By Douglas Gillison
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
Retired King Norodom Sihanouk announced Saturday that he opposes the newly inaugurated Khmer Rouge tribunal, saying it will only try a handful of those responsible for the regime and that its budget would be better spent on alleviating poverty.
While the tribunal is intended to try a handful of "old, sickly unrepentant individuals," the true number of those responsible was in the hundreds if not the thousands, the former King wrote in a five-page message dated Thursday and posted to his Web site.
"To be frank and call a spade a spade. I am against the special Tribunal that has been established in Cambodia to try five or six Khmer Rouge individuals," he wrote.
The budget for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, which stands at over $56 million, would be best used developing Cambodia, he added.
"With the tens of millions of US [dollars] reserved for the trial,'" he said, "one could provide immensely beneficial services to the Little People by offering them mechanical devices for their 'Water Policy,' machines for agriculture, land of which they are dispossessed, decent living quarters, plows, cattle...and other things to take them from their misery."
Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath noted that the tribunal's budget was far less than those of either the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda or the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
Both of those tribunals have spent hundreds of millions of dollars since they were established in the 1990s.
"We do not have any official reaction to His Majesty's comments: He has the absolute right to express what he thinks he should say," Reach Sambath said. "We all respect him."
The Cambodian tribunal is expected to indict between five and 10 individuals, although prosecutors and investigating judges would be able to bring charges against more, Reach Sambath said.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said the tribunal's budget was not excessive. "If we fail to prosecute the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge, who killed two million people, it’s a serious failure," he said.
He added that prosecuting the Khmer Rouge would help end a climate of impunity in Cambodia.
In his opinion, it is wrong to assume that the tribunal would charge only a handful of suspects. "We don't know who will be indicted," he said.
Co-investigating judge You Bun Leng declined to comment, while pre-trial chamber Judge Ney Thol could not be reached.
Norodom Sihanouk has previously offered mixed views on the tribunal.
In April 2004, he announced via his Web site that if the trials were not held at the International Court of Justice at the Hague in the Netherlands, they would not be credible.
But a week later, Norodom Sihanouk announced his desire to testify at the joint UN-Cambodian tribunal, and said that the trials should be broadcast on television.
In January 2005, the former King, who in 2001 signed the law creating the tribunal, called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia a "comedy and a hypocrisy."
(Additional reporting by Yun Samean)
While the tribunal is intended to try a handful of "old, sickly unrepentant individuals," the true number of those responsible was in the hundreds if not the thousands, the former King wrote in a five-page message dated Thursday and posted to his Web site.
"To be frank and call a spade a spade. I am against the special Tribunal that has been established in Cambodia to try five or six Khmer Rouge individuals," he wrote.
The budget for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, which stands at over $56 million, would be best used developing Cambodia, he added.
"With the tens of millions of US [dollars] reserved for the trial,'" he said, "one could provide immensely beneficial services to the Little People by offering them mechanical devices for their 'Water Policy,' machines for agriculture, land of which they are dispossessed, decent living quarters, plows, cattle...and other things to take them from their misery."
Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath noted that the tribunal's budget was far less than those of either the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda or the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
Both of those tribunals have spent hundreds of millions of dollars since they were established in the 1990s.
"We do not have any official reaction to His Majesty's comments: He has the absolute right to express what he thinks he should say," Reach Sambath said. "We all respect him."
The Cambodian tribunal is expected to indict between five and 10 individuals, although prosecutors and investigating judges would be able to bring charges against more, Reach Sambath said.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said the tribunal's budget was not excessive. "If we fail to prosecute the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge, who killed two million people, it’s a serious failure," he said.
He added that prosecuting the Khmer Rouge would help end a climate of impunity in Cambodia.
In his opinion, it is wrong to assume that the tribunal would charge only a handful of suspects. "We don't know who will be indicted," he said.
Co-investigating judge You Bun Leng declined to comment, while pre-trial chamber Judge Ney Thol could not be reached.
Norodom Sihanouk has previously offered mixed views on the tribunal.
In April 2004, he announced via his Web site that if the trials were not held at the International Court of Justice at the Hague in the Netherlands, they would not be credible.
But a week later, Norodom Sihanouk announced his desire to testify at the joint UN-Cambodian tribunal, and said that the trials should be broadcast on television.
In January 2005, the former King, who in 2001 signed the law creating the tribunal, called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia a "comedy and a hypocrisy."
(Additional reporting by Yun Samean)
6 comments:
KI-Media, tell this OLD Bustard, Cock Sucking Mother fucker that no one is listening to his idea or who care if he opposes. We let him live this far considering he is old and have a bit of respect for him. HE who created Khmer Rouge and he who let to this tragic lost of Millions of Khmer Inocent lives. He is scared to be standed on Trail himselve...studdering old man with stupid French accent.
I can't understand why this diabolic head of state of the Pol Pot Government hasn't been taken to the khmer rouge tribunal international as other khmer rouge leaders.
This individual (felon, SDACH THMIL SI-HA-NOUSS) and his all family(ancestors or descents) are always the TRAITORS, DESTROYERS, of our people, our country. we have all the proof to condemn HIM.
Go to google.com search Sihanouk crime.
http://amekhmer.free.fr/khcrucial-event/1sihanouk-crime.htm
Sihanouk is right.
there are other thousand responsibles Khmer rouges
Pol Potien,such as SIHANOUK HIMSELF, HUN SEN, CHEA SIM, HENG SAMRIN, HOR NAM HONG, kEAT CHHON...
prior to involement into Politic, these Kings can get any pussies they want, nowaday the get shit. They lost everything. they lost their respect, the reputation, their supports and lost their own country. Look at them...should be as shame of themselves. If they were to just stay the fuck out of politic in the first place, then they'll still get all the royal treatment and all the girls they want.
Now King, go fuck yourselves..
Ah Sihanouk is the top Cambodia communist leader in this Khmer history. He is afraid he will be prosecuted in this trial too because he is the one who commit murder, signing and traitor of Cambodia border land. He thinks only his own good, not Cambodian people.
Most of current Cambodian leaders including Ah Hun Sen, Ong Teur (Vietnamese intelligent), Chea Sim, Heng Samrin, Sihanouk, Sok An, Sar Kheng, Tea Bach, Hok Lundy, Keat Chhorn, Hor Nam Hong, Keo Pichma, and their associates should be put on trial. Cambodian people should kill all these people one by one before we lost more lands and Cambodia as a whole.
Freedom of speech and expression. the first Amenment.
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