Cambodia’s President Fails to Embrace Peace Proposal

The president of Cambodia’s Vietnamese-installed government, appearing to reject key features of a new U.N. peace plan, said his government wants to maintain the political and military status quo.

Richard Solomon, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said Sunday that Vietnam had similar reservations in talks with the United States last week.

Cambodian President Heng Samrin’s comments came in a speech broadcast by the state radio Saturday. The text was seen Sunday in Bangkok.

He said his government regarded the U.N. plan “as a basic document” for future discussions and was ready to discuss it with the guerrillas in talks Indonesia is arranging.

But he said with no elaboration that his government’s stance “is to maintain its status quo--both politically and (militarily).”

The U.N. role, he said, should include verifying that agreements are implemented and organizing new elections.

The three rebel groups fighting the government have expressed support for the plan. Washington backs two of the guerrilla groups.

Vietnam voiced its reservations with the U.N. plan at a meeting at the United Nations on Friday in which the United States tried to persuade it to back the plan, Solomon said.

The Vietnamese, he said, had reservations about “issues related to military arrangements and some of the administrative arrangements.”

Meanwhile, Amnesty International today accused communist guerrillas of massacring more than 50 people in two train attacks in central Cambodia.

The international human rights group issued a statement urging the Cambodian guerrilla coalition, which includes the communist Khmer Rouge, to ensure that those involved in the killings “are removed from their positions and brought to justice.”