Staff writer

Cambodian Second Prime Minister Hun Sen will visit Tokyo in early November as part of diplomatic efforts to win the international community's recognition of his controversial government, diplomatic sources said Sept. 29.

First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the ruling coalition partner Hun Sen ousted in a bloody July coup, meanwhile plans to visit before year's end.

Although Hun Sen's Nov. 6-10 trip is ostensibly for a medical examination, the main purpose will be to sell himself and Ung Huot, Ranariddh's replacement, as Cambodia's legitimate top leaders, the sources said. During the visit, Hun Sen will meet with Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi, the sources said.

Hun Sen in early August had conveyed his desire to visit Tokyo for a medical checkup and for talks with Hashimoto and other government leaders, the sources said, but Japan rejected that request out of fear of signaling to the international community that it was siding with Hun Sen in his battle with Ranariddh.

The sources also said the exiled Ranariddh will visit Tokyo to urge Japan not to recognize the Hun Sen regime or resume aid, and the visit will be made as early as mid-November or by the end of the year at the latest. Ranariddh has asked Japan to grant his visit for talks with Hashimoto and other government leaders as soon as possible, and the acceptance by Tokyo is apparently aimed at heading off criticism that would probably arise, especially in the U.S., if only Hun Sen's visit were allowed.

Unlike the United States and some other donor nations that have indefinitely frozen aid for Cambodia to protest the July 6 coup, Japan, Cambodia's largest aid donor, has said its policy toward the country is different from the U.S. and has made it clear it would re-establish aid if some conditions are met.

At a meeting with Ung Huot in Kuala Lumpur in late July, then Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda set four conditions for continuation of aid: respect for human rights; maintenance of constitutional government; observance of a 1991 Paris peace accord that set up Cambodia's coalition government; and holding free and fair elections next year to choose a new government.

On Sept. 19 the United Nations accreditation committee decided to leave Cambodia's seat vacant in the U.N. General Assembly's current session. In response, Hun Sen threatened to suspend cooperation with the international body and bar it from supervising promised general elections in May unless his government is allowed to take its seat.

For this year, Japan pledged nearly $70 million in official development assistance to Cambodia, which is said to be relying on foreign aid for more than half of its government budget. The U.S. has pushed Japan to deny Hun Sen full-scale resumption of aid, which Tokyo contends has been suspended out of fear for the safety of aid workers rather than for political reasons.