Khmer Rouge Now OKs Peacekeeping Force

The Khmer Rouge guerrilla group announced Saturday that it is prepared to accept an international peacekeeping force as part of an agreement to end the nine-year-old Cambodian conflict.

The move eliminates a major difference between the Khmer Rouge and resistance coalition partners Prince Norodom Sihanouk and Son Sann, who have said a peacekeeping force would ensure that the Khmer Rouge does not use its military superiority to retake power in Cambodia in the event of a Vietnamese withdrawal.

“As measures to guarantee the (peace) agreement and Cambodia’s independence, neutrality and territorial integrity, an international committee of the United Nations or some other international committee and an international peacekeeping force should be instituted,” said an announcement signed by Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan.

During its rule of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge pursued radical Communist, isolationist policies and brutal internal purges that are believed to have led to the deaths of more than 1 million Cambodians. The Khmer Rouge were ousted by a 1979 invasion by the Soviet-backed Vietnamese, who set up a new regime.

Thai Foreign Minister Siddhi Savetsila welcomed the change in the Khmer Rouge stand.

“This is what we have asked for. It will help solve the problem of Cambodia more quickly,” Sitthi said. “Now, all the parties accept the need for a peacekeeping force except only for the Vietnamese side.”

Vietnam has said it would accept an international control commission but not a foreign armed force.