home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- WORLD, Page 47World NotesCAMBODIAPseudo Peace
-
-
- Last week the first 527 refugees from camps in Thailand moved
- back to Cambodia to start a new life -- the first step in the
- repatriation of some 375,000 people driven from their country by
- a 13-year civil war. But the homecoming cannot go much further
- until U.N. peacekeeping troops, who will soon number 16,000, are
- able to defuse a battle in Kompong Thom province between
- government forces and heavily armed Khmer Rouge units.
-
- The battle began in January as the Khmer Rouge moved to
- seize more territory before the U.N. begins disarming rival
- forces. Khmer Rouge units under the ruthless leader Ta Mok cut
- Highway 12, severing the major link to the northern province of
- Preah Vihear. The Khmer Rouge, whose 1975-79 reign of terror
- resulted in more than 1 million deaths, spurned repeated U.N.
- mediation efforts, as did the Phnom Penh regime. A midweek
- parley seemed to break the ice -- for now -- and a U.N. squad
- was dispatched to the disputed turf. But the U.N. cannot impose
- peace in Kompong Thom -- or anyplace else in Cambodia. It can
- only make it possible for the Cambodians to do so themselves.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-