• by IPS Correspondents (phnom penh)
• Friday, December 09, 1994
• Inter Press Service

PHNOM PENH, Dic 09 (IPS) - Cambodians believe national reconciliation is vital for them to achieve peace at last, but this remains an elusive goal more than a year after these war-weary people held their first general elections.

Much of the blame has been laid at the feet of the Khmer Rouge, which had refused to take part in the 1993 polls and continues to wage a guerrilla war in the countryside.

But political harmony also eludes the factions that make up the coalition government now ruling in Phnom Penh.

"Rebuilding our war-torn country is still a long way because we are not united," says journalist So Naro.

Adds a U.N. official who monitored the elections last year: "The winners were not strong enough to take over power and the losers were too strong to give up power."

Indeed, although the royalist FUNCINPEC led by Prince Norodom Ranariddh won a clear majority, it failed to dislodge the then ruling government of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) led by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

A compromise was finally reached "for the sake of national reconciliation" in which Ranariddh and Hun Sen became concurrent leaders of the government.

But despite the initial promise of equal power-sharing, political analysts say control of local authorities remains in the hands of the CPP. This has created a climate of confusion over which party has the authority in virtually every department.

"People are seeing the same government officials in power, and they are asking themselves whether they really did have elections a year ago, and whether the winners were FUNCINPEC," a member of the royalist party says wryly.

Ranariddh's people, for instance, are in favour of streamlining the bloated military. But the CPP, which have their men spread out across the country, have been reluctant to agree to this.

The FUNCINPEC has blamed the disarray in the armed forces for the death in October of more than a dozen hostages held by the Khmer Rouge.

Ranariddh, the commander in chief, wanted to negotiate with the captors.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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