Saturday October 21, 2006
(Kyodo) - Cambodia on Saturday commemorated the 15th anniversary of the Paris peace accords, which helped bring an end to decades of warfare in the country and usher in multiparty political system after long years of one-party communist rule.
Some 600 people, including leaders, government officials and foreign diplomats, got together for a one-day forum in Phnom Penh to commemorate the comprehensive peace settlement worked out in Paris.
The agreement gave the United Nations the authority to supervise a cease-fire, repatriate the displaced Cambodians along the border with Thailand, disarm and demobilize the factional armies, and to prepare the country for free and fair multiparty elections, which were held in May 1993.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, in his remarks at the forum, downplayed the significance of the role played by the United Nations in bringing peace to Cambodia following the signing of the accords.
He said the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia, which was set up in March 1992 under the leadership of Yasushi Akashi of Japan and Lt. Gen. John Sanderson of Australia to implement the Paris accords, should not be hailed as a major success story as UNTAC failed to disarm or demobilize the country's Khmer Rouge forces.
"UNTAC, as the guarantor of the agreement implantation, was able to impose only on those respecting the agreement but not on the Khmer Rouge,' he said, calling its concessions to the Khmer Rouge and its inflexibility toward his own faction an "unjust action."
As it transpired, however, the Khmer Rouge area was totally inaccessible by UNTAC forces, the Khmer Rouge boycotted the 1993 election and continued guerrilla warfare against Hun Sen's government until 1999.
"Moreover, in addition to not punishing the Khmer Rouge for their violations, UNTAC had made other serious violations in many forms," Hun Sen said.
He argued that even though the international community had deployed more than 20,000 peacekeepers and spent close to $2 billion during the UNTAC operation, Cambodians eventually achieved peace mainly through their own efforts.
"What the 1991 Paris peace agreements intended to achieve, but could not be realized during the UNTAC, have now become a reality because Cambodian factions have agreed (on peace) with each other, without any orders and influence from outside," he said.
Hun Sen said his country has undergone a transformation "from a country which used to have the U.N. peacekeeping force into a country which is now sending its troops to help other countries in the U.N. peacekeeping missions."
Douglas Gardner, the U.N. resident coordinator in Cambodia, took a different view, telling the forum the Paris Peace Accords "opened the door 15 years ago for Cambodia to exit from conflict and reenter peacefully the region and the world."
"The progress realized has been fast and profound -- yet there is much more to be done," he said.
Invitations were extended to such foreign dignitaries as Akashi, Sanderson, former Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas, but all said they were too busy with their tight schedules, said Pen Dareth, the forum's coordinator.
Some 600 people, including leaders, government officials and foreign diplomats, got together for a one-day forum in Phnom Penh to commemorate the comprehensive peace settlement worked out in Paris.
The agreement gave the United Nations the authority to supervise a cease-fire, repatriate the displaced Cambodians along the border with Thailand, disarm and demobilize the factional armies, and to prepare the country for free and fair multiparty elections, which were held in May 1993.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, in his remarks at the forum, downplayed the significance of the role played by the United Nations in bringing peace to Cambodia following the signing of the accords.
He said the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia, which was set up in March 1992 under the leadership of Yasushi Akashi of Japan and Lt. Gen. John Sanderson of Australia to implement the Paris accords, should not be hailed as a major success story as UNTAC failed to disarm or demobilize the country's Khmer Rouge forces.
"UNTAC, as the guarantor of the agreement implantation, was able to impose only on those respecting the agreement but not on the Khmer Rouge,' he said, calling its concessions to the Khmer Rouge and its inflexibility toward his own faction an "unjust action."
As it transpired, however, the Khmer Rouge area was totally inaccessible by UNTAC forces, the Khmer Rouge boycotted the 1993 election and continued guerrilla warfare against Hun Sen's government until 1999.
"Moreover, in addition to not punishing the Khmer Rouge for their violations, UNTAC had made other serious violations in many forms," Hun Sen said.
He argued that even though the international community had deployed more than 20,000 peacekeepers and spent close to $2 billion during the UNTAC operation, Cambodians eventually achieved peace mainly through their own efforts.
"What the 1991 Paris peace agreements intended to achieve, but could not be realized during the UNTAC, have now become a reality because Cambodian factions have agreed (on peace) with each other, without any orders and influence from outside," he said.
Hun Sen said his country has undergone a transformation "from a country which used to have the U.N. peacekeeping force into a country which is now sending its troops to help other countries in the U.N. peacekeeping missions."
Douglas Gardner, the U.N. resident coordinator in Cambodia, took a different view, telling the forum the Paris Peace Accords "opened the door 15 years ago for Cambodia to exit from conflict and reenter peacefully the region and the world."
"The progress realized has been fast and profound -- yet there is much more to be done," he said.
Invitations were extended to such foreign dignitaries as Akashi, Sanderson, former Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas, but all said they were too busy with their tight schedules, said Pen Dareth, the forum's coordinator.
4 comments:
UNTAC gave us a start. Cambodian must have their own conscience to elevate ourself to civilization. There are a lot more to do but not the ways the current system is in place. Best wishes to the poor Cambodian
It is only right that AH HUN SEN downplayed UNTAC role in bring peace and stability to Cambodia. I mean after all Cambodian people are living in wholesale Vietcong democratic system sponsored by AH HUN SEN himself and the Vietcong in Hanio.
How long does it takes for the whole world to realized this! Cambodian people had been betrayed by the rest of the free democratic world!
Unfortunately, Hun Sen is the best among the worse. He outmanoeuvres all his opponents sending them into exile at one time or another.
The question is: Is he smart, or the others are simply not too smart?
SiS
I agree, i'm a little young here but for god sake, can anyone do something about it, I can't believe that Hun sen actually think that cambodian became peacefully by itself. I bet yuon hanoi told him to say that, please. It wasn't by the UN, i don't know where we are right now. and oh yes, one more thing, what the fuck happen to the gay KING Sihanouk, didn't he promise peace in cambodian, my ass, stupid king.
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