5 Security Council Nations Agree on Cambodia Plan

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agreed Monday on a peace plan that they hope will end the decade-old civil war in Cambodia, diplomats said.

After a day of formal meetings among officials from the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China, diplomats told Reuters that the five “had agreed on a framework for a comprehensive peace settlement” for Cambodia.

The five, who have at one time supported one faction or another, have held six sessions since January, alternating between Paris and New York.

The five spent most of Monday formulating a communique to be released today, after which the full agreement will be sent to the Cambodian parties.

The plan, which could result in the largest U.N. operation in decades, calls for the world body to administer five key Cambodian ministries during a transitional stage leading to free elections.

The United Nations is also to verify a cease-fire, supervise disarming of the combatants, organize free and fair elections and verify that all Vietnamese forces have withdrawn, diplomats told Reuters.

But the proposals, which one diplomat called “Cambodia’s last chance,” have no hope of ending the country’s civil war until the Cambodian combatants agree to them.

To this end, the Cambodian factions are to meet in Jakarta, Indonesia, in mid-September for further negotiations with France and Indonesia, co-chairmen of a 1989 Paris conference on Cambodia.

At previous sessions, the five had agreed on a so-called Supreme National Council to represent Cambodia during an interim period leading to free elections. Many of the council’s powers would be turned over to the United Nations.

Because the composition of this council will be left to the Cambodian parties, agreement among the combatants on choosing representatives is key to any further progress, including a cease-fire, the diplomats said.

To date, every negotiation between the four Cambodian factions has broken down over a demand by the Khmer Rouge guerrillas that the tripartite coalition of which they are the dominant fighting force receive three-fourths representation.

This so-called quadripartite settlement has been rejected by Premier Hun Sen, head of the Vietnamese-backed government in Phnom Penh.

The guerrilla coalition consists of the Communist Khmer Rouge, which has the strongest guerrilla army, and two non-Communist factions.