The former Khmer Rouge leaders who have escaped the legal dragnet over the past 30 years probably are not going to escape the hearings expected to be officially conducted by the end of this year. The approach of the planned process, it is learned, cannot be blocked by China, Vietnam, or the leaders of the Phnom Penh regime.
Yesterday morning, the Cambodian Journalists Club held a press conference at the conference hall of the Buddhist Institute adjacent to the Naga Casino and the new National Assembly building. Prof. Alexander Laban Hinton from the Anthropology Department of Rutgers University, Newark, was among the guest speakers at the press conference. The professor talked about the trial of the former Khmer Rouge that, he said, has caught the attention of the whole world.
Alexander Laban Hinton said that the Khmer Rouge extracted a few concepts from Buddhism and mixed them with the communist culture. This made it easy for them to deceive and attract the people in the countryside, luring them into believing in their ideology. However, Buddhism is a religion that preaches goodness to mankind, unlike the claim to the contrary by the Khmer Rouge.
The Khmer Rouge said that the Buddhist monks were the oppressors and exploiters of the sweat and blood of other people. They did not work and they waited only to be catered to by the people who had to work hard for a living. For this reason, a number of people in the countryside in the past believed the Khmer Rouge and misjudged Buddhism. They thought that Buddhism was not good and they even hated the Buddhist monks.
The reporters also raised this question to the professor: the United States knew that the Khmer Rouge communists were killing their own people and that they were extremely cruel. Why the United States did not help Cambodia?
Dr Alexander Laban Hinton answered that the United States just lost the war in Indochina in the 1970s and the Khmer Rouge came to power on 17 April 1975. The US public would not allow the US government to interfere in Indochina again.
The top former Khmer Rouge leaders still alive include Ieng Sary, Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, and so on. They live happily in their (Pailin) haven. The Khmer Rouge trial court [KRTC] initiated since 1997 has encountered obstacles at every turn. This is because the current leaders of Cambodia are under the influence of Vietnam and China, the backers of the Khmer Rouge.
Alexander Laban Hinton stated during the press conference yesterday morning that he expected that 70 percent of the KRTC would be completed. He said that such an expectation was only about 50 percent just a year ago.
Asked why the US government did not provide help in monetary form for the process of this court, Alexander Laban Hinton said that a few people were not happy with it. They did not want the US government to give the court any money. The professor also appealed to the US government to give some money to the KRTC, expecting the government to do so in the second year of the court proceeding.
A reliable source in the government said that in the next few days Ms Michelle Lee, deputy administrative president of the KRTC would come to Cambodia because the administration of this court would start proceeding on 1 February 2006. The source went on to say that there is no more obstacles to the process of this court, for the United Nations and the European community have neutralized Hun Sen, denying him any chance to use further pretexts to postpone the court.
A senior analyst said that the government's measure in arresting the human rights activists, border activists, and democrats on defamation charges is also related to the KRTC because the government, which depends on China and Vietnam, is not willing to let this court be formed. They hold that if this court were set up, China and Vietnam would be found responsible for the regime that lasted for 3 years 8 months and 20 days.
This analyst further related that the European community and the United Nations are truly willing to resolve the Cambodia problem, especially they want to see the KRTC become a reality and able to conduct the hearings as soon as possible. For this reason, the international community tried hard to resolve all the problems that Hun Sen tried to create, one by one, such as the budget issue and the arrests of the human rights activists and democrats.
The same analyst said that China and Vietnam would order Hun Sen to playact in other plots launched at random in order to provoke more obstacles to this KRTC, but this scheme could be either a success or a failure. This is because if Hun Sen keeps lending himself as a pawn to Vietnam and China, one day he would get ensnared and could not extricate himself like the former Khmer Rouge leaders, such as Ieng Sary, Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ta Mok, and Duch.
To the more than $50 million budget for the KRTC, the Cambodian side contributed only a little over $10 million. A few days before the human rights activists were arrested, the European community officially announced that it would give Cambodia a few million dollars that it lacks for its share.
Samdech Norodom Sihanouk used to say that it would be for a far better cause if this considerable budget were used to build irrigation networks and improve the livelihood of the poor people. What the former king said had the same meaning as what former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea had said before him. However, on the ex-king's idea, some analysts said that the Samdech did not want a KRTC but probably it was because he did not trust this KRTC.
Nevertheless, it is expected that no obstacles could prevent the KRTC from conducting its hearings by the end of 2006 because it has the budget and the structure it needs.
