SINGAPORE -- Former South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Van Loc escaped to Singpore in a small boat this month, succeeding on his 14th attempt to flee his commmunist-ruled homeland, a U.N. official said today.
Loc, prime minister for just over six months in 1967 and 1968, was picked up with 32 other refugees May 13 by the French cargo vessel Chevalier Val Belle from a small boat in the South China Sea.
France has offered to resettle Loc and the other refugees, said Shashi Tharoor, Singapore's representative of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees.
Tharoor said the 60-year old former premier failed on 13 previous attempts to escape Vietnam.
Loc began his final attempt by sneaking out of Ho Chi Minh City more than 18 months ago, he said.
His boat slipped away from the coast unnoticed and was at sea less than three days before it was sighted by the French ship. All the refugees aboard were in good condition.
Since the beginning of May, 286 refugees have arrived in Singapore on seven boats, raising the number in the nation's refugee camp to 362, Tharoor said.
Loc told UNHCR officials his earlier attempts were foiled by bad weather, cheating by boatmen and detection by police.
In one attempt, he narrowly escaped capture by police and slipped away in darkness as others making the attempt were arrested.
