Cambodia Drive on Rebels Perils U.N. Peace Plan

Cambodia announced Sunday that its forces are launching a military offensive against Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the northern part of the country amid continuing clashes that threaten to derail a U.N.-sponsored peace plan.

The announcement came a day before the start of a potentially risky U.N. operation aimed at repatriating 375,000 Cambodian refugees from border camps in Thailand.

U.N. officials said they still expect the first group of more than 600 refugees to go back to the western Cambodian town of Sisophon today as scheduled, but they expressed concern that further repatriations might have to be suspended if the fighting spreads.

In response to Sunday’s announcement, the Khmer Rouge Communists, who ruled Cambodia for nearly four years before they were driven from power in January, 1979, by invading Vietnamese forces, called for an immediate cease-fire and the deployment of U.N. peacekeeping troops.

However, over the past several months, the Khmer Rouge, whose rule left more than 1 million Cambodians dead, has not allowed an advance unit of U.N. troops to operate in territory it controls and has continued attacks.

The Phnom Penh government of Prime Minister Hun Sen said it ordered the offensive because of what it described as Khmer Rouge attempts to capture more territory in Kompong Thom province before the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers.

As the result of a peace accord signed by Cambodia’s four warring parties in Paris in October, the United Nations plans to deploy nearly 22,000 troops, police and civilian administrators to Cambodia.

The operation, aimed at ending 13 years of warfare and bringing about free elections in 1993, is expected to cost $1.9 billion, 30% of which is charged to the United States under U.N. statutes.

Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the titular head of state who was expected to welcome the first group of repatriated refugees to Sisophon today, called the situation “very, very serious.”