CAMBODIA: KHMER ROUGE DENY THEY ARE ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE
(31 Mar 1998) Thai, Khmer, Nat The Khmer Rouge denied on Tuesday that its guerrilla army was on the verge of collapse despite having lost control of a seemingly impregnable stronghold in northern Cambodia. But the last diehard faction of the revolutionary group still at war with the government is becoming more isolated. Cambodia s government has shown that it has taken control of Preah Vihear, the Khmer Rouge s longheld base at a historic hilltop temple. The government also claimed that the breakaway faction had been evicted from its northern Cambodian headquarters of Anlong Veng and were on the run. Preah Vihear an 800yearold clifftop edifice on the border with Thailand has long been considered impregnable. But the Khmer Rouge apparently handed control over to troops loyal to Cambodian strongman Hun Sen without a fight. The 80 guerrillas, who had controlled the mountaintop since 1993, met some 50 government soldiers facetof
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