Bringing Brainpower to Bear : Administration’s Cambodia moves are calculated and appropriate

Moving with a clarity of purpose that has characterized the Bush Administration’s new policy toward Cambodia, Washington has decided to open direct talks with the Phnom Penh government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. It was a calculated and appropriate move to expedite efforts to bring peace among the four warring Cambodian factions.

Its immediate success was to lure Hun Sen to Indonesia this weekend for a crucial meeting on whether to accept a United Nations peace plan. The proposal by the United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain and France, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, calls for a U.N. disarmament, truce and free elections in Cambodia.

Until the United States made its unprecedented overture to Phnom Penh, Hun Sen was refusing to attend the meeting. The reason for his boycott: Rival Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the nominal head of the opposition coalition, was staying away from the meeting. He, too, changed his mind at the coaxing of Washington and Beijing.

The Administration’s move to open talks with Phnom Penh is likely to encourage Hun Sen to accept the U.N. plan in spite of the fact that it would diminish his power by establishing a Supreme National Council, forcing him and the opposition coalition to share power.

Washington’s decision to hold talks with Hun Sen’s government was a logical extension of its big policy shift in July. It withdrew its support for the Prince’s three-party coalition, which actually is dominated by the Khmer Rouge. Then Washington moved to discuss Cambodia with Hun Sen’s backer, Vietnam, in order to distance itself from the murderous Khmer Rouge, which was responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1978.

Bringing the factions face to face is critical in getting some endorsement of the U.N. peace plan. The civil war should be settled with brainpower and diplomacy, not blood and tears.