Government military spokesmen said Monday that resistance troops continued to ignore the cease-fire declared by deposed first prime minister Prince Nor­o­dom Ranariddh, with one general saying the cease-fire seemed to have “no point.”

At about 100 riel each for 500,000 government propaganda leaflets, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces’s divisive campaign against Khmer Rouge fighters was much more cost-efficient than, say, buying second-hand guns, tanks and helicopters.

The government announced Thursday that no attempt will be made to bring surviving members of the Khmer Rouge leadership to justice for atrocities committed during their 1975-78 rule until after July’s scheduled elections.

A Japanese oil company is wrapping up a massive survey of the Tonle Sap and Mekong river basins that will determine whe­ther the area has potential oil and gas reserves, officials from the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy said Thursday.

Both Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party waited until the final hours Thursday to submit their registration applications and candidate lists for upcoming elections.

siem reap town – Top military com­­manders trying to eradicate guerrillas from the inhospitable Dangrek Mountains acknowledged on Thursday that a fight they have promised to end swiftly could take much longer.

The two prime ministers have asked the UN to limit the role of international observers in upcoming elections, proposing changes that electoral watchdogs say would hobble monitoring of the polls.

Sim Toeur journeyed to Ph­nom Penh on Wednesday to sell her excess rice. But the 20-year-old from Battambang prov­ince’s Mong Russei district and other farmers like here are be­coming a rare sight at rice wholesalers and millers this year, as Cambodia’s largest staple is be­ing hoarded or diverted to foreign markets, experts said.

koh puolo wai, Koh Kong pro­vince – On Cambodia’s most distant military base, soldiers sit on the island’s picture-perfect shores and fight off their No 1 enemy: malaria.

siem reap town – On the RCAF’s tactical map at Anlong Veng, Moun­tain 200 is the object of blue and black arrows that represent col­umns of pro-government troops seeking to capture the em­battled Khmer Rouge outpost.

The compromise to count the ballots from upcoming elections at the commune level instead of at village polling stations is a step in the right direction but still has problems, election watchdogs said this week.

For now, the stretch of land west of the road that leads from Siem Reap town to Angkor Wat is undeveloped and set off by fences.

With the National Assembly paralyzed by an opposition boycott, Second Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday took the extraordinary step of telephoning his rival, deposed first prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh, to offer a way out.

The UN’s top human rights envoy for Cambodia has condemned the massacre of ethnic Viet­na­mese and others last month in Kompong Chhnang province and said political parties using anti-Vietnamese rhetoric share re­spon­sibility for such at­tacks.

Environment officials warned at a conference Tuesday that overfishing and deforestation threaten to destroy the unique ecosystem of the Tonle Sap lake.

Two days before the closing of party registration for elections, only nine of the 44 eligible parties have applied and the Sam Rainsy Party is asking for the deadline to be extended.

Australian police are planning to come to Phnom Penh to help local police still stumped by the murder of an Australian lawyer, a senior Interior Ministry police official said Monday.

Deposed first prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh re­turned to Phnom Penh apparently for good Monday, vowing to enter his party for elections be­fore the registration deadline.

Second Prime Minister Hun Sen warned boycotting opposition parliamentarians on Monday that he and First Prime Minister Ung Huot would remain in power indefinitely if the boycott delayed this year’s national elections.

“If there is no new government to replace the existing government, then we will continue,” he said. “How long it will be continued, we will have to wait and see. I cannot say.”

The powerful second premier said if the boycott continued, the National Assembly could be dissolved Sept 24 without meeting again. The Assembly’s five-year term is generally believed to have begun Sept 24, 1993—the day the Constitution was promulgated.

Hun Sen dashed hopes the parliament would be ex­tended while waiting for elections.

“Ung Huot and I will not agree to sign for an extension of the Assembly. We will continue to lead the government elected in 1993 until a new government is elected,” he said. “Let the Na­tion­al Assembly dissolve automatically if they want it that way.”

Despite both prime ministers’ presence Monday, the Assembly was again unable to muster the 84 members needed for a quorum; 77 attended.

Hun Sen said the boycott un­dermined the stated democratic values of the opposition.

“If they want democracy, they have to come for the meetings. They should not use a boycott to damage the country,” he said.

Lawmakers loyal to Prince No­ro­dom Ranariddh and Bud­dhist Liberal Democratic Party founder Son Sann have been boycotting the Assembly since Wed­nesday in hopes of forcing negotiations on disputed aspects of the electoral procedure.

With about 35 supporters, the opposition group does not have enough votes to defeat legislation. But under internal rules, it only takes 37 absentees to keep the Assembly from meeting.

If it continues, the boycott could force a delay of the elections now scheduled for July 26.

Kem Sokha (BLDP-Son Sann), the chairman of the Assembly’s human rights commission, said Monday the boycott would continue until the government ag­rees to negotiate on demands in­cluding replacing members of the National Election Com­mit­tee and counting ballots at the provincial rather than village level.

Spokesmen for the government and for Second Prime Minister Hun Sen denied Mon­day that the premier has backed off of support for an international tribunal to try Khmer Rouge leaders.