From: tran@peora.sdc.ccur.com (Nhan Tran)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: NEWS: UN soldiers stationed on VN-Cambodia border
Date: 17 Apr 92 18:32:34 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.1992Apr17.183234.7822
Reply-To: tran@peora.sdc.ccur.com
Organization: N/A
Originator: daemon@media.mit.edu

04/16

U.N. soldiers stationed on Vietnam-Cambodia border

By SUE DOWNIE
   PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (UPI) -- The first United Nations peacekeepers have been
stationed on the Vietnam-Cambodia border as part of a deployment to ensure the
withdrawal of foreign troops from Cambodia, the U.N. military commander
announced Thursday.
   The first three border checkpoints have been chosen in the southeast of the
country, two on roads and the third on the Mekong River, said Lt. Gen. John
Sanderson, force commander of the U.N. Transitioanl Authority in Cambodia
(UNTAC).
   Two UNTAC police, two military observers and one Australian signals soldier
have been placed at each checkpoint.
   Under the peace agreement signed in Paris last October, UNTAC will establish
nine border check points on the Vietnam side, two on the Laotian border and
seven along the Thai frontier in order to ensure that foreign troops withdraw
and do not return.
   The Vietnamese have assisted Cambodian government troops in their fight
against the guerillas since 1979, and the three resistance factions have
received supplies across the Thai border from China and Western countries.
   The communist Khmer Rouge rebel group claims Vietnamese troops are still
working with government forces and is anxious for UNTAC to ensure the complete
withdrawal of Vietnamese soldiers.
   Meanwhile, UNTAC has not been able to resolve the conflict in Kompong Thom
Province, some 100 miles north of Phnom Penh.
   Government and Khmer Rouge troops have been fighting since mid- January in
the central province, and despite a new cease-fire, small clashes are
continuing, Sanderson said.
   The government has withdrawn the bulk of its forces, but the Khmer Rouge is
refusing, and this is delaying the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in the area,
the commander said.
   Thursday marks the first month of UNTAC's operations in Cambodia, and already
the world body is being criticized for not resolving the Kompong Thom conflict
quickly.
   However, Sanderson said all possible measures have been taken, given the
limited resources of the U.N. operation, which is building towards a peak of
15,000 peacekeepers by the end of May.
   Sanderson said "skirmishes" in Kompong Thom are not serious.
   "We've not had a significant breach of the cease-fire, but unfortunately, the
factions are still in contact," he said.
   The commander said the two sides have been asked to withdraw so U.N. forces
can move into villages and stabalise the area and allow the 20, 000 villagers
displaced by the fighting to return to their homes.
   "I'm very determined to allow people back to their villages prior to the wet
season so they can plant a rice crop, but it doesn't look good at this stage,"
the general said.
   Sanderson countered claims that Kompong Thom could have been resolved
quicker, and said he did not believe the U.N. schedule for elections in April
next year was slipping.
   "We've made considerable progress in the past month. We still have a lot of
people to come; we've been working on a shoestring; the budget is still to be
approved in New York; we still have the bulk of the observers and civil staff to
come. We've been working with such limited resources I think we've made good
progress."
   The operation will be dramatically expanded in the next few weeks with the
arrival each day of hundreds of blue-beret U.N. soldiers and police.
   The build-up began two weeks ago, and by the end of the month, an extra 4,000
peacekeepers are expected to be in country, adding to the 2, 000 already
stationed here.
   Infantry batallions are due next week from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan,
and an engineering batallion is due from China next Tuesday.
   A total of 15,000 peacekeepers are needed by the end of May to canton and
disarm the 200,000 soldiers of the four factions, then demobilize 70 per cent of
them -- all of which will take up to four months.