Hun Sen agrees to ASEAN suggestions

By Santi WE Soekanto

PHNOM PENH (JP): ASEAN took a step forward in its mission to help restore political stability in Cambodia yesterday when First Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed to some of its suggestions.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas, who is leading the ASEAN mission to Cambodia, flew here yesterday and met for three hours with Hun Sen, who agreed on the need for all armed hostility to end.

Hun Sen also agreed on the need to guarantee the safe return of members of ousted First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh's royalist party FUNCINPEC who fled abroad during several days of fighting after Ranariddh was ousted.

"We suggested the politicians be given the chance to return safely without fear of persecution or intimidation," Alatas said. "Hun Sen agreed that this was not only desirable but also necessary."

Hun Sen also agreed that Cambodia's general election, scheduled for May next year, "would have meaning only when all political forces and political parties in Cambodia participated freely".

But there was no reference as to whether this meant Ranariddh could also return from his exile and contest the general election.

The ASEAN ministers refused to comment specifically on this.

Alatas, accompanied by the Philippines' foreign minister Domingo L. Siazon Jr. and Thailand's foreign minister Prachuab Chaiyasarn, said Hun Sen told them that he had ordered all units to halt further war.

But Hun Sen also asked the ministers to tell Ranariddh that he also had to put an end to all fighting and "cease the political and military collaboration with the outlawed Khmer Rouge".

Hun Sen ousted Ranariddh earlier last month. The political takeover ended a delicate coalition balance and months of bickering between the two premiers.

The turmoil prompted ASEAN to delay Cambodia's admission into the group.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Before yesterday's meeting, Hun Sen issued an aide memoir saying that "one important contribution ASEAN could offer is not to encourage any new war in Cambodia".

Therefore, "the royal government deems it necessary that Norodom Ranariddh ceases immediately his war activities by putting an end to all fighting against the government ... and by ending political and military collaboration with the outlawed Khmer Rouge."

Hun Sen welcomed ASEAN's mediation gesture but said "the return to a normal situation in Cambodia and the reopening of the National Assembly session shows that Cambodia has sufficient capacity to solve its internal problems by itself".

The second prime minister pledged his government would concentrate on preparing for and organizing an election on May 23, 1998.

Cambodia has "confidence in its capacity as a sovereign country to make preparations to hold and supervise elections by itself," he said.

"At the same time, we welcome international observers and the coordinating role to be played by the United Nations through the Special Representative of the Secretary General to Phnom Penh," he said.

Credible

Alatas said ASEAN told Hun Sen that in order for the general election to proceed "there will have to be a well-run government, a coalition government, as both sides have agreed to as the result of the 1993 elections."

"I think there was agreement, concurrence on the side of Hun Sen, with our view that it would be to the advantage of the prime minister himself if the coalition government could be seen as a credible one," he said.

This credibility should be achieved with the safe return of FUNCINPEC faction members, Alatas said.

Hun Sen said in the meeting he had persuaded those who fled overseas to return.

The ministers then asked Hun Sen to make an announcement "at the highest level," promising FUNCINPEC members a safe return and free political participation.

Alatas refused to explain what Ranariddh's role would be should he return.

"It's difficult for us to reveal certain things before we have the opportunity to contact Ranariddh and convey to him some of Hun Sen's views," he said.

The delegation has yet to fix a date and venue to report to other ASEAN ministers on the mission.