Cambodia Says It Thwarted Coup by Prince, Ex-Official

The Cambodian government said Sunday that it had foiled a coup attempt led by a former Interior minister and a son of King Norodom Sihanouk.

The capital city of Phnom Penh was reported to be quiet but jittery, with armored cars patrolling the streets and state radio appealing for calm. There was no evidence of fighting.

The government said former Interior Minister Sin Song was placed under house arrest and Prince Norodom Chakrapong, one of Sihanouk’s many children and a former deputy prime minister, was allowed to leave the country aboard a Malaysian Airlines plane.

Sin Song and Chakrapong had been involved in an effort to torpedo the results of last year’s U.N.-sponsored parliamentary elections.

When it became clear that the Communist government led by then-Prime Minister Hun Sen had been defeated by the royalist FUNCINPEC party in last May’s polls, the two men announced a movement to split off several provinces from the country. In the end, the royalists and the former Communists formed a coalition government and the uprising collapsed.

But it appeared likely that lingering tensions between the royalists and the former Communists were in the background of Sunday’s reported coup attempt. This week the Cambodian Parliament is debating legislation that would outlaw the Khmer Rouge, the Maoist guerrillas whose rule in the 1970s left more than 1 million Cambodians dead. The Khmer Rouge refused to participate in last year’s elections but remains a potent military force.

The Khmer Rouge, which was aligned with China, was driven into exile in 1979 during an invasion by Vietnam, which was backed by the Soviet Union. The Vietnamese installed a group of Khmer Rouge defectors in the government, including Hun Sen and Sin Song.

Peace talks between Cambodia’s present coalition government and the Khmer Rouge ended in failure last month. Some coalition factions fear isolating the Khmer Rouge and want to give them a role in the government, while the Hun Sen faction wants them excluded totally.

Some royalist leaders are trying to counter the move by seeking greater powers for Sihanouk, whose role in the constitution is defined as a figurehead. But the former Communists oppose those efforts.

Chakrapong told reporters in Phnom Penh on Sunday that he was not involved in a coup attempt and said the allegation was a pretext by factions within the government to consolidate their control following the failure of the peace talks with the Khmer Rouge.

While there was no physical evidence of a coup in the streets of Phnom Penh, reports of an uprising will only add to the sense of insecurity that has prevailed in Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge defeated government forces at the western town of Pailin in March. Some fear that the instability will frighten away tourists, the country’s main source of foreign exchange, and foreign investors, who had just begun to trickle back to Cambodia after staying away for 25 years.

As Interior minister, Sin Song was considered ruthless and has been accused of using death squads to silence opponents in the campaign for last year’s elections. There was a brief controversy earlier this year when Sin Song was given a visa by the State Department to attend a prayer breakfast in Washington.

Chakrapong was widely considered one of the most corrupt officials in Cambodia, a country where bribery is a way of life.