Peking wants French help over Kampuchea

Press, 6 May 1983, Page 6

Peking wants French help over Kampuchea

NZPA-Reuter Peking The Chinese Communist Party leader, Deng Xiaoping, said yesterday that peace would return to Kampuchea only when Vietnam withdrew all its troops. Mr Deng made the comment to reporters as he met the French President, Mr Francois Mitterrand. The journalists had asked him what role he thought France could play in helping to resolve the conflict in Kampuchea, a point on which Peking and Paris have differed sharply. “I hope that all the countries of the world, including France and China, will help to induce Vietnam to withdraw its troops rapidly and

totally from Kampuchea,” he said. “The Kampuchean problem will clearly be settled

(this way) sooner or later.” Mr Deng greeted the President warmly at the Great Hall of the People and thanked Mr Mitterrand for returning to China so soon after his visit in February, 1981, when he was the Presidential candidate. Mr Mitterrand arrived in China on Tuesday and will leave Peking today for a provincial tour before flying home tomorrow. France, while condemning Vietnam’s military occupation, refuses to back the coalition of resistance forces which includes the Peking-supported Khmer Rouge, whom it blames for atrocities committed between 1975 and 1979.