Word: kampuchea
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Some diplomatic sources feel that Viet Nam's latest concession may be intended to deflect further U.S. criticism of its attacks on Khmer resistance camps in neighboring Kampuchea. Laos' accommodating attitude may be in response to recent U.S. overtures, including an American shipment in December of 5,000 tons of rice to alleviate the effects of a poor Laotian harvest. But no major breakthrough of the M.I.A. problem in Laos or Viet Nam seems near. "The timing has made everyone open their eyes," says one U.S. official in Bangkok. "But nothing has happened that hasn't been in the works...
...Communist Asian nations last week issued an unprecedented appeal for "support and assistance to the Kampuchean people" in the "military struggle" to oust their country's Vietnamese occupiers. To the representatives of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines), backing for Kampuchea these days means weapons. Comparing the Kampucheans with Afghan freedom fighters, Thai Foreign Minister Siddhi Savetsila declared, "How do you expect these Kampucheans to survive if they have nothing? They can't fight with their bare hands...
...reason for ASEAN's action was soon evident. Within 24 hours, more than 30,000 Vietnamese troops supported by tanks and artillery had launched the final phase of a powerful pincer assault near the Thai border with Kampuchea. Their aim: to brush aside an estimated 10,000 lightly armed Kampuchean resistance fighters and gain control of a mountainous guerrilla fastness known as Phnom Malai. Two and a half months into this year's dry-season offensive, the Vietnamese had decided to move decisively against the most resilient resistance group of all, the remnants of the Khmer Rouge, who ran Kampuchea...
...Front component of the Kampuchean resistance. With an estimated 12,000 fighters led by onetime Prime Minister Son Sann, the front is linked in a loose alliance with some 40,000 guerrillas of the Communist Khmer Rouge, backed by China, and 5,000 soldiers loyal to Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Kampuchea's former head of state. The guerrilla forces are no match for the Vietnamese, who maintain approximately 160,000 troops in Kampuchea and can bring in heavy weapons...
...government. By themselves, the stronger and more aggressive Khmer Rouge are far less likely to draw international sympathy to the resistance cause, since they are still remembered by the rest of the world with disgust for the deaths between 1975 and 1978 of as many as 2 million of Kampuchea's then approximately 7 million people...