Cambodia Can Repel Rebels, Defense Chief Says

The defense minister said Friday that Cambodian government troops can defend the country against a guerrilla coalition, despite a surge in nearby fighting that has accompanied the withdrawal of Vietnamese soldiers.

Defense Minister Tea Banh spoke at a farewell ceremony for departing soldiers on the second day of the withdrawal of the last Vietnamese troops. Vietnam has promised to have all of its 26,000 troops out of Cambodia by Tuesday.

Vietnamese troops invaded in December, 1978, to oust the Khmer Rouge, which is blamed for the deaths of a million Cambodians by execution, disease and starvation during its rule from 1975 to 1978.

The Khmer Rouge is the strongest in the three-party guerrilla coalition fighting the government installed by Vietnam. Many analysts say Cambodia’s army, estimated at 50,000, is poorly trained and led and could have problems fighting the guerrillas alone.

Battle May Test Troops

In Battambang province in western Cambodia, government and rebel forces were engaged in what could be a major battlefield test of government troops without the support of experienced Vietnamese forces.

Deputy Defense Minister Ke Kim Yan said Friday that as many as 450 Khmer Rouge guerrillas were shelling the Pailin area of Battambang province, 12 miles from the Thai-Cambodian border, with up to 2,000 mortar rounds per day. The guerrillas maintain bases along the Thai-Cambodian border.

“We are mobilizing all our men so we will not lose Pailin,” Ke Kim Yan said in an interview with reporters in Phnom Penh.

Pailin’s forests and mountains could provide good hiding places for the guerrillas, while gem mines in the area could help bankroll the opposition forces.

“If they get Pailin, it is not only a gain toward their military strategy, but is also a gain for their economic strategy,” Ke Kim Yan said. “Already the Khmer Rouge are making money to support their battle from nearby mines rich in rubies and amethysts.”

He said the capture of Pailin would allow the Khmer Rouge to move troops and supplies more easily into the Cambodian interior, and the fall of the district capital, held by the government for the past 10 years, would be a major psychological victory for the resistance.

“If we give up territory, it will show the enemy is superior to our side,” he said.