Cambodian Capital in Chaos Amid Power Play by One of Co-Premiers

Dawn broke over a capital city in chaos today as soldiers carrying out an apparent coup d’etat by Cambodian Second Prime Minister Hun Sen began looting parts of Phnom Penh.

Army units loyal to First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who is in France attempting to organize a resistance to Hun Sen’s power play, were holding out in pockets in the western portion of the city.

Although no gunfire was reported as the overnight curfew ended at 6 a.m., Hun Sen’s troops maintained their siege around the compound of Nhek Bunchhay, Ranariddh’s military chief.

In heavy fighting Sunday, they captured Ranariddh’s political party’s headquarters as well as his home, forcing about 200 of his armed supporters to surrender. White flags were draped along ramparts at the residence.

From France, Ranariddh appealed for support from Cambodians.

“I call on my people that they join me, my party and all other patriotic forces to carry out resistance against Hun Sen and his partisans,” he said today.

The violent breakdown of Cambodia’s coalition government marks the final unraveling of an imperfect peace settlement worked out by United Nations negotiators in 1991 to end the country’s long-running civil war.

The deal led to national elections in 1993 won by Ranariddh’s party, but Hun Sen and his followers bullied their way into a coalition government by threatening to continue the violence.

Phone lines remained down and the airport closed today as Hun Sen’s soldiers and police engaged in a looting rampage, making off with cars, televisions, motorbikes and valuables from homes in the airport area.

Mortar, rocket and machine-gun fire Sunday sent residents streaming out of Phnom Penh by foot, bicycle and motorbike.

Hundreds of people lined the banks of the capital’s Tonle Sap River, desperate for a ferry ride to safety.

The weekend’s battles erupted after weeks of rising tensions and isolated clashes. Over national radio, Hun Sen denied he was leading a coup attempt. Hun Sen has said his action was a preemptive move against what he called a plot by Ranariddh to attack his forces using disaffected Khmer Rouge rebels.

“This is not a political dispute between one party and another, nor is it a coup d’etat or a civil war like Ranariddh the traitor has declared,” Hun Sen said.

Hun Sen said Ranariddh’s royalist party could rejoin the now-shattered coalition government--but he said he would refuse to share power with Ranariddh.

Ranariddh said he fled Cambodia for France on Friday after hearing about an impending coup.

At least nine people had been killed since Hun Sen launched his putsch Saturday, according to hospital officials and diplomats. Another 50 people had been seriously wounded.

Away from the capital, fighting was reported in the northwestern provinces of Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Siem Reap.

In Washington, the State Department said the U.S. Embassy was in contact with the approximately 1,200 Americans in Cambodia and that all were reported safe Sunday. No evacuation has been ordered yet, and the State Department urged the Cambodian rivals “to resolve any differences by peaceful means.”

A group of 60 foreign aid workers fled the provincial capital of Battambang with the help of the Australian defense attache. The aid workers--from the United States, Australia, Europe and Japan--made the eight-hour journey to the Thai border in a 14-car convoy.

Meanwhile, Cambodia’s ailing King Norodom Sihanouk appealed for peace, calling on Hun Sen and his son, Ranariddh, to come to Beijing for peace talks.

“I beg to request all my children . . . and soldiers and police of both sides to have pity for the nation,” Sihanouk said in a statement from China, where he is undergoing medical treatments.

The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh asked Americans to take refuge in a hotel on the banks of the Tonle Sap.