Hanoi Puts Its Cambodia Toll at 55,000 Dead

In 11 years of war against Cambodian guerrillas, 55,000 Vietnamese soldiers have been killed and an equal number wounded, the deputy commander of Hanoi’s occupation forces in Cambodia said here Thursday.

The casualty report represented Hanoi’s first disclosure of its war dead in the long-running Cambodian conflict. It was delivered by Gen. Le Kha Phieu at a news conference at Tan Son Nhut airport, where American planes left Vietnam 13 years ago, ending a conflict that took the lives of 58,000 U.S. servicemen.

Phieu told reporters that Vietnam lost 30,000 men from 1977 to 1979, a time of border war between Hanoi and the Khmer Rouge forces then in power in Cambodia that ended with the Vietnamese invading and driving the Khmer Rouge out of Phnom Penh, the capital.

In 1980 and 1981, when Vietnamese troops occupied Cambodia with a “volunteer” army in support of a regime established under Heng Samrin, 15,000 Vietnamese soldiers were killed, Phieu said. From 1982 to the present, an additional 10,000 have been lost.

The general, who left Phnom Penh on Thursday along with about 60 other officers in a continuing withdrawal of Vietnamese forces from Cambodia, insisted that the declining number of casualties indicates declining strength among the Khmer Rouge and two other resistance factions. But the figures provided a measure of the little-seen conflict and its cost to Hanoi.

Gen. Le Ngoc Hien, the Vietnamese commander; Phieu, the other officers and about 200 members of the command support staff left Phnom Penh in a symbolic display of Vietnam’s move to turn over more of the war effort to the government of Cambodia, officially known as the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. Vietnam said it will reduce its forces by 50,000 this year--Phieu said 13,000 have left so far in 1988--and will pull them all out by the end of 1990.

According to Western intelligence estimates, 120,000 Vietnamese troops remained in Cambodia at the first of the year. Vietnamese statements put the number at around 100,000.

The Heng Samrin forces are estimated at 35,000 plus militiamen. The combined guerrilla strength, according to Western estimates, is about 50,000 effective fighters.

Under Cambodian Command

Before leaving Phnom Penh, the Vietnamese officers said that Hanoi’s remaining troops in Cambodia will be placed under the nominal command of the Phnom Penh leadership. Then Hien and his staff climbed aboard three Soviet-made MI-8 transport helicopters for the 50-minute flight to Ho Chi Minh City.

Behind them, they left a government striving to establish its legitimacy in the face of outside criticism that it is a puppet of Hanoi. President Heng Samrin, Premier Hun Sen and the rest of the Phnom Penh leadership will find their capabilities tested as the Vietnamese troops and Vietnamese military, political and economic advisers withdraw as promised.

It was disclosed in Phnom Penh earlier this week that the advisers, who in the early years of the regime ran the government down to the district level, also will be withdrawn by the end of the year.

‘Very Hot Discussion’

Ngo Dien, the Vietnamese ambassador to Phnom Penh, told reporters at the embassy Tuesday that the withdrawal of the advisers was a matter of “very hot discussion” among the Phnom Penh leadership, intimating that some officials think they are still needed.

In a news conference in the Cambodian capital Wednesday, Hun Sen conceded: “We have had a long discussion with our Vietnamese friends. As I said, (the withdrawals) are a long and responsible step forward. I believe it won’t make any deep change within the country. . . . People have me to depend on.”

As the Vietnamese commanders left Phnom Penh on Thursday, citizens holding small Vietnamese and Cambodian flags sat on the curbs of Tou Samouth Boulevard, where the old U.S. Embassy building stands, to wave at the passing formations.

At Phnom Penh’s airport, the bemedaled Vietnamese generals, standing in military vehicles, passed similar crowds, but no cheering was heard until the officers entered the airport--and then only when an official called for applause.

Economic, Foreign Pressures

As they left Phnom Penh, Vietnamese officials explaining the departure put the emphasis on the military situation, saying they are no longer needed for the military effort. No mention was made of the economic and political pressures on Hanoi to withdraw its troops. But whatever its commitment to the government it set up in Phnom Penh, Hanoi clearly feels the international pressure to pull out.

The economic cost of the occupation--the equivalent of more than $1 billion a year, by most estimates--is borne largely by the Soviet Union. Politically, Vietnam’s role in Cambodia has isolated it from foreign contacts. An economic embargo led by the United States has been especially painful to Vietnam, one of the world’s poorest countries.

In Phnom Penh, the government is trying to turn the Vietnamese departures to its political advantage. In his news conference, Hun Sen said the withdrawals may speed a negotiated solution to the guerrilla conflict. His government and Hanoi are doing their part, he said, insisting that once the Vietnamese army has withdrawn, there will be no reason to militarily oppose the Phnom Penh regime.

The Pol Pot Issue

“The remaining issue will be Pol Pot (the Khmer Rouge leader), and who will be responsible to solve it?” Hun Sen said.

He said that China and Thailand had supported Pol Pot and added that Cambodians would never accept him in government again. The Pol Pot regime has been blamed for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians during its time in power from 1975 to 1978.