Bye-Bye Ballots

EVEN ITS STAUNCHEST ALLY COULD NO LONGER SUPport Cambodia's most violent guerrilla faction. China's vote last Monday made unanimous a Security Council resolution to proceed with national elections in May -- even though the Khmer Rouge will field no candidates. The decision apparently eliminates any chance for the Maoist group to be included in a coalition government, though no one can predict what will happen after the 20,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force leaves. The Khmer Rouge, who were responsible for the death of at least a million Cambodians during their 1975-79 reign of terror, made clear they will not go quietly. Just two days after the U.N. vote, gunmen believed to belong to the Khmer Rouge massacred 33 ethnic Vietnamese in a floating village on Tonle Sap Lake. The attack and continued harassment of opposition political parties by the Vietnamese-installed Phnom Penh regime raise serious questions about the ability of the U.N. to conduct "free and fair" elections.