Kaysone Phomvihan; Ruled Laos Since Communist Takeover in ’75
BANGKOK, Thailand — President Kaysone Phomvihan of Laos, the country’s ruler since the Communist takeover in 1975, died Saturday, Laotian state radio said. He was 71.
The broadcast, monitored in Bangkok, said only that Kaysone died of an illness.
Kaysone had been chief of the Laotian Communist Party since 1955. He was premier from 1975 to August, 1991, when the National Assembly elected him president and endowed the post with greater power. Gen. Khamtai Siphandon succeeded him as premier.
In recent years, Kaysone’s administration has relaxed some controls over the economy and permitted some private enterprise, but political dissent is still not tolerated.
Laos, a landlocked Southeast Asian country of 4 million people, remains one of the poorest and most isolated nations in the world.
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