Cambodian Talks Off to Shaky Start

Preliminary rounds of Cambodian peace talks made a shaky start Monday as leaders of the two main parties, Prince Norodom Sihanouk and Vietnamese-backed Premier Hun Sen, remained deeply split over the issue of Khmer Rouge participation in a political settlement.

Sihanouk, a 67-year-old Cambodian monarch turned resistance leader, said the two-hour talks in Paris ended in “complete disagreement.” He contends that failure to include the Khmer Rouge and its Chinese-supplied, 40,000-member army in the negotiations will only result in resumption of the long and bloody Cambodian civil war.

In contrast, Hun Sen, 38, initially described the meeting as taking place in an atmosphere of “close friendship.” However, at a news conference later, he relentlessly attacked Sihanouk for his affiliation with the Khmer Rouge, which under Pol Pot was held responsible for the bloody reign of terror that killed as many as 1 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979.

A 20-nation conference on Cambodia, scheduled to begin Sunday in Paris, will fail unless the Khmer Rouge are excluded, Hun Sen warned. He ruled out the possibility of accepting so-called “moderate” elements of the Khmer Rouge in a proposed multi-party interim government.

Nevertheless, Hun Sen has agreed to meet today with Sihanouk, Khmer People’s National Liberation Front leader Son Sann and Khmer Rouge official Khieu Samphan in an effort to break the deadlock. The meeting will be at La Celle-Saint Cloud chateau on the outskirts of Paris, where Monday’s talks were held.

French officials and Western diplomats do not expect any breakthrough until the monthlong international conference begins next week. The conference will include all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: the United States, Soviet Union, France, Britain and China.

The main purpose of the conference is to establish a stable political base in Cambodia after 60,000 to 70,000 Vietnamese troops withdraw by the end of September.