Breakaway Khmer Rouge recognize government

Breakaway Khmer Rouge recognize government

PHNOM PENH (Reuter): Breakaway Khmer Rouge guerrillas loyal to Ieng Sary recognize the authority of the Cambodian government and the ideals of a single state, territory and administration, co- Premier Hun Sen said yesterday.

The second prime minister, speaking at the opening of a women's training center, said the guerrillas who have broken away from hardliners led by Pol Pot had also recognized a 1994 law that banned the Maoist Khmer Rouge movement.

"They recognize the royal Cambodian government, including the law that outlawed the Khmer Rouge, and they want their army and people to live with the royal government under one state, one territory, one national administration," Hun Sen said.

"The (hardline) Khmer Rouge is one step from the end," added the premier, who on Monday for the first time met senior leaders of the breakaway guerrilla factions, including Ieng Sary's brother, Ieng Vudh.

First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh told reporters that the dissidents had told negotiators at high-level talks on Thursday that they supported a multi-party democracy, the monarchy and the Buddhist religion.

"What they seek most is to give mercy to Ieng Sary and other division commanders," he said at Phnom Penh's Pochentong Airport, adding that a joint working group would continue discussing ways to gain access to the Khmer Rouge bases.

The government's claims could not immediately be verified by representatives of the breakaway faction.

Co-Defense Ministers Tea Banh and Tea Chamrath held the highest level talks to date with Ieng Sary on Thursday in Thailand.

The ministers said when they arrived home on Saturday that the talks had been fruitful. But Tea Chamrath said they did not know when a final agreement would be reached and signed.

Sticking points included the government's desire to take over the territory that the guerrillas control in northwestern Cambodia, and what to do with Ieng Sary, who was foreign minister during the brutal 1975-79 Khmer Rouge rule.

Ieng Sary was sentenced to death in absentia for his role in the 1970s genocide, when more than one million people died from execution, starvation, disease or overwork.

Tea Banh told reporters in Thailand before meeting Ieng Sary that, "the question of royal amnesty I think we can easily implement. But on the subject of integration of the territory (his faction controls), we have to discuss further details."

Ieng Sary split from the secretive Khmer Rouge movement after hardliners accused him of massive embezzlement in early August and ordered his execution.