Thatcher Visits Camp, Backs Sihanouk

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher toured a refugee camp on the Thai border Sunday and pledged “full support” for Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s efforts to resolve the Cambodian conflict.

As the first foreign head of government to tour Greenhill Camp, Thatcher donated medicine to the refugees, watched a 30-minute Cambodian classical dance and toured medical and educational facilities with Sihanouk as her guide.

She said the prince “has a crucial party to play” in achieving a political settlement to the nine-year-old Cambodian conflict.

Accompanied by her husband, Denis, Thatcher flew to a nearby Thai military base by helicopter and then traveled to the camp, which houses about 53,000 refugees.

Greenhill Camp, about 6 miles from the border and 225 miles northeast of Bangkok, is one of eight such facilities along the border housing more than 250,000 Cambodians.

Thatcher said Britain has already given more than $20 million to Sihanouk’s rebel movement and that once there is a settlement in Cambodia, Britain will “contribute to the rebuilding of Cambodia’s economy.”