Hanoi Hints at Cambodia Peace Formula

Vietnam has hinted agreement to a formula for informal talks among contending factions in the Cambodian conflict, Indonesian Foreign Minister Mochtar Kusumaatmadja said here Wednesday.

Arriving in Bangkok after a five-hour meeting with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach, Mochtar told reporters that he had floated a proposal for the so-called cocktail party formula to try to break the impasse.

Leaders of Cambodia’s Vietnamese-backed Communist government would meet with representatives of the three Cambodian resistance factions “on the basis of equal footing, without preconditions and with no political labels,” he said.

Joint Communique

According to a joint communique issued in Ho Chi Minh City after the Mochtar-Thach talks, Indonesia “at a later stage . . . will invite other concerned countries, including Vietnam, to participate.” The communique said Thach declared that Vietnam would give “positive consideration” to the invitation.

Mochtar reportedly asked the six member countries of the non-Communist Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations to consider the proposal before making any public response. ASEAN supports the resistance movement--the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia), composed of two non-Communist factions and the Communist Khmer Rouge, which imposed a ruthless regime on Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

Previous attempts to resolve the conflict through negotiations have been stymied on political grounds.

The resistance has insisted that the current Cambodian government, headed by Heng Samrin, is a Vietnamese puppet regime and, supported by ASEAN, has insisted on direct talks with Vietnam. the Vietnamese and Heng Samrin governments have refused to take part in any negotiations that included the Khmer Rouge. Meanwhile the resistance, armed largely by China, has pressed a war against the 140,000 Vietnamese troops in Cambodia and the estimated 30,000-man Cambodian army.

Mochtar said Thach agreed to raise the formula for informal talks with the Heng Samrin government and Thailand was designated to sound out its ASEAN partners.

“For such a serious undertaking we have to move slowly,” the Indonesian foreign minister observed. All ASEAN can do, he said, is “to find ways for them (the Cambodians) to reach a solution. And one of the things is to start a dialogue because we cannot solve anything if we can’t talk to each other.”

Mochtar said the talks could be in Indonesia, but refused to set a time frame on arrangements.

“The most important thing is for the Vietnamese to talk to the Cambodians,” he said.

Previously, he pointed out, the Hanoi government “always thought, or envisaged, the ‘cocktail party’ being talks between the Cambodians, acting as if there were no invasion, no occupation.”

Talks based on the formula of “no preconditions and no political labels” would appear to open the possibility of participation by Khmer Rouge officials on a personal basis, Mochtar indicated. The new formula “could be the beginning of something,” he conceded.

Headed by Sihanouk

The resistance coalition is headed by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, nominally now on a one-year leave of absence because of differences with the Khmer Rouge. Mochtar said he discussed the idea with Sihanouk on a recent visit to North Korea, where Sihanouk is living, but declined to reveal the Cambodian’s reaction.

The United States recognizes neither the current Cambodian government, installed by Vietnam in its December, 1978, invasion, nor the resistance coalition, though it provides $5 million annually in humanitarian aid to the two non-Communist factions.

Besides Indonesia and Thailand, ASEAN members are Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei.