News Digest
Warring Cambodian factions sign treaty
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PARIS — Cambodia’s warring factions and
representatives of 18 nations signed a peace
treaty Wednesday with hopes that a U.N.
supervised transition to free elections will end
a half-century of bloodshed in Southeast Asia.
“A dark page of history has been turned,”
said President Francois Mitterrand of France,
opening the ceremony at an ornate conference
center in the French capital.
“Cambodia is about to resume its place in
the world,” he added.
Secretary of Slate James Baker delivered a
scathing condemnation of the Khmer Rouge
guerrilla faction shortly before signing the U.N.
sponsored peace treaty, which will give that
rebel group a share of power. He said the world
had not forgotten the bloodbath during Khmer
Rouge rule of Cambodia in 1975-78.
Hours before the ceremony began, relief
workers and the military wing of the Khmer
People’s National Liberation Front, one of the
non-Communist guerrilla factions, accused
Phnom Penh government lorces oi
several positions in northwestern Cambodia.
It took 30 minutes for the assembled olli
cials to sign the gold-fcmbossed red book con
taining the text of the treaty in English, French,
Russian, Chinese and Khmer.
Waving banners reading “Peace in Cambo
dia,” hundreds of Cambodian exiles cheered
Prince Norodom Sihanouk when he arrived a
few hours before the signing ceremony. He
will head a largely figurehead interim govern
iiivm i/v*v/iv ——
The treaty is intended to end two decades of
war in Cambodia, including 13 years of civil
war between the Vietnam-backed government
of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the three-party
guerrilla coalition.
Despite the treaty signing, fears persist about
the intentions of the Khmer Rouge, who have
changed neither their leaders nor their policies
since their rule.
Syria seeks solid front
from other Arab states
DAMASCUS, Syria—Syria sought
commitments from other Arab na
tions Wednesday that they would not
strike separate peace agreements with
Israel during next week’s international
peace conference.
Israel and Palestinian representa
tives on Wednesday formally an
nounced they would attend the talks,
and Israel said Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir would lead its delegation.
Shamir’s decision may have led to
a major split in the government. Is
raeli Foreign Minister David Levy
announced he would not attend the
conference, Israel’s army radio re
ported.
Senior Arab officials were attend
ing a strategy planning session in
Damascus to coordinate their stance
during the international peace con
ference, which opens next Wednes
day in Madrid, Spain.
Officials close to the meeting said
Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Pales
tine Liberation Organization agreed
not to strike any separate peace deal
with Israel. The officials spoke on
condition of anonymity.
Egypt is attending the peace con
ference only as an observer and po
tcntial mediator.
Wednesday’s planning session by
Arab states in Damascus was domi
nated by a U.S. proposal for most
Arab states to participate in broad
regional talks with Israel immedi
ately after the ceremonial opening of
the conference, the sources close to
the meeting said.
The conference is expected to break
up into three sets of bilateral talks
between Israel and Syria, Israel and
Lebanon, and Israel and a joint Jorda
nian-Palcslinian delegation.
Then the other slates in the region
are supposed to join in discussions on
broader issues such as arms control,
water and energy. Many Arab states
perceive this as a move that would
automatically give Israel the status of
an equal in the region that has tried to
ostracize it.
Syrian President Hale/. Assad and
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat agreed
last week that Jewish settlement build
ing, the status of Jerusalem and U.N.
resolutions calling for Israeli with
drawal from occupied territories should
be discussed at an initial session.
Fed portrays economy
mired in pessimism
WASHINGTON — The Federal
Reserve painted a generally bleak
picture of business conditions around
the country in a survey released
Wednesday, depicting widespread
pessimism over when things will get
better.
The survey, compiled from infor
mation gathered by the Fed’s 12 re
gional banks, found a variety of eco
nomic worries — from sluggish con
sumer spending and lackluster home
sales to cutbacks in factory produc
tion.
Analysis said the report highlighted
the economy’s perilous state and the
possibility of a double-dip recession
in which a period of weak growth is
followed early next year by another
recession.
The central bank survey, conducted
eight times a year, will be used by Fed
policy-makers when they meet Nov.
5 to consider whether to make further
cuts in interest rates.
The central bank last cased credit
conditions Sept. 13 when it reduced
the discount rate to 5 percent and also
nudged the federal funds rate to 5.25
percent.
Many economists believe the Fed
will vote next month to cut interest
rates further, especially in light of
growing pressure from the Bush
administration to do more to bolster
the sagging economy with a presi
dential election year approaching.
On Wednesday, the White House
blamed a sluggish economy for Presi
dent Bush’s drop in public opinion
polls.
A new Washington Post-ABC News
poll found that only 37 percent of
those surveyed supported Bush’s
handling of the economy, while the
number who would vole for Bush for
re-election fell to 47 percent, down
from 60 percent right after the Per
sian Gulf War.
“The country is obviously con
cerned about coming out of the reces
sion. So arc we,” presidential spokes
man Marlin Fn/watcr said when asked
about the drop. “We do believe that
wc are in a period of recovery. But it
is slower than hoped for.”
Economists reviewing the new Fed
survey noted that even the manufac
turing sector was beginning to falter.
The national survey is used by the
Federal Open Market Committee as a
basis for discussing economic condi
tions. Two previous reports also indi
cated concern about the recovery.
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Toward Normalcy
Baker says
Vietnam talks
could start
next month
PARIS — In a step toward
reconciliation, Secretary of State
James Baker said Wednesday
that preliminary talks on nor
malizing U.S. relations with
Vietnam may begin next month.
The evolution of the talks
would depend on Hanoi’s coop
eration in resolving the issue of
U.S. servicemen missing in
action in the Vietnam War, Baker
said before a meeting with Viet
nam’s foreign minister, Nguyen
Manh Cam.
About 2,300 Americans arc
j* listed as missing in action in
l Indochina from the Vietnam
^ War, including 1,678 believed |
i missing in Vietnam itself.
P Baker said it would be “ap
► propriatc” if the first U.S.-Vicl
i namese talks began “in the next
month or so.’’
his unexpected announce
ment preceded by hours another
historical moment rooted in the
Vietnam conflict — the signing
by 19 nations of a peace treaty
ending the two-decade Cambo
dian civil war.
Baker and his Vietnamese
counterpart were in Paris for the
signing, which symbolically
ended Hanoi’s military involve
ment in Cambodia that began
with a 1978 invasion to drive
the murderous Khmer Rouge
from power.
The secretary of state de
scribed the proposed prelimi
nary discussions as a path that
could lead to normalizing rela
tions with Vietnam.
“The United States is pre
pared to begin discussions with
Vietnam concerning the issues
and modalities that would be
involved in normalizing rela
tions,’’ Baker said.
“The scope and pace of these
discussions of course will be
governed by the degree with
which Vietnam continues to
cooperate with the United States
on die very, very important is
sue of our prisoners of war and
our missing in action."
$ ——;———
CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN V *
INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM < *
.1
May 13,1961: U.S. bolsters its 685 military advisers when
President Kennedy sends 100 specially trained jungle fighters
to aid the South Vietnamese against rebel guerrillas.
§1 Aug. 7,1964: Congress approves the Tonkin resolution giving
President Johnson a freehand to protect Southeast Asia.
Jan. 27,1973: The United States and North Vietnam
formally call an end to their undeclared war.
Aug. 15,1973: The United States pullout completed when
American warplanes cease bombing missions in Indochina.
April 29-30,1975: Saigon falls
Jan. 20,1990: Vietnamese and U.S. specialists agree to
conduct joint activities by the end of February to account for
Americans reported missing from the war.
Nov. 11,1990: Vietnam offers U.S. use of former U S.
naval base if Washington lifts 26-year-old trade embargo.
July 29,1991: The State Department's highest-ranking Asia
envoy says Washington will not forge diplomatic ties with
Vietnam until a Cambodian peace accord is signed and MIA
If issue is resolved. 1
Oct. 23,1991: Cambodia's warring factions and
representatives of 18 nations sign a peace treaty.
1'1 ' : 1::?• ^
AP
Memories of only U.S. war loss fading
WASHINGTON — For young
Americans, Hamburger Hill is an
cient history, along with the Alamo
and Bull Run. Even adults might
have trouble recalling that troub
ling battle for a hilltop in the Ashau
Valley that so frustrated this coun
try in 1969 and took the lives of
several hundred GIs.
It lasted 10 days, its name evi
dently derived from the soldiers’
observation that the struggle for an
insignificant piece of terrain had
turned into a “meal grinder.”
America won a war in the Per
sian Gulf this year and to many the
only war it ever lost— in Vietnam
— seemed somehow redeemed.
Maybe that's why there was liulc
chagrin Wednesday over Secretary
of State James Baker’s suggestion
of normalizing relations with an
old enemy, Hanoi. No one cried
“traitor.”
Said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.,
a much-wounded Vietnam veteran
who chairs the Senate’s new POW
M1A Committee: “We’ve managed
to put the Japanese divisivencss
behind us. We pul the German
llalian-Axis Power divisiveness
behind us. You have to move on in
life and people understand that.”
A quiet encounter last week in a
senator’s office further made the
point. John McCain and Bui Tin
sat down over a cup of coffee.
As a downed Navy flier, McCain,
a Republican from Arizona, was
held for 5 1/2 years in a North
Vietnamese prison. His attack
bomber had been shot down over
Hanoi in 1967.
And his guest was a colonel on
the other side. On April 30, 1975,
Tin’s tank unit crashed through the
tales of the presidential palace in
aigon. fie accepted South Viet
nam’s surrender. Tin has since
denounced the Communist regime
in Hanoi.
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