Thu Nov 15, 2007
By Ek Madra
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia's "Killing Fields" tribunal is set to arrest ex-Khmer Rouge president Khieu Samphan after hospital health checks in Phnom Penh, a senior police official said on Thursday.
The French-educated guerrilla leader, a close ally of late regime leader Pol Pot, was flown to the capital on Wednesday suffering from "numbness" after falling from a hammock at his home in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin on the Thai border.
However, his 24-year-old daughter said he was on the mend. "He told us not to worry," Khieu Maly said, adding that her father now felt "fine".
The police official said the government had been told of court plans to arrest Khieu Samphan on Friday and his recovery was a green light to hand him over to face charges relating to the deaths of the Khmer Rouge's estimated 1.7 million victims.
"There's no need to give him a return ticket," the policeman said. "It was a one-way trip."
Another police official said it was unlikely Khieu Samphan, thought to be 78, would be returning home even though he was feeling better, although a tribunal spokesman would neither confirm nor deny that an arrest warrant had been issued.
His transfer to hospital came amid a flurry of activity by the long-awaited Khmer Rouge tribunal, which started work in earnest a few months ago after nearly a decade of delays caused by wrangling over jurisdiction and cash.
Former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife -- both life-long friends of "Brother Number One" Pol Pot -- were arrested and charged on Monday with crimes against humanity for their role in the regime's 1975-1979 reign of terror.
"Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, who had also lived in Pailin, is in the court's custody on similar charges, as is the Beijing-backed regime's chief jailer, Duch, who ran Phnom Penh's "S-21" torture and interrogation centre.
Khieu Samphan was the leading intellectual among the small group of Cambodian students in 1950s Paris who became imbued with communism and returned home to the southeast Asian nation to form the core of the guerrilla movement that became the Khmer Rouge.
However, he published a book three years ago portraying himself as a virtual prisoner of the regime and denying knowledge of any atrocities.
Many of the Khmer Rouge's victims were executed. The rest died of disease, starvation or overwork as Pol Pot pursued his dream of creating an agrarian peasant utopia. Pol Pot died in 1998 in the final Khmer Rouge redoubt of Anlong Veng.
(Writing by Ed Cropley; editing by Michael Battye and Roger Crabb)
The French-educated guerrilla leader, a close ally of late regime leader Pol Pot, was flown to the capital on Wednesday suffering from "numbness" after falling from a hammock at his home in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin on the Thai border.
However, his 24-year-old daughter said he was on the mend. "He told us not to worry," Khieu Maly said, adding that her father now felt "fine".
The police official said the government had been told of court plans to arrest Khieu Samphan on Friday and his recovery was a green light to hand him over to face charges relating to the deaths of the Khmer Rouge's estimated 1.7 million victims.
"There's no need to give him a return ticket," the policeman said. "It was a one-way trip."
Another police official said it was unlikely Khieu Samphan, thought to be 78, would be returning home even though he was feeling better, although a tribunal spokesman would neither confirm nor deny that an arrest warrant had been issued.
His transfer to hospital came amid a flurry of activity by the long-awaited Khmer Rouge tribunal, which started work in earnest a few months ago after nearly a decade of delays caused by wrangling over jurisdiction and cash.
Former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife -- both life-long friends of "Brother Number One" Pol Pot -- were arrested and charged on Monday with crimes against humanity for their role in the regime's 1975-1979 reign of terror.
"Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, who had also lived in Pailin, is in the court's custody on similar charges, as is the Beijing-backed regime's chief jailer, Duch, who ran Phnom Penh's "S-21" torture and interrogation centre.
Khieu Samphan was the leading intellectual among the small group of Cambodian students in 1950s Paris who became imbued with communism and returned home to the southeast Asian nation to form the core of the guerrilla movement that became the Khmer Rouge.
However, he published a book three years ago portraying himself as a virtual prisoner of the regime and denying knowledge of any atrocities.
Many of the Khmer Rouge's victims were executed. The rest died of disease, starvation or overwork as Pol Pot pursued his dream of creating an agrarian peasant utopia. Pol Pot died in 1998 in the final Khmer Rouge redoubt of Anlong Veng.
(Writing by Ed Cropley; editing by Michael Battye and Roger Crabb)
6 comments:
I think Kieu Samphan will be alright if we could avoid incriminating himself in a trial. Specifically, he should not volunteer any rumors or propaganda that was installed in his head. Just stick to fact as he know it, not from first hand ,second hand or third...
http://www.khmerkromngo.org/petition.htm
The Petition
The Khmer Kampuchea Krom Petition
PETITION TO FREE 6 KHMER BUDDHIST MONKS FROM PRISON, TO PRESSURE VIETNAM TO RESPECT HUMAN AND RELIGIOUS RIGHTS OF THE INDIGENOUS KHMERS AND TO STOP
FURTHER HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATIONS AND INJUSTICE UPON THE KHMERS IN KAMPUCHEA KROM.
To:
US Administration, House of Representatives and Senate
Canada's Government, Parliament and Senate
CC:
Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Tan Dung
President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Minh Triet
General Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party Nong Duc Manh
UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
UN Special Rapporteur Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People
US Department of State
US International Commission of Religious Freedom
European Commission External Relations Commissioner
President of Political Groups at the European Parliament
On June 4, 1949 the French Republic transferred Kampuchea Krom (formerly part of the Kingdom of Cambodia) to Vietnam. The ethnic Cambodians now living on this formerly Cambodian land, which is
now part of Vietnam, still call themselves, Khmers (Khmer Krom or Khmer Kampuchea Krom).
We, the undersigned, the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community of North America, Khmers, and those
who are concerned about the plight of our people, whose human, religious, and cultural rights have been systematically violated by the current Communist Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Recently, some of our Buddhist monks have been arbitrarily and unjustly killed and imprisoned without due process of law. Therefore, we, the undersigned, respectfully request the United States Administration, Senate, and House of Representatives, as well as their Canadian counterpart, to intervene with the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to stop this current systemic mistreatment of the our brothers and sisters from Kampuchea Krom and restore and respect their right to have their own cultural, ethnical, religious, and social identity within the legal framework of the existing international law and that
of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
We respectfully wish to request the United States of America Administration, House of Representatives, and the Senate, as well as the Canadian government and parliament, to intervene with the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam that it urgently take the following decisions:
Recognize status and human rights of the more than 12 millions Khmer Kampuchea Krom
people living in Kampuchea Krom (South Vietnam) who choose to practice their own religious beliefs.
Reopen Buddhist Institute in Khleang province to allow Khmers to practice their own religious beliefs.
Allow Khmers to establish civic, human rights and religious associations.
Reopen Khmer language schools.
Provide media access, television and radio programming, magazines, books, and cultural
works in Khmer language.
Return land to Khmer people that the Vietnamese authorities illegally confiscated in the 1970s through 1990s.
Permit Khmer Buddhist monks and people to travel (move) freely including visiting and returning from Cambodia and abroad.
Permit Khmers to organize Kathina ceremony according to the Khmer Buddhist religion.
Release political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.
Release 6 Khmer Buddhist monks from prison who were arrested for practicing their religious beliefs.
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Kim Moeun, 4-year sentenced on May 10, 2007
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Danh To, 4-year sentenced on May 10, 2007
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Ly Thoeung, 2-year sentenced on May 10, 2007
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Thach Thoeung, 2-year sentenced on May 10, 2007
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Ly Vang, 2-year sentenced on May 10, 2007
Abbot Indapanna Tim Sakhorn has been detained and imprisoned in Military Region 9 prison on June 30, 2007 for an alleged illegal entry into Vietnam.
Re-ordain 16 forcibly defrocked Buddhist monks who are not allowed to practice their religious beliefs. Violations took place on February 22, 2007.
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Kim Moeun, aka Chamroeun, Khleang province.
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Thach Doeur, Khleang province.
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Thach Svung Hieng, Khleang province.
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Taing Chhen, Khleang province.
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Ly Soeur, aka Thoeun, Khleang province.
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Taing Thoeung, Khleang province.
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Ly Thanh Souy, Khleang province.
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Ly Tong Phong, Khleang provincial city.
The Venerable Buddhist Monk Ly Vang, Khleang provincial city.
Seven other Buddhist monks, who are missing, whose names are not yet known.
De-Vietnamize Khmer Buddhism. State and religion must be kept separated. Khmer Buddhism must
be independent from the Vietnamese religion, and restored the religious, cultural, and social institutions
to their pre-1975, state. The Vietnamese authority must not interfere in Buddhist religious affairs.
Sincerely,
Joint Signatures,
Please sign the petition. Thank you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THANK YOU BROTHER!!!...
vietnam must stop their territorials expansion and must to respect the original CAMBODIAN people living in KAMPUCHEA KROM without conditions and stop systematically abusing the human right like nowadays.
We all Cambodians,we have to sign the PETITION without delay.
And what is so different between this petition and the hundreds before that?
Khiev Samphan shoud be shameful to cambodian people. He betrayed people trust. He just think about himself, not the people like he claimed. PolPot don't need to kill people directly, but by order to stupid leaders or by his ruling. Khiev Samphan said stupidly that "People do not just follow what their leader said" " They can't just enter a crab hole according to a leader's order". Khiev Samphan sound like he is not a KR. He tried to say anything to get himself off the hook. Nobody beleive him. I think Khiev Samphan was sleeping during his regim. He said his job was delivering food. Was he a president then? He din't know anything bad in his regim, he lied, he lid and he lied again.
I would like to know about Hou Nem and Hou Yon, ask Khiev Samphan if he knows about them.
I think Khieu Samphan talk too much and not following his lawyer advices, and he will get himself into trouble, and his lawyer will not be able to get him off the hook. Sometime, even if you are guilty, you can still get away with it if you follow your experience lawyer advice. The westerner justice system sucks. It can't put every criminal aways, and no one care about punity.
Post a Comment