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Security Panel OKs Cambodia Peace Plan : United Nations: Negotiators say the sweeping pact is a breakthrough and called on Cambodian factions to accept it.

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From Reuters

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council today officially announced agreement on a comprehensive political plan for Cambodia and called on the Cambodian combatants to accept it in its entirety.

In what negotiators called a major breakthrough toward a Cambodian peace settlement, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China, all of whom have at one time supported one Cambodian faction or another, issued a statement saying they had agreed on five “indispensable requirements.”

One of the negotiators in the 8-month-old talks, Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Rogachev, even held out hopes for a cease-fire in the near future. “If everything is going smoothly, it may take a month or two,” he told reporters.

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The statement did not reveal the terms of settlement, which include a major role for the United Nations during a transitional stage leading to free elections.

A key clause, according to diplomats, permits the United Nations to ensure that elections are held in a neutral political environment, and if necessary, to take control of five key ministries--foreign, defense, public security, finance and information.

U.N. peacekeeping and civilian forces are also to supervise disarmament, verify a cease-fire, help organize elections and make sure no foreign troops are left in the country.

If approved by the Cambodians and the full 15-nation Security Council, the new U.N. peacekeeping force will be known as the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia, or UNTAC.

The document, agreed on by the five, includes five main sections on a transitional government, disarmament, elections, human rights protection and international guarantees for the neutrality of a future Cambodia.

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