CAMBODIA/CHINA: CHINESE PRESIDENT JAING ZEMIN ARRIVES IN PHNOM PENH TO BEGIN STATE VISIT

Record ID: 442500

  • Title: CAMBODIA/CHINA: CHINESE PRESIDENT JAING ZEMIN ARRIVES IN PHNOM PENH TO BEGIN STATE VISIT
  • Date: 13th November 2000
  • Summary: PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA (NOVEMBER 13, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV: PLANE, PEOPLE GATHERED 0.09 2. SLV: CHINESE PRESIDENT JIANG ZEMIN AND WIFE WANG YEPING GETTING OFF PLANE 0.20 3. SV: PEOPLE HOLDING PHOTOGRAPHS OF JIANG AND CAMBODIAN KING SIHANOUK 0.23 4. LV: CROWD, ZEMIN LEAVING PLANE 0.28 5. WIDE OF HUGE PHOTOGRAPHS O
  • Embargoed: 28th November 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA/ BEIJING CHINA
  • City:
  • Country: Cambodia China
  • Reuters ID: LVA530T5ROF6SUETDXABKQY221D1
  • Story Text: Chinese President Jiang Zemin has begun a state visit
    to Cambodia where tight security prevented a planned protest
    against China's past support for the genocidal Khmer Rouge.


    The 10-kilometre (six-mile) route was lined with thousands of
    schoolchildren waving Chinese and Cambodian flags and
    holding up pictures of Jiang Zemin, his wife Wang Yeping,
    and Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk and Queen Monineath.

    King Sihanouk and Queen Monineath welcomed Jiang and his
    wife who arrived on board an Air China plane at Phnom Penh
    International airport on Monday (November 13).

    Also on hand to greet Jiang were Cambodian Prime
    Minister Hun Sen, Senate President Chea Sim and National
    Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh.

    Cambodian officials say at least 6,000 municipal and
    military police will be on hand to provide security during
    Jiang's visit.

    On Tuesday (November 14), Jiang is scheduled to fly to
    Siem Reap with the king and queen to visit the fabled 9th-12th
    century Angkor temple complex before leaving for a meeting of
    leaders from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in
    Brunei.

    Jiang's visit to Cambodia comes after a visit to Laos, the
    first ever visit of a Chinese President to the small and
    landlocked country. Jiang signed several economic, social and
    agricultural cooperation pacts while in Laos.

    The Democracy Front for Khmer Students and Intellectuals
    said last week it would call for an official apology and
    compensation for China's backing of the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge
    regime, whose "killing fields" reign left some 1.7 million
    Cambodians dead.

    China has ruled out any apology, and police kept protesters
    at bay while Jiang's official motorcade made its way from
    Phnom Penh's Pochentong Airport to the Royal Palace in the
    heart of the capital.

    Although about 40 protestors gathered at a school along
    the route, they were not visible from the street and dispersed
    soon after the motorcade passed.

    There was a brief scuffle as police prevented the
    protesters from gathering.

    "China has to apologise to the Cambodian people for their
    support to the Khmer Rouge regime. And secondly, China
    has to pay compensation to the families of those who died
    during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. And thirdly, China should
    not interfere in Cambodia's internal affairs and not put a new
    Communist regime in Cambodia. I cannot accept this," said
    protester Pok Leakrasey.

    But Cambodian foreign minister Hor Namhong told
    reporters at the airport that the Khmer Rouge would not be
    discussed during the Chinese president's two-day visit.

    China was the main supporter of the Khmer Rouge during
    its murderous 1970s reign and in the 1980s when Khmer Rouge
    guerrillas battled a Vietnamese army of occupation.


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