The United Nations warned the Phnom Penh regime Saturday against escalating an increasingly violent pressure campaign targeting U.N. peacekeeping officials.
The warning came as Prince Norodom Chakrapong, a senior official of the Phnom Penh government, announced to 800 demon-strators in southern Svay Rieng the formation of a breakaway "autonomous zone" that includes seven provinces in eastern Cambodia.The announcement is the latest in a series of incidents apparently coordinated by the Phnom Penh government after its defeat by the opposition royalist party in last month's national elections. The apparent aim is to compel U.N. peacekeepers to invalidate the results of the voting or to force the acceptance of a power-sharing arrangement.
Chakrapong, who is a controversial son of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the country's head of state, said the new autonomous zone would include the provinces of Kompong Cham, Kratie, Mondol-kiri, Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, Svay Rieng and Prey Veng - about 40 percent of country. He dubbed the new region the "Sam-dech Euv Autonomous Zone," or "King Father Autonomous Zone," after the popular name for Prince Sihanouk.
A U.N. spokesman said Chakrapong sent a letter to the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in Prey Veng province stating that U.N. vehicles would no longer be allowed into the province and that U.N. aircraft would be barred from flying over "security areas."
The spokesman said the letter warned that the safety of U.N. personnel could not be guaranteed unless the order was implemented.
U.N. civilian police monitors were evacuated from towns in Kompong Cham and Svay Rieng provinces after soldiers from the Phnom Penh regime threatened them and started firing weapons, the spokesman said.
Sihanouk said on national television that U.N. personnel should be withdrawn from the breakaway provinces for their own safety. Later, Yasushi Akashi, head of the U.N. peacekeeping effort here, announced that civilian personnel would be withdrawn, but he insisted that the United Nations' military presence would stay.
In Svay Rieng, a U.N. helicopter was unable to land as scheduled Saturday when government troops parked 16 trucks on the U.N. helipad in the provincial town.