Word: khmers
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...Paris agreement had several purposes. One was to remove a large barrier to U.S.-Soviet-Chinese detente. Another was to get the international community off the hook of recognizing the Khmer Rouge as the government of Cambodia; elections would in effect legitimize much of the present administration in Phnom Penh in coalition with other parties. Equally important, the peace plan would separate the Khmer Rouge from China, their principal sponsor; in return for having its clients admitted to the political game in Phnom Penh, Beijing agreed to stop supplying them with weapons. Including the Khmer Rouge in a settlement...
Many of the remainder are inaccessible because they live in areas controlled by the Khmer Rouge. Since they withdrew last June from the peace process that they had accepted in the Paris agreement of October 1991, they have refused to allow UNTAC electoral teams into their areas, sabotaging some of the principal ambitions of the U.N. plan -- the disarming of factions and nationwide elections. Hun Sen, the Prime Minister of the Vietnam-backed administration in Phnom Penh, says that "the Paris agreement is no longer balanced. It is like a handicapped person." But while accepting some UNTAC requirements, his administration...
Though they have withdrawn from the peace process and the elections, the < Khmer Rouge recently announced a new political party, the National Unity of Cambodia Party. It is headed by Khieu Samphan, long presented as the "acceptable" face of the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot, their notorious leader, directs their campaign unseen from near the Thai border. If their party did take part in the elections, it would probably win several seats. It is important -- if shocking -- to realize that the Khmer Rouge do have support in Cambodia. Some people see them as nationalists and incorrupt -- but there is no reason...
Western diplomats believed that the process would wither the Khmer Rouge's power. What they failed to predict was the communists' ability to finance their own arms purchases from the sale of timber and gems in areas they control along the border with Thailand, which with Thai assistance they have savagely pillaged at great cost to the environment. The U.N. Security Council has imposed sanctions on the Khmer Rouge, to little avail...
...When the Khmer Rouge announced in June that they would not allow the U.N. into their areas, some U.N. officers wanted to call their bluff and dispatch forces into the territory. But force commander Lieut. General John Sanderson felt such pressure might destroy the peace process, and most of the countries that had contributed troops would not let them be sent into battle against the Khmer Rouge. The disagreement highlighted a U.N. dilemma: When should peacekeeping become peace enforcing -- perhaps with the loss of peacekeepers' lives...