Care needed over Kampuchea

Press, 12 July 1988, Page 12

Care needed over Kampuchea

Mr Marshall, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, has added his voice to the voices of others who are increasingly concerned that the Pol Pot forces will come to dominate the Government of . Kampuchea once the Vietnamese forces have gone home. He was attending a post-Ministerial meeting in Bangkok of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (of which the members are Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Brunei). Other countries which are invited to the post-Ministerial meeting are Canada, the United States, Australia, and Japan. The European Community is also invited and attends. All of these so-called dialogue partners, including New Zealand, have given a great deal of support to A.S.E.A.N.’s views on Kampuchea. The support was given with some reluctance because it entailed, for some time, accepting the Pol Pot group as representing Kampuchea in the United Nations. The Pol Pot group was later to sink into a coalition. The logic in the A.S.E.A.N. view was that the Heng Samrin regime in Kampuchea should not be accorded that international recognition because to do so would reward Vietnam for its invasion and the setting up of what was, at least initially, a puppet Government. But occupying the U.N. seat is one thing and returning the murderous Pol Pot regime to power quite another. None of the A.S.E.A.N. countries wants that; nor do any of the dialogue partners and probably none of those countries which supported the A.S.E.A.N. case so overwhelmingly in the United Nations. So the time has come to ensure that it does not happen. It is difficult to know how to stop it. Possibly Vietnam would not withdraw its troops if it believed that the Pol Pot group would take over power in its place. That might be one solution; but there is a general enthusiasm in A.S.E.A.N. to have the Vietnamese out of Kampuchea. The invasion has proved to be a stumbling block to the development of good relations within SouthEast Asia. Vietnam’s announced intention is that it will pull out 50,000 of its troops by the end of this year and leave the rest under the control of the Heng Samrin regime. The trouble is that, under present circumstances, if Vietnam goes this will leave the Khmer Rouge, the Pol Pot forces, as a very strong military force in the country, both numerically and in arms. It may make a bid for complete domination. If such a bid were successful, one of the most sickening regimes in human history would have regained power. Attention is being concentrated on how to avoid this. One of the keys to the issue is held by China, which has supported and armed the

troops of the coalition Government, of which the Khmer Rouge is the most powerful group. China believes that the Khmer Rouge is the only viable force against the official Phnom Penh troops and the Vietnamese. United States officials went to the surprising extent recently of planting some misinformation about China’s willingness to become host to Pol Pot himself and other Khmer leaders. The ploy was that a China which denied that it was willing to take Pol Pot might be seen as isolating itself from the countries seeking a solution to the Cambodian conflict; if China did not deny the report it could be interpreted as acquiescing in the proposal. The intention was tq force China to face up to the reality of , Pol Pot The. whole. thing appeared to fall’ through when a number of - American journalists tracked down the misinformation attempt.

The United States Secretary of State, Mr Shultz, who was also in Bangkok, will soon be going to Beijing. One of his main intentions is to sort out an approach to the Kampuchean problem. Mr Shultz is reported to be averse to giving the Khmer Rouge any role at all in governing Kampuchea. That is a reaction which should attract a great deal of sympathy from many people interested in the future of Kampuchea.

The general plan has been for the former Cambodian leader, Prince Sihanouk, to form a Government combining several factions. It would be a Government of national reconciliation and would hold power pending an election. Last year, Prince Sihanouk spoke to the Heng Samrin Prime Minister, Mr Hun Sen, as part of the attempt to establish a Government after the withdrawal of Vietnam’s main forces. However, Prince Sihanouk has just resigned from the presidency of the coalition group and this alters the whole approach. A proposal remains for the various factions to meet in Jakarta later this month.

An international peace-keeping force is considered to be a necessary part of the transition period. There is a strong suggestion from Japan that it would fund such a force — a measure that would be a very substantial contribution to finding a way out of the dilemmas. Just who would take part in the peace-keeping force and how willing other groups would be to relinquish their arms are important considerations. Now that the Vietnamese appear to be serious about withdrawing, it is important that the momentum towards a resolution of the conflict should be maintained. Yet it is reasonable to argue, as A.S.E.A.N. and its supporters argue, that nothing should be hurried if there is any risk at all that the Khmer Rouge would once more become dominant in Kampuchea.