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Cambodia
Asks U.N. for Swift Action on Khmer Rouge Trial
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| Remains of victims of Pol Pot’s regime |
PHNOM
PENH, November 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Cambodia
Thursday, November 28, called for swift action from the U.N. on the
issue of setting up a tribunal to try surviving Khmer Rouge leaders
and bring justice for the more than two million victims of Pol Pot’s
regime.
“I
want the U.N. to move fast,” said Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor
Namhong.
“Because
the U.N. used to trample its feet without moving (on the issue of a
trial), so that the Khmer Rouge leaders could die without trial,”
Hor Namhong added.
His
comments came after a U.N. committee last week adopted a resolution
urging the world body to resume negotiations with Cambodia to assist
in the prosecution of leaders of the ultra Maoist regime for crimes
committed during their 1975-79 rule.
Last
February the U.N. broke off marathon negotiations in a stalemate over
control of the judicial process, causing an outcry among member
states.
U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan had said he would rescind the decision if
he was provided with a fresh mandate, which is included in the
resolution once it passes the General Assembly, expected by the end of
December.
According
to a U.N. announcement, distributed by the local e-mail news service
Camnews, 123 countries voted in favor of the draft resolution, none
was against, while another 37 countries abstained.
Several
Western countries had earlier made known through the diplomatic
circuit here that the wording of the draft resolution had upset
several governments.
Some
diplomats complained the draft resolution was too broad, was soft on
dictating international standards for a trial, and that a Cambodian
decision not to co-sponsor the resolution had raised questions about
this country’s commitment to a trial.
But
Japanese ambassador to Cambodia Gotaro Ogawa said the new draft
resolution allowed the U.N. secretary general to resume negotiations
with the Cambodian government.
“It
will assure a tribunal with international standards,” Ogawa said.
Cambodia
had passed legislation in August last year which provides for three
types of trial: U.N.-backed, foreign assisted, or Cambodian only.
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Pol Pot |
The
former head of the notorious S21 torture center Kang Kek Ieu, also
known as Duch, and the Khmer Rouge military chief Ta Mok are
languishing in jail awaiting trail.
However,
former Brother Number Two, Nuon Chea, former prime minister Khieu
Samphan and former foreign minister Ieng Sary live freely in Cambodia.
In
March 1970, with strong U.S. support, the Khmer Rouge guerrilla
movement under Pol Pot deposed Cambodia’s Prince Sihanouk in a coup
d’état, and established the Khmer Republic.
Under
Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge set up a collectively organized economy
dominated by terror, and introduced a catastrophic system of social
engineering designed to “purify” the Khmer race.
This
involved evacuating entire cities to a huge network of agrarian slave
labor camps, abolishing banking, finance and currency, sealing
borders, outlawing all religions, and eliminating private property to
a degree where even requisites of personal hygiene were made communal.
The
“purification” also required the extermination of all the educated
classes, along with any people perceived to oppose the new regime. As
a result, an estimated 1.7 million people, possibly a lot more, were
murdered or died of hunger, disease, or torture.
Pol
Pot died in April 1998.
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