Breakaway Khmer Rouge negotiates cease-fire<\/p>\n
PHNOM MALAI, Cambodia (Reuter): Breakaway Khmer Rouge leader
\nIeng Sary said yesterday he had negotiated a cease-fire with the
\nCambodian government, but more time and talks were needed for
\ncomprehensive settlement.<\/p>\n
Ieng Sary, foreign minister during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979
\n\"killing fields\" rule, split from hardline leader Pol Pot last
\nmonth with several thousand followers and has since sought peace
\nwith the government.<\/p>\n
Political analysts said the split, possibly the gravest yet
\nwithin the Maoist Khmer Rouge, could prove a major step in the
\nquest for national reconciliation in a nation struggling to
\nrecover from decades of war. The split emerged when hardliners
\naccused Ieng Sary of embezzlement and ordered his execution.<\/p>\n
\"I would like to inform you that my talks for national
\nreconciliation with the representatives from Phnom Penh were
\nsuccessful,\" Ieng Sary told more than 100 journalists at a news
\nconference at his headquarters in this northwestern town.<\/p>\n
\"We reached agreement on a cease-fire and to begin contact
\nbetween our troops. They also agreed to provide legal protection
\nfor me,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Ieng Sary, dressed in a green safari suit and looking more
\nlike a businessman than a guerrilla leader, said the question of
\nmerging his troops with government forces was the most important
\nissue still being negotiated.<\/p>\n
He held high-level peace talks with Cambodian co-defense
\nministers Tea Banh and Tea Chamrath in Bangkok last week.<\/p>\n
Ieng Sary and Pol Pot, his former brother-in-law, were
\nsentenced to death in absentia for their role in the deaths of
\nmore than one million people from execution, starvation or
\ndisease during Khmer Rouge rule.<\/p>\n
The Khmer Rouge signed a peace accord in 1991 but later
\nreneged on the accord and have been fighting the coalition
\ngovernment that emerged from UN-run elections in 1993.<\/p>\n
Ieng Sary, now in his 60s, said that after he recently met
\nhigh-level representatives from Phnom Penh, he had received a
\nletter from Cambodia co-Prime Ministers Prince Norodom Ranariddh
\nand Hun Sen praising him for helping make the talks successful.<\/p>\n
He formed a movement called the Democratic National United
\nMovement last month to work for reconciliation with Cambodia.<\/p>\n
Cambodian co-premier Hun Sen said over the weekend that Ieng
\nSary's breakaway faction now recognized the authority of the
\nCambodian government as well as a 1994 law that banned the Khmer
\nRouge.<\/p>\n
Ieng Sary, who heads at least four breakaway Khmer Rouge
\ndivisions in Cambodia's northwestern Phnom Malai and Pailin
\nareas, said he did know if the government would grant him a royal
\npardon for the death sentence on his head.<\/p>\n
Hun Sen said last week that Ieng Sary should get a royal
\npardon.<\/p>\n
The dissident leader also insisted he had not been involved in
\ngenocide during the Khmer Rouge rule.<\/p>\n
\"Pol Pot was the sole figure who held the absolute power
\nduring the period of 1975-1979,\" he told the news conference.<\/p>\n
\"He was the sole person who ordered the troops (guerrillas)
\nand everyone to do what he wanted, including killing the people.<\/p>\n
\"As foreign minister, I had no power, and did not get involved
\nin any crime of killing people,\"<\/p>\n
He said his rift with Pol Pot began in early 1990, when the
\nhardline faction did not allow him to participate in peace
\nnegotiations with other factions waging a war with the then
\ngovernment in Phnom Penh.<\/p>\n
Those early peace talks initiated the Paris Peace Accord of
\nJuly 1991, which led to the formation of an interim government
\nbefore the UN-sponsored elections in 1993.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/breakaway-khmer-rouge-negotiates-cease-fire-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}