From: tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM (Nhan Tran)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Subject: CAM: on the brink of civil war
Date: 12 Nov 92 15:12:14 GMT
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

11/11

CAMBODIA PUSHED TO THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR AS LATEST PEACE EFFORT FAILS

BANGKOK (NOV. 11) IPS - Cambodia appears once more on the brink of war after
the failure of the latest attempt to revive the United Nations-sponsored peace
process in Beijing.

But U.N. peacekeepers in Cambodia insist peace is still possible even as
sporadic armed clashes continue to erupt in parts of the war-weary nation.

Representatives of Cambodia's four warring factions and international mediators
met in Beijing in an effort to save the peace accord they signed in Paris last
October.

The talks broke down as the Khmer Rouge, the most dreaded rebel guerrilla group
among the factions, remained adamant in its refusal to honor the peace plan.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told reporters in Bangkok Tuesday that war is
imminent if no "immediate measures are taken." During the talks, Khmer Rouge
head Khieu Samphan also hinted that the country could slide back into war.

But U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) chief Yasushi Akashi, who
also attended the talks, said he was confident that "free and fair elections"
scheduled for May 1993 will push through despite the Khmer Rouge.

He said the failed talks proved the Paris peace plan could be "unenforceable."
But he added the accord remains a viable framework that can stand "adjustments
and accommodations to ensure the neutral political environment."

The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to meet next week to decide on what to
do next in Cambodia. France and Indonesia, which co-chaired the talks in
Beijing, are expected to submit their recommendations along with those of
Akashi.

U.N. peacekeeping troops have been in Cambodia since March on a two billion
dollar peace-keeping mission supposed to prepare the country for next May's
elections.

But UNTAC ran into trouble in July, when the Khmer Rouge suddenly refused to
disarm according to the plan and barred U.N. personnel from inspecting their
territory under its control.

The other three factions followed suit and have since refused to let go of
their weapons. In the past months, occasional skirmishes among the factions
have made the situation more tense.

And as rival leaders tried to preserve the peace accord in Beijing, some places
in Cambodia came under attack. Over the weekend, three people were killed and
24 wounded in an attack that the Hun Sen government blamed on the Khmer Rouge.

Cambodia expert Elizabeth Becker says the U.N. peace plan seeks to
systematically dismantle the Khmer Rouge power base. She says the Khmer Rouge
does not want the plan to work.

"By ending this isolation and opening up the country, the (peace) treaty
destroyed a precondition the Khmer Rouge have always sought to return to power
and control the people," Becker writes. "The Cambodian people now know they
have real alternatives."

In Beijing, the Khmer Rouge insisted on their demand for more power in the
Cambodian government. The rebel group has maintained the Phnom Penh government
is a puppet of Hanoi, and says it will not disarm unless all alleged Vietnamese
still in Cambodia are thrown out.

Vietnamese forces had invaded Cambodia in 1979, ending the Khmer Rouge's
four-year reign. While Hanoi withdrew its troops from Cambodia in 1989.

But while many Cambodians harbor ill feelings toward the Vietnamese, they also
have bitter memories of the Khmer Rouge's rule, during which at least one
million of their countrymen were slaughtered in the group's attempt to turn the
country into one big rural commune.
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