Leadership Rebellion Splits Group in Cambodian Rebel Coalition

A rebellion in the leadership has clouded the future of one of the three Cambodian guerrilla groups fighting the Vietnamese in their country just as Hanoi is reported to be preparing another dry-season offensive against resistance forces.

Dissidents say they have taken over the leadership of the non-Communist Khmer People’s National Liberation Front headed by Son Sann. They appear to have won the support of most of its 14,000 guerrillas.

But Son Sann insisted Friday that he is still in charge of the organization, one of the groups in a U.N.-recognized coalition opposing an estimated 160,000 Vietnamese troops in Cambodia and the pro-Hanoi regime in Phnom Penh. Son Sann, said he had banished the dissident faction from his group last week.

“It is my duty to put an end to the open rebellion fomented by a group known as the Provisional Central Committee of Salvation,” he said.

The committee is “an illegal organization, a grave breach of the spirit and the fundamental institutions of our KPNLF,” Son Sann said.

Helped Win Support

Son Sann, 74, a former Cambodian prime minister, has led the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front since its formation after the 1978 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and has been instrumental in winning international support for the Cambodian resistance.

The dissidents, who include the guerrilla organization’s armed forces commander, Gen. Sak Sutsakhan, and the chief of staff, Gen. Dien Del, issued a communique saying they had taken power from Son Sann.

“The time has arrived” for the committee to declare that “it is the sole master of the situation, exercising full control over the Khmer People’s National Liberation Armed Forces and over the civilian administration,” the communique said.

The communique stopped short of saying that Son Sann had been officially removed from his post as president of the front and prime minister of the coalition government-in-exile.

The rebel faction complained that Son Sann was becoming too dictatorial and refused to cooperate with the heads of the other two groups that make up the rebel coalition--Prince Norodom Sihanouk and Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.

Sihanouk Waiting

In Peking, Sihanouk said he is waiting for reaction from the United States, China and Thailand before deciding whether to accept the dissident leadership as partners. The Khmer People’s National Liberation Front claims 14,000 fighters, compared to Sihanouk’s 11,500 fighters and the Communist Khmer Rouge’s 50,000 guerrillas.

As president of the U.N.-recognized coalition government of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia), Sihanouk said he still recognizes Son Sann as formal prime minister of the coalition.

But he acknowledged that the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front has new leaders, and said they all served in the 1970-75 pro-U.S. government of Lon Nol that was overthrown by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime, which has been blamed for the deaths of about 1 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1978. The Pol Pot regime was driven from power by Vietnamese troops in early 1979, and Cambodian rebels have conducted a guerrilla fight since then in western Cambodia near the Thai border.

To Meet Congressman

Heads of the three resistance factions, Sihanouk, Son Sann and Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan, held a meeting in Peking last month. China promised each of them money and new weapons.

In Bangkok, a spokesman for Son Sann said the former resistance leader plans to meet Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.) in Thailand on Monday or Tuesday.

Solarz is chairman of the House subcommittee on Asian and Pacific affairs, which sponsored a non-military aid package of $5 million for non-Communist Cambodian resistance groups. Congress endorsed the measure last month.

Washington is reportedly concerned about the power struggle within the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front.

Dissidents within the front could not be reached for comment.