From: Nhan Tran <tran@peora.sdc.ccur.com>
Subject: NEWS/VN: Diplomat worried by Khmer Rouge threat against Vietnamese
Originator: daemon@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Reply-To: tran@peora.sdc.ccur.com
Organization: N/A
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 14:20:03 GMT


08/14

DIPLOMAT WORRIED BY KHMER ROUGE VIETNAMESE THREAT

    By Mark Dodd
    PHNOM PENH, Aug 14, Reuter - A Khmer Rouge threat of violence against
Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia is a dangerous development which exploits
traditional animosity between the two peoples, a senior Phnom Penh-based
diplomat said on Friday.
    Khmer Rouge president Khieu Samphan, in an interview in the latest Far
Eastern Economic Review, said that if United Nations peacekeepers did not expel
the Vietnamese civilians then Cambodians might attack them.
    He made a reference to bodies floating down the Mekong River, reviving
images of an earlier pogrom under the U.S.-backed Lon Nol government of 1970-75.
    The Khmer Rouge have recently increased their anti-Vietnamese rhetoric,
claiming at least two million Vietnamese are now living in Cambodia. They
describe them as part of an occupying force bent on "swallowing Cambodia."
    According to the diplomat, the Khmer Rouge threat was a "dangerous course of
action aimed at encouraging racial tension which could lead to inter-ethnic
violence."
    "I think it's a worrying development," he added. "I think they see this as a
major plank in a political platform."
    The Khmer Rouge have cited the Vietnamese issue as a main reason for
reneging on the peace agreement they and their two non-communist allies signed
in Paris last October with the government set up after the Vietnamese invasion
in 1978.
    In addition to exploiting traditional antipathy against the Vietnamese, the
Khmer Rouge feel a particular hatred against Vietnam because of the invasion,
the diplomat said.
    The invasion toppled Pol Pot's regime and sent the Khmer Rouge reeling into
border sanctuaries in Thailand where they regrouped as a guerrilla army with
political support from China, Thailand and the West.
    At least one million people died from execution, disease and starvation
during Pol Pot's rule.
    The Khmer Rouge threat appeared to violate a declaration of human rights
that all four factions signed in April in a ceremony in Phnom Penh attended by
U.N. Secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
    The diplomat warned that while the Khmer Rouge professed continued support
for the Paris peace agreement, the shadowy guerrilla group may be planning
another agenda.
    "No one knows whether they are simply playing brinkmanship or whether they
have some other course of action such as regaining power without having to go
through the peace process," he said.
    "If it is the latter that would be a sad misjudgement."
    The Khmer Rouge are refusing to lay down their arms, as the other factions
are doing on the grounds that Vietnamese soldiers continue to operate in
Cambodia. They also want the all-faction Supreme National Council to be given
sweeping new powers.
    On Thursday Lieutenant-General John Sanderson, the Australian military
commander of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, said the
Khmer Rouge had provided no evidence to support their claim.
    "They continue to maintain an aggressive posture but we have some fairly
significant indications in the Cambodian side that their people are tired of war
and want peace."