ASEAN ministers to meet with Hun Sen

ASEAN ministers to meet with Hun Sen

MANILA (AP): Officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet with Cambodian coup leader Hun Sen tomorrow in a renewed attempt to achieve peace and stability there, the Philippine foreign secretary said yesterday.

Domingo Siazon said he and two other foreign ministers -- Indonesia's Ali Alatas and Thailand's Prachuab Chaiyasarn -- would met with Hun Sen tomorrow afternoon.

"The Cambodian government has welcomed the role of ASEAN in assisting them in restoring political stability," Siazon said.

Cambodia was to have joined ASEAN last week along with Myanmar and Laos, but ASEAN postponed its admission after Hun Sen's July 5 coup against co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh.

Hun Sen refused the offers of help in restoring political normalcy from an earlier ASEAN diplomatic mission by the three ministers.

But Cambodian Foreign Minister Ung Huot, who attended ASEAN's annual meetings in Kuala Lumpur last week as an observer, told the regional group that Hun Sen had changed his mind and now welcomed ASEAN's help in reaching a peaceful political solution.

The ASEAN ministers asked Ung Huot to confer with Hun Sen on his return home and send a written confirmation of the coup leader's willingness. A telefax arrived from Ung Huot on Tuesday, just moments before the end of the ASEAN meetings, affirming Cambodia's welcome of the three-member delegation.

Alatas said in Jakarta yesterday that he will depart for Cambodia for the talks between ASEAN and Cambodia "either at the end of this week or early next week."

Alatas, who heads the delegation, has described the trip as "quiet diplomacy."

ASEAN now groups the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.