U.S. Considers Direct Contacts in Cambodia : Indochina: Secretary Baker tells ASEAN nations of a possible new approach to ending the fighting.

The United States is considering direct contacts with Cambodia’s Communist government in addition to Vietnam to try to end the war in Cambodia, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said today.

Baker said the withdrawal last year of Vietnamese troops backing the Cambodian government “gives us cause to see whether Hanoi is now prepared to support a process of political reconciliation” that would lead to free elections.

“We are also considering contacts with the Phnom Penh regime,” he added.

The moves would fit in both with efforts to reduce East-West tensions and with continuing U.S. support for the non-Communist Cambodian rebels, Baker said in a speech to the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

He spoke on the first day of a three-day meeting of the group, which comprises Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Indonesia. The foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, the European Community, Japan and New Zealand are also attending the session.

ASEAN foreign ministers criticized Baker’s announcement last week that the United States would not recognize the U.N. delegate from the three-part Cambodian resistance because it includes the Communist Khmer Rouge.

During Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia in 1975-78, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died from starvation or executions while the government enforced a radical program to collectivize agriculture.

Vietnam invaded in 1978 and toppled the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, but the rebels have staged a string of recent battlefield victories and are the strongest anti-government force.

Baker assured ASEAN that its goals and those of the United States were not contradictory.

“Our common approach to Cambodia has--for a decade--focused on three goals: a verified withdrawal of Vietnamese troops, the prevention of the return to power of the Khmer Rouge, and genuine self-determination for the Cambodian people through free elections,” he said.