Co-premiers return from Jakarta

Co-premiers return from Jakarta

PHNOM PENH (AFP): Cambodia's bickering co-premiers returned home from a summit of leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) yesterday to reports of factional violence in the country's northwest.

Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen smiled as they alighted from a government jet from Jakarta but stepped into their waiting cars with only cursory comments to reporters.

The prince said the ASEAN meeting was "very successful". Leaders of the regional economic grouping decided that Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos would be admitted as full members at a yet-to- be decided date,

"They have said the three countries... will be admitted simultaneously," he said as he got into his car.

Hun Sen brushed aside questions saying only "Good" when asked about the meeting which was the co-premiers' first public appearance together in weeks, following a sharp rise in political tension between their two parties.

The prince said that he and Hun Sen had spoken about the political situation and that they had agreed to try to end the tension.

"We are all together," he said. "We hope that from now on there will be political stability."

However, in the premiers' absence, the tension flared into violence in the northwest town of Sisophon where at least five civilians were wounded in a Saturday shooting incident between soldiers and police.

The civilians were wounded when police affiliated with Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) opened fire to stop a vehicle carrying soldiers backing the prince's royalist FUNCINPEC party, said Serey Kosal, the deputy governor of Battambang province, just south of Sisophon.

Details were sketchy but a senior Defense Ministry official, confirming the incident had occurred, said it was "very minor." Serey Kosal, a FUNCINPEC member, however, said the situation threatened to get out of control when police attempted to go after the soldiers in an armored personnel carrier.

The soldiers, who had stopped near the central market in Sisophon, then radioed for assistance and the tension was eased by the arrival of several senior military commanders from the area, he said.

On Nov. 22, Serey Kosal wrote to the two prime ministers telling them that he would use all necessary force to stop alleged efforts by CPP officials in Battambang province to destroy FUNCINPEC and the coalition government.

That matter was thought to have been settled when senior delegations from the defense and interior ministries were sent to Battambang to calm things down.

Serey Kosal's letter followed Nov. 16 accusations from alleged Khmer Rouge defectors in Phnom Penh that the royalists had conspired to cover up links between the guerrilla movement and an opposition party.

Three days after the allegations were made, Hun Sen's brother- in-law, a senior interior ministry official, was gunned down in a daylight assassination -- an act which Hun Sen said was an attempt to intimidate other Khmer Rouge from defecting and revealing incriminating information.

Prince Ranariddh vehemently denied the accusations, but the defectors who made their claims at a press conference at Hun Sen's home, have since repeated them and said the prince's denials constituted treason as they interfered with attempts to lure more of their colleagues to the government side.