Cambodians Ask Shultz for Weapons : Secretary Says Only Humanitarian Aid Will Be Given

Tens of thousands of Cambodians today called on the United States to provide weapons to drive the Vietnamese from their country and turn “Vietnamese killing fields into Cambodian farming fields.”

But visiting U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz indicated that no arms will be forthcoming from Washington.

“U.S.A.--No. 1” and “We want to go home,” Cambodians chanted as Shultz toured a refugee evacuation site at the Thai-Cambodian border. A sea of placards and posters greeted him, many of them asking for U.S. weapons.

A large white banner read: “We have manpower. We need arms and education. U.S. aid, please help us turn Vietnamese killing fields into Cambodian farming fields. We want to go home. God bless America.”

Communist Vs. Communist

Vietnam invaded Cambodia late in 1978 and soon replaced the communist Khmer Rouge regime with a pro-Vietnamese communist administration. Resistance groups have fought the Vietnamese and their pro-Hanoi regime in Cambodia since then.

After what he called a “stirring” tour of the frontier, Shultz told a news conference in Bangkok that the United States fully intends to keep providing economic and humanitarian support for the refugees and Thai villagers at the frontier, and security aid for Thailand.

But he did not include military aid to Cambodian resistance groups, although he was specifically asked about this.

He also declined comment on a Washington Post report that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has been providing millions of dollars of covert, “non-lethal” assistance to non-communist resistance groups.

No Plan for Cambodia

Shultz indicated that he has no American plan for Cambodia and that Washington will follow the lead of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, to resolve the Cambodian problem.

Shultz also said he welcomed Hanoi’s announcement that it would turn over the remains of 26 Americans killed in the Vietnam War. But he spoke harshly of Vietnam’s “record of aggression.”

Shultz said: “We welcome the statement that we have from Vietnam that they would like to see (the MIA) problem resolved within a two-year period. . . . So perhaps this issue may be on its way to resolution. We certainly hope so. We have been working on that for a decade.”

Shultz flies Wednesday to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to meet ASEAN foreign ministers, who ended their 18th annual conference today.