Comrade H5H (aka KR flu) changes his tune on the KRT

Comrade H5H during the press conference on 11 Oct 2011 (Photo: CEN)

Hor 5 Hong: Charging or not charging additional KR leaders is the tribunal’s rights, but the government has the rights to express its opinion

11 October 2011

By Sok Pheakdey

Cambodia Express News

Translated from Khmer by Soy

Phnom Penh – In the morning of 11 October 2011, Vice-PM Hor 5 Hong, the minister of Foreign of Affairs, said that research in Case 003/004 involving charges and trials of additional KR leaders is the rights of the hybrid court, but the government has the rights to express its opinion in the trial progress of the KR leaders.

During a press conference held in the morning of 11 October 2011 at the ministry of Foreign Affairs following his meeting with the Serbian ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hor 5 Hong indicated that quotes of his words by the news media were not right: “I said that the hybrid KRT lacks funds from one month to the next, from year to year. It spent several hundreds of millions of dollars to try Duch alone. How many more months will it take to complete the trial of the other 4 suspects? What will happen to its funding in the future? That was what I told representatives of the French ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

Hor 5 Hong indicated that: “Secondly, we clearly know that research into Case 003/004 is the tribunal’s rights. We know this clearly without any doubt. Therefore, I said that, in the name of the government which is responsible for the destiny of the nation, peace, national unity, reconciliation or whether war will take place, or whether unrest will start all over again, the government has the right to express its opinion. If the hybrid court does something that brings in renewed unrest and war in Cambodia, who will be responsible for it? It is the government which is responsible for the destiny of the nation.”

Hor 5 Hong indicated that:”If unrest is renewed, can we build the country like what we are doing now or not? If we build a bridge and someone bombs it, can we build infrastructures or not?”

In summary, Hor 5 Hong indicated that it is the tribunal’s rights, but as leaders of the country and as responsible parties to the destiny of the nation and the people, the government has its opinion. Therefore, everything depends on the tribunal.

Hor 5 Hong’s reaction above was in response the statement issued by the International investigating judge on his resignation letter dated 08 October 2011. In a statement published on 10 October 2011, Siegfried Blunk, the German International investigating judge, quoted Hor 5 Hong’s words published in the news media, saying that the government does not want to see the continuation of the investigation and the trial of Case 003/004 anymore.