PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Khmer Rouge guerrilla forces have begun using Chinese-made tanks for the first time in attacks on government forces in northwest Cambodia, government officials said Monday.
Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong said the Khmer Rouge sent eight Chinese-supplied tanks in battles near the border town of Pailin and six more operated outside of the crossroads town of Svay Chek in northwest Cambodia last week.
There were no immediate details on the effectiveness of the Khmer Rouge armor, but it was the first time the Khmer Rouge are reported to have used Chinese tanks in battle.
'This proves China is still supplying the Khmer Rouge,' Hor Nam Hong said.
China has said it has suspended military supplies to the Khmer Rouge, the communist rebel group ousted from power by Vietnam's 1978 invasion, in line with a U.N. request to reduce fighting amid efforts toward a political settlement of the conflict.
Unconfirmed reports said the Khmer Rouge have received some 24 battle tanks from China through Thailand. Government officials at the western border said recently that the Khmer Rouge captured at least three more tanks in working order from government forces.
Government officials believe the Khmer Rouge do not yet have sufficient logistics systems to supply the fuel and ammunition needed for any extensive operations of the tanks.
The Phnom Penh government, installed by Hanoi after the Vietnam invasion, has dozens of similar tanks supplied by the Soviet Union.
Increased fighting has been reported in the past week in the northwestern provinces of Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Siem Reap and in the central province of Kompong Thom.
Most attacks have been by the Khmer Rouge, the largest of the three resistance factions, but its allies led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk and former Prime Minister Son Sann, have also been involved, government officials said.
A government spokesman, however, said government forces supplied by the Soviet Union and Vietnam are maintaining a defensive posture and are not instigating attacks.
'The U.N. asked us all to exercise self-restraint, and we are doing that, but the other factions are not,' said the spokesman said.
The government in Phnom Penh controls most of the country's estimated 8 million people, but large areas of the countryside, particularly in the northwest are dominated by the resistance.
Saturday, the National Assembly passed the 1991 budget which allocates 30-40 percent of government revenue for the war.
'The amount is higher than last year, but the proportion is about the same,' said a National Assembly member.
The 1991 budget includes expenditure of about $166 million, although projected income is consederably less than this, putting the government deeper in the red.
In an attempt to meet the shortfall, the Assembly passed eight new tax laws, including taxes on property purchases, motor vehicles and slaughterhouses.
Other revenue will be raised through foreign borrowing, including the equivalent of $100 million in long term loans from the Soviet Union.
The Assembly also voted to extend its current term until July 1992, the second extension of its original five-year term.
