Soldiers Storm Cambodian City Mitterrand Is Scheduled to Visit : Southeast Asia: Three civilians are killed and 8 others wounded in attack. Troops steal 11 statues from Angkor Wat.

In perhaps the most flamboyant violation yet of this nation’s tattered cease-fire, soldiers riding motorcycles attacked the provincial capital of Siem Reap early Wednesday, just two days before a planned visit by French President Francois Mitterrand.

A U.N. spokesman said three civilians were killed and eight others wounded in the 1:30 a.m. attack. He said a Portuguese tourist was wounded. Siem Reap is near the famed temples of Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s main tourist attraction.

The spokesman said 40 to 50 soldiers carried out the attack, firing weapons and B-40 rockets and throwing hand grenades. Although the soldiers’ faction was not identified, they reportedly wore “mixed uniforms,” suggesting an attack by rebels loyal to the Maoist Khmer Rouge or a group of renegade soldiers from various factions.

The soldiers attacked houses, then shot up the local headquarters of the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia. The gunmen forced their way into a conservation center for the Angkor Wat complex and stole 11 statues that were being preserved, giving the raid a possible economic motive.

An Australian radio operator at the UNTAC office opened fire on the attackers, who sped off, the spokesman said. This was only the second time since the transitional authority arrived in Cambodia a year ago that a U.N. soldier had fired in self-defense.

The attack was near a camp set up by a unit of the French Foreign Legion, sent to Siem Reap to provide security for Mitterrand on Friday. The French president is scheduled to arrive in Cambodia today for the first visit by a French leader since Charles de Gaulle stopped here in 1964. Mitterrand then is to fly to see Angkor Wat on Friday morning.

While his visit apparently will not be changed, the attack helped the Khmer Rouge score an important propaganda victory by penetrating the defenses of a provincial capital when an honored guest was about to visit.

Fighting in Cambodia has intensified in recent weeks as the government in Phnom Penh launched coordinated attacks against Khmer Rouge-held villages in the north and west of the country, despite a formal cease-fire agreement in October, 1991, designed to end Cambodia’s civil war.

Under an international peace plan for the country, U.N. peacekeepers have stationed more than 22,000 troops and civilian officials there to observe the truce and prepare for elections in May.

Yasushi Akashi, head of the transition force, told leaders of Cambodia’s four factions on Wednesday that the United Nations regards the Siem Reap assault “with utmost seriousness” and called for the parties to bring the perpetrators to justice, according to the spokesman.

Akashi told a meeting of the Supreme National Council, a four-party interim body, that he was still not satisfied that “conditions for free and fair elections can be met,” his spokesman said. The spokesman said it was possible the elections could be postponed beyond late May, when they are currently scheduled, if the situation deteriorates further; that was considered unlikely.