International Commission for Supervision and Control
국제감시통제위원회
The international commissions, one each for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, set up to supervise the implementation of the 1954 Geneva Accords. Each was composed of Canadian, Polish and Indian delegations, with India in the chair. The Vietnam commission supervised the regroupment of forces, the demarcation line and demilitarised zone, the release of prisoners and the ban on arms imports at ports, airfields and frontiers, but had no power of enforcement. It was replaced in March 1973 by the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS) of the Paris Peace Accords.
In depth
Article 29 of the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Viet-Nam provided that "supervision and control of the execution" of the agreement would be carried out by an International Commission, and Article 34 composed it of representatives of Canada, India and Poland with the Indian representative presiding. It set up fixed and mobile inspection teams, the fixed teams stationed at fourteen points including Lao Cai, Lang Son, Haiphong and Saigon (Article 35). The Joint Commission of the two commands executed the ceasefire itself, while the International Commission supervised whether the agreement was observed. The three states represented the non-communist, communist and non-aligned blocs; Canada was assumed to favour the South and Poland the North, and India chaired as the "honest broker".
Its main task in the first two years was the 300-day regroupment and movement of population: 897,149 people moved, 892,876 from north to south and 4,269 from south to north. Under the accords the commission was to end once separation was complete, but its members decided to continue because of the tension between North and South.
After the 1956 elections failed to take place the commission lost what influence it had. Its members were secondary powers, contributions were late or never arrived, and lacking its own vehicles it had to travel in government convoys and lost the element of surprise. Because it could prove violations of the arms provisions in the South but not in the North it was accused of a double standard. On 13 February 1965 it reported that the United States had violated the Geneva Agreements, with no response from the international community. In 1968 Mieczysław Maneli, head of the Polish delegation, defected to the United States.
When India normalised relations with North Vietnam alone in 1972, South Vietnam forced the Indian delegation and with it the whole commission out of the country. The commission tried to work from Hanoi but formally closed in March 1973 and was replaced by the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS) of the Paris Peace Accords. In English it was usually called the International Control Commission (ICC); the Korean translation of the Geneva agreement renders it simply as the International Commission.