How To Give Peace A Chance In Cambodia

The Center for Security Policy today issued an analysis outlining key developments affecting the prospects for lasting peace and genuine self-determination in Cambodia and the course American policy should follow to promote those prospects. This analysis, entitled Giving Peace a Chance in Cambodia: A Primer for U.S. Policy, is being released as communist forces of the government in Phnom Penh are engaged in a major offensive against non-communist base areas around Svay Chek in western Cambodia — with the assistance of Vietnamese troops — and on the eve of hearings to be held on 28 February by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee concerning U.S. policy toward Cambodia.

The Center’s paper decries the massive support that continues to be given to communistU.S. support of the non-communist parties in Cambodia as a key ingredient of a policy designed to foster a democratic alternative to totalitarian rule in Phnom Penh and to bring about a comprehensive peace settlement for this troubled country. factions in Cambodia by Vietnam, the Soviet Union and China. It calls for

Al Santoli, a member of the Center’s Board of Advisor, and a widely respected authority on Cambodia who was a principal contributor to this analysis, noted, "I recently returned from the Cambodia-Thailand border region, meeting with countless officials, refugees and others representing a wide spectrum of views. This extraordinary chance to take stock first-hand of the situation in Cambodia helped inform the observations and recommendations we made in the Center’s analysis."

Santoli added, "We are convinced that while all sides are still struggling for military advantage, there is also — perhaps for the first time — a real possibility of ending the war in Cambodia. Negotiations now underway offer an opportunity for national reconciliation in Cambodia and greater stability in the region. If the United States now adopts a dual track policy, aimed at supporting an effective United Nations role in Cambodia and strengthening the hand of the non-communists especially through the dangerous period before free elections can be held, I believe the Cambodian people will have a real chance to rid themselves both of the domination of the invading Vietnamese and their surrogates and the threat of a new terror from a Khmer Rouge government."

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., the Center’s director, added, "It is only appropriate, as the peoples of Nicaragua and Eastern Europe experience the opportunity for self-determination and freedom, that the United States do everything possible to extend that experience to the long-suffering inhabitants of Cambodia. The Center offers concrete suggestions as to how that can be accomplished."

Copies of Giving Peace a Chance .