In keeping with the Paris Peace Accords and the UN-brokered elections in 1993, ASEAN should withhold recognition for the coup d’etat by the Hun Sen regime and defer admission of Cambodia (together with Laos and Burma) into ASEAN originally scheduled in a fortnight’s time.
The call by Hun Sen to the international community to keep out of Cambodia’s internal affairs after he had violated the Paris Peace Accords by ousting First Premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh is most self-serving and unacceptable when it was international efforts which had brought legitimacy to the Cambodian government four years ago.
Hun Sen’s coup against Prince Norodom Ranariddh not only toppled the democratic elections four years ago but also destroyed the Paris Peace Accords six years ago.
In 1993, Cambodia was hailed as a United Nations triumph, the seemingly successful result of a US$2 billion international experiment in developing-world democracy. Today, Cambodia is heading for an another civil war with the international peace-keeping experiment in total ruins.
The ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Cambodia tomorrow would be the focus of international attention as to whether the ASEAN nations could take the international lead to uphold international commitments, in particular the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, and influence the two co-prime ministers to resolve their differernces peacefully.
This is why the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting tomorrow should send out the right signals to Cambodia and the world about ASEAN’s commitment to the Paris Peace Accords by withholding recognition for the coup d’etat by the Hun Sen regime and deferring admission of Cambodia into ASEAN originally fixed in two weeks’ time.
(9/7/97)