Cambodian Troops Attack Khmer Rouge, U.N. Aides Say

In its biggest offensive in two years, the army of the Phnom Penh government has launched a series of coordinated attacks against Khmer Rouge guerrillas in at least five Cambodian provinces, U.N. officials said Monday.

The attacks began over the weekend and appeared aimed at expanding territory under government control in violation of a cease-fire that forms part of a U.N.-sponsored peace plan, officials of the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia told reporters here.

Khmer Rouge guerrillas also have violated the cease-fire in small-scale actions on numerous occasions, have held U.N. peacekeepers hostage and have refused to abide by the peace plan’s provisions.

Government troops were pushing toward the Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin, a center of lucrative gem-mining concessions near the western border with Thailand, said U.N. spokesman Eric Berman. He said a government force of undetermined size was within 13 miles of the town.

Although some of the fighting in five central, northern and western provinces involved artillery, rocket, mortar and rifle fire, most of the reports reaching U.N. headquarters here described minor actions, sometimes by units smaller than a platoon. Details were sketchy, but initial reports indicated light casualties.

The Phnom Penh government forces apparently “are trying to expand territory,” said Lt. Col. Richard Palk, a U.N. military spokesman. “It is a significant offensive, and we would suggest that it has exceeded their right of self-defense.”

The offensive came as a de facto U.N. deadline expired for the Khmer Rouge to declare its willingness to participate in elections scheduled for May 23-25. The radical Communist guerrilla group, whose brutal rule from 1975 to 1979 left more than 1 million Cambodians dead, has refused to register its political party or participate officially in a U.N.-organized drive that registered more than 4.6 million voters before it ended Sunday.

Under the October, 1991, peace plan signed by Cambodia’s four warring factions--including the Phnom Penh administration and the Khmer Rouge--Cambodians are to elect an assembly that will write a new constitution and turning itself into a national legislature as the basis for a new government.