November 14, 2007Commentary
By YOUK CHHANG
Published by The Wall Street Journal
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Ieng Sary became an ardent communist while he and Pol Pot were studying in Paris in the 1950s. Later, in Democratic Kampuchea, he served as both deputy prime minister and foreign minister. After escaping to the gem- and timber-rich Khmer Rouge zone of Pailin near the Thai border in 1979, he continued to hold senior positions in the Khmer Rouge until 1982, even though he had been given an in-absentia death sentence in 1979 by the Vietnamese-backed government. In 1996, he was pardoned by King Sihanouk at the request of then co-prime ministers Hun Sen and Prince Ranarridh, in exchange for his defection to the government in the name of peace and reconciliation.
His wife Ieng Thirith was one of the few women who held power during the regime. Minister of social affairs during Democratic Kampuchea and head of the regime's Red Cross Society, this strong woman came from a well-to-do family and met Ieng Sary while she was studying Shakespeare at the Sorbonne. Ieng Thirith has denied that she was a member of the Central Committee, saying she only wanted to serve her country and people, and never wanted any "high position." She also claimed that without the sacrifices of those who joined the revolution, Cambodia would have been erased from the world map.
Like perpetrators everywhere, both have denied any wrongdoing and are seemingly without remorse. In 1999, Ieng Thirith wrote to a Phnom Penh newspaper, praising those who left their comfortable villas and took up residence in Cambodia's jungles during the early 1970s to defend their motherland. She has never wavered from the ideals of a Maoist-inspired revolution in which peasants would rule.
But the couple, who are now in their mid-70s, have not chosen to live according to their ideals. Instead of adopting the modest circumstances of the people they claim to revere, they have a lavish villa in downtown Phnom Penh and regularly fly to Bangkok for medical treatment. They are also active Buddhists and have built a stupa at their local pagoda. They seem to forget that the Communist Party of Kampuchea had eliminated Buddhism, considering it, like all other religions, to be "reactionary."
Cambodians are quick to grasp the irony. This husband and wife, who were among the chief architects of Cambodia's killing fields, serve the revolution in name only. They live a privileged and comfortable life, while the majority of Cambodians still earn less then a dollar a day. The poor, in whose name the revolution was formed, are perhaps even poorer because of them and they are still powerless today. The Khmer Rouge left us with a terrible legacy in 1979 -- a country whose education system, religion, banks, commerce, communications and agriculture had all been destroyed. About three-quarters of the survivors were widows who were left to pick up the pieces and move on.
Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith, Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and others turned all Cambodians (except themselves, of course) into peasants during Democratic Kampuchea. The entire population was forced into the fields to grow rice and build irrigation systems, yet a huge percentage of them starved to death or died of overwork and untreated diseases. Ieng Thirith visited the irrigation projects many times during Democratic Kampuchea and doubtless saw the results of the regime's policies. The revolution may have failed, but its effects are still very much with us today.
The arrests of Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith will at last give ordinary Cambodians a victory. This couple, who have changed little and still fail to understand the pain their victims endured, will finally be called into account and perhaps soon see justice done in a court of law. The arrests of the most politically untouchable of the Khmer Rouge leaders is a powerful message to the people of Cambodia and gives us hope that our country will move toward a better future.
Mr. Chhang is the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, an independent nongovernmental organization that holds the world's largest collection of documents from Democratic Kampuchea.
They live a privileged and comfortable life, while the majority of Cambodians still earn less then a dollar a day.Cambodians often refer to the Democratic Kampuchea regime, which was responsible for the deaths of nearly a quarter of the population between 1975 and 1979, as the "Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique." Although few people knew the identities of the secretive leaders of Democratic Kampuchea until after the regime fell, they knew about Ieng Sary by the mid-1970s. By placing his name next to Pol Pot's (the two were brothers-in-law), Cambodians clearly recognize him as one of the masterminds of the genocide. Monday's arrest of Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, is a victory for all those who suffered through the cruelty of their rule.
Ieng Sary became an ardent communist while he and Pol Pot were studying in Paris in the 1950s. Later, in Democratic Kampuchea, he served as both deputy prime minister and foreign minister. After escaping to the gem- and timber-rich Khmer Rouge zone of Pailin near the Thai border in 1979, he continued to hold senior positions in the Khmer Rouge until 1982, even though he had been given an in-absentia death sentence in 1979 by the Vietnamese-backed government. In 1996, he was pardoned by King Sihanouk at the request of then co-prime ministers Hun Sen and Prince Ranarridh, in exchange for his defection to the government in the name of peace and reconciliation.
His wife Ieng Thirith was one of the few women who held power during the regime. Minister of social affairs during Democratic Kampuchea and head of the regime's Red Cross Society, this strong woman came from a well-to-do family and met Ieng Sary while she was studying Shakespeare at the Sorbonne. Ieng Thirith has denied that she was a member of the Central Committee, saying she only wanted to serve her country and people, and never wanted any "high position." She also claimed that without the sacrifices of those who joined the revolution, Cambodia would have been erased from the world map.
Like perpetrators everywhere, both have denied any wrongdoing and are seemingly without remorse. In 1999, Ieng Thirith wrote to a Phnom Penh newspaper, praising those who left their comfortable villas and took up residence in Cambodia's jungles during the early 1970s to defend their motherland. She has never wavered from the ideals of a Maoist-inspired revolution in which peasants would rule.
But the couple, who are now in their mid-70s, have not chosen to live according to their ideals. Instead of adopting the modest circumstances of the people they claim to revere, they have a lavish villa in downtown Phnom Penh and regularly fly to Bangkok for medical treatment. They are also active Buddhists and have built a stupa at their local pagoda. They seem to forget that the Communist Party of Kampuchea had eliminated Buddhism, considering it, like all other religions, to be "reactionary."
Cambodians are quick to grasp the irony. This husband and wife, who were among the chief architects of Cambodia's killing fields, serve the revolution in name only. They live a privileged and comfortable life, while the majority of Cambodians still earn less then a dollar a day. The poor, in whose name the revolution was formed, are perhaps even poorer because of them and they are still powerless today. The Khmer Rouge left us with a terrible legacy in 1979 -- a country whose education system, religion, banks, commerce, communications and agriculture had all been destroyed. About three-quarters of the survivors were widows who were left to pick up the pieces and move on.
Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith, Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and others turned all Cambodians (except themselves, of course) into peasants during Democratic Kampuchea. The entire population was forced into the fields to grow rice and build irrigation systems, yet a huge percentage of them starved to death or died of overwork and untreated diseases. Ieng Thirith visited the irrigation projects many times during Democratic Kampuchea and doubtless saw the results of the regime's policies. The revolution may have failed, but its effects are still very much with us today.
The arrests of Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith will at last give ordinary Cambodians a victory. This couple, who have changed little and still fail to understand the pain their victims endured, will finally be called into account and perhaps soon see justice done in a court of law. The arrests of the most politically untouchable of the Khmer Rouge leaders is a powerful message to the people of Cambodia and gives us hope that our country will move toward a better future.
Mr. Chhang is the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, an independent nongovernmental organization that holds the world's largest collection of documents from Democratic Kampuchea.
8 comments:
Hold your horse, Cowboy! We appeal to the international and the ECCC to bring the "Zero" man to justice - Sihanouk
There goes another hypocrite idiot (Youk Chhang) who only look at cambdia and fogot to look in his back yard. There are plenty of people in the US with asset in the tens of billions USD, while the poors begging for food on the highway throughout the country.
"They live a privileged and comfortable life, while the majority of Cambodians still earn less then a dollar a day"
That is right: This man leads his life like an aristocrat with a luxurious villa surrounded by hovels of poor cambodian in Phnom Penh and he uses to pretend to be a communist. This guy laughs at the world but we still have the last laugh when seeing him in the custody.
Have a good night in the jail, Big Brother Number 3.
How about our pretended hero former first president of the kampuchea democratique, one of the killers of Khmer people KING FATHER KONG Norodum XIHANOUK and wife MONIQUE who live in somptuous Palace and spend time and a lot of money to make films!
This international tribunal is not quite fair enough.
There goes another hypocrite idiot (Youk Chhang) who only look at cambdia and fogot to look in his back yard. There are plenty of people in the US with asset in the tens of billions USD, while the poors begging for food on the highway throughout the country.
3:38 PM
You forgot that there are more opportunity in the USA to make yourself better. Now does Cambodia have that? Does Cambodia have a wel-fare program. Any other institutions to help our khmer citizens? anything man? Don`t say NGO`s, I mean they get funded by the western countries. Think clearly before you open your mouth about western countries which allows thier citizens to voice their opinions where as in Cambodia you will be sued for DEFAMATION.
For those that you mention about beggers on the highway. Are you sure they can`t find jobs to work or are they just being that way because they chose to beg rather than work because of laziness? Let me say it again...Plenty of oportunities to do something. Maybe beggin net them better income than working in an office. Who knows. I know beggars in Cambodia can`t net that kind of money.
Why Khmer people don't kill these two couple in PP? Why they let them live comfortable life style? This couple have killed a lot of khmer people during their rule of the country.
For fair trial Sihanouk and his wife, monique, should be arrested like AH Ieng Sary and his wife too.
May be next month or so Sihanouk and his Hanoi wife will be on trial.
This royal do nothing but filming while Cambodia lost land and starving.
Jail is awaiting this mother fucker murderer and his senseless wife. Just look at that fuck-face is sickening and this fuck-face is allowed to live for so long by the other Khmer Rouge comrade. Millions were killed and they have live free; only HUN SEN government thinks it's the right thing to do.
Nope, we think it is the right thing to do to stop millions more from being killed. Only Ah Khmer-Yuon criminals think that that is the wrong thing to do.
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