United Nations Moving Toward a New Age : Cambodia: The international body may take over governing this ravaged nation in the name of all the world’s people.

The United Nations is on the threshold of doing what has never been done in the history of mankind: governing one country in the name of all the others.

Earlier this week in Paris the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council--the United States, the Soviet Union, China, France and Britain--studied an Australian proposal for ending what has been the most violent, degrading and horrendously sordid conflict since the Nazis tried to stamp their will on Europe: the war in the killing fields of Cambodia.

Shelved are the earlier attempts to form an interim coalition government, constituted by the long time antagonists, the Vietnamese and Soviet-upported regime of Hun Sen, the Chinese and Thai-backed Khmer Rouge, the hereditary ruler, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, and the smaller force of former Prime Minister Son Sann.

The probality now is that they will all stand down, a U.N.-appointed governor or administrator will take over, the peace will be kept by a U.N. military contingent, elections will be held and may the best man win. Presumably, the U.N. force will stay on for a reasonable period to make sure that his writ is allowed to run.

“A change that is cause for shaking the head in wonder is upon us . . . the prospect of a new age of world peace. The U.N. has an opportunity to live and breathe and work as never before.” These were President Reagan’s last public reflections on the workings of the United Nations, made in September, 1988. The old U.N.-baiter was prepared to admit that he could hardly believe what he saw happening, as the Soviet Union sought to do what the West has asked of it for 40 years: to make the United Nations the repository of all international disputes, where they could be solved by collective will instead of stirred with the extra ingredient of East-West ideological conflict. The way the big powers worked closely together to broker a peaceful resolution of the Iran-Iraq war had deeply impressed Reagan. But the moves now afoot to end the Cambodian conflict are even more remarkable steps forward in developing a common international will.

The peace settlement in the process of being negotiated can work only if the big five have a singleminded clarity of purpose. If they are determined to make a compromise work, it will be 75% of the battle. The remaining portion and the day-to-day effectiveness of the peace arrangements will depend on the wisdom of the governor and the sophistication of the peacekeeping forces he commands--his “soldiers without enemies,” as Brian Urquhart, “father” of the Nobel-winning “blue helmets,” has characterized them.

Peacekeeping evolved in the 1950s out of the impasse in the United Nations over the interpretation and implementation of the charter’s chapter that envisioned international military enforcement action against aggressors. This, in fact, is what the United Nations did in Korea: It voted for the United States to lead a combined force of British, Canadians, Turks, Ethiopians and 15 other nations to repel North Korea’s invasion of the South. It was possible only because on the crucial day of the vote the Soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council to protest the West’s refusal to countenance the Beijing government’s occupying China’s seat.

Since then, U.N. police actions, in order to win at least passive Soviet acceptance, have had to depend on what is essentialy nonviolent peacekeeping--soldiers who carry minimal defensive arms, which they use only as a last resort if attacked. It has worked tremendously well in keeping armies apart, particularly when the protaganists were looking for a face-saving device for extricating themselves from an impossible situation. Today, the peacekeeping formula is working well on the Iran/Iraq border, in Cyprus, Namibia and other difficult corners of the Middle East.

Cambodia could be more complicated. The beginning stages might go reasonably well, but no one should be deceived. The protaganists are going to be leaned on heavily by their respective patrons.

But once the election returns are in, doubtless giving the Khmer Rouge a crushing defeat, is it likely they will quietly melt into the background? To fight and slaughter are the only language this wicked genocidal movement knows. The United Nations may find it has no alternative but to be tough and fight. There will be blood on the floor.

The U.N.-appointed governor will have to be a person of exceptional strength and self-discipline. The appointee needs to be someone independent of the big powers, preferably non-Asian. A leading candidate would be former army general and president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, many influential people’s choice to be the next U.N. secretary-general. Tested in war, able in government, he brooked no nonsense during Biafra’s war of seccession in Nigeria, and he led his country away from military rule back to democratic government. While remarkably patient and persistent by nature, he is also a man of legendary resolve. In the end, he wouldn’t give the Khmer Rouge the time of day if they broke their side of the bargain.