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Department Spokesman James P. Rubin Excerpt from Daily Press Briefing regarding Cambodia Washington, DC, December 2, 1997 U.S. Department of State

QUESTION: What can you tell us about Assistant Secretary Shattuck's visit to Cambodia?

MR. RUBIN: Yes, I can tell you that Assistant Secretary Shattuck is heading to Cambodia. He will first be in Hong Kong and Thailand, during meetings in Bangkok and Phnom Penh -- that is Thailand and Cambodia.

The Assistant Secretary will focus on US concerns about the situation in Cambodia. He will be the highest level official US visitor to Cambodia since Special Envoy Steven Solarz traveled there in July. He will discuss ways the US can best work with the UN, ASEAN, and other concerned countries to promote a peaceful solution to the conflict there. He will underline the importance of free and fair elections, and the safe return of all politicians who fled the fighting in July, so that they can participate fully in the electoral contest.

He will also note our opposition to any political role for past or current Khmer Rouge leaders, and our support for the work of local and international human rights organizations, among other issues. His visit underscores the central role of human rights and the promotion of democracy in our bilateral relations to these countries.

QUESTION: It's interesting that the current prime minister of Cambodia is a former Khmer Rouge official - the first deputy prime minister. He was a Khmer Rouge official. Do you oppose his role in government?

MR. RUBIN: As you know, we have supported, during the period of the election, the co-prime ministers and the elections that went with that. As far as the logic of that decision at that time, I would be happy to try to dig up our rationale -- when I'm sure one of your colleagues asked the very same question at the time.

QUESTION: What is the role of ASEAN now? What happened to the approach of letting the ASEAN mediators handle the crisis in Cambodia? How come there appears to be some sort of change now?

MR. RUBIN: I don't see the change. I mean, just because one sends -- goes to visit the region, that doesn't mean that we still don't see the ASEAN role as critical in all this. As you can see, there have been returns of some of the officials, so there is some progress. But that wouldn't in any way change our desire to have an assistant secretary for human rights go to Cambodia to demonstrate our concerns in this area..

Link to complete December 2, 1997 briefing.

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