Cambodia: time for constructive int

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Subject: Cambodia: time for constructive intervention

Business Time
9 Jul 1997 



Cambodia: time for constructive intervention

Asean must act now to make Cambodia's membership and its own vision a 
reality 





T
HE LAST time Cambodia was in a crisis, because of Vietnam's invasion, 
Asean had to sit up and take action. 

Finding it too discomforting to ignore the resulting sufferings of the 
Cambodian people, the then six-member non-communist grouping intervened. 
International public opinion was mobilised to put pressure on Hanoi. 

That was in 1979. The diplomatic offensive since then was so effective 
that almost a decade later, the Vietnamese buckled and then withdrew 
from Cambodia. 

Power subsequently transferred to the resistance coalition. This 
included the Funcinpec party of then Prince Sihanouk and his son 
Ranariddh, and the forces of Hun Sen. Mr Hun Sen was the foreign 
minister and later prime minister of the Vietnamese-installed Heng 
Samrin regime in Phnom Penh. 

Some five years later, Prince Ranariddh and Mr Hun Sen became co-prime 
ministers of what was to be a reborn Cambodia. And in what must appear 
like the mother of all ironies, Vietnam entered the Asean fold. 

Hanoi yesterday joined the rest of Asean in a joint call on the feuding 
prime ministers -- Prince Ranariddh and Mr Hun Sen -- to pull their 
country back from civil war. 

Vietnam's foreign minister will also join his Asean colleagues tomorrow 
in Kuala Lumpur to decide whether to delay Cambodia's scheduled entry 
into Asean on July 23. 

Many people think that the latest crisis in the land of Angkor Wat has 
put Asean in a quandary. 

On the one hand, the South-east Asian grouping has to live up to its 
credo of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. 

On the other, Cambodia's internal political crisis has erupted to again 
become an issue that is too difficult for Asean to ignore. 

Sooner rather than later, Asean will have to make a fundamental choice 
of staying on the sidelines or doing something. 

Asean cannot afford to watch. It has to intervene. 

The factious fighting triggered by the overthrow of First Prime Minister 
Ranariddh by Second Premier Hun Sen is not just tragic but also 
embarrassing; it broke out just two weeks before Phnom Penh was about to 
be sworn in as a new Asean member. 

But the two premiers were too eager to join this prestigious club that 
they did not waste any excuse to assure Asean that everything would be 
fine between them. 

Now that all hell has broken loose, it would be a diplomatic feat if 
Asean could still swear in Cambodia this month without getting caught in 
between the warring premiers. 

The longer the crisis festers, the more remote it will be for Asean to 
achieve its goal of a membership of 10 -- Asean 10 -- this year. 

The grouping has already made quite a big deal out of its desire to have 
a meaningful 30th anniversary this year in Kuala Lumpur. 

So, either the two premiers quickly reconcile, or Cambodia stays out of 
Asean for now -- until the world decides who forms the legitimate 
government in Phnom Penh. 

There is no way Mr Hun Sen, the putsch leader, and Prince Ranariddh, the 
dethroned prime minister, can come to terms unless Asean breathes down 
their necks. 

The time has therefore come for the Asean Seven to exercise their 
collective responsibility once again. It is the group's moral duty to 
embark on the act of "constructive intervention", as it did so 
successfully in Cambodia in the 1980s. 

Interference? It should not be forgotten that Cambodia is on Asean's 
unfinished agenda. It has been so since Asean stepped in to help the 
broken country rise from the ashes of the Killing Fields. 

The unstable alliance that the United Nations left behind after the 1993 
elections has not done justice to Asean's efforts. 

Until real stability comes to Cambodia, "constructive intervention" 
should be Asean's option to help the Khmers achieve a more enduring 
peace -- and keep the Asean 10 vision still within grasp. 



"THERE WILL BE NO REAL DEMOCRACY IF WE CAN'T GURANTEE THE RIGHTS OF THE 
MINORITY ETHNIC PEOPLE.  ONLY UNDERSTANDING THEIR SUFFERING AND HELPING 
THEM TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS WILL ASSIST PREVENTING FROM THE 
DISINTEGRATION AND THE SESESSION."  "WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THEIR 
STRENGTH, WE CAN'T TOPPLE THE SLORC AND BURMA WILL NEVER BE IN PEACE."


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