Lao former president Nouhak Phoumsavanh dies at 94

"He died at 23:20 Tuesday," said Lao foreign ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy. 

"National mourning will be held for five days," he said in a telephone interview from Vientiane with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 

Nouhak, born April 9, 1914, was a founding father of the Pathet Lao revolutionary movement that came to power on December 2, 1975, when the land-locked South-East Asian country opted for communism.

He was president of Laos between 1992 to 1998, following the death of Kaysone Phomvihane, the longtime chairman of the Lao communist party.

"He had always been Number 2 in the party," said Yong of Nouhak. 

Nouhak was imprisoned for a year under the previous royalist regime but escaped from his Vientiane jail with the "Red Prince," Souphanouvong, who was communist Laos' first president between 1975 to 1991. 

Nouhak was the first finance minister of communist Laos. The old revolutionary was in remarkably good health to the end despite his 90-plus years.

"We only persuaded him to stop visiting the provinces in his reserved helicopter last year," said Yong.//dpa