Cambodia Factions Asked to Establish Joint Council

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have called on the Cambodian government and rebels to quickly form a council aimed at helping the United Nations establish a new neutral government of Cambodia.

The Security Council members’ plan for Cambodia, made available to several news organizations Thursday, calls for a transitional government in which the United Nations will take over most of the functions of governing.

A Supreme National Council, made up of representatives of the current Vietnamese-backed government and the three-party resistance movement led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, is also to play a role in the transitional government and advise the U.N. Provisional Authority in Cambodia.

The plan, designed to end the nation’s 11-year civil war, said none of the Cambodian factions is to have a “dominant position” over any other on the supreme council.

Sihanouk’s three-party resistance movement said Thursday in Bangkok that it welcomed the Security Council peace plan.

Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan said on Khmer Rouge radio that “the party of Democratic Cambodia (the Khmer Rouge) totally supports the statement of the five permanent members on Cambodia.”

The Security Council designers of the plan--the United States, the Soviet Union, China, France and Britain--said “all necessary powers” of government would rest with the provisional authority, once the Cambodian parties sign an international peace agreement.

Diplomats said the United Nations would run the Foreign Affairs, Defense, Interior, Information and Transportation ministries in the transitional government. The provisional authority is supposed to verify the cease-fire, disarm the factions and organize general elections.

Rebel groups would be confined to specific geographic areas.