Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Thu, 17 Dec 1992 12:09:33 -0500
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      CAM: Gov. troops allegedly gouge eye Sihanouk backer

11/14

CAMBODIAN TROOPS ALLEGEDLY GOUGE EYE FROM PRINCE SIHANOUK BACKER

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA (DEC. 14) UPI - Government soldiers allegedly gouged out
the eye of a supporter of head of state Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who threatened
Monday to stop cooperating with the government and U.N. peacekeepers unless
they control acts of political violence.

''I cannot fail to react when confronted with the increasing acts of political
terrorism and the continuation, with absolute impunity, of politically
motivated crimes,'' said Sihanouk, 70.

An official of Sihanouk's royalist party said Su Sareth, 30, was attacked
Saturday by a group of government soldiers in Svay Rieng Province, about 90
miles southeast of the capital.

Sareth's right eye was ''pulled out with an instrument,'' said Phauk Samen, an
electoral member of the party known by its French acronym, FUNCINPEC.

''As soon as Sareth was attacked, he was helped by U.N. workers who sent him to
a provincial clinic and then to the U.N. Field Hospital in Phnom Penh,'' said
Samen.

A U.N. spokesman confirmed Monday that party member Sareth was attacked and was
being treated in the U.N. military-run hospital in Phnom Penh.

''He was operated on, on one eye, and became blind in that eye,'' the spokesman
told reporters.

Aden Barherd, a German doctor who treated Sareth, said he was in serious
condition Sunday and would probably ''return home in three or four days.''

U.N. peacekeepers, formally known as the U.N. Transitional Authority in
Cambodia, are overseeing implementation of an October 1991 peace accord signed
in Paris by the Phnom Penh government and three resistance factions. That
agreement calls for U.N.-supervised elections next May.

The factions began fighting a 13-year civil war after Vietnam invaded Cambodia
in 1978. Hanoi ousted a brutal Khmer Rouge government blamed for the deaths of
1 million Cambodians and set up a new government.

The Khmer Rouge then became one of the three factions fighting to topple the
Vietnamese-backed government. Vietnam later withdrew its forces from Cambodia,
but the Khmer Rouge alleges some Vietnamese remain in the country.

The FUNCINPEC official alleged Sareth was attacked because he had reported to
U.N. registration teams that he believed some Vietnamese were trying to
illegally register for next year's elections.

Samen added U.N. peacekeepers in the province had not been neutral and ''have
not settled our complaints, even when we gave the real evidence with names of
those who harassed us. UNTAC should take urgent and effective measures to get
rid of all political harassment, or people have no hope in UNTAC.''

The alleged attack on Sareth was the latest in recent months against members of
parties opposed to the Vietnamese-installed Phnom Penh government.

Sihanouk Monday threatened to ''cease working with UNTAC and the Cambodian
government, whom I have always loyally and affectionately aided and supported,
'' unless they controlled the violence.

The former monarch is head of state and chairman of the Supreme National
Council, which groups UNTAC and leaders of the four factions.

U.N. peacekeepers and the Phnom Penh government ''are not capable of bringing
true democracy and peace to my country,'' Sihanouk charged.

The prince made the statement in Beijing, where he is receiving medical
treatment, but the statement was released in Bangkok, Thailand.

Sihanouk has previously threatened to resign as a bargaining ploy.
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