Cambodian Talks Collapse, Just Days Before 20-Nation Conference in Paris

Preliminary talks between resistance leaders and the Vietnamese-backed Cambodian government broke down Tuesday, only a few days before a scheduled 20-nation Paris peace conference aimed at ending the Cambodian civil war.

A meeting of the four parties scheduled for today was canceled. However, French diplomats insisted that the international conference, which is to include U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze among others, will begin Sunday as planned.

Representatives of the three main resistance groups and the government of Premier Hun Sen said they failed to reach agreement even on the simplest matters of protocol in several hours of talks at the French Foreign Ministry chateau in this Paris suburb.

For example, one delegate said, the leaders--Hun Sen, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Khmer Rouge representative Khieu Samphan and the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front leader, Son Sann--failed to agree even on name cards to be used at the peace conference.

“Hun Sen said we could not even use the word Cambodia in our name,” said the delegate, who is affiliated with Son Sann’s anti-Communist group.

As Sihanouk left the meeting site, he said: “It is not worth the trouble to meet again. The disagreement is total.”

He said he is “very, very pessimistic” about the prospects for a political settlement at the international conference. He said the preliminary meetings, which were to set the stage for the larger conference, broke down on several key points, including:

-- Sihanouk and the other resistance leaders favor a U.N. peacekeeping force to monitor the promised withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia. The Hun Sen government opposes such a move.

-- Hun Sen has proposed an immediate cease-fire. Resistance leaders say this would favor the Hanoi-backed regime and the Vietnamese troops still in place.

-- Resistance leaders contend that Hun Sen’s government should be part of the Vietnamese delegation to the international conference because it is supported by Vietnamese troops. Hun Sen considers his government the valid Cambodian representative.

-- In a compromise move, resistence leaders have agreed to join with Hun Sen in a united Cambodian delegation to the international conference. However, Hun Sen favors two separate Cambodian delegations and refuses to join any delegation that includes the Khmer Rouge.

“We will not accept being placed in a single Cambodian delegation,” Hun Sen said.

Sihanouk said: “To recognize two Cambodias would be fatal to our country.”

Despite the differences, Hun Sen was slightly more optimistic than Sihanouk about the international peace conference. He conceded that the talks Monday and Tuesday had “taken a step backward.” But he said “the international conference should take place independent of the negotiations between Cambodians.”

To show his good faith, the government leader repeated his offer for a cease-fire and for the first time offered a specific timetable for the withdrawal of the 60,000 to 70,000 Vietnamese troops.

“The final total withdrawal will take place Sept. 21-26 by land, river and sea,” Hun Sen said. “From Sept. 27, all Vietnamese volunteers will have been completely withdrawn from Cambodia.”