Opposition Wants Summit outside Cam

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Opposition Wants Summit outside Cambodia

  PHNOM PENH (Oct. 11) XINHUA - Cambodia's two opposition parties
have agreed to hold a three-party summit, but only in places other than
Cambodia, according to a joint statement released by FUNCINPEC and the
Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) Sunday evening.
	<P> "FUNCINPEC and the SRP state their willingness to be represented by
their Presidents at a meeting with the President of the Cambodian
People's Party (CPP), under the chairmanship of King Norodom Sihanouk,
on neutral ground conducive to a fair negotiation process," the
statement said.
	<P> That is "in the interest of resolving the current impasse in
negotiations among the three parties that won seats in the 1998
National Assembly election, and in hope of furthering the goal of
national reconciliation," it said.
	<P> However, the two parties stressed that the summit meeting "should
preferably take place in Tokyo. Alternate sites include Beijing, Paris,
or Bangkok, each having its relative merits."
	<P> "We cannot join a meeting in Cambodia as we will not negotiate under
threat, including the threat of further so-called "attacks" on Hun Sen,
which could bring consequences of the most serious magnitude," the
statement added.
	<P> King Norodom Sihanouk said earlier in the day that he could not preside
over a summit meeting now because the opposition had yet to formally
put forward their request for such a meeting.
	<P> The king made the remarks in response to Chea Sim, president of the
CPP, who sent a letter to Sihanouk Saturday asking him to preside over
a summit to help break the political impasse and hammer out a deal to
form a government.
	<P> "The summit could not be held until they all agree to and ask me to do
so," Sihanouk said.
	<P> The third round of coalition negotiations between the country's three
political parties collapsed Friday, as the politicians failed to agree
on what to do about a controversial seat allocation formula.
	<P> Participants in the multi-party negotiations, however, had agreed to
ask King Sihanouk to preside over a summit to break the current
political deadlock and to form a new government as soon as possible.
	<P> FUNCINPEC leader prince Norodom Ranariddh is still in Bangkok since he
left Siem Reap on September 25, the day after the opening of the
National Assembly. Sam Rainsy left on the same day and is currently on
a tour of the United States and Europe to lobby for support for the
opposition. He is expected to come to Bangkok next Thursday.