Sihanouk Visits Rebel Area in Cambodia
Prince Norodom Sihanouk drank champagne toasts Saturday with envoys to the Cambodian coalition government in exile that he heads and vowed to continue fighting the Vietnamese occupation of his country for generations if necessary.
Accompanied by his wife, Monique, Sihanouk greeted leaders of the Communist Khmer Rouge guerrilla group during his visit to this jungle village run by the Khmer Rouge in an embattled corner of western Cambodia.
By taking the risk of entering a potential battle zone to carry out government ceremonies while Vietnam carries on a dry-season offensive, Sihanouk tried to buttress his resistance coalition’s stature as the U.N.-recognized government of Cambodia. Accepting the credentials of ambassadors from Senegal, North Korea, Bangladesh and Mauritania went off without a hitch, and only an occasional faint boom of distant artillery could be heard.
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