Cambodian Military Conscription Reported
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BANGKOK, Thailand — Cambodia has introduced military conscription of five years or more for men aged 18 to 30, Khmer Rouge guerrillas said Wednesday.
A Khmer Rouge radio broadcast monitored here said the conscription law was issued on Hanoi’s orders “to Vietnamize Kampuchea (Cambodia) and use Kampucheans to kill Kampucheans.”
The report could not be confirmed independently, but a Western diplomat in Bangkok noted that there had been renewed emphasis in the Phnom Penh media on military recruitment.
An Asian military attache said the Hanoi-installed Cambodian government has to build up its armed forces, which he estimated at 40,000, to offset a drop in the level of Vietnamese troops, which Hanoi has promised to withdraw by 1990.
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