Khmer Rouge Reject Plan Backed by Sihanouk for Cambodia Truce

The ultra-radical Khmer Rouge guerrilla faction on Monday rejected a proposed cease-fire in the country’s decade-old jungle war.

The Khmer Rouge appeared to reject all concessions made by the leader of Cambodia’s guerrilla coalition, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, in talks last week with Hun Sen, premier of the Vietnamese-backed Phnom Penh government.

“We cannot accept a cease-fire that keeps in place a puppet regime,” Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan said, referring to the Hun Sen government. “Once there is an international commission to supervise the Vietnamese pullout, then there will be a cease-fire, not before,” he said.

Thailand’s prime minister, Chatchai Choonhawan, mediated talks last week in Jakarta, Indonesia, between Sihanouk and Hun Sen. The prime minister proposed that the two sides agree to a cease-fire before Vietnam completes the scheduled withdrawal of its estimated 60,000 to 70,000 troops, now due to leave the country by Sept. 30.

Both Sihanouk and Hun Sen agreed to Chatchai’s proposal.

But Khieu Samphan said Monday that a cease-fire could come only with the simultaneous dismantling of the Hun Sen government. He said a provisional government “should be formed outside the framework of the two regimes,” referring to the guerrilla coalition and the Hun Sen government.

Hun Sen, however, has ruled out Khmer Rouge participation in any new provisional government.