International Moscow block U.N. action on Kmapuchea

Press, 17 January 1979, Page 8

International Moscow block U.N. action on Kmapuchea

NZPA-Reuter New York Kampuchea Cambodia) and its ally 7, China, are considering bringing their dispute with Vietnam before the United Nations General Assembly after the Soviet Union used its veto to block action by the Security Council.

Thirteen of the council’s 15 members voted in favour > of a resolution calling for at. I: immediate . cease-fire ii.'i Kampuchea and for theii withdrawal of all foreign i forces. : i Only the Soviet Union, i I Vietnam s veto-wieiding ally, [< and Czechoslovakia opposed the draft, sponsored by the I council’s seven non-aligned 1 members. The council session was I t summoned last week at theji request of Kampuchea’s if Peking-backed Pol Pot Gov-it ernment, which charged ( ; Vietnam with invading Kam- t puchea and installing a puppet regime in Phnom Penh, j 1 The United Nations still rec-It ognises the Pol Pot author- ; ities as the legal Govern- f tnent. Chinese and Kampuchean t

diplomats said yesterday > they were considering bringing' the dispute before the ■General Assembly, which has just resumed work on a inumber of items left over i when it adjourned for the I Christmas-New Year holidays. The resumed session of the assembly is scheduled to last a week'or 10 days. Since there is no veto in i the 151-nation body, observ[ers said a resolution calling for the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Kampuchea would be certain to win adoption. But it would carry much less weight than a decision of the Security Council, the primary United Nations peace-keeping organ. Most observers agreed that events on the ground,

11where the Pol Pot Govern-. • iment has vowed to wage a! : I guerrilla war, would in any 11 case overshadow any United 11 Nations action. The Security Council •imove brought the total of (Soviet vetoes since the establishment of the United '■Nations more than 33 years i ago to 111, compared to 21 (by the United States and 15 Iby Britain. I The Soviet Union was particularly disconcerted at . having to kill a resolution sponsored by the council’s , Third World members — i Bangladesh, Bolivia, Gabon, Jamaica, Kuwait, Nigeria and Zambia. China, locked in a bitter , ideological struggle with the , Soviet Union, was especially : delighted at having forced ! Moscow into a bruising con- t frontation with the nonaligned States. I Vietnam also appeared to [! have tarnished its image as a militant member of thel : non-aligned bloc. Only Cuba,)? among the group’s members, i‘ .threw its support behind! (Vietnam and the Soviet I [Union. j i Prince Norodom Sihanouk, I I who arrived in New York r [via Peking last week to head (the Kampuchea delegation, e imissed the final day of the i ifour-day debate. i He was admitted to hospi- c ) tai on Sunday suffering from I i what was described as ex- v treme stress and exhaustion c and has begun a series of t medical tests. r The 56-year-old former! I

• Kampuchean ruler, in his i council appearances, was vehement in his denunciation of alleged Vietnamese aggression despite having spent the last few years as al virtual prisoner of the Poli Pot Government that he now! represents. A persistent theme of I many speeches, including [those of Western representatives, was that the Pol Pot regime’s reputation as a brutal violator of human rights did not justify its overthrow' by a powerful neighbour. Meanwhile, there was no indication yet whether the United Nations SecretaryGeneral (Dr Kurt Waldheim) 1 intended going ahead with at least part of a planned trip to South-East Asia later this month. The itinerary, announced Iseveral weeks ago, was to! [have included Kampuchea!’ and Vietnam, as well as In-1 donesia, Malaysia, Sing- i apore, and Thailand. The new ruler?’ of Kam-j, puchea have said that Prince I j Sihanouk is free to return [< home, an East German daily I newspaper has said. I, Ros Samay, secretary-gen- ; eral of the Kampuchean Nat- ( ional United Front for Nat- £ ional Salvation, told a press ( conference in Hanoi that < Prince Sihanouk must decide j whether to act as a patriot or a tool of foreign reac- . tionary interests, the Com- < munist Party paper. “Neues \ Deutschland,” reported. f