Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Mon, 11 Jan 1993 10:05:42 -0500
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      CAM: Strife

01/09

Cambodia-Strife

Copyright, 1993. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By ROBERT H. REID
 Associated Press Writer

   PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- Factional violence rooted in deep-seated
personal animosities is undermining a U.N. mission's attempt to ensure
stability and peace for democratic elections in Cambodia.
   Cambodian leaders say U.N. peacekeepers, authorized under a 1991 accord to
disarm rival factions after 13 years of war, are to blame for not curbing
violence by both the Khmer Rouge guerrillas and government troops.
   U.N. officials and Western diplomats say the real problem lies in the
rivalries of the Cambodian leaders and their failure to work within the mandate
the U.N. Security Council set for more than 20,000 peacekeepers.
   Despite the tensions, the peace process is expected to forge ahead, if only
because the international community will work to keep it alive because of all
the money and effort invested. Peacekeepers have registered 4.4 million of an
estimated 5 million eligible voters for elections scheduled for May.
   For nearly 13 years, the Vietnamese-installed government battled guerrillas
of the Khmer Rouge, Prince Norodom Ranariddh's group and the Khmer People's
National Liberation Front. In October 1991 in Paris, they signed a treaty that
provided for a $2 billion U.N. peacekeeping operation to create a safe, neutral
environment for the polls.
   But the pact did not give them authority to force compliance. And while
battlefield fighting dropped off sharply after the accord, the strife hasn't
faded.
   From the start, the accord has been violated by the Communist Khmer Rouge,
which slaughtered Cambodians through purges, forced labor and disease during
its three-year rule in the 1970s.
   Prime Minister Hun Sen and other leaders of the current government were
Khmer Rouge officers who fled the group's purges and sought protection from
neighboring Vietnam.
   And national reconciliation leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk has strongly
criticized both the Khmer Rouge and the current government, although
circumstances have forced him to cooperate with both at times.
   Last week, the animosity and finger-pointing continued.
   Sihanouk said he was no longer cooperating with the peacekeepers because
they had failed to halt bloody attacks on members of the political party led
by his son, Ranariddh. The next day, Ranariddh followed suit.
   This rift may not seriously erode the peacekeepers' position, however,
because Sihanouk will continue "personal" contacts with the peacekeepers and
Ranariddh's group will still carry out the peace accord. And both men are known
to change their minds often.
   Hun Sen also has criticized the peacekeepers, accusing them of backing down
when the Khmer Rouge has shelled U.N. positions and briefly taken peacekeepers
hostage. Khmer Rouge actions may make it impossible to hold the election, and
the peacekeepers' mandate should be broadened so they can stand up to the
guerrillas, he said.
   Hun Sen said if the Khmer Rouge doesn't cooperate by Jan. 31, it must be
barred from the election and outlawed.
   U.N. officials expressed frustration with both sides.
   "We've seen a lot of initiatives and doors shut," said U.N. spokesman Eric
Falt. "Our position has always been to keep the doors open" to the Khmer Rouge.
   "We need everybody to participate in the peace process as set down in the
Paris agreements," he said.
   Falt urged all sides to "give the (U.N.) mandate a chance," but U.N.
officials have acknowledged there were limits to what the peacekeepers could do
under that mandate.
   The agreements assumed that signatories would cooperate and did not give the
peacekeepers enforcement powers. Falt said any change of the mandate would have
to be decided by the Security Council and the co-chairmen of the Paris peace
conference, France and Indonesia.
   The peacekeepers, within the limits of their power, are getting tougher.
   Peacekeeping chief Yasushi Akashi on Thursday gave U.N. police powers of
arrest and established a U.N. role in indicting and prosecuting human rights
violators. U.N. police also will protect party offices around the clock.
   The peacekeepers had been preoccupied with Khmer Rouge intransigence, but
the political violence has deepened worries about the attitude of the
government.  Party officials say a total of 31 officials of Ranariddh's party
and an allied party have been slain in recent months.
   Hun Sen has blamed the Khmer Rouge, but Western diplomats say at least some
of the violence has been traced to government agents. They also suspect the
government army has been attacking Khmer Rouge positions in violation of the
peace accords.
   All this raises the possibility that the government, fearing an electoral
defeat, may seek to stop the balloting by staging covert incidents or claiming
the voting would not be fair because of Khmer Rouge violations.
   Ranariddh's party is popular because of its link with Sihanouk, considered
god-king by many Cambodians who recall his peaceful rule between 1941 to 1970.
Hun Sen's party is tainted by links with the Vietnamese and repressive
Communist rule for most of the party's existence.
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