
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 6, 1990                   TAG: 9006060153
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Short

CAMBODIAN PEACE TALKS CONTINUE

Chinese, Thai and American officials joined attempts Tuesday to foster progress in peace talks that were stalled on the brink of signing a cease-fire in Cambodia's 11-year civil war, Japanese officials said.

The first session of the talks broke off Monday after just 25 minutes because the Khmer Rouge, the strongest guerrilla group opposing the Hanoi-backed government in Phnom Penh, refused to attend without the right to raise issues and sign the truce as an equal partner.

The peace conference, the first in Japan since World War II, appeared to have collapsed Monday when the Khmer Rouge's nominal leader, Khieu Samphan, boycotted the opening session.

But informal meetings continued, mostly in the hotel where the guerrilla delegations were staying.

Pressure came from other countries including China, which backs the Khmer Rouge, the United States, which backs Sihanouk while trying to distance itself from the Khmer Rouge's harsh and genocidal reputation, and Thailand, through which arms flow to the rebels.

Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 brutal rule before Vietnam invaded in late 1978 and installed the moderate communist Hun Sen government. Vietnam says it withdrew all its troops in September, but there are charges that some remain in Cambodia.

If a truce were signed, it would be the first time the sides actually had signed a cease-fire.

- Associated Press

by CNB