The following is a letter addressed to the Phonm Penh Post from the Funcinpec

Information Office.

Everyday, the Funcinpec party - which is the Royalist, nationalist party, the election-winner

party having large support from the Khmer people throughout the country and which

is also a main ruling party - has regularly endured attacks and unjust criticism

from both the leftists and rightists. Recently, after Samdech Krom Preah Prince Norodom

Ranariddh, first Prime Minister - following the highest command of His Majesty the

King dated January 4, 1996 - signed the circular approving January 7 as a national

holiday, they [leftists and rightists] brought up that issue to interpret and unreasonably

distort the truth of the real view and ideal of the Funcinpec party.

Due to the above mentioned cases and in order to avoid further misunderstanding,

we would like to clarify as follows:

It is true that after more than three years, eight months and twenty days of the

cruel, barbarian and inhuman rule of Pol Pot, Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan, thousands

of people lost their lives to slaughter and starvation, ect. This tragedy and suffering

affected not only the people throughout the country, but the Royal family of HM Norodom

Sihanouk, King of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and members of the Funcinpec party.

Any person or race, when they are in danger and incapable of helping themselves and

there is someone to rescue them, always welcome and are grateful to that person,

although we don't know where that person may come from and whether he has good or

bad intention toward us. According to Buddhist teachings, and Khmer are Buddhists,

we always remember good deeds made in rescuing us when we were put on the edge of

danger and death. So, there is nothing wrong at all when the Funcinpec party demonstrated

its congratulations of January 7 through the signature of Samdech Krom Preah the

President and First Prime Minister of Kingdom of Cambodia in order to recognize it

as "the day the Khmer people were escaped from the Pol Pot regime".

On the contrary, however, the Funcinpec party never forgets that "January 7

is also the day of invasion and occupation of the Cambodian territory by 250,000

Yuon soldiers, that is equivalent to 25 divisions, in 1979", prompting the flow

of thousands of Yuon immigrants to reside in Cambodia, who are becoming a complicated

issue facing the current Royal Government.

(It is) with the fact that Khmers are Buddhists, and aware of what is merit and sin,

but Khmers absolutely can not bow to foreign invasion and occupation of their country

by giving the excuse of the liberation of the Khmer people from the cruel regime

of the Khmer Rouge. And, Khmers do not forget that Yuon shipped Khmer asset worth

billions of dollars to their (own) country. At the same time, there were Khmers,

not in a small number, who died because of accusations from the part of Yuon invaders.

Because of conscience and ideal patriotism to the nation and the motherland, many

movements stood up to struggle against this act of invasion and killing from the

part of Yuon invaders. As for the Funcinpec party, it was born from many movements,

such as the Khleang Meoung movement led by HE Toan Chay, the Northern movement led

by HE Svi Theoun and the Molinaka movement led by HE Kong Silas, and afterward was

directly led by King Norodom Sihanouk and succeeded by his son Prince Norodom Ranariddh.

The struggle of the Funcinpec party, like that of other groups, was based on principles

and clear-sighted guidelines - it was the struggle for independence, territorial

integrity and sovereignty, but not the struggle to shed blood and eliminate the Khmer

race. As the struggle ended, with the withdrawal of the foreign troops from Cambodia,

we felt the necessity to return to rejoin the society. These were the firm positions

of the Funcinpec party's struggle to expel foreign troops-invaders from the motherland.

In conclusion, the celebration of January 7, when the people escaped from the regime

of human-slaughter and genocide, should be enjoyed by the Khmer people, especially

members of the Funcinpec party, according to the idea of His Majesty the King. At

the same time, however, the Funcinpec party always remembers and reminds children

and grand-children that this enthusiastic occasion is also the day of invasion by

Yuon troops of about 250,000 with the goal to swallow the land inherited to us by

Khmer ancestors.

- The Funcinpec Information Office, Cambodia.