Sam Rainsy’s Open Letter to Hor Nam Hong (Official translation from French)

Sam Rainsy
11, Rue Tiphaine
75015 Paris

Paris, 18 March 2010

Mr. Hor Nam Hong
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Member of the CPP Permanent Committee (former Politburo)
Phnom Penh

Mr. Minister,

In the interest of transparency, I am writing to ask you to please clarify your attitude to the public towards the international Tribunal that is currently trying former Khmer Rouge leaders in Phnom Penh for crimes against humanity.

On 07 October 2009, along with five other senior leaders of your government and your party (the formerly communist CPP which initially consisted of former Khmer Rouge members), you were summoned by Judge Marcel Lemonde, the French investigating judge, to testify before the Tribunal.

Is it true, as the news media reported (Cambodge Soir, 15 October 2009, “Bad time warning between the Tribunal and the Government”; The Cambodia Daily, 17 March 2010, “Testimony of Top Officials Sought at the KRT, Again”), that you absolutely refuse to answer to the Judge’s summons?

You know full well that you are required by the law to show up when summoned by the Judge. But why do you refuse to testify? What are you afraid of? Do you feel that you are above the law because of your position in the government and in your omnipotent party? Do you have the slightest consideration for Judge Marcel Lemonde who was appointed by the UN to represent international justice?

Your party and its MPs lifted my parliamentary immunity to put me on trials that are reminiscent to the Prague Trials. But when it comes to you, you take refuge behind your iron-clad immunity to pull yourself out of the hands of international justice – the only one that is worthy of its name in our country which is placed under the tutelage of your CPP.

The above-mentioned Cambodia Daily reported that the defense at the ECCC had stressed the fact that, under the Khmer Rouge regime, you were “privy to the operation of Ieng Sary's Foreign Ministry in Phnom Penh and the treatment of intellectuals at the Boeng Trabek prison camp, where Mr Namhong was also a prisoner.”

Former prisoners in Boeng Trabek have testified about the “good relationships” that Ieng Sary maintained with you, as well as your administrative and organizational closeness to this No. 3 leader of the Pol Pot regime who is currently being charged for crimes against humanity.

What did you do to deserve the honor of being “rehabilitated” by the Khmer Rouge in 1978 when the massacres were in full swing? (See Justin Corfield and Laura Summers' Historical Dictionary of Cambodia, The Scarecrow Press, 2003).

Was it your “extraordinary zeal” to serve the killers, or was it your “evil” and your “sadism” against the prisoners – as the latter claim – that allowed you to obtain the Khmer Rouge’s promotion?

Why not help international justice – the only one that is independent and credible in Cambodia – to lift somewhat the cryptic assessment made by Father François Ponchaud on you: “The role of Hor Nam Hong at Boeng Trabek is not clear” ? (http://www.eurasie.net/webzine/spip.php?article824)

Why not give the Tribunal convincing evidence to answer the question that François Deron openly asked about your role at the Boeng Trabek prison camp when he talked about the need to “sort out between the Kapos and the real prisoners, between the cowards and the victims.”

Why not discuss calmly with the judge the accusations made against you by your former co-prisoner Keo Bunthouk who said that, through your denunciations to the Khmer Rouge, you "sent children and adults [from the Boeng Trabek community] to the Tuol Sleng torture prison (...), and no one came back" ? (The Cambodia Daily, 13-14 January 2001, "Senate Continues Spirited Debate on KR Bill").

One cannot fail to be surprised by the inconsistency of your attitude:

- On one hand you are suing me, for a relatively minor defamation case, at a French tribunal which is located ten thousands kilometers away from Cambodia.

- But on the other hand, on the same topic as that of the alleged defamation, i.e. your role under the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979, you pulled yourself out of the Justice set up at the very location of the killing fields, in the presence of all players who are still alive. You abuse your local power to ignore and to boycott this international tribunal which is called to try the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge and their acolytes. Only this Tribunal can now shed light on your past and possibly remove the serious suspicions against you. It is not through avoiding the Judge’s summons that you could definitively sweep away these suspicions. Almost two million people were killed by the Khmer Rouge whom you have collaborated with. Here, we are talking about crimes against humanity which cannot be resolved by a one-euro damage compensation as in a defamation lawsuit case in Paris.

Could it be that you were hoping to clear your name at low cost in Paris, thus avoiding a real trial against you that should be held one day in Phnom Penh ?

Your attitude shows a serious contempt toward Justice.

Sincerely,

[Signature]
Sam Rainsy
Member of Parliament for Kampong Cham province