WORLD : Senators Ask Shift on Cambodia
Sixty-six senators of both parties called today for President Bush to make further changes in U.S. policy toward Cambodia, including permitting development aid and direct talks with the communist government in Phnom Penh.
The senators, nearly two-thirds of the Senate, also challenged Administration assertions that there is no consistent military coordination between the two non-Communist factions fighting the Cambodian government and the feared Khmer Rouge rebels with whom they are allied.
Those signing the letter, led by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) and Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), spanned the political spectrum in the chamber. Their move reflected growing congressional fears of a Khmer Rouge military victory inadvertently abetted by the United States.
The group included 13 Republicans and 53 Democrats.
On July 18, about a week after the original letter to Bush began circulating in the Senate, Secretary of State James A. Baker III announced that the United States was withdrawing its support for a United Nations seat for the rebel coalition.
Baker arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia, today for talks with ASEAN ministers expected to focus on U.S. Indochina policy.
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