PHNOM PENH 5a.m. Peking call on U.S. pull-out

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33817, 14 April 1975, Page 17

PHNOM PENH 5a.m. Peking call on U.S. pull-out

/By

SERGE ROMANSKY,

of Agence Ftance-Ptesse, through N.Z.P.A. i

PEKING, April 13. The curtain has fallen in Cambodia—a fact which the United States has recognised officially.

Five years after a coup d’etat had temporarily expelled Prince Norodom Sihanouk from power in Phnom Penh, the United States, in a Note delivered to the Prince in his Peking headquarters during the week-end, invited him to return to the capital and take hack the reins of power.

But Prince Sihanouk refused to return until the Khmer Rouge forces had occupied the city. In reply, he advised the Americans to evacuate) their embassy in Phnom Penh without delay, i They immediately complied. Long labelled ' prince-in-! exile,” and considered a nonentity by the United States, Prince Sihanouk must have felt a certain satisfaction in hearing Mr George Bush, the head of the American Liaison Office in Peking, tell him over the telephone at 5 a.m. that Washington would heed his warning and abandon the embassy.

But it is a bitter satisfaction after five years of war which has claimed a million Cambodian lives, cost the United States millions of dollars, and brought in a p r o-Communist regime which will totally control Cambodia within a few days, if not hours. In a written statement before the telephone call, Prince Sihanouk had said: "The United States diplomat (Mr Bush) communicated to me a Note from the United States Government which informed me, last night, that everyone in Phnom Penh wanted my immediate return to our capital, my take-over of power in Phnom Penh, and my aid to get a ceasefire from the Khmer Rouge. “I replied by a Note that I would remain until the end at the side of the Khmer Rouge—my allies whom I would never betray—and that there must be absolutely no frustrating of so deserved a victory. "I therefore firmly refused to take power in Phnom Penh, saying that I had already! transferred, in my capacity as legal Head of State of

Cambodia, all the Govern-' [ment responsibilities to the ) Khmer Rouge. “I ended my Note by advising the United States to 'evacuate without delay their embassy and civilian and military personnel from Cambodia, so as to safeguard I the chances of a rapid normal- ! isation of our inter-State I and inter-governmental reI lations.” i Two points are (noteworthy in the unusual (diplomatic exchange between I Mr Bush and Prince Siha- [ nouk: i The Prince rot used to “betray" the Khmer Rouge by returning to! I Phnom Penh without them. The United States was perhaps counting, as a last resort, on the personal presence of the Prince to balance and moderate the team that, beyond all doubt, will take power in Phnom Penh. But that pow Penh. But that power, as Prince Sihanouk has said with absolute clarity, belongs henceforth to the Khmer Rouge alone, within the framework of his Royal Government of Khmer National Union (G.R.U.N.K.). Prince Sihanouk offered the United States a chance for rapid restoration to normal of CambodianAmerican relations after the Khmer Rouge victory, provided that all Americans still in Phnom Penh left immediately evacuated. Washington lumped at

this opportunity. One may assume that the Prince made this offer with prior agreement from the Khmer Rouge, wnn are thus not irreconcilably opposed to such relations once time has somewhat healed the wounds of war.

I That is the most the

United States could have hoped to save in the Cambodian collapse. It will have its importance in the evolution of South-East Asia.

French recognition

N.Z.P.A.-Reuter reports from Paris that France has recognised Prince Sihanouk’s Government.

The recognition came only hours after Prince Sihanouk had called on France from his residence-in-exile in Peking to make such a move.

The French-educated Prince asked in his statement “whether France wishes to follow the Government of President Lon Nol into its grave.” Though officials at the Quai d’Orsay would not; comment on the French move, it is assumed that it will automatically be accompanied by a severing of relations with the Khmer Republic. There is an embassy of the Khmer Republic in Paris and a French diplomatic staff in Phnom Penh.

About 700 French pass-port-holders, including journalists, are believed to be still in the Cambodian capital.

Relations between France and Prince Sihanouk have never been entirely severed since the French Embassy in China maintained periodic contact with him and the G.R.U.N.K. has a permanent (mission in Paris. The Malaysian Prime Minister (Tun Abdul Razak) said today that his country would establish relations with whatever governments emerged in Cambodia and South Vietnam i after the end of the IndoChina wars. I Tun Razak told reporters that Malaysia hoped to work with these governments “to achieve peace, neutrality, and: (freedom in South-East Asia,”l