By Sopheng Cheang, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia’s prime minister accused foreign judges and
prosecutors at the U.N.-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal of seeking to arrest new
suspects as part of a plot by foreign governments to incite unrest.
Hun Sen’s accusation was the latest in a series he has launched against the
tribunal and its ruling last week to allow foreign prosecutors to pursue
more suspects.
On Monday, Hun Sen said such action could lead to civil war. He has
repeatedly spoken out against expanding the list of defendants beyond the
one currently on trial — Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, — and four
others in custody.
He elaborated Wednesday, saying foreign governments want war in Cambodia, a
former French colony that was later wracked by decades of civil war.
“I know that some foreign judges and prosecutors have received orders from
their governments to create problems here,” Hun Sen said while inaugurating
a Buddhist pagoda south of the capital. “There is no doubt that they have
received advice from their government to do so.”
Hun Sen did not name specific countries. The tribunal includes 12 foreign
judges and two foreign prosecutors from countries including Australia,
France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Zambia.
“What Cambodia needs is peace,” Hun Sen added. “If Cambodia has peace, they
(foreign governments) are not quite happy with us — but if Cambodia has war,
they are happy because then we’ll be easy to occupy.”
A tribunal spokesman, Lars Olsen, said Hun Sen’s comments were being
verified before a comment could be issued.
Critics accuse Hun Sen of trying to limit the tribunal’s scope to prevent
his political allies from being indicted. Hun Sen once served as a Khmer
Rouge officer and many of his main allies are also former members of the
group.
On Tuesday, the tribunal’s acting international co-prosecutor, William Smith
of Australia, formally recommended that five more suspects be investigated
for possible crimes against humanity and other offences.
The tribunal’s Cambodian co-prosecutor opposed further indictments, but the
tribunal ruled last week that his international counterpart could seek them.
The tribunal, created last year under an agreement reached in 2003 between
Cambodia and the United Nations, employs joint teams of Cambodian and
international court personnel.
The tribunal is seeking justice for the estimated 1.7 million people who
died in Cambodia from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition as a
result of the ultra-communist group’s radical policies while in power in
1975-79.
The Khmer Rouge took control after a bitter 1970-75 civil war, and after
being ousted from power in 1979, fought an insurgency from the jungles until
1999.
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About Me
- Duong Dara
- Dara Duong was born in 1971 in Battambang province, Cambodia. His life changed forever at age four, when the Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. During the regime that controlled Cambodia from 1975-1979, Dara’s father, grandparents, uncle and aunt were executed, along with almost 3 million other Cambodians. Dara’s mother managed to keep him and his brothers and sisters together and survive the years of the Khmer Rouge regime. However, when the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia, she did not want to live under Communist rule. She fled with her family to a refugee camp on the Cambodian-Thai border, where they lived for more than ten years. Since arriving in the United States, Dara’s goal has been to educate people about the rich Cambodian culture that the Khmer Rouge tried to destroy and about the genocide, so that the world will not stand by and allow such atrocities to occur again. Toward that end, he has created the Cambodian Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial, which began in his garage and is now in White Center, Washington. Dara’s story is one of survival against enormous odds, one of perseverance, one of courage and hope.
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