Cambodia Foes End Talks Still Rigidly at Odds

Despite a gloss of achievement, four days of unprecedented face-to-face talks between warring Cambodian factions ended Thursday with the old foes locked in rigid positions.

“We have a breakthrough . . . a psychological breakthrough,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said at a closing press conference. But according to participants in the talks at this hilltop resort, his statement was based primarily on the fact that the contending factions had sat down together.

In a final statement from Alatas--efforts to produce a joint communique collapsed in dissension--the Indonesian official said the discussions here at the old palace of the late President Sukarno were “friendly and constructive” and that the participants--the opposing Cambodian factions and their regional supporters--had agreed that the guerrilla war should be resolved by political means.

Heavy Antagonism

But in a series of press conferences and leaks over the last two days, participants in the closed talks have made it clear that what began in an atmosphere of strained good will ended in heavy antagonism, despite the efforts of the Indonesian hosts to keep the meetings relaxed and low-key.

On Thursday, in his first--and last--verbal encounter with the press, the silver-haired representative of the Khmer Rouge, Khieu Samphan, accused Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach of telling a “shameless lie” in characterizing the positions of the Cambodians.

Hun Sen, premier of the government installed in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, by the 1978 Vietnamese invasion that drove the ruthless Khmer Rouge from power, repeatedly referred to the ousted regime as genocidal.

“There were no winners or losers,” a Western diplomat said as the talks concluded. He termed them a “limited success” and noted that the opposing sides “put major differences on the table. They have gotten a process of some kind started.”

However, he noted, “The two parties with the heaviest cards to play (the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge) have not really come up with anything.”

According to a participant representing one of the governments of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), “nobody touched Thach,” the Vietnamese foreign minister. He said Hanoi let its allied government in Laos swing the bludgeon, attacking both the Communist Khmer Rouge and the Thais, whose border with Cambodia is the principal combat zone.

At a press conference, Thach parried questions about Vietnamese positions by remarking: “No, I will not negotiate with you.”

“The Vietnamese have managed this thing beautifully,” a Jakarta-based diplomat said. “They have created the appearance that they are a concerned party, not an involved party.”

No Commitment

Thach, whose country still has an estimated 120,000 troops in Cambodia, did not commit himself on what Hanoi would accept as a compromise government in Phnom Penh under a political settlement.

No more forthcoming was the Khmer Rouge delegation, representing a faction whose brutal rule in Phnom Penh under Pol Pot from 1975 through 1978 resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1 million Cambodians by execution, famine and disease. With few variations, the Khmer Rouge position has been to demand the unconditional withdrawal of Vietnamese troops.

Hanoi and the Pol Pot forces, longtime enemies, are the two extremes that a political solution would have to bridge.

Skepticism on Vietnamese

Diplomats believe that Vietnamese aims in Cambodia range from complete domination of the country, as part of an Indochinese Communist federation, to a government at least sufficiently pliant to ensure the security of the Vietnamese-Cambodian border. Many of the participants in the talks were skeptical of Vietnamese intentions.

Thach said Vietnam would withdraw its remaining troops by the end of 1990 even without a settlement, and earlier if one could be achieved. But the first scenario, Thach warned the conference, might lead to a return to power by the Khmer Rouge.

Diplomats supporting the Cambodian resistance dismiss this warning as a Vietnamese attempt to stay on in Cambodia by raising fears about the Khmer Rouge. On the other hand, some resistance representatives complained that allowing the Vietnamese to negotiate a phased withdrawal of their troops contingent on cessation of aid to the guerrillas would also allow Hanoi to stall.

Masters of Tactics

The Vietnamese remain masters of the tactic of “talk, talk, fight, fight,” the Jakarta-based diplomat said.

The secretive Khmer Rouge guerrillas, he said, are driven by a visceral hatred of the Vietnamese and still embrace a radical form of communism. They pursue their aim, the diplomat explained, “in the fastest amount of time with the greatest amount of coercion to effect it.”

In the face of all this, participants in the talks strove to find common ground that could eventually lead to a political settlement.

The key achievement was stretching the talks across four days without a walkout, although some participants said it took studied tolerance to avert one. Indonesian Foreign Minister Alatas was credited with holding the talks together, along with some other delegations that saw the Bogor meeting as the best chance to break through the years of antagonism.

The Cambodian factions meeting here included the Phnom Penh regime, represented by Hun Sen, and the tripartite resistance front known as the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia). Representing the resistance forces were Khieu Samphan of the Khmer Rouge and two non-Communists, Son Sann of the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front and Norodom Ranariddh of the Sihanoukist National Army founded by his father, Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

Sihanouk’s Influence

Prince Sihanouk, Cambodia’s former leader, did not set foot in Bogor but exerted an important influence on the talks from nearby Jakarta, where he was a guest of Indonesia’s President Suharto.

On Wednesday, the 65-year-old prince announced a five-point peace plan intended to bridge the gaps with compromise suggestions on a transitional Cambodian government pointing to national elections and the formation of a neutral, nonaligned state. It became grist for discussions, along with a seven-point plan submitted Monday by Hun Sen.

According to Alatas’ closing statement, however, the only consensus reached at Bogor--and not unanimously--covered the following points:

-- The two key issues are the withdrawal of Vietnamese forces, which the statement said should be carried out under a political settlement, and the “prevention of the recurrence of the genocidal policies and practices of the Pol Pot regime.” The statement said the two issues are linked and should be accompanied by a halt in foreign military aid to the opposing sides.

-- The process begun in Bogor should be continued. A working group of senior officials of all the delegations will be formed to examine the peace proposals in detail and complete its report by December.

Meanwhile, Sihanouk and Hun Sen disclosed that they will meet in Paris in October. They met for two rounds of talks outside Paris last winter, but the prince broke off the initiative, accusing Hun Sen of mouthing a Vietnamese line.

There was no consensus on how the fighting might be brought to an end, what sort of international supervision of a cease-fire and elections would be needed, or the form of transitional Cambodian bodies to administer an evolution from war to peace.

“We think an overall political agreement is possible,” Alatas told the closing press conference, “but it will be difficult.”