Cambodia Rebel Shells Oust U.N. Peacekeepers

Khmer Rouge shelling Thursday forced the evacuation of U.N. peacekeepers from a rural area where the United Nations has been trying to register people to vote, officials said.

Fighting between the guerrillas and government forces had forced some U.N. personnel from their posts in the past, but this was the first time U.N. officers have suggested that the Khmer Rouge was directly attacking U.N. workers.

The U.N. military commander in Cambodia, Lt. Gen. John Sanderson, said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. that Thursday’s attack was aimed at keeping the United Nations from registering people to vote in U.N.-organized elections, scheduled for May.

The 36 peacekeepers and nine Cambodian U.N. staff members were evacuated from a village in Siem Reap province, about 160 miles northwest of Phnom Penh, after the Khmer Rouge agreed to a temporary cease-fire.

Those evacuated included 27 Bangladeshi troops, along with military observers, police and voter registration officials.

The radical Communist Khmer Rouge, which was blamed for the deaths of more than 1 million Cambodians during its rule in the 1970s, fought the Vietnamese-installed government for 13 years until signing a peace accord in October, 1991.

But it has violated the treaty and refused to disarm.