Shultz Meets Cambodians; Thai Aid Raised

The United States on Monday increased slightly its economic aid for Thai villagers coping with Cambodian refugees, as Secretary of State George P. Shultz met here with the chief non-Communist rebel leaders fighting to oust Vietnamese forces from Cambodia.

These moves, as well as Shultz’s scheduled visit today to the Thai-Cambodia border region, seemed designed to focus greater attention on Vietnam’s continuing occupation of Cambodia in hopes that more nations will contribute aid to the resistance movement and to Thailand’s efforts to deal with the huge new influx of refugees.

In signing a pledge to provide an extra $3 million a year, which will bring the estimated total of U.S. economic help to $28.5 million this year, Shultz cited the “unprecedented intensity of the Vietnamese dry season campaign” from January to March, which drove virtually all rebel forces across the border into Thailand.

Huge Refugee Burden

About 230,000 Cambodian refugees also fled into Thailand, imposing a huge economic and social burden on about 90 border villages. Most of the U.S. funds will go toward improving farming, education and transportation in those hamlets.

Beyond the humanitarian concerns, Shultz said, “we are all aware of the strategic and political importance of the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia. We are also aware that Soviet support makes it possible.”

More than 160,000 Vietnamese troops are in Cambodia, supporting a puppet government installed by Vietnam. This has created fears in the region among non-Communist neighbors such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia also provides air and sea bases that could cut traffic in the Gulf of Siam, these neighbors believe, and Soviet air and naval power based both in Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Bay and at Cambodia’s Kompong Som (formerly Sihanoukville) could close the key straits between the Indian and Pacific oceans, as well as permit Soviet force projections into the South Pacific islands.

In meeting Monday with leaders of the two non-Communist resistance groups, Shultz heard “a generally upbeat report on the military situation in Cambodia,” according to a senior State Department official traveling with him.

“The leaders said the morale was good despite the Vietnamese offensive and that an increased number of resistance fighters are moving into the interior of Cambodia to fight,” he said.

Nonetheless, the Cambodian rebels are too few and too divided--fewer than 60,000 among three groups--to do much more than harass the Vietnamese.

Non-Communists Meet

The two non-Communist groups are led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk and Gen. Sak Sutsakhan. Sihanouk’s son, Prince Ranariddh, and Gen. Sak met with Shultz.

The third group is the Khmer Rouge, a Communist force led by Pol Pot, whose brutal excesses when he ruled Cambodia made him anathema to both non-Communists and Hanoi. The Communist and non-Communist forces do not coordinate their military activity, but all three have formed a political coalition.

The non-Communists told Shultz that they have “no pretentions of evicting Vietnam militarily from Cambodia, but they believe their efforts can put pressure on Hanoi to bring Vietnam to the negotiations table,” the senior official said.

The United States hopes that with the lure of trade and other aid for its foundering economy, Vietnam may be persuaded to loosen its grip on Cambodia and perhaps eventually to evict the Soviets from what were once U.S. bases on its territory.