Vietnam Begins Final Cambodia Pullout

Vietnam began withdrawing the last of its troops from Cambodia on Thursday as Premier Hun Sen tried to reassure the Cambodian people that his government will prevail against its guerrilla enemies.

The troop withdrawal began with about 2,000 soldiers boarding 79 Soviet-made trucks in the town of Siem Reap near the ancient temples of Angkor in the northwest of the country.

They were the first of 26,000 Vietnamese soldiers that are to be withdrawn from Cambodia by next Tuesday. The Hanoi government has said it will have completed the operation by that time. The soldiers will cross into Vietnam at four points along the border and by ship.

Happy Day for All

A deputy Cambodian defense minister, Lt. Gen. Pol Sairin, addressed the soldiers at Siem Reap and said later that it had been a “happy day for Vietnamese soldiers and a happy day for us. We were rescued from genocide by them.”

Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia in December, 1978, and toppled the Communist Khmer Rouge government, which has been accused of killing more than a million Cambodians from 1975 until its ouster in early 1979.

On a reviewing stand Thursday at Siem Reap was the Cuban ambassador to Laos, one of the few foreign observers to witness the start of the withdrawal’s last phase. The Vietnamese had hoped to have a group of international monitors on hand to witness the withdrawal, in order to end a decade of condemnation and isolation, but talks aimed at arranging a monitoring force collapsed last month in Paris, along with chances for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Hun Sen returned to Phnom Penh later Thursday after talks in Thailand apparently failed to arrange a cease-fire with the three guerrilla factions based just inside the Thai border.

Apparently Used Rail Bridge

Apparently stung by Western reports that the Khmer Rouge control much of the border area, Hun Sen disclosed that he had reached Bangkok by crossing the border at Poipet in Cambodia and driving to Aranyaprathet in Thailand. He apparently crossed into Thailand by means of a disused railway bridge at Poipet.

“The Khmer Rouge considers this territory occupied for the last 10 years, and you all wanted to believe that,” Hun Sen told reporters and cameramen who besieged him when his plane landed here.

The Thais, who have banned direct flights between Bangkok and Phnom Penh, had forced him to drive to Vientiane, Laos, in order to board the plane.

“After the Vietnamese withdrawal, you will see the realities of the Cambodian army,” he said. He said it was “quite natural if the Cambodian people have some worries” at this time, but he likened them to worries about a nonexistent illness.

Hun Sen said that Thai Prime Minister Chatchai Choonhawan and Thai military leaders have told him it seems apparent that there can be no cease-fire so long as Prince Norodom Sihanouk, one of the resistance leaders, continues his alliance with the Khmer Rouge. The alliance, although based in Thailand, is recognized by Western countries and the United Nations as the government of Cambodia.

Truce to Be Discussed

Hun Sen said that his Thai counterpart had sent a mission to Sihanouk’s home in Beijing to discuss a truce .

Last month’s Paris talks on the political future of Cambodia collapsed primarily over the issue of whether to give the Khmer Rouge a role in the Cambodian government.

Hun Sen noted that Thailand has been among those countries that have agreed to stop assisting the rebels after the Vietnamese troop withdrawal is complete.

“There is a question,” he said, “whether they are going to implement those pledges or not.”

Substantial Chinese assistance for the Khmer Rouge passes through Thailand, but the Thais insist that they themselves provide nothing.