Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Wed, 2 Sep 1992 14:06:26 -0400
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      CAM: UN official says poll possible minus Khmer Rouge
X-To:         FISHLM%SNYBUFVA@pucc.princeton.edu, seasia-l@msu.BITNET

08/20

U.N. OFFICIAL SAYS POLL POSSIBLE MINUS KHMER ROUGE

    By Mark Dodd
    PHNOM PENH, Aug 20, Reuter - U.N.-supervised elections in Cambodia next year
could go ahead without the participation of the Khmer Rouge guerrilla faction, a
senior U.N. official said.
    U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali last week approved a draft
electoral law for the polls in April or May.
    But the schedule is jeopardised by the refusal of the Khmer Rouge to
implement peace accords signed by the four rival Cambodian factions last
October.
    Asked if the election could be held excluding the Khmer Rouge, the official,
who spoke on Wednesday and on condition he was not identified, said it was
"notionally possible" but would require a change in the peace agreement.
    "They (Khmer Rouge) can now register...if they don't do it, then we're into
a new ball game. They could find themselves excluded from the process," he said.
    More than a million people died under the three-year rule of the Maoist
Khmer Rouge. Vietnamese troops invaded in December 1978 to oust them and instal
a pro-Hanoi government.
    The Khmer Rouge and two other foreign-backed guerrilla factions went on to
wage a 13-year war against the administration.
    The Khmer Rouge is eligible for the elections along with the other factions,
which include the administration, but it has so far rejected the electoral
process. It says it strongly disagrees with laws on who can vote.
    "They fear the franchise benefits the Vietnamese," said the U.N. official,
referring to ethnic Vietnamese settlers of whom some would be eligible to vote.
    Voter registration is due to begin in October and run until the end of
December.
    Under the newly revised rules, foreign-born voters must have at least one
parent and one grandparent born in Cambodia.
    The official warned that time was running out for the Khmer Rouge to
register their Party of Democratic Kampuchea.
    If they were not registered by the end of December, "they were not in the
game," he said. "It's a matter of seeing whether they go along with something
they don't accept."
    "There's still sufficient hope that we can keep the idea alive, that they
will come in."
    If the Khmer Rouge do register they would have to let rival campaigners
enter areas under their control. "If they don't do that then they face the
consequences of law which includes deregistration," the official said.
    The rules apply equally to all political parties, including the
Vietnamese-installed government which calls itself the State of Cambodia and
which formerly ruled as a strict Marxist one-party administration.
    "One should also face the fact that these expectations will be pretty hard
to swallow by other political parties, particularly the State of Cambodia," the
official said.
    "There hasn't been much multi-partying going on in its areas."
    He said current indications were that at least 14 political parties would
compete for election to a 120-seat constituent assembly.
    Last week's decision on the draft electoral law locked all the parties into
a timetable for the elections, he said.
    "I have a basic gut feeling, especially people who've been through the kind
of experiences they have been through, that if they have a chance to vote for a
party that will bring peace, they will."
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