U.N. Peacekeepers Freed in Cambodia

Khmer Rouge guerrillas today released six U.N. peacekeepers who were seized three days earlier while monitoring troop movements in rural Cambodia, a U.N. official said.

“Everybody is fine, they’re free,” U.N. spokesman Eric Falt said.

The seizure of the unarmed peacekeepers--three Britons, two Filipinos and a New Zealander--had been the most serious incident amid increasingly bitter relations between U.N. officials and the Khmer Rouge. Gunfire also hit a U.N. helicopter sent to look for the missing men Wednesday, wounding a French officer.

The detained men were handed over today to a team of Indonesian peacekeepers who had brought a letter from a local Khmer Rouge military commander demanding their release, Falt said.

Falt said it appeared that the local guerrillas had acted independently when they seized the U.N. troops. The Khmer Rouge had accused the peacekeepers of spying for the Phnom Penh government.

The Khmer Rouge have refused to honor a year-old peace accord that calls for Cambodia’s four warring factions to disarm, fueling fears that civil war could erupt again. The group has been demanding to be given power in Cambodia’s government before elections in May, something not required by the accord.