4 Cambodian Factions Agree to a Cease-Fire : Southeast Asia: The Vietnamese-installed government, however, still rejects a U.N. peace plan.

The four factions in Cambodia’s long-running civil war achieved limited progress on a peace settlement Monday, agreeing to an open-ended cease-fire and to stop receiving foreign military aid.

After years of squabbling, the bitter adversaries finally sat down together in a hotel in Pattaya, a seaside village best known for its earthy night life.

The apparent progress was achieved during a meeting of the Supreme National Council, a hybrid government body consisting of six representatives of the Vietnamese-installed Phnom Penh regime and six representatives of the resistance coalition that has been fighting Phnom Penh since 1979.

The Supreme National Council was actually formed last September but had previously failed to conduct any business because the Vietnamese-installed government and the three guerrilla groups could never agree on a leadership formula.

But in the first apparent breakthrough at the talks Monday, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the flamboyant aristocrat who was deposed as leader of Cambodia in 1970, announced a compromise in which he will serve as “convener” of the council’s meetings without assuming the formal mantle of chairman.

After a morning of talks, Sihanouk descended a curving staircase with characteristic melodrama to announce agreement on the following points:

All parties will stop receiving foreign military aid as part of an “unlimited” cease-fire; Sihanouk will preside over the council’s future meetings; the council will adopt its own flag and national song, while the four factions will keep their flags and anthems until elections are held; Sihanouk will lead a council delegation to the next session of the U.N. General Assembly, and the council will have its headquarters in the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok, more than 100 miles from the nearest Cambodian town.

The four factions represented at the meeting here were the Phnom Penh regime, led by Premier Hun Sen, and the three groups in the resistance coalition: the Khmer Rouge under Khieu Samphan, the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front under Son Sann, and Sihanouk’s National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia.

Their agreement appeared to mark a compromise by the Khmer Rouge, the Maoist guerrilla group whose reign of terror in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 left more than 1 million dead.

After Sihanouk’s announcement, the Khmer Rouge’s Khieu Samphan, who had previously rejected a cease-fire under similar conditions, issued a statement saying that “as a token of our willingness and sincerity, we proclaim the acceptance of the cessation of hostilities throughout Cambodia and the end of outside military assistance under an effective supervision and control of the United Nations.”

While diplomats said the agreement represents progress in the Cambodian dispute, the question of how the cease-fire will be monitored could prove to be a stumbling block to an eventual settlement.

Sihanouk told reporters Monday night that Phnom Penh is still refusing to accept a comprehensive peace settlement formulated by the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members: the United States, the Soviet Union, China, France and Britain.

The so-called Permanent 5 adopted a draft agreement last year that called for U.N. supervision of a cease-fire to be followed by disarmament of the four Cambodian factions and U.N. administrative personnel taking over key jobs in the Cambodian government until free elections are held.

The Phnom Penh government strongly objected to the plan, asserting that U.N.-supervised disarmament would hurt Phnom Penh, which maintains the bulk of its forces in the towns and cities, and help the Khmer Rouge, whose guerrilla fighters have buried weapons in the jungles where they would never be found.

Only three weeks ago in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Khmer Rouge, strongest of the three resistance factions, refused to accept a cease-fire, saying it would not do so until Phnom Penh accepts the U.N. peace plan in its entirety.

At Monday’s talks, which will continue today and Wednesday, Sihanouk appeared to have succeeded in changing the order of discussions so that the Khmer Rouge accepted a cease-fire before consideration of the U.N. plan. But Khieu Samphan’s statement made clear that the linkage between a cease-fire and the U.N. plan still exists, which could torpedo any further progress at the talks.

A representative of the Permanent 5 also warned the Cambodian council that the Security Council will not provide any assistance to Cambodia--such as help to monitor a cease-fire--unless the entire peace plan is adopted by all four parties.

An earlier cease-fire was proclaimed in Cambodia on May 1, but it ended after the Jakarta talks failed. At this time of year, however, Cambodia is experiencing its rainy season, a time when fighting usually drops to a low level.

Both the Khmer Rouge, which is armed by China, and Phnom Penh, which was armed by Moscow and Vietnam, have large stocks of weapons on hand, meaning that the agreement to stop receiving foreign military aid is more symbolic than substantive.

The Phnom Penh government is known to oppose large-scale intervention by U.N. military forces as a peacekeeping group, while the Khmer Rouge wants substantial U.N. involvement as a check on the Phnom Penh government’s army.

Sihanouk told reporters that, initially, the cease-fire would be monitored by the Supreme National Council itself but that he is proposing that Cambodia invite friendly nations to send “advisers” to help implement a truce.

Under Sihanouk’s plan, it appears that the individual factions will continue to operate as before in the areas under their control.

The Phnom Penh government controls about 80% of the country, including most of the major towns. The Khmer Rouge, Sihanouk’s front and the non-Communist Khmer People’s National Liberation Front together control a slice of Cambodian territory along the border with Thailand.

Steps Toward Peace in Cambodia

Cambodia’s Supreme National Council, representing all four factions in the nation’s civil war , Monday took these steps toward a peace pact: * As part of an immediate, “unlimited” cease-fire, all parties agreed to STOP RECEIVING MILITARY AID from foreign nations.

Resistance leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk said the SNC will discuss implementation of the truce at upcoming meetings.

* SIHANOUK WILL PRESIDE over future SNC meetings. Phnom Penh Prime Minister Hun Sen previously insisted that he become vice chairman to Sihanouk, a demand now apparently dropped.

* The only place the four sides could agree on as HEADQUARTERS FOR THE SNC was the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok, more than 100 miles from the nearest Cambodian town.

* The SNC will adopt its own flag and national song. The four factions will keep their own FLAGS AND ANTHEMS until elections are held.

* Sihanouk will lead an SNC DELEGATION to the next session of the U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY, which has declared the Cambodian seat vacant while the negotiations are taking place.