In response to the rapidly worsening crisis in Cambodia, an appeal has been initiated urging the Australian government to take action to help avert the pending disaster.
Signers of the appeal include a range of individuals and organisations concerned with Cambodia and/or human rights. The statement calls on the government to recognise the State of Cambodia and to argue at the United Nations for the exclusion of the Khmer Rouge because of its systematic in violation of the Paris peace agreement.
In an interview on Radio National on April 10, one of the initiators of the statement, Dr Helen Jarvis, sharply attacked the role which the UN has played in refusing to take a firm stand against the Khmer Rouge while undermining the State of Cambodia government. Recently, for example, the UN even blocked government printing of money, leaving it unable to pay its civil servants.
Jarvis, from the University of NSW, has visited Cambodia repeatedly since 1987 and spent half of last year there. She pointed out that the international condemnation of the Khmer Rouge called for in the statement is necessary to pressure the governments of Thailand and China to stop assisting the Khmer Rouge.
Following is the text of the statement.
Cambodia is at another crisis point. The Cambodian people are in greater danger today than they were in October 1991 at the time of the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement. The Khmer Rouge have not complied with any one of the obligations spelled out in the agreement (such as release of political prisoners, cantonment and disarming of troops, demining, providing freedom of political expression and press, allowing entry of UN military and civilian officials and observers, electoral registration of population).
They have rather used the time, and the legitimacy accorded them as signatories of the agreement, to block rehabilitation and reconstruction of the country; to extend their operations into zones previously controlled by other factions but left vulnerable by troop withdrawals and demobilisations; to continue harassment, intimidation and even murder of civilians, particularly those of Vietnamese ethnic origin; to sow political and economic havoc; and even to wage continuing attacks on the UN forces — kidnapping, shooting, bombing.
The Khmer Rouge cannot be allowed to continue to hold a veto over the Cambodian peace process. Prime Minister Hun Sen on January 5 appealed to the United Nations "to safeguard the Cambodian people from a second Khmer Rouge genocide".
We call on the Australian government to do all it can to ensure that the United Nations
- declare that the Khmer Rouge have excluded themselves from the peace process by their continuing violations of
- proceed towards elections in as much of the country as possible by May 1993 with only participating factions included on the ballot, in a climate as free as possible of violence and intimidation
- release Cambodia's share of UN funds (blocked and accumulated since 1975) in addition to the US$880 million pledged for rehabilitation and reconstruction at the 1991 Tokyo conference
- enforce economic and political sanctions against the Khmer Rouge, including seizing of their international assets, closure of their radio stations broadcasting from outside Cambodia (in Thailand and China)
and we ask the Australian government to take its own unilateral steps to
- resume direct bilateral aid immediately, including the A$49 million announced in 1992
- recognise the government of the State of Cambodia, which controls over 90% of the population and 80% of the territory
- take action to bring the Khmer Rouge to trial in the World Court for violating the 1948 UN Genocide Convention with the death of 1.5 million — an action already endorsed by the Australian section of the International Commission of Jurists.
Partial list of signers (organisations for identification only): Peter Annear, Save the Children Fund, Phnom Penh; Australian Cambodian Support Committee; Australian Peace Committee; Dr Eileen Baldry, University of New South Wales; Dr Rosemary Berreen, UNSW; Professor Allan Borowski, UNSW; Pat Brewer; Christabel Chamarette, Senator for the Greens (WA); Joyce Clarke, Australian Peace Committee; Environmental Youth Alliance; Craig Etcheson, Committee to Oppose the Return of the Khmer Rouge (USA); Lorna Gilmour, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF); Sylvia Harding, Union of Australian Women; Phillip Hazelton; Rev Peter Holden, Australian Council of Churches; Dr Helen Jarvis, UNSW; Dr Ben Kiernan, Yale University (USA); Dr John Hirshman, Third World Health Group; Rev Peter Holden, Australian Council of Churches; Elizabeth Mattick, President, WILPF, NSW Branch; Peter McGregor, Secretary, Australia Vietnam Society, Sydney Branch; Allen Myers, Editor, Green Left Weekly; Mina O'Shea, Environmental Youth Alliance; John Percy, National Secretary, Democratic Socialist Party; John Pilger, journalist and film maker; Resistance; Professor W. Boyd Rayward, UNSW; Kelvin Rowley, Swinburne Institute of Technology; Gil Scrine, film maker; Dr Serge Thion, Centre Nationale des Recherches Scientifiques (France); Bruce Thoms; Pat Thoms, WILPF; Johanna Trainor; Professor Tony Vinson, University of NSW; Michele Willsher
Individuals and organisations are encouraged to write to the government urging the positions in the statement. To add your name to the statement, write to: Dr Helen Jarvis, School of Information, dies, University of NSW, PO Box 1, Kensington NSW 2033; or by email: h.jarvis@unsw.edu.au