Ivor Callely
Question:61 Mr. Callely asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the current activities and role of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5246/96]
Written Answers. - Khmer Rouge Activities.
The power and influence of the Khmer Rouge has declined considerably in recent years. Currently it is a guerrilla group with strongholds in Pailin and Phnom Malai in the northwest provinces of Battambang and Banteay Meanchey close to the Cambodia/Thailand border. Fighting in this area continues as Cambodian Government forces advance slowly on territory held by the rebel forces.
There were reports in recent weeks of explosions by home-made Khmer Rouge bombs in Battambang, Cambodia's second largest city, where the provincial hospital was hit but without causing significant damage. On 21 February 1996, a convoy of cement trucks was ambushed on national route five which runs from the capital Phnom Penh northwest to Battambang in the most serious attack by the Khmer Rouge on civilians so far this year, with the loss of one life and one seriously injured.
Recently, for the first time the Cambodian military has called upon Khmer Rouge commanders to kill their political leaders, including Pol Pot, who led the group's brutal regime for nearly four years in the 1970s. The exact whereabouts of the Khmer Rouge leaders, Pol Pot, Ta Mok (chief of staff of the National Army of Democratic Kampuchea), Ieng Sary (Pol Pot's right-hand man), Khieu Samphan (Prime Minister of the guerrilla's provisional government) and Son Sen (the provisional government's Minister of Defence) are unknown. The Government of Cambodia has appealed to the guerrillas to defect having ordered Government soldiers not to harm defectors.