Sihanouk’s aims

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33783, 4 March 1975, Page 17

Sihanouk’s aims

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright)

NEW YORK, March 3.

Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the exiled former Cambodian Head of State, was quoted yesterday as saying in an interview that his forces did not plan to attack Phnom Penh immediately.

I The Prince was quoted by i “Newsweek” magazine as [saying in a telephone interview from his Peking exile: “Until further notice, our United National Liberation Front does not intend to launch a direct offensive against Phnom Penh. “For the moment, we are concentrating on reinforcing our hold on the Mekong (River), eliminating the out-; posts of Lon Nol’s Army, and drawing out of the capital

the largest possible number of the enemy Army’s combat units in order to chop them to pieces.” In an article published in the “New York Times” today, Prince Sihanouk indicated the possibility of future friendly relations with the United States, which is financing President Lon Nol’s fight against insurgents in Cambodia.

The exiled leader, deposed in 1970 and now based in Peking, said: “The financial aid and other types of aid from the United States to the Lon Nol Regime will not in any case make us negotiate or accept a compromise with the traitors, Lon Nol and his clique.” In an apparent response to the Ford Administration’s plea for emergency aid fori the Phnom Penh Government, Prince Sihanouk said that further United States aid would only prolong the war in Cambodia.

“Even if the United States spends billions of dollars more, our national resistance will not die. It will end in victory,” he said.

The Prince was quoted by “Newsweek” as saying that a compromise with President Lon Nol’s Government “is and will be absolutely unacceptable.” He said that in case of victory, “the principal traitors and war criminals . . . will be judged by a people’s tribunal. They can also flee Cambodia while there is still time.”

But he said that his moveiment w r as “disposed not to i punish civilians and military i traitors who join us in time.”! According to “Newsweek,”! he said that he made it clear! to the Khmer Rouge insurg-i ents that he would never again deal with his country’s internal affairs and would remain in Cambodia only one month out of each year. He would devote the balance of his time to foreign affairs.