China pledges to widen Kampuchean rebel aid

Press, 2 August 1983, Page 10

China pledges to widen Kampuchean rebel aid

NZPA ' Bangkok The Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Wu Xueqian, yesterday pledged “as much aid as possible” to two nonCommunist Kampuchean groups fighting the Vietnamese in Kampuchea and took a tough line on China’s bitter southern enemy.

Mr Wu said that China would send aid to factions led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk and a former Prime Minister, Son Sann, as well as to the Communist Khmer Rouge — the three groups which make up a coalition government fighting Hanoi’s forces in Kampuchea. China’s past military and other aid has gone largely to the Khmer Rouge. Mr Wu also urged other nations which supported the coalition government to send aid to the coalition, saying that China was bearing the “burden” alone.

The visiting Minister told a news conference in Bangkok that a total withdrawal of Vietnamese forces from Kampuchea would have to take place before a political settlement could be reached in Kampuchea. He accused the Vietnamese of playing “tricks”

in an effort to legitimise their presence in Kampuchea. which they invaded in late 1978. Mr Wu said that the coalition fighters were scoring successes against the Vietnamese but he admitted that there had been “no breakthrough” on the key issue of Vietnamese presence in that country. Although he said that China reserved the right to teach Vietnam “a second lesson” - a reference to China’s attack into northern Vietnamese provinces in 1979 — he appeared to downplay the possibility of a big military confrontation between the two countries.

“Now the war is going on inside Kampuchea not at the Chinese-Vietnamese border,” he said. Conditions had improved in Kampuchea since the formation of the coalition last year, although he noted that there were “small differences” among the three partners. He downplayed the bloody record of the Khmer Rouge while in power, saying that those were a thing of the past. Mr Wu arrived at Bangkok on Saturday for a fourday visit. •