Cambodia seeks ASEAN's help

Cambodia seeks ASEAN's help

PHNOM PENH (Reuter): Cambodia will consider seeking the intervention of other Southeast Asian nations if talks with Vietnamese officials fail to settle a border row, co-Premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh said yesterday.

"I do believe Vietnam does not have any interest to jeopardize our good relations," said the prince, who on Wednesday had accused Vietnamese of advancing some 300-400 meters into a southeast Cambodia province and forcing local farmers out.

Ranariddh had earlier said the action constituted an invasion and violated the spirit of a joint statement on cooperation in January 1995, and added that Cambodia would raise the matter with the Vietnamese embassy.

The embassy issued a statement on Thursday saying the Vietnamese Expert Working Group was prepared to meet Cambodian counterparts to discuss and settle border disputes.

Ranariddh said yesterday that if Vietnam failed to pull back from the border, he was ready to travel to Hanoi to raise the issue with Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet.

He said that should this fail to produce results, Cambodia could seek the help of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to which it is expected to graduate by 1997 from current observer membership.

ASEAN links Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Ranariddh said Cambodia would "try to resolve it through bilateral talks, but why not multi-lateral ones?"

Traditionally stormy relations between the neighbors have been warming in recent months, though analysts predicted the ill- defined border would cause friction for some time to come.

Tension dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries when Vietnam seized southeastern parts of Cambodia and later vied with Thailand to assert dominance over their smaller neighbor.

Hanoi forces invaded Cambodia in late 1978 to topple the brutal Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot and only withdrew in 1989, paving the way for a treaty in 1991 to end the civil war.