Prince Pleads With U.N. to Isolate New Regime

In an emotional appearance here Thursday, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who was deposed as Cambodia’s first prime minister last weekend by his political rival and coalition partner, Hun Sen, appealed to the world community to economically isolate the new regime.

Ranariddh said he favored using diplomatic and economic pressure to force Hun Sen to restore the government elected in 1993, but pointedly left open the possibility of a return to civil war if that does not work. Ranariddh said he could return to parts of Cambodia still under control of his royalist forces and launch a military strike against the capital, Phnom Penh.

“My priorities are primarily diplomatic, not military, because civil war would mean even more suffering for my poor country,” he said at a news conference here.

The prince spent the day meeting with Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other top U.N. officials in a bid to drum up support for economic sanctions against the Hun Sen government and renewed intervention by the United Nations. The world body sponsored the peace process that ended the last civil war in Cambodia and supervised the 1993 elections that brought the prince to power and left Hun Sen as his junior coalition partner.

Ranariddh will visit Washington today, where he will meet with Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He also will make calls on Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and speak at the National Press Club.

The United States announced Thursday that it is suspending aid to Cambodia for 30 days while it reviews its assistance, which was expected to total $35 million in fiscal 1997. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said in Washington that officials anticipate resuming humanitarian aid after the review.

The Senate, meanwhile, adopted a nonbinding resolution condemning the subversion of democracy and urging the U.N. to consider all options--short of sending a peacekeeping force--for restoring peace in Cambodia.

At the U.N., Ranariddh was greeted respectfully. However, there was no immediate groundswell of support for sanctions against Cambodia. Swedish Ambassador Peter Osvald, who is president of the U.N. Security Council this month, indicated that he would discuss the issue with the 15-member council.

At his news conference, Ranariddh, who appeared on the verge of tears at times, pleaded with other nations not to recognize Hun Sen’s government.

“Today I feel very sad for my country,” he said. “After more than two decades of war, suffering, genocide . . . we did believe that the nightmare was ended. But that is not the case, since the coup of last weekend. The coup has plunged Cambodia into a new drama. . . . We have to stop it.”

Ranariddh alleged that Hun Sen launched the coup because he realized he could not win elections scheduled for May 1998. He also sought to link Hun Sen to an attack on an election rally in March, to drug trafficking and to efforts to prevent the arrest and trial of Pol Pot, the former Khmer Rouge leader accused in the genocide of more than a million people.