By Helen Jarvis
PHNOM PENH —Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has made a dramatic appeal to the United Nations to take action "to safeguard the Cambodian people from the second Khmer Rouge genocide and to rescue the Paris agreements".
During the rule of Pol Pot, from 1975 to 1978, an estimated 1.5 million people died. Khmer Rouge then conducted a 13-year guerilla war from bases along the Thai border.
In the Paris accords, signed in October 1991, the State of Cambodia (SOC) agreed to a cease-fire and elections under United Nations supervision.
But for over 14 months the United Nations has simply watched as the KR has failed to implement a single obligation called for by the accords, and has used the time to make significant military and political advances.
As SOC and the other two complying parties' armed forces have withdrawn and disarmed, the KR has extended territory under its control, virtually taking over the zones previously occupied by the other two parties to the accord, FUNCINPEC (led by Sihanouk's son Norodom Ranariddh) and the pro-Western KPNLF (which has now split into at least two political parties).
On January 5, Hun Sen warned that "Greater danger will soon come from the fact that the Khmer Rouge will use the zones they have thus grabbed as stepping stones for launching military offensives, and as base areas from which to infiltrate, to sabotage and to expand further what they call their semi-liberated zones and their guerilla zones". He warned that "the Khmer Rouge are now in a position to fire artillery shells into towns and cities".
While making these military advances, the KR has used the legitimacy accorded to it as a signatory of the accords and its position in the Supreme National Council to make political gains.
Hun Sen pointed out that the Pol Potists "have taken advantage of their presence in this body and its institutions to score some benefits as well as to obstruct the peace process as defined by the Paris agreements. They put up obstacles at every meeting ... Their military officers appointed to the military coordinating committees waste no time in this capacity to collect intelligence information useful for their military offensives."
At the end of November the KR announced the formation of a new political party, the National Unity Party of Cambodia, with two of their most notorious leaders, Khieu Samphan and Son Sen, at the head. SOC officials have drawn attention to infiltration of known KR operatives into at least five of the more than 20 political parties in Cambodia.
Hun Sen proposed four specific measures to enforce the letter and spirit of the Paris Agreements:
1. "To take every measure aimed at putting an end to all Khmer Rouge military violations, to stop them from expanding further." Hun Sen asked UNTAC (the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia) to exercise the mandate given to it already ; if this is ineffective, then the Security Council should amend and extend the mandate in response to the changing situation.
2. "To set a deadline for the Khmer Rouge participation in the election ... Otherwise these elections will not be fair." SOC was appalled when, in October, the KR was given until November 15 to comply and then that date went past without any action being taken.
Now Hun Sen has called for an absolute deadline of January 31, only four months before the elections are to be held. Virtually no voter registration has taken place in KR-controlled territory, as it has refused access to the registration teams, while 4.5 million people have registered from SOC territory.
3. "If the Khmer Rouge continue to defy the Paris Accords and to stay out of the planned election beyond the above deadline - the question is why should the Khmer Rouge be allowed to stay in the SNC so that they could benefit more from it until they achieve their goal of regaining power by every means?"
Hun Sen stressed that the Pol Potists "have already excluded themselves from the peace process". He urged "that the Khmer Rouge be evicted from the peace process ... and declared insurgents and outlaws in accordance with their deeds". Elections held in a situation in which the Khmer Rouge are able to violate the agreements while maintaining their own zones and armed forces "would only help to solidify further the de facto partitioning of Cambodia".
4. "In order to further consolidate national reconciliation and unity of Cambodia and to ensure political stability before and after the Constitutional Assembly election, the party of the State of Cambodia requests with insistence that a clear date be set for the anticipated presidential election."
Hun Sen spoke for nearly an hour to a hall packed with
representatives of the diplomatic community, non-government organisations and the press, and then answered questions for a further hour.
He continually stressed the crisis situation now being faced and called for the UN to admit that its root cause is the non-compliance of the Khmer Rouge.
He apologised for speaking frankly, but said that all now depends on the courage of UNTAC to implement its mandate. For example, UNTAC was supposed to deploy its forces throughout the country, but while UNTAC has done so without asking permission in the SOC areas, it has not done so in KR zones because permission has not been granted.
"I don't understand", he said. "If we have to await KR permission, then we will have to wait until the 21st century."
Referring to an incident in which UN officials were blocked from entering a KR zone, he added, "The fact that one bamboo pole and one rifle could stop the UNTAC commander in chief had a strong psychological impact ... the Cambodian people are disappointed in UNTAC's ability and courage."
UN forces were recently withdrawn in Battambang and Siem Reap provinces because of KR shelling. "UNTAC", said Hun Sen, "has cars and planes, enabling them to run away faster than the people".
In reply to allegations of SOC attacks on other political parties, particularly FUNCINPEC, Hun Sen asked, "Has SOC any interest at all in this terrorism?" He suggested they were the work of the KR, which has no interest in the elections or in peace. "The Khmer Rouge killed millions before. They have no problem in killing for political gain."
He went on to state the difficulty of distinguishing political violence from crime and banditry, which have increased markedly since the signing of the accords. He listed SOC casualties until December 7, 1992: Cambodian People's Armed Forces 176 killed, 280 wounded; militia 10 killed, 4 wounded; police 15 killed, 8 wounded; people 252 killed, 464 wounded; Vietnamese citizens 24 killed; monks 1 killed, 4 wounded; 28 local officials and 115 ordinary people kidnapped and still missing.
Hun Sen asked why it is that some people consider crimes against local people to be banditry, but if the same crimes are committed against members of other political parties, they are considered to be political violence, with SOC the likely suspect. But the deputy minister for information was recently robbed and attacked and is still in hospital, while the nephew of the deputy prime
minister and minister of interior was kidnapped and killed.
The prime minister went on to say that he would ask UNTAC to take new measures to reduce the number of weapons held by political parties. Since the press conference, UNTAC has announced new powers of arrest and detention in an attempt to curb political violence.
Hun Sen concluded by stressing SOC's commitment to the holding of elections by May and urging the UN to ensure they are held. "If not in 1993, then elections won't happen in Cambodia before the year 2000", he added. "If the UN cannot hold elections after committing more than US$2 billion and 20,000 personnel, then it will lose all credibility."