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.