From Khmer Rouge, a last insult

Ieng Sary (left) was a chief policy maker and "foreign minister" in the regime of his brother-in-law Pol Pot. Photo at right shows Ieng Sary in the defendant's box at the war crimes tribunal, where he never was convicted. (File photos)

21 Mar 2013
Bangkok Post

"He made a lot of money out of the revolution," Mr Locard said.

PHNOM PENH - War crimes suspect Ieng Sary dealt a final act of disrespect to Cambodians when he died last week, workers for the war crimes tribunal say.

The former Khmer Rouge insider figuratively took millions of dollars worth of bank accounts and property with him when he died.

Ieng Sary stole or "invested" money from a $20 million slush fund once set up by the Chinese government, and used it to accumulate personal wealth.

Because he died before he was sentenced by the war crimes tribunal sitting in Phnom Penh, his assets remain with his family, instead of being subject to seizure for partial compensation of Khmer Rouge victims, according to a report in The Cambodian Daily that went online on Thursday.

The story's source, Youk Chhang of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said that as "foreign minister" of the Khmer Rouge, Ieng Sary had access to a bank account in Hong Kong, through which China funneled millions of dollars to the movement over many years.

"Ieng Sary was the name on the account," Mr Chhang told the newspaper.

The account was originally established after the Vietnamese army swept the Khmer Rouge out of power in January, 1979. It managed transactions for the guerrilla movement when it was based on the Thai border in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Hong Kong bank account story was backed up by the testimony of four other former Khmer Rouge officials, who claimed the account held about $20 million, Mr Chhang said.

"When he was in Beijing in 1971-75, the Chinese would supply as much money as he wanted, for the revolution. The Chinese were supplying of course weapons, but also dollars, and the dollars went through him," the paper's account quoted author and Khmer Rouge expert Henri Locard.

"And it was the same after the Khmer Rouge [rule]. How much he skimmed off that, no one can tell."

Ieng Sary al­so accumulated wealth from selling huge amounts of timber and gemstones extracted from Thai-Cambodian border areas he commanded around Pailin and Banteay Meanchey province's Malai district up until his defection to the government in 1996, Mr. Locard said.

"He made a lot of money out of the revolution," Mr Locard said.

"What is probable is that Ieng Sary's family should be immensely wealthy," he added