U.N. body gives seat to Khmer Rouge

Press, 24 September 1980, Page 8

U.N . body gives seat to Khmer Rouge

I NZPA-Reuter New York J The United Nations Credentials Committee has recommended that the Khmer Rouge should continue to represent Kampuchea at the world body, despite the replacement of I the Khmer Rouge administration in Phnom Penh last year by the Vietnamesebacked Heng Satnrin Government.

The recommendation .was contained in a resolution to the General Assembly by the nine-nation Credentials Committee which, if custom were observed, would require a two-thirds majority in the assembly to overturn. ; The committee also; recommended acceptance of; the credentials of' Afghanistan and Israel.

The committee acted without a vote, although members from Angola and the Soviet Union said Kampuchea should be represented by the Heng Samrin Government.

China supported the Khmer Rouge. So did the United States and Singapore, although they deplored the Khmer Rouge recdril on human rights.

:[ AU three said the fact that jthey did not challenge the • j credentials of Afghanistan ■idid not imply they ac!iquiesced in the Soviet milijtary involvement there. ■j No challenge was offered ito Israel’s credentials, although there had been spec-, ulation that Arab States and ■ their allies might do so as a means of getting the Jewish State suspended from the assembly. The meeting of the committee had been requested by the Khmer Rouge delegation, which sought rcconflrmation of its recognition by the United Nations m the face of two .recent commimjications from the Heng Samirin Government challenging ’its right to represent Kampuchea. The members of the Credentials Committee are Angola, China, Costa Rica, Haiti, Kenya, Singapore, the Soviet Union, Spain, and the United States. Thirteen countries, including New Zealand, have formally submitted a Gen- ; era! Assembly resolution calling for the convening of : an international conference early next year on Kam- ■ puchea.'

Pending a settlement of the conflict in Kampuchea, the draft resolution would call for the stationing of a United Nations observer team on the Thai side of the border to verify that only civilian Kampucheans obtain international relief aid. Safe areas under United Nations supervision would also be established in western Kampuchea for the uprooted civilian Kampucheans encamped near the >ThaiKampuchean border I and those in Thailand wishing to return to their homeland. According to the draft, one of the aims of thelpro[posed international conference would be to reach agreement on the total Withdrawal of foreign troops from Kampuchea within a specific time, to be verified by the United Nations.

Other aims would include measures by the United Nations, to ensure law order and the observance: of the fundamental principles of human rights in Kampuchea, United Nations measures to ensure noninterference by outside powers, and the holding jof free. United Nations-super-vised elections.