Bid to stop Ranariddh's forces from

[nyeinchan@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Bid to stop Ranariddh's forces from joining up with Khmer Rouge

The Straits Times (July 10th)
Bid to stop Ranariddh's forces from joining up with Khmer Rouge 



<Picture>
------------------------------------------------------------------------


<Picture>

ARANYAPRATHET (Thailand) -- Cambodia's coup leader Hun Sen has sent 
large numbers of extra troops to western Cambodia to prevent forces of 
ousted First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh linking up with 
hardline Khmer Rouge guerillas, breakaway Khmer Rouge sources said 
yesterday. The sources, who were monitoring troop movements inside 
Cambodia by field radio, said the forces of Second Prime Minister Hun 
Sen had succeeded in blocking various routes between the town of Poipet, 
on Cambodia's border with Thailand, and the north-western province of 
Siem Reap. 

"Hun Sen ordered his troops to prevent Khmer Rouge from Anlong Veng from 
joining royalist forces fighting his soldiers in Siem Reap," one of the 
sources, a veteran senior guerilla commander, told Reuters. 

But Thai security sources said yesterday morning dozens of royalist 
pro-Ranariddh Funcinpec party members and their families had fled to the 
eastern Thai border town of Aranyaprathet, fearing a purge. 

No further details were available. 

Mr Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia alongside Mr Ranariddh since 
UN-organised elections in 1993, deposed the Prince and assumed sole 
control after bloody clashes in Phnom Penh at the weekend. 

A senior Thai army source based near the hardline Khmer Rouge guerillas' 
stronghold of Anlong Veng, on Cambodia's northern border with Thailand, 
said the guerillas had been unusually quiet. 

He said they could be leaving jungle bases to join fighting in Cambodian 
cities. 

Thai army's Commander-in-Chief, General Chetta Thanajaro, told reporters 
there had been no major clashes yet but fierce fighting could erupt 
should Prince Ranariddh loyalists manage to link up with Khmer Rouge 
hardliners. 

Khmer Rouge sources said Mr Hun Sen's troops gained control of 
Battambang, Cambodia's second largest city, late on Tuesday. 

Mr Prom Su, pro-Ranariddh Deputy Governor of Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey 
province, who reached the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet yesterday 
morning with dozens of civilian officials of Prince Ranariddh's faction, 
told Reuters that military envoys from both factions were holding talks 
near Battambang, but did not elaborate. The dissident Khmer Rouge 
sources said Mr Hun Sen's soldiers had established several checkpoints 
on roads leading to the west of Cambodia from Battambang. 

"Hun Sen overran Battambang late on Tuesday but the situation is still 
tense. Ranariddh's soldiers have retreated, but they have not totally 
dispersed -- they have merely slowed down their fighting," the veteran 
commander said. 

He said Mr Hun Sen had also been warning Cambodians in Poipet that 
hardline Khmer Rouge guerillas were heading there. The Thai army source 
near Anlong Veng said that as of yesterday morning Poipet, opposite 
Aranyaprathet, remained under the control of Prince Ranariddh's forces. 

The Khmer Rouge forces the Prince's troops were reportedly trying to 
link up with are loyal to Mr Khieu Samphan, who claimed last week that 
he had broken away from reviled chieftain Pol Pot. 

The breakaway faction consists of guerillas who defected en masse to the 
coalition government last year and still control a strategic area of 
western Cambodia near the Thai border. -- Reuter. 



"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."


_______________________________________________________
Get Private Web-Based Email Free http://www.hotmail.com