Exiled Cambodia Chief Halts Armed Resistance

Prince Norodom Ranariddh, admitting his forces are no match against his rival’s, agreed Friday to call off armed resistance to Cambodia’s new strongman. The concession could avert a full-scale civil war.

Ranariddh had urged his supporters to fight Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, the co-premier who ousted him in a coup two weeks ago. But Ranariddh’s forces have since been routed by Hun Sen’s bigger, better-equipped army.

On Friday, Ranariddh met in the Thai capital with three Southeast Asian foreign ministers who put forth proposals to end the crisis, including calling a cease-fire. Members of Ranariddh’s FUNCINPEC party said he agreed to them.

No official announcement was made after the talks, but the same proposals were to be put before Hun Sen today in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

Ranariddh said the focus of the meeting was “to put an end very fast to the present crisis in order to prevent any new civil war from happening in my country.”

Ending the beleaguered resistance by Ranariddh’s supporters could be a first step toward finding a political solution for Cambodia, which has been convulsed by three decades of war and upheaval.

The foreign ministers of Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, representing the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, hammered out the outlines of a peace proposal Thursday with King Norodom Sihanouk, Ranariddh’s father.

The plan calls for ending fighting, installing a caretaker government to prepare for new elections and acceptance by both sides of peace accords that led to U.N.-organized balloting in 1993.

Ranariddh’s party “has accepted the proposal of a caretaker government,” said Lu Laysreng, a member of the party’s central committee.

However, there was no guarantee Hun Sen would agree to the deal.

Despite Ranariddh ending his resistance, the Clinton administration on Friday refused to accept Hun Sen’s takeover and said U.S. envoy Stephen J. Solarz would confront him in Phnom Penh in a few days with a message that the coup is illegal and intolerable.