Gov't: Media 'Intimidating' Ex-KR Chiefs
By Yun Samean
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith on Tuesday accused reporters of "psychologically harassing" and "intimidating" former Khmer Rouge leaders, and said efforts to report on their movements as part of a so-called "Khmer Rouge watch" could jeopardize the tribunal.
Khmer-language Rasmei Kampuchea Daily newspaper said last week that it planned to assign reporters to Pailin to monitor the daily lives of former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan and Brother Number Two Nuon Chea.
At least one other local newspaper, Kampuchea Thmey Daily, also has a reporter monitoring the movements of Pailin's former Khmer Rouge leaders. The Documentation Center of Cambodia said it, too, will follow the lives of the aging rebel chiefs as part of its efforts to draw public attention to the opening of the long awaited Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
"They are giving the former Khmer Rouge leaders legal weapons," Khieu Kanharith said. "They can use this to say they don't recognize the tribunal."
Pailin-based reporter So Khun acknowledged that the municipality's former leaders were "fed up" with journalists and have attempted to avoid them. But he said that reporters have kept a respectable distance and have not done any harm.
"We don't hunt them," he said. "We report on them."
Rasmei Kampuchea editor-in-chief Pen Samithy defended his newspaper's coverage and said his reporters were operating within the law.
"These are investigative reports," he said.
Already the scrutiny is yielding headlines.
After a couple of uneventful days—Nuon Chea went to Battambang town on Sunday, and Khieu Samphan dined out at a local restaurant—the Pailin paparazzi were buzzing on Tuesday.
An international news agency trumpeted the news that Khieu Samphan had packed up his pickup truck in the middle of the night and left town.
The report said it was "not immediately clear" whether Khieu Samphan had "absconded in an effort to avoid prosecution."
Khieu Samphan's niece, however, said Tuesday that her uncle had in fact gone to Anlong Veng district in Oddar Meanchey province to bring a bed to his son.
Keut Sothea, deputy governor of Pailin municipality, dismissed the news report as "laughable."
"He needed to bring something to his children," Keut Sothea scoffed.
"This is a normal thing between parents and children. Khieu Samphan frequently goes to visit his children in Anlong Veng and Phnom Penh. Sometimes, he goes to Battambang to have his teeth fixed. But people and reporters do not know him well," he said.
Ieng Vuth, who is also a deputy governor, called on the reporter to apologize. People, he said, should "learn that [Khieu Samphan] is a dignitary and a top leader and has struggled for the country and people his whole life."
ECCC prosecutors began their investigation Monday into who should stand trial for the deaths of some 1.7 million people during the 1975-1979 Democratic Kampuchea regime.
Both Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea are considered prime suspects.
(Additional reporting by Thet Sambath)
Khmer-language Rasmei Kampuchea Daily newspaper said last week that it planned to assign reporters to Pailin to monitor the daily lives of former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan and Brother Number Two Nuon Chea.
At least one other local newspaper, Kampuchea Thmey Daily, also has a reporter monitoring the movements of Pailin's former Khmer Rouge leaders. The Documentation Center of Cambodia said it, too, will follow the lives of the aging rebel chiefs as part of its efforts to draw public attention to the opening of the long awaited Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
"They are giving the former Khmer Rouge leaders legal weapons," Khieu Kanharith said. "They can use this to say they don't recognize the tribunal."
Pailin-based reporter So Khun acknowledged that the municipality's former leaders were "fed up" with journalists and have attempted to avoid them. But he said that reporters have kept a respectable distance and have not done any harm.
"We don't hunt them," he said. "We report on them."
Rasmei Kampuchea editor-in-chief Pen Samithy defended his newspaper's coverage and said his reporters were operating within the law.
"These are investigative reports," he said.
Already the scrutiny is yielding headlines.
After a couple of uneventful days—Nuon Chea went to Battambang town on Sunday, and Khieu Samphan dined out at a local restaurant—the Pailin paparazzi were buzzing on Tuesday.
An international news agency trumpeted the news that Khieu Samphan had packed up his pickup truck in the middle of the night and left town.
The report said it was "not immediately clear" whether Khieu Samphan had "absconded in an effort to avoid prosecution."
Khieu Samphan's niece, however, said Tuesday that her uncle had in fact gone to Anlong Veng district in Oddar Meanchey province to bring a bed to his son.
Keut Sothea, deputy governor of Pailin municipality, dismissed the news report as "laughable."
"He needed to bring something to his children," Keut Sothea scoffed.
"This is a normal thing between parents and children. Khieu Samphan frequently goes to visit his children in Anlong Veng and Phnom Penh. Sometimes, he goes to Battambang to have his teeth fixed. But people and reporters do not know him well," he said.
Ieng Vuth, who is also a deputy governor, called on the reporter to apologize. People, he said, should "learn that [Khieu Samphan] is a dignitary and a top leader and has struggled for the country and people his whole life."
ECCC prosecutors began their investigation Monday into who should stand trial for the deaths of some 1.7 million people during the 1975-1979 Democratic Kampuchea regime.
Both Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea are considered prime suspects.
(Additional reporting by Thet Sambath)
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