Sihanouk Berates 3 Rival Faction Chiefs : Cambodia: Exiled former leader says he is adopting a position of ‘neutrality’ until they agree on terms making him head of a council to restore peace.

Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the exiled former leader of Cambodia, on Sunday sharply criticized the leaders of three rival Cambodian factions for failing to agree on terms to make him the head of a council aimed at restoring peace to that war-torn nation.

Sihanouk declared that he is adopting a position of “neutrality” in debate on the issue between his guerrilla coalition partners and the Vietnamese-installed Phnom Penh government.

Sihanouk’s statement fits into a recent pattern by which he seems to be promoting himself as a national leader of all Cambodians. It also comes against a background of warming relations between Beijing and Hanoi, which have backed opposing sides in the Cambodian civil war. which has now gone on for nearly 12 years.

The budding reconciliation between China and Vietnam has created pressures and opportunities for compromise between the opposing Cambodian forces.

A 12-member Supreme National Council, created by the rival Cambodian factions during September talks in Jakarta, met for the first time in Bangkok two weeks ago. It tried but failed to agree on terms for Sihanouk to head the body. The council is intended to run the country, with U.N. assistance, pending a U.N.-sponsored election.

The guerrilla factions have called for Sihanouk to be added to the council as a 13th member. But Cambodian Premier Hun Sen, who is already a member, has demanded that if Sihanouk is added to the council, someone from the prince’s faction must be removed. At issue is whether the government and the opposition will have equal voting strength or whether the guerrilla coalition headed by Sihanouk will have a majority.

Speaking in the Great Hall of the People with several reporters after being feted Sunday as the highest guest of honor at a Chinese National Day banquet, the prince first attacked Hun Sen for attaching conditions to any agreement that Sihanouk assume the council chairmanship.

Then, with equal vehemence, Sihanouk criticized his coalition partners, Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan and former Cambodian Prime Minister Son Sann, for refusing to agree to Hun Sen’s conditions.

“I am ready to go to Bangkok (to head the Supreme National Council), but Hun Sen is creating difficulties,” Sihanouk said. Hun Sen’s demands, Sihanouk said, are that there be only 12 members of the council and that if Sihanouk is chairman, Hun Sen must be vice chairman.

“Twelve, OK, and a vice chairman named Hun Sen, OK, I say,” Sihanouk declared. “But my partners, they say no.

“I have to be neutral. . . . It is an affair between Son Sann, Khieu Samphan and Hun Sen. It is not my affair. I do not create any obstacle, any difficulty. So I let the others deal with it.”