U.S. Agrees to Hold Talks With Cambodia

The United States will open its first formal talks with the government of Cambodia in more than a decade as the Bush Administration expands efforts to end that country’s long-running civil war, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said Wednesday.

The talks, scheduled to take place in Laos, which borders Cambodia, are “the next logical step” in an effort that began in mid-July, Baker said. The first step was a July 18 announcement by Baker that the Administration would jettison years of policy, agree to negotiate about Cambodia with Vietnam, the main backer of the Cambodia government, and withdraw U.S. support from the Cambodian opposition coalition seeking to overthrow the regime.

That policy shift has borne dramatic fruit so far, a peace plan endorsed by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council--the United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain and France--that the warring factions in Cambodia have indicated a willingness to accept.

“We don’t suggest for one minute that we’re home on Cambodia, but we think things are moving in the right direction,” Baker told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The talks with the Cambodia regime will be designed “to see if we can’t continue to move this thing forward in a positive way,” he said.

Cambodia has been the scene of bloody warfare and diplomatic stalemate for more than two decades. In 1975, the communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas overthrew the government of Lon Nol, who had been backed by the United States. Over the next three years, the Khmer Rouge pursued genocidal policies that are estimated to have caused the deaths of more than a million Cambodians.

Vietnam invaded Cambodia late in 1978, driving the Khmer Rouge from the capital, Phnom Penh, and installing a new regime, headed by Hun Sen. The United States, opposed to Vietnam’s expansion of its power, refused to recognize the new government.

Since then, war has continued to plague the country as the Khmer Rouge, joined in a loose alliance with non-communist groups opposed to Vietnam and headed by Cambodia’s former ruler, Prince Sihanouk, fought to unseat Hun Sen as the major powers chose sides.

The Soviets, who have backed Vietnam for many years, continued to support Hun Sen. The Chinese, who pursued a brief war with Hanoi during the 1970s, backed the Khmer Rouge. And the United States, opposed to Vietnam, supported the anti-Hun Sen alliance, while trying to maintain some distance from the Khmer Rouge part of it.

By this summer, as the Khmer Rouge appeared increasingly close to being able to overthrow Hun Sen, the Administration abandoned that policy in favor of talks with Vietnam and its allies.

Meanwhile, in Jakarta, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said that Cambodia peace talks could begin there this week. Heads of several of the warring Cambodian factions have arrived in Jakarta, including Sihanouk’s son and a representative of the Khmer Rouge.

Radio Phnom Penh, monitored in Bangkok, said that Hun Sen was sending his foreign affairs expert, Hor Nam Hong, to Jakarta and restated his promise to attend the talks if Sihanouk appears.

“I wish to assure you that I can be present at any time and any where . . . to find a political solution with all the leaders of the coalition government of democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia), including Norodom Sihanouk,” Hun Sen said in a message to Alatas, quoted by the radio.

Under the U.N. peace plan, all the various Cambodia factions are supposed to agree on a new Supreme National Council that would take over Cambodia’s seat at the United Nations, which is still held by the Khmer Rouge representative. The various factions would then agree to a U.N.-supervised disarmament and elections.