Clashes Continue in Cambodia

Warring Cambodian factions exchanged rocket and mortar fire Saturday, while heavy rains made life miserable for 22,000 civilians who fed the conflict.

Combat broke out at midafternoon around the Cambodian village of O’Smach, near the border with Thailand, where troops loyal to Cambodia’s deposed co-prime minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, have been fending off the bigger army of strongman Hun Sen.

The Thai army’s commander in chief, Gen. Chettha Thanajaro, said Friday that Hun Sen’s troops were close to taking O’Smach.

Four wounded pro-Ranariddh soldiers were allowed into Thailand on Saturday for medical treatment. Reporters on the Thai side said fighting intensified as dusk fell and appeared much nearer the border than previously.

Hun Sen toppled Ranariddh in a bloody coup July 5-6 in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, and chased the prince’s supporters to the border with Thailand. Ranariddh’s men have defied repeated assaults for two weeks.

The 22,000 Cambodian civilians have taken refuge just inside Thailand. Relief agencies say they need plastic sheeting to ward off the downpours of the rainy season.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen again denied allegations by United Nations investigators that his followers executed at least 40 of Ranariddh’s supporters in the days after the coup.

Hun Sen has demanded that the investigators be replaced, claiming that they created a climate of fear that caused thousands of people to flee the country. The U.N. Security Council has refused.