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- Message-ID: <199301221538.AA28726@peora.sdc.ccur.com>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 10:38:53 -0500
- Sender: Southeast Asia Discussion List <SEASIA-L@MSU.BITNET>
- From: Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
- Subject: CAM: Thailand proposes solution to Cambodian conflict
- Lines: 42
-
- 01/15
-
- THAILAND PROPOSES NEW SOLUTION TO CAMBODIAN CONFLICT
-
- BANGKOK, THAILAND (JAN. 15) UPI - Thailand's foreign minister met with the
- head of the Khmer Rouge Friday to discuss new Thai proposals aimed at breaking
- the deadlock in the U.N. peace process in Cambodia, officials said.
- Foreign Minister Prasong Soonsiri held a hastily arranged meeting with Khmer
- Rouge leader Khieu Samphan Friday morning to convince the recalcitrant
- guerrilla group to cooperate with U.N. peacekeeping efforts, the officials
- said.
- Prasong said Thursday he has found a solution to break the deadlock he is
- confident will be accepted by all sides, the Bangkok Post reported. The paper
- said Prasong will travel to Beijing Sunday to discuss the plan with Cambodian
- Head of State Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who is receiving medical treatment in
- the Chinese capital.
- "My visit to the prince is unofficial, but I have contacted him and he will
- meet me," Prasong said. "I will also see several Chinese leaders."
- He revealed no details of the proposed solution, but Foreign Ministry
- sources told the Bangkok Post the plan included a proposal for the election of
- a president of Cambodia's Supreme National Council, which groups leaders of the
- country's four factions, prior to the U.N.- supervised elections scheduled for
- April or May.
- The Phnom Penh regime, installed with the help of Vietnamese occupation
- forces, the Maoist-inspired Khmer Rouge and two non-communist resistance
- groups, signed a peace accord in Paris in October 1991.
- But the Khmer Rouge dropped out of the peace process in June, charging
- Vietnamese troops have secretly remained in the country after Hanoi's official
- withdrawal from Cambodia in 1989 and demanding more power be transferred from
- the government to the SNC.
- "I believe I can solve the current complaint that the SNC has no real power
- and that no one can get the Khmers to turn and face each other," Prasong said
- late Thursday after returning from a visit to Laos.
- "The thing I am about to do will show that we have always been working for a
- solution and this one will lead to quicker success."
- The U.N. Security Council last month imposed sanctions against the Khmer
- Rouge to force it comply with the Paris peace accord.
- The Khmer Rouge was responsible for deaths of more than one million
- Cambodians during a four-year reign of terror before being ousted by invading
- Vietnamese troops in 1979.
- Thailand, along with China, then backed the Khmer Rouge in its guerrilla war
- against the Vietnamese occupation forces.
-