PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release : 13 January, 1998

ICG Sets Out Action Plan To Avert Chaos In Cambodia

ICG is urging western and regional governments to attach tough conditions to the granting of further development and electoral aid to the Cambodian regime, with funds released only after a number of specific steps have been taken in relation to the electoral process. These should include the unconditional return of former First Prime Minister Prince Rannariddh, lifting restrictions on political campaigning, opening up access to broadcast and print media, ending the harassment of journalists and ordering investigations into the wave of extra-judicial killings that followed the July fighting.

If conditions have not improved significantly as polling day approaches, ICG believes the international community should not hesitate to withdraw its support and demand a further delay in the timetable for elections.

"While the elections offer an important opportunity for Cambodia to return to the task of democracy-building, much work remains to be done before it can be said that conditions in the country will support a free and fair poll", the report says. "Getting the conditions for elections right-including the creation of a more neutral political environment, greater freedom of expression and association and the return of political exiles-is more important than meeting an arbitrary set date for polling".

Commenting on the report's findings, ICG President Senator Alain Destexhe said: "The international community is in a strong position to influence the course of events in Cambodia. The regime in Phnom Penh badly needs foreign aid and approval to consolidate its authority and retain control of the country.

Moreover, the 19 nations-including Japan, France, Germany, the United States and Australia-which in 1991 signed the Paris Peace Accords as guarantors have a both a right and duty, in international law, to intervene whenever the terms of the treaty are threatened. The violent overthrow of the previous government, the subsequent breakdown in national stability and the restrictions placed by Phnom Penh on the democratic process have effectively left the Accords in tatters and demand a swift response", Senator Destexhe said.

ICG's report on Cambodia, entitled Getting Cambodia Ready for Elections, was prepared by an ICG correspondent based in Phnom Penh. For a copy of the report, or for further information, please contact Alain Destexhe or Charles Radcliffe at ICG in Brussels - telephone: (32 2) 502 90 38, e-mail: [email protected].

The International Crisis Group is a private, multinational organisation created to reinforce the capacity and resolve of the international community to prevent crises arising from human causes. Members of the ICG board include former heads of state and government, foreign ministers, MPs and leading figures in business and the media. ICG is chaired by the former US Senate majority leader, George Mitchell.

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