Cambodia Says an Operation Against Khmer Rouge Is Over

The government said today that its military operation against the Khmer Rouge was over and that it wanted U.N. peacekeepers deployed as a buffer between its army and the guerrillas.

What the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) called an apparently coordinated offensive on Khmer Rouge positions in five provinces that began late last week was purely defensive, a government spokesman told a news conference here.

And the government army had no intention of attacking the guerrillas’ headquarters at Pailin near the Thai border, he added.

“The objective of this military activity is to push back the Khmer Rouge, especially to force them to withdraw their artillery from the front line,” spokesman Khieu Kanarrith said.

“And now the mission is complete,” he said. “And it was a great success, that is all. This is purely a defensive activity. This is not a general offensive.”

Military spokesman Lt. Gen. Pann Thay accused the guerrillas of infiltrating wide areas of the country and building up positions with heavy weapons and ammunition since signing peace accords in Paris in October, 1991.

Khieu Kanarrith said the government would tell UNTAC that it did not want to station its troops near Khmer Rouge areas.

“If there is some compromise or some opportunity, we will move back our troops and we will propose to UNTAC to place their troops in this buffer area,” he said.

UNTAC said Monday that the government offensive was unacceptable and had exceeded the right to self-defense as laid down in the peace accords.

It said U.N. military observers had reported incidents in five central and northern provinces since the end of last week, including artillery, rocket, mortar and small-arms exchanges, and that government troops were within 12.5 miles of Pailin.

They said the fighting was the most serious since the 22,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force was deployed last March.

Pann Thay insisted the Phnom Penh troops acted in self-defense. He claimed the military action was intended to allow farmers to harvest their rice and facilitate the holding of national parliamentary elections scheduled for late May.