A new Geneva Agreement 1962
established a tripartite (right-left-neutral)
government under the leadership of Prince
Souvanna Phouma. Fighting continued, however,
between the North Vietnamese-backed Pathet
Lao and the US-backed neutralists and right
wing, until the 1973 Vientiane Agreement
established a ceasefire line dividing the
country NW to SE, giving the Communists
two-thirds of the country including the Plain
of Jars and the Bolovens Plateau in the
south, but giving the Souvanna Phouma
government two-thirds of the population. All
foreign forces (North Vietnamese, Thai, and
US) were to be withdrawn, and both sides
received equal representation in Souvanna
Phouma's provisional government 1974. In 1975
the Communist Pathet Lao (renamed the Lao
People's Front) seized power. King Savang
Vatthana (1908-80), who had succeeded 1959,
abdicated and Laos became a People's
Democratic Republic under the presidency of
Prince Souphanouvong. Prince Souvanna Phouma
remained as an `adviser' to the government,
but the real controlling force was now the
prime minister and communist party leader,
Kaysone Phomvihane. The new administration,
which inherited a poor, war-ravaged economy,
attempted to reorganize the country along
socialist lines, nationalizing businesses and
industries and collectivizing agriculture.
Faced with a food shortage and the flight of
more than 250,000 refugees to Thailand, it
modified its approach in 1979, introducing
production incentives and allowing greater
scope for the private sector. Further
`liberalization' followed from 1985 under the
prompting of the Soviet leader Michail
Gorbachev, with a new profit-related
`socialist business accounting system' being
adopted. National elections were held in Mar
1989. Laos, now closely tied to the USSR and
Vietnam (which has 40,000 troops stationed in
Laos), still suffers from border skirmishes
with rebels backed by Thailand in the south
and China in the north. There have been
attempts to improve relations with Thailand
and China for economic reasons, and in Aug
1989 party-to-party relations were
established with China after a ten-year
break.