Fighting flares on eve of Asian peace bid

Government forces under the Prime Minister, Mr Hun Sen, yesterday captured a base from troops loyal to Prince Norodom Ranariddh…

Government forces under the Prime Minister, Mr Hun Sen, yesterday captured a base from troops loyal to Prince Norodom Ranariddh, in north-western Cambodia, and thousands of civilians fled into neighbouring Thailand to escape the fighting.

The flare-up in fighting came as an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) delegation prepared to make a return to Phnom Penh for a second attempt to help solve Cambodia's crisis.

Thai military officials on the border with Cambodia said the Hun Sen forces seized a royalist position at O'Bei Choan, northeast of the Cambodian border town of Poipet, after a battle lasting several hours. Up to 6,000 civilians fled into Thailand as Thai authorities opened the border due to the severity of the clash.

The second Prime Minister, Mr Hun Sen, ousted his co-premier, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, on July 6th after two days of battles in Phnom Penh and bluntly rejected all attempts to mediate in the crisis.

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The ASEAN team arriving in Phnom Penh for talks today will be the same as that which tried unsuccessfully to launch a mediation effort two weeks ago - the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

The Cambodian Foreign Minster, Mr Ung Huot, said yesterday his government would discuss peace and stability with the ASEAN mission but suggested the grouping should not interfere in Cambodia's internal affairs. But diplomats in Phnom Penh said they were optimistic there would be some progress in today's talks.

Cambodia's Khmer Rouge guerrillas, who ousted their notorious leader, Pol Pot, last week, have said they support Prince Norodom Ranariddh, and have vowed to unite with all anti-Hun Sen forces and "destroy" his government.

A Khmer Rouge military commander told the Far Eastern Eco- nomic Review in a report published this week that Pol Pot, responsible for the death of more than a million people during his 1975-79 rule, was purged because of his opposition to an alliance with the royalists.