Sihanouk Accuses Thailand of Aiding Phnom Penh Regime

Prince Norodom Sihanouk, nominal head of Cambodia’s three-party resistance coalition, condemned Thailand today for allegedly working to support the Vietnamese-backed Hun Sen government in Phnom Penh.

In a middle-of-the night interview with selected reporters, Sihanouk denounced Thai Prime Minister Chatchai Choonhavan and Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh for scrapping an agreement that the Khmer Rouge--one of his two coalition partners--was prepared to accept and substituting a new formula for peace that the Communist Khmer Rouge rejected in a two-day conference here ending Tuesday.

The prince, who was ousted as Cambodia’s head of state in a 1970 coup, blamed three political advisers of Chatchai for persuading the Thai government to scrap a cease-fire agreement that Chavalit had drawn up earlier. That agreement was initialed in Bangkok a month ago.

In its place, Sihanouk charged, Chavalit presented in Tokyo a “more complicated document” that Thailand knew the Khmer Rouge would not accept although the essential points in both drafts were the same.

The three Thai advisers favor the Hun Sen government and want to stop the Khmer Rouge guerrillas, the biggest of the resistance armies, from seizing more territory in Cambodia by enforcing an early cease-fire, Sihanouk contended.

In the interview, Sihanouk roundly criticized the Tokyo agreement that he signed Tuesday with Cambodian Premier Hun Sen. The accord calls for a cease-fire and the convening next month of a Supreme National Council for Cambodia.

“If you really want peace in Cambodia, you should do nothing to give the Khmer Rouge a pretext to withdraw from the peace process,” he said.

Despite his criticism of the Tokyo agreement, Sihanouk said he signed it because it originated in Thailand.

“We depend on Thailand (for arms and supplies),” he said. “ . . . I cannot resist Thailand.”

Earlier Wednesday night, Premier Hun Sen, in a news conference, also singled out Thailand’s position as one of the most significant developments to emerge from the Tokyo conference.

“The Khmer Rouge could never exist without assistance from China and transit through Thailand,” he said.

Hun Sen said he is encouraged that Thailand now “clearly wants an early cease-fire in Cambodia.”

He denied that his government is trying to persuade Sihanouk and Son Sann, leader of the third group in the resistance coalition, to join him against the Khmer Rouge, who are blamed for the deaths of more than a million Cambodians during their 1975-78 rule. Vietnam invaded Cambodia in December, 1978, to oust the Khmer Rouge and install the government now headed by Hun Sen.

Sihanouk said he favors a resolution adopted last month by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council--the United States, Soviet Union, China, France and Britain--as the best hope for peace in Cambodia. That document recognizes the four warring factions as equals, while the Tokyo agreement gives the Hun Sen government equal standing with the three resistance factions combined.