Hun Sen agrees to ASEAN suggestions

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.