THE PRESS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1989. Role of the Khmer Rouge

Press, 20 November 1989, Page 12

THE PRESS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1989. Role of the Khmer Rouge

The world is faced with a sickening dilemma over, the place of the Khmer Rouge in the future of Cambodia. If the world were a moral place, the crimes committed against humanity by the Khmer Rouge during the years they were in power should mean that they would forever be excluded from any further part in the Government of Cambodia. But military might cannot be disregarded. As the biggest and best equipped of the guerrilla forces, the Khmer Rouge would be in a position to seek to take by force what they did not gain through any negotiated settlement. The outcome would seem to be a continuation of an already-protracted war and such a war might end in the complete victory of the Khmer Rouge and place them in a position to commit further crimes against the people of Cambodia.

The alternative is to seek to include the Khmer Rouge in a government and hope that this will satisfy them, although it cannot be expected that the Khmer Rouge would be satisfied with a minor role in the Government, say the portfolio dealing with meteorological services. In this way. the position of the Khmer Rouge would be legitimised and, with any luck, the Khmer Rouge might see' advantage, in conducting themselves correctly. Hillary Wilberg, the New Zealand Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, made that very point sharply when she spoke in favour of the United Nations resolution on Cambodia. “New Zealand believes,” she said, "that the final step in the peace process — free, fair, and democratic elections — does require participation by all factions in the transitional administration, which will have the task of setting up a framework and conditions for the elections. That has to include the acceptable element of the Khmer Rouge. Only so can that faction be bound to accept both the electoral process and its outcome. To deny that would be to deny Cambodia’s reconstruction ...” In the next statement she touched on the risk associated with that policy “... we must be very clear that a solution that delivered the people of Cambodia back into the hands of Pol Pot would be no solution at all. The genocidal tyranny of that regime is well documented. Its brutality appalled us all. Despite utterances by their leaders, New Zealand does not believe their objectives or policies have changed. For its part, therefore, in pursuing the objectives of national reconciliation in Cambodia, the international community has an obligation to satisfy itself that there will be essential reassurances and guarantees that will deny forever the chances of the Pol Pot clique reimposing its authority by force or frustrating the will of the Cambodian people. The role of the United Nations in monitoring and supporting those guarantees will be crucial ...” The plan for Cambodia is thus to have an interim Government which will prepare for elections. The argument is . about the participation • of the Khmer Rouge in that interim Government. It is expected that the three factions of the coalition — the Sihanoukists and the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front as well as the Khmer Rouge — and the members of the Cambodian Government led by Hun Sen would form the new Government. It is one thing to say that the United Nations will have a role in guaranteeing that the Khmer Rouge do not come to power again and another to ensure that it does not. The problem is not

New Zealand’s alone and a number of those who supported the resolution, which calls for the creation of an interim administering authority and a "non-return to the universally condemned policies and practices of a recent past,” were unsure about how the aim of the resolution could be attained.

For many years there were discussions about who should occupy the Cambodian seat at the United Nations. The members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations were determined that the seat should not be held by the Cambodian Government which had been installed by Vietnam after Vietnam had invaded Cambodia. Their argument was reasonable: a country should riot be allowed to invade another, put a puppet regime in place and expect the international community to accept that regime. But to keep out the Vietnamese-backed Government the alternative was seen as accepting the Khmer Rouge. Many countries gagged at the idea, but accepted it as necessary. Later, a coalition was formed; in this the Khmer Rouge were only one faction. It was thus hoped to sanitise the Khmer Rouge. For their part, the Khmer Rouge renounced communism and said that Pol Pot, who led the Government during the infamous years, was no longer a leader. Few observers accept either that the Khmer Rouge abandoned their tight Marxist control or had dropped Pol Pot. He was merely out of sight. The coalition continues to occupy the United Nations seat. No challenge has been made to this since 1982.

While the argument was about the occupancy of the United Nations seat, there was an element of technicality about the position of the Khmer Rouge. Now the possibility has emerged that the Khmer Rouge might regain power in Cambodia again. The situation is, roughly, as if the international community had helped the Nazis regain power in Germany after the Second World War, though simply with the power to oppress their own population, not to launch war on others. Many well-meaning people are working towards having some members of the Khmer Rouge in the interim administration, and certainly not those who were associated with the years of the worst excesses.

What is puzzling to many observers is that the Khmer Rouge have retained as much popularity as they have and recruited so many people to their forces. Perhaps people forget; possibly the Khmer Rouge were less savage in the country areas than they were in the towns. Perhaps the arms and other supplies given by the Chinese, with Thailand’s acquiescence, have attracted people to the Khmer Rouge. Whatever the reasons, the Khmer Rouge remain a force to be reckoned with in Cambodia, not just militarily, but politically. The international community ” needs to prevail on China and Thailand to curtail the supply of arms. Probably only the international community could have such an influence. A while ago, the United States might have managed to persuade China to stop supplying arms; but for months now the United States’ stocks have not been high with the Chinese. Unless the Khmer Rouge show a convincing change of attitude towards government and show that their former, savage ways have been renounced, no comfortable way of accommodating them is offering. Equally, no way of ridding Cambodia of them is available.