Breakaway Khmer Rouge negotiates cease-fire

Breakaway Khmer Rouge negotiates cease-fire

PHNOM MALAI, Cambodia (Reuter): Breakaway Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary said yesterday he had negotiated a cease-fire with the Cambodian government, but more time and talks were needed for comprehensive settlement.

Ieng Sary, foreign minister during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 "killing fields" rule, split from hardline leader Pol Pot last month with several thousand followers and has since sought peace with the government.

Political analysts said the split, possibly the gravest yet within the Maoist Khmer Rouge, could prove a major step in the quest for national reconciliation in a nation struggling to recover from decades of war. The split emerged when hardliners accused Ieng Sary of embezzlement and ordered his execution.

"I would like to inform you that my talks for national reconciliation with the representatives from Phnom Penh were successful," Ieng Sary told more than 100 journalists at a news conference at his headquarters in this northwestern town.

"We reached agreement on a cease-fire and to begin contact between our troops. They also agreed to provide legal protection for me," he added.

Ieng Sary, dressed in a green safari suit and looking more like a businessman than a guerrilla leader, said the question of merging his troops with government forces was the most important issue still being negotiated.

He held high-level peace talks with Cambodian co-defense ministers Tea Banh and Tea Chamrath in Bangkok last week.

Ieng Sary and Pol Pot, his former brother-in-law, were sentenced to death in absentia for their role in the deaths of more than one million people from execution, starvation or disease during Khmer Rouge rule.

The Khmer Rouge signed a peace accord in 1991 but later reneged on the accord and have been fighting the coalition government that emerged from UN-run elections in 1993.

Ieng Sary, now in his 60s, said that after he recently met high-level representatives from Phnom Penh, he had received a letter from Cambodia co-Prime Ministers Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen praising him for helping make the talks successful.

He formed a movement called the Democratic National United Movement last month to work for reconciliation with Cambodia.

Cambodian co-premier Hun Sen said over the weekend that Ieng Sary's breakaway faction now recognized the authority of the Cambodian government as well as a 1994 law that banned the Khmer Rouge.

Ieng Sary, who heads at least four breakaway Khmer Rouge divisions in Cambodia's northwestern Phnom Malai and Pailin areas, said he did know if the government would grant him a royal pardon for the death sentence on his head.

Hun Sen said last week that Ieng Sary should get a royal pardon.

The dissident leader also insisted he had not been involved in genocide during the Khmer Rouge rule.

"Pol Pot was the sole figure who held the absolute power during the period of 1975-1979," he told the news conference.

"He was the sole person who ordered the troops (guerrillas) and everyone to do what he wanted, including killing the people.

"As foreign minister, I had no power, and did not get involved in any crime of killing people,"

He said his rift with Pol Pot began in early 1990, when the hardline faction did not allow him to participate in peace negotiations with other factions waging a war with the then government in Phnom Penh.

Those early peace talks initiated the Paris Peace Accord of July 1991, which led to the formation of an interim government before the UN-sponsored elections in 1993.