China Urged to Pressure Khmer Rouge

SINGAPORE — Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on Saturday cited Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait as an object lesson in urging China to persuade the Khmer Rouge to honor a United Nations-brokered settlement of the 11-year-old Cambodian conflict.

China arms the Khmer Rouge, the most powerful of the three resistance parties fighting the Vietnam-backed government in Cambodia. “China should get the Khmer Rouge to abide by a U.N.-based settlement,” Lee said.

At a banquet honoring Chinese Premier Li Peng, he also said the move toward free-market economies in Eastern Europe, the easing of tension between the superpowers and the end of the Cold War have led many political leaders in Europe and the United States to assume that “the disappearance of the old order means an era of peace for mankind.”