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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990                   TAG: 9007190134
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. ENDING RECOGNITION OF CAMBODIAN REBELS

Fearing victory by the Khmer Rouge, the Bush administration abruptly announced Wednesday it is ending recognition of rebels battling the Vietnamese-backed government of Cambodia and instead opening talks with Vietnam.

"We want to do everything we can to prevent a return of the Khmer Rouge to power," Secretary of State James Baker said in announcing the policy reversal. He said it did not mean the United States was normalizing relations with Vietnam.

The Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians during a four-year reign of terror that ended with Vietnam's 1978 invasion. After 11 years of civil war, the Khmer Rouge controls large sections of northwestern Cambodia.

"We had a goal of seeking Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia," Baker said in describing the reversal. "We have realized that."

Vietnam contends it removed the last of its troops from Cambodia in September.

A senior administration official said the United States is still seeking verification of this claim. The official said there are no Vietnamese combat units in Cambodia, but there may still be as many as 10,000 Vietnamese military advisers in Cambodia.

"Another policy goal was to prevent the return of the Khmer Rouge to power," the secretary of state told reporters. "We've not been able to achieve that goal and, in fact, it would appear that the risks are greater as we move forward that that might, in fact, occur."

On Capitol Hill, Senate Democratic leader George Mitchell called past administration policy "a dismal failure" and said further steps are needed beyond Baker's announcement.

Baker's announcement came three weeks after the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to sources who requested anonymity, voted in closed session to end a $13 million-a-year covert military aid program for the resistance coalition.

The senior administration official, speaking on condition he not be identified, said the administration will continue to press for aid to the anti-government forces.

Baker spoke after meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, whose government supports Vietnam. The two were in Paris for talks on German unification.

Shevardnadze, standing next to Baker, commented that "our approaches on the Cambodian problem in principle have become much closer."

by CNB