Samphan must denounce Pol Pot first: Ranariddh
Samphan must denounce Pol Pot first: Ranariddh
PHNOM PENH (Agencies): Nominal Khmer Rouge leader Khieu
Samphan will have to denounce Pol Pot before he can meet the
press at Preah Vihear temple on the Thai-Cambodian border, Prince
Norodom Ranariddh said yesterday.
The royalist FUNCINPEC party chief and co-prime minister said
fellow premier Hun Sen was not willing to provide army
helicopters to take journalists to the remote rebel base.
As a result, the planned news conference will have to wait
until Khieu Samphan makes a unilateral declaration that he has
split from Pol Pot and supports the royal government and the
Cambodian constitution, Prince Ranariddh said.
"I have asked Khieu Samphan to make his unilateral declaration
first (over clandestine Khmer Rouge radio)," he told AFP.
The prince said he would then once again ask Hun Sen, leader
of the formerly-communist Cambodian People's Party (CPP), to
agree to the use of military helicopters.
If Hun Sen was still opposed, Prince Ranaraddh said: "I will
send journalists on a FUNCINPEC helicopter."
Investigate
In a separate development, the Washington Post reported that
U.S. agents investigating a March 30 grenade attack in Phnom Penh
which killed over 20 people are tentatively blaming personal
bodyguard forces of Second Prime Minister Hun Sen,
The paper yesterday quoted four unidentified United States
government sources as saying that conclusion was contained in a
classified, preliminary report after agents conducted a two-month
investigation.
The agents were sent to Cambodia under a U.S. law that gives
the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) jurisdiction whenever an
American citizen is injured by terrorism.
Ron Abney, 55, of Cochran, Georgia, who was with the
International Republican Institute, which promotes democracy, was
among more than 100 people wounded in the grenade attack.
In the attack, four grenades were thrown into a crowd during a
demonstration led by Khmer Nation Party president Sam Rainsy in
front of the National Assembly building.
Human rights supporters and many members of parliament blamed
Hun Sen and his rival People's Party of being behind the attack.
The Post said the tentative FBI report suggested that soldiers
acting as personal bodyguards to Hun Sen permitted the grenades
to be thrown and then interfered with ambulances and taxicabs
attempting to carry away the victims.
The FBI presence in Cambodia ended prematurely after agents
reportedly told Sam Rainsy that witnesses had been intimidated.
The Post said U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Quinn also told the
agents that they had been targeted for assassination and could
not be protected adequately. The investigation is continuing.