Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Mon, 28 Sep 1992 12:03:33 -0400
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      CAM: France plans crucial Cambodia meeting at Un

09/25

France plans crucial Cambodia meetings at U.N.

    By Evelyn Leopold
    UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25, Reuter - Fearful a Cambodian peace plan may be
derailed, France plans to call a series of meetings among 10 nations and
Cambodian factions on October 7 to 9 in an effort to shore up the largest and
most expensive U.N. peacekeeping operation, French diplomats said Friday.
    The sessions at the United Nations, would include Asian experts of at least
10 states who have formed a working group on Cambodia to assess the next step
in disarming and demobilising combatants so the country can be stabilised
before planned May elections.
    Among the nations at the talks will be the four other members of the
Security Council, who with France drew up the peace pact -- the United States,
China, Russia and Britain -- as well as Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Germany
and Canada.
    Final details are not set yet, depending on the schedule of the four
Cambodian parties, led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who are expected to attend
the U.N. General Assembly then.
    Yasushi Akashi, the U.N. head of the estimated $2 billion Cambodia
operation also plans to be in New York.
    Key to the negotiations are representatives of the Khmer Rouge, who are
refusing to disarm ot allow U.N. peacekeepers access to areas they control.
They have called for more say in the administration of the country, still run
by a Vietnamese- backed government.
    Western diplomats said the object was to find some solution to meet Khmer
Rouge concerns without reopening the agreement.
    "We're fairly determined to sort out the remaining problems," said one
Western specialist on Cambodia.
    If they fail, the Security Council would probably authorise the foreign
ministers of France and Indonesia, chairman of the October 1991 Paris
conference that finalised the agreement, to Phnom Penh to continue the
pressure. This was proposed in a report on Thursday by Secretary-General
Boutros-Ghali.
    Reflecting frustration about the peace process, foreign ministers from the
five permanent members of the council, issued a statement on Friday expressing
"deep concern" over the difficulties faced by the U.N. Transitional Authority
in Cambodia (UNTAC) in implementing the agreements.
    Boutros-Ghali said in his report that the continuing refusal of the Party
of Democratic Kampuchea (PDK) to grant UNTAC personnel access to the zones it
controls or to commit its forces to cantonment as called for in the
implementation plan gives grounds for serious concern."
    The PDK, or Khmer Rouge, held responsible for killing a million people when
they ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, are one of four factions pledged to
implement the peace plan.
    The Khmer Rouge claims thousands of Vietnamese soldiers remain in the
country while the United Nations says no evidence has been presented to back
this claim and Vietnam insists its troops were all withdrawn by September 1989.
    UNTAC, comprising some 15,100 troops, 2,500 police and over 1,000 civilian
administrators, is now close to full deployment and Boutros-Ghali said it was
still intended to hold elections not later than next May.