By JOSH GERSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
New York Sun
A Cambodian-American accountant is scheduled to go on trial in a Los Angeles courtroom this morning for allegedly inciting a failed coup attempt in his homeland, some 8,000 miles away.
The former leader of the self-styled Cambodian Freedom Fighters, Yasith Chhun, 51, is charged with violating the Neutrality Act, a law that dates to 1797 and bars Americans from taking up arms against countries with which America is at peace. Mr. Chhun also faces charges of conspiring to kill, to destroy property, and to use a weapon of mass destruction in connection with the unsuccessful putsch in November 2000.
Seven people, some or all of them insurgents, were reported killed in the attempt to oust the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former brigade commander for the Khmer Rouge, which killed about 1.7 million people during its rule in the late 1970s.
"Chhun is a brave man," a former vice president of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, So Sokhom, said yesterday during a telephone interview from his jewelry store in Arlington, Va. "It doesn't matter. Until the day I die, I still salute him. Nobody stood up to defend the Cambodians except for people like him."
Mr. Hun Sen was named a co-prime minister of Cambodia after United Nations-sponsored elections in 1993. In 1997, he forced out his counterpart, Prince Ranariddh, in what outsiders called a coup. Mr. Hun Sen's party won elections in 1998, but the campaigning was marred by violence and observers decried the elections as unfair.
The former leader of the self-styled Cambodian Freedom Fighters, Yasith Chhun, 51, is charged with violating the Neutrality Act, a law that dates to 1797 and bars Americans from taking up arms against countries with which America is at peace. Mr. Chhun also faces charges of conspiring to kill, to destroy property, and to use a weapon of mass destruction in connection with the unsuccessful putsch in November 2000.
Seven people, some or all of them insurgents, were reported killed in the attempt to oust the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former brigade commander for the Khmer Rouge, which killed about 1.7 million people during its rule in the late 1970s.
"Chhun is a brave man," a former vice president of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, So Sokhom, said yesterday during a telephone interview from his jewelry store in Arlington, Va. "It doesn't matter. Until the day I die, I still salute him. Nobody stood up to defend the Cambodians except for people like him."
Mr. Hun Sen was named a co-prime minister of Cambodia after United Nations-sponsored elections in 1993. In 1997, he forced out his counterpart, Prince Ranariddh, in what outsiders called a coup. Mr. Hun Sen's party won elections in 1998, but the campaigning was marred by violence and observers decried the elections as unfair.
4 comments:
í felt sorry for him. before he did something fool, he should get advise from the US leaders first. i think he still have a mentality within his own power. the US have many rules of laws, and he needs to respect that. I know he wanted to liberate his homeland, but that was not a good way. if he loves Cambodia/khmer he should be a humanitarian instead. see what happened to him now?..eeyore
Sadly,damn you do and damn you don't.
Some smart mouths love to cheer on this.Doer faces flaws and sometimes fatal erros.
That's how atomic little boy was made,to use on Japan not Germany,Italy,the original war instigators...
Got it?
if you wanted to know all about the WW, you must read American history then you'll have no doudt about it...eeyore!
It is so sad that terrorism is a very touchy subject right now in America because of all the war fighting against terrorism in America and oversea and no Cambodian-American want to be seen as a supporter of terrorists or having any association with any terrorist group!
It is the tradition of American politicians to turn friend into enemy and to turn enemy into friend! It is possible that American politicians can support Cambodian dictator HUN SEN former Khmer Rouge and former Vietcong puppet and fighting the war against terrorism at the same time! It is the tradition of American politicians to support dictatorship too! By the way, Ferdinand Marco of Philippine is one of them!
I have no doubt that American politicians are willing to sacrifice Chunn Yasith as an example to win more friendship among other dictator in the world in the name of fighting the war against terrorism!
Since September 11 and the world of politic has changed and Cambodian-American must change too or they will be an outcast!
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