Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 12:06:29 -0500
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      CAM: Khmer Rouge detains 12 UN personnels

01/21

Cambodia

Copyright, 1993. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By SHEILA McNULTY
 Associated Press Writer
   PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- Khmer Rouge guerrillas kept 12 U.N. personnel
under detention for a fourth day today as architects of Cambodia's peacekeeping
operation prepared to try edging the peace process forward.
   In Bangkok, Thailand, Indonesia's foreign minister failed to get the Khmer
Rouge to rejoin the peace process.
   The Khmer Rouge says it will not cooperate with U.N. peacekeepers until all
Vietnamese are evicted from Cambodia and it gets more power in the interim
period before elections in May.
   The Communist group, which slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Cambodians
during its radical regime in 1975-78, has until Wednesday to register as a
political party to participate in the U.N.-organized elections.
   Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans and Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali
Alatas were to arrive in Phnom Penh on Friday for several days of meetings with
U.N. officials and Cambodian politicians. Marrack Goulding, the top U.N.
official for peacekeeping, is scheduled to arrive Sunday.
   Evans and Alatas were instrumental in forging the peace accord that
Cambodia's Vietnam-installed government and three rebel factions signed in
October 1991 to end their 13-year civil war.
   The accord authorized a U.N. operation of 22,000 peacekeepers, who are to
disarm the factions and prepare for elections. But the Khmer Rouge has refused
to disarm and blocked election preparations in the 15 percent of the Cambodian
countryside that it controls.
   The U.N. Security Council imposed an oil embargo on Khmer Rouge-held
territory Jan. 1 trying to force compliance. It is not clear if the embargo has
been effective.
   In another area, U.N. police have begun exercising their new authority to
arrest Cambodians suspected of committing politically motivated violence, a
move they hope will end grenade and shooting attacks on opposition politicians.
   Spokesman Eric Falt said U.N. civilian police on Saturday arrested M. Chan,
the main suspect in the murder of Kiev Savuth on Jan. 14 and flew him to Phnom
Penh to determine if he should stand trial.
   Alatas met with Khmer Rouge President Khieu Samphan but was unable to make
headway. But Evans said that even if the Khmer Rouge did not take part in
elections, that did not mean the process would be disrupted.
   In the past two months, the Khmer Rouge have detained U.N. personnel more
than six times in various parts of the country before releasing them unharmed.
   The 12 held since Monday at the guerrilla headquarters in Pailin, 220 miles
northwest of Phnom Penh, are from the United States, Ireland, Ghana, Britain,
Australia and Cambodia.
   Pailin is the only important area under Khmer Rouge control where U.N.
personnel have been allowed.
   The workers have been told they cannot leave the town except to return to
Phnom Penh, Falt said. He declined to say whether U.N. officials were planning
to withdraw the men.
   "It is not a normal situation, but we're not worried about the safety and
well-being of our personnel," Falt said. He declined further comment.