Nuon Chea: Heng Xamrin was a comrade with good moral conduct (sic!)

Comrade Heng Xamrin

31 January 2012
By Leng Maly
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soch
Click here to read the original article in Khmer

During his hearing on 31 January, the accused Nuon Chea reminisced about his former comrade Heng Xamrin who was a poor farmer from the East. Nuon Chea praised Heng Xamrin, saying that he was a comrade that has good moral conduct.

In addition to Heng Xamrin, Nuon Chea also recalled by Nguyen Van Linh, a Vietnamese cadre, and Chea Xim. Nuon Chea’s recall about his former comrades’ good moral conduct took place when he answered to questions raise by Sorn Arun, his defense lawyer, who asked him to recall about his biography, starting from his childhood to his struggle period. Addition information are forthcoming.

From Wary Former Soldiers, Mixed Tribunal Reaction

Thursday, 30 June 2011
Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

"...leaders must be brave and take responsibility for what happened in the regime they led.”

Former Khmer Rouge commanders in Cambodia say the government should stick by an amnesty deal it made with the guerrillas in 1996, as a trial for top leaders of the regime is expected to start in earnest later this year.

A preliminary hearing this week has brought the amnesty question to the forefront, as lawyers for Ieng Sary, former foreign minister of the regime, argued he was exempt from trial under the government’s amnesty.

Sok Pheap Dep, a two-star general who is on Cambodia’s joint border committee and former Khmer Rouge commander at Phnom Malai, told VOA Khmer by phone Wednesday he had defected with Ieng Sary and was watching the tribunal closely. While amnesty was a state affair, he said, finding justice is the job of the court.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Only God

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Former Khmer Rouge fighter haunted by his past

Sunday, November 21, 2010
By Suy Se (AFP)

"Now, I hate the [KR] regime very much. I am glad that the regime leaders are standing trial" - Uch Sokhon, former KR fighter

PHNOM PENH — Stumbling across the photo of his twin brother who died more than three decades ago was the last thing former Khmer Rouge fighter Uch Sokhon expected on a visit to Cambodia's genocide museum.

"I feel shocked," the 53-year-old said, gently wiping the dusty glass frame holding a black-and-white image of his brother, immortalised at the age of 20. "But it was a long time ago."

The picture is one of hundreds of mugshots of condemned prisoners on display at Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Now a genocide museum, it was at the centre of the Khmer Rouge security apparatus between 1975 and 1979.

Some 15,000 inmates, including women and children, lost their lives and torture was routinely used to extract confessions from terrified prisoners at the facility, also known as S-21.

Sokhon and some 300 other people, mainly former Khmer Rouge supporters and fighters, recently travelled all night on buses from the northwestern Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin to tour the prison for the first time.

Pailin was one of the final refuges of the brutal regime, which was driven from power in 1979. Soldiers and officials fled to the remote region to re-group and try to battle the new government

The trip was organised by the UN-backed war crimes court -- which was set up in 2006 to bring ex-regime leaders to justice -- and aims to increase awareness among Cambodians about the ongoing trials.

Confronting victims as well as former soldiers and cadres with the jail and the court's work is a key part of bringing closure to the past, a court spokesman said.

"We believe it is easier for people to understand the mission of the tribunal when they see Tuol Sleng and the court with their own eyes," Lars Olsen said.

Former Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was the first to face justice at the UN-backed court.

In a landmark ruling in July, the tribunal sentenced him 30 years in jail, though the case is now under appeal.

Walking past the tiny cells that held some of the prisoners, including perhaps his own brother, and after inspecting the torture implements on display, Sokhon says he regrets his own past actions.

"I feel remorse and pain because I also used to be a fighter for Democratic Kampuchea (the Khmer Rouge)," said the teary-eyed civil servant.

Sokhon said he and his identical twin, Sokhan, both joined the hardline communist movement in 1971 aged just 15 because it was the only way to survive.

Dedicated fighters, they quickly rose through the ranks to become mid-level military commanders.

But the regime turned against Sokhon when he tried to help a relative who had caused a minor accident in February 1976.

Sokhon had left the keys in the ignition of a bulldozer he had been using to dig irrigation channels, when his cousin Thein decided to take it for a ride.

He accidentally turned the vehicle over -- an arrestable offence in the eyes of the Khmer Rouge.

Sokhon told his senior cadres his cousin was to blame for the incident, but when his twin heard the news he insisted on protecting their relative.

"I warned my brother not to help our cousin otherwise he would lose his position and be arrested," Sokhon said. "But he said he must help him.

"A few days later I was told that my brother was arrested... And I knew he had been sent to Tuol Sleng."

Despite his brother's detainment, Sokhon continued to fight for the Khmer Rouge -- even after Vietnamese forces ousted them from the capital in 1979.

He lost his right eye in 1989 when a grenade landed near him during a fight against government troops, and there are still more than 20 pieces of shrapnel lodged in his body.

After years of combat, Sokhon defected to the government in 1996 alongside the regime's foreign minister Ieng Sary. Two years later, the civil war ended.

"Now, I hate the regime very much. I am glad that the regime leaders are standing trial," he said.

Up to two million people died from starvation, overwork and execution during the four-year rule of the Khmer Rouge, led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998.

The four most senior surviving regime leaders -- including Ieng Sary -- are due to face trial next year for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for their part in Cambodia's "Killing Fields" era.

Cambodian and international prosecutors have disagreed on whether to pursue more suspects and Prime Minister Hun Sen told UN chief Ban Ki-moon last month that a third case was "not allowed" because it could spark renewed civil war.

Sokhon said his own personal journey to face the past was over.

"I don't want to remember. I want it to end here. But that does not mean I still support the Khmer Rouge," he said.

Video Conference Bring Victims and Khmer Rouge Killers Together

Cambodian-Americans in Long Beach, California meet the former Khmer Rouge killers for the first time via video conference. The producers of the award-winning documentary 'Enemies of the People' hope the meeting will help start the process of healing and reconciliation.

Pailin to Tribunal Prosecutors: No Further Indictments

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Pailin, Cambodia Wednesday, 29 September 2010

“I want the court to limit [indictments] to just five individuals, because it has not found the real murderers.”

Residents in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin told a delegation from the UN-backed tribunal last week they do not want to see the prosecution of further cases at the court after the second one is completed.

Andrew Cayley, the international prosecutor for the court and head of the delegation, told the residents that no more than 10 people would be further prosecuted in cases No. 3 and No. 4.

The Sept. 22 trip was part of a series of fact-finding missions Cayley has taken since his inception as prosecutor at the beginning of the year.

The tribunal has successfully tried one Khmer Rouge soldier, Tuol Sleng prison chief Duch, and it is preparing to try four senior leaders—Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith.

But indictments beyond that have proved a contentious issue in the hybrid court, which includes international and national prosecutors and judges.

In Pailin, a Khmer Rouge stronghold until 1996, former cadre are not convinced the court will not expand its scope.

“I want the court to limit [indictments] to just five individuals, because it has not found the real murderers,” said Phong Pheoun, a 49-year-old former soldier in Pailin. “In fact, the Khmer Rouge were patriots. Some high-ranking Khmer Rouge did everything only to defend the nation and the people. They did not kill people.”

Horn Siha, deputy chief of '75 Village, in Sala Krao district, said tribunal investigations were a waste of time.

“If we go deeper, the story will be far from over,” he said. “It already took nine months just to try one person, so if they have to do it with 10 people, for example, how can the country move forward and develop?”

There are also sentiments here that the tribunal is already holding the wrong people.

“They are also victims of the regime,” said Mek Mak, the deputy governor of Pailin.

Khieu Samphan, the nominal head of the regime who will face trial next year for atrocity crimes, including genocide, “only performed administrative tasks, like making phone calls, during that time,” Mek Mak said. “So how can he be a murderer?”

He put the blame on Pol Pot, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who stood at the head of the Khmer Rouge and the heart of the regime known as Democratic Kampuchea.

But Cayley, the international prosecutor, said the tribunal could not try a man who was already dead.

“The investigating judges have found sufficient evidence to prove the accused committed the crimes,” he said.

Cambodia's new battle: Reconciling with the Khmer Rouge

Mon, 12 Apr 2010
By Robert Carmichael
DPA

Anlong Veng, Cambodia - Twelve years ago the town of Anlong Veng in north-west Cambodia surrendered to the government in a move that marked the end of the infamous Khmer Rouge movement.

Today most residents in the district are former Khmer Rouge cadre and their families. On Friday, 150 of them came together in a unique effort to discuss reconciliation, justice and reintegration.

Trying to reintegrate the supporters of one of the 20th century's most brutal regimes is vital to rebuilding Cambodian society, says Daravuth Seng, a Cambodian-American who heads a local non-governmental organization called the Center for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR), which organized the meeting.

"Our focus is to try to get victims and perpetrators to start talking in an effort to really understand one another, and in an effort to really work on reconciliation in Cambodia," he says.

He says he feels that most of the country's reconciliation efforts to date have been one-sided, excluding the Khmer Rouge.

The irony of setting the meeting in Anlong Veng was enhanced by holding it at the compound of the late general Ta Mok, the movement's final leader and one of its most brutal and intransigent members. Ta Mok is still well-regarded here.

Seng, who fled the killing fields of Cambodia as a boy with his family, acknowledges that what the organization is trying to achieve is "a huge, huge task," but says reconciliation must be inclusive.

"And with the Cambodian context, that must include a lot of the former perpetrators as well," he says, since understanding their perspective is central to reconciliation.

It is no small task. The Khmer Rouge were responsible for the deaths of around 2 million people during their rule of Cambodia from 1975-79. Many of those who died were executed, while others succumbed to starvation, overwork and illness.

After the movement was driven from power in 1979, it regrouped on the western borders with Thailand and fought the government in Phnom Penh until finally capitulating in the late 1990s

In Phnom Penh, 300 kilometres south-east of Anlong Veng, the formal process is underway to provide some measure of accountability for crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge regime. That process is the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, a joint Cambodian-United Nations court.

Four former leaders of the movement, including its head of state and foreign minister, are in pre-trial detention. A fifth person, the regime's former security chief, was tried last year and judgment in his case is due in the coming months.

Early on at Friday's meeting, which was sponsored by Germany's development arm DED, it becomes clear that some former Khmer Rouge are concerned the court is looking to prosecute five more suspects.

The participants tell the meeting they are satisfied that justice and reconciliation require the prosecution of the five already in custody, but say the tribunal must stop there.

Im Chaem, a deputy council chief in Anlong Veng, says she and other elderly residents are concerned the court will investigate more and more suspects.

She says when they crossed over to the government in 1998, Prime Minister Hun Sen promised there would be no losers.

"Now we don't know when our turn will be because we lived and served during that time," says Im Chaem, who has previously denied allegations of extreme cruelty levelled at her when she was a Khmer Rouge district chief. "There might be another five, and then five more and then 10."

The tribunal's public affairs officer Lars Olsen says the exchange highlights the contrast between victims and perpetrators of violence. He says that most Cambodians he encounters around the country are victims and want more prosecutions, not fewer.

Olsen tells the participants that the court is not looking to add further names to its list of suspects, and says a maximum of 10 in total are to face trial.

His answer reveals the limitations of the tribunal's work. The inevitable political and practical compromises mean thousands of people will get away with murder - including possibly some of those present at the meeting.

The former cadre broadly agreed on a number of points about reconciliation. One was that more than a decade after the movement's collapse they want other Cambodians to stop referring to them as "former Khmer Rouge."

"The term 'Khmer Rouge' is associated with killing and persecution," says one. "We are finished if we are referred to as that. Our children's lives will be ruined, and no one will let their children marry ours. We should just say we are all Cambodian now."

They also called for more economic development in the area, and said all people should be equal before the law.

There is recognition too that their lives have improved since reintegration. Anlong Veng today has schooling, medical care, tarred roads, and the opportunity for educated young people to go on to university.

It is a far cry from what went before, when thousands of Khmer Rouge lived in the mountains and were constantly on the move.

"Now it has changed from bitterness to sweetness - this is very important," says another attendee. "During the war we were always changing our position, unable to stay together and even eat together. Now that the war has ended we are able to gather at the same table and have a meal."

CJR's Seng is encouraged by the day's exchanges, and says one old lady cried as she told him she regretted what she had done as a Khmer Rouge cadre.

Seng says it is vital to understand the psychology behind what happened in order to prevent future atrocities.

"There is no quick fix for reconciliation, but I honestly believe this is moving in the right direction," he says. "We can't leave out a huge group from the reconciliation process."

Former Khmer Rouge soldiers at the service of a CPP Siamese Senator?

CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat who is also a Siamese citizen by the name of Pad Supa is deploying KR soldiers to oppress Khmer villagers!!!

Former Khmer Rouge battalion deployed in senator's land dispute

Wed, 24 Mar 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - A Cambodian human rights group on Wednesday condemned the deployment of armed soldiers on behalf of a wealthy ruling party senator in a land dispute with villagers.

A document published last month shows Senator Ly Yong Phat of the Cambodian People's Party is a sponsor of Battalion 313, some of whose soldiers have been sent to his disputed land concession in Kampong Speu province in central Cambodia.

Battalion 313, formerly Khmer Rouge Battalion 37, has in the past been accused of illegal logging in the province.

Naly Pilorge, the director of human rights group Licadho, said the move was one which human rights workers had feared since Prime Minister Hun Sen last month called on local businessmen to partner with military regiments.

"Not a single soldier should be mobilized - whether former Khmer Rouge or not - to defend the interests of businessmen," she said. "Battalion 313 is one of those units that falls into this financial patronage system."

She said around 100 soldiers from three units had been deployed to the area, in addition to police.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence was not available for comment.

The deployment follows last week's protest by hundreds of villagers in Kampong Speu's Omlaing commune after workers from Ly Yong Phat's company tried to clear land for a 10,000-hectare sugar plantation. During the protest villagers burned down the sugar company's makeshift offices in the commune.

A villager told local media that troops had arrived on Tuesday.

"We saw a lot of former Khmer Rouge soldiers and provincial police who have come to protect the company after we burned down the office on Thursday," Suon Ly told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper.

Five villagers are set to appear in the provincial court Wednesday for questioning over the incident. Licadho said at least 500 villagers are headed to the court to support them, despite the presence of soldiers and police.

Land disputes are a growing problem in Cambodia, where land value has skyrocketed in recent years. At least 12 villagers were shot and injured by police last week in a separate land protest in Kampong Speu province.

The government has signed over hundreds of thousands of hectares of land to foreign and local investors in recent years in deals covering agriculture, rubber plantations and mining.

Kampong Speu province is to host thousands of soldiers from the United States and the Association of South-East Asian Nations next month as they take part in the US-led Global Peace Operations Initiative.

Vietcong and former KR soldiers increase cooperation

Viet Nam, Cambodia veterans increase co-operation

Wednesday, March 03, 2010
VNS (Hanoi)

Phnom Penh — War veterans of Viet Nam and Cambodia will tighten their co-operation in many fields after a deal on friendship and co-operation was made between war veterans' associations of the two countries in Phnom Penh yesterday.

The agreement was reached at a meeting the same day between the Cambodian Minister of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, Ith Samheng, and head of the visiting Vietnamese delegation, Lieutenant General Tran Hanh.

The lieutenant general, who is chairman of the Viet Nam War Veterans' Association (VWVA), is leading a delegation to Cambodia from March 1-4.

The agreement will increase coordination in the dissemination of information regarding the traditional friendship and mutual support between the states, armies and war veterans' associations of Viet Nam and Cambodia, domestically and internationally.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Tuol Krasaing-Armed Forces

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Enemies turn allies in temple battle

Oct 18, 2008
By Stephen Kurczy
Asia Times Online (Hong Kong)

PREAH VIHEAR and PHNOM PENH - Comrade Neak Vong spent nearly two decades fighting against the Cambodian government. Now, he and other former Khmer Rouge soldiers are fighting on behalf of their former adversary in what some fear could escalate into a full-blown war with neighboring Thailand over claims to ancient temples and their surrounding territories.

Along the Thai-Cambodia border, where fighting broke out on October 15 between Thai and Cambodian troops, loyalties have blurred as longtime enemies fight for the same cause. Ten years after a nearly two-decade civil war between the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian government ended, military generals from both sides have picked up their weapons in a standoff with Thailand.

Currently the secretary general of staff for the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, Neak Vong fled with the Khmer Rouge to Cambodia's northwest when Vietnamese forces pushed the genocidal Maoist regime into the border jungles in 1979. For the next 17 years, the cadre sparred with Thai troops to the north and Cambodian troops to the south while he guarded several ancient temples and their surrounding land.

In 1996, he laid down his arms as Khmer Rouge Brother Number Two, Ieng Sary, led the first wave of defections to the government. Ieng Sary today is in detention facing war crimes at the United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh. Neak Vong, however, is back on the frontline, called on by the Cambodian government to help maintain sovereignty over one of the three disputed temples on the Thai-Cambodia border.

He now leads 550 Cambodian troops at Ta Moan temple, 200 kilometers west of Preah Vihear temple where fighting erupted Wednesday and left two Cambodian soldiers dead. "I'm used to fighting with Thailand along the border," Neak Vong recently quipped.

The current military standoff at Preah Vihear temple began in mid-July days after Cambodia successfully listed it as a United Nations World Heritage Site. Hundreds of Thai demonstrators had amassed nearby to protest what they considered an attempt to steal Thai land and, in response, Cambodia chain-locked the Thai's entrance gate and stationed a number of soldiers at the temple. Within weeks, Thailand locked Cambodia out of Ta Moan temple and stationed a number of solders there. Both scenes quickly devolved into military standoffs.

Fighting for Cambodia aligns Neak Vong with the man he fought against during the Khmer Rouge's guerilla war, Som Bopharoat, one of the Cambodian military commanders now leading operations to defend Preah Vihear temple for Cambodia. Som Bopharoat's headquarters sit at the highest point of the 800-meter-long temple structure.

A meter from his camouflage green tent, a sheer cliff drops 575 meters to the sparsely inhabited Cambodian plains. In a recent interview outside his tent, Som Bopharoat recalled fighting Neak Vong and the renegade Khmer Rouge in the 1990s. Both sides would eavesdrop on the other's radio communications, he said, sometimes breaking into a frequency to curse and threaten the other.

"I heard the enemy's voice through the radio," he recalled. "After they defected to the government, I saw the voice and said 'You used to fight against me'!" Som Bopharoat doesn't know if he ever heard Neak Vong's voice, but he knows of him and he smiled at the irony of former enemies now fighting alongside one another.

It's all part of what Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said is a "win-win policy in dealing with the cadres of the former DK [Democratic Republic of Kampuchea]". When Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea defected to the government in December 1998, Prime Minister Hun Sen said they should be welcomed "with bouquets of flowers, not with prisons and handcuffs".

He told the press then: "If a wound does not hurt, you should not poke at it with a stick to make it bleed. If we put those two men in prison, will this benefit society or lead to civil war?" While Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea are now both in pre-trial detention, along with Ieng Sary, Hun Sen's comments in retrospect speak more towards lower-level Khmer Rouge-defectors like Neak Vong.

National reconciliation is more important than punishing all former Homer Rouge members, government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said in a recent e-mail with this correspondent, and, at the same time, the Khmer Rouge troops "are very familiar with the areas".

Marginal advantage

Experts question if that will help the Cambodian forces against Thailand's better-equipped and United States-trained forces. Bertil Lintner, a regional security expert based in Thailand, said Preah Vihear temple's cliff-top location isn't suitable for the type of guerrilla warfare with which the Khmer Rouge is acquainted.

"There is nowhere to go, nowhere to retreat for the Cambodian forces except by helicopter - or an extremely steep and vulnerable climb down the cliff. The [Khmer Rouge] fought a guerrilla war in the jungles of the Cambodian lowlands, not on top of the Preah Vihear cliff," he said in an e-mail message. What is more, he added, most of the Khmer Rouge forces have since retired from battle.

Nevertheless, the fact that ex-Khmer Rouge guerillas like Neak Vong are members of the Cambodian forces has opened the military to a measure of criticism: not only are the former Khmer Rouge fighters familiar with Cambodia's remote northwestern areas, they're also familiar with the laying of anti-personnel mines of the type that severely injured two Thai soldiers earlier this month.

During their civil war, both the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian government are estimated to have laid tens of thousands of mines around Preah Vihear temple. Thai officials have claimed - including in a presentation to foreign diplomats on Thursday - that Cambodian troops recently planted the Russian-built mines on Thai soil, representing a violation of Thai sovereignty.

Virachai Plasai, the director of the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department with the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accused Cambodia on Friday of violating the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning landmines. "This is a grave threat for the international community as a whole," he said.

Meanwhile, the Cambodian Foreign Ministry has issued several statements saying its soldiers did not plant the mines, and Khem Sophoan, director-general of the Cambodia Mine Action Center, said the area where the two Thai troops lost their legs had never been de-mined.

"These are old mines, laid during the war between the government and the Khmer Rouge," he said by telephone Friday. "After Cambodia signed the Ottawa Convention, we destroyed all of our supplies and did not lay new mines. We only clear mines." Those conflicting accounts, if not resolved, could ignite more hostilities, security experts say.

From Cambodia's base camp below Ta Moan temple, Neak Vong said he thinks it makes sense for former Khmer Rouge cadres to lead the mission against Thailand. "I know this area and I am not afraid of Thailand," he said from his jungle headquarters, giving an insight into his military tactics. He said he sent 100 Cambodian troops on August 5 trekking up a rocky ledge through a thick, wet jungle in the steep ascent to Ta Moan temple. Familiar with the terrain, they were able to surround a 20-person Thai camp stationed inside what he claimed to be Cambodian territory.

"After we circled them, they withdrew," recalled one of Neak Vong's troops. Twenty Cambodian military remain stationed there. Wearing Converse sneakers and flip-flops, they patrol the camp with B40 rocket launchers and AK-47 rifles.

Som Bopharoat and Neak Vong both claim to know the lay of the land and how to hold their positions. Both also said that, unlike when Khmer Rouge fighters patrolled the area, diplomatic negotiations are probably the best course of action. But as accusations fly between both countries about landmines, land boundaries and who fired first on Wednesday, a truce for now seems elusive.

It might yet be a long standoff at both Ta Moan and Preah Vihear temples, the two military leaders said. With thunderclouds rolling in over the hillside and lighting striking down in the distance, the rainy season has taken its toll on his troops, said Neak Vong before this week's skirmish. Nonetheless, he's prepared to live in the jungle for a while.

"We're used to having a difficult time,'' the former Khmer Rouge fighter said.

Stephen Kurczy is a Cambodia-based journalist.

Border crisis a call to arms

Friday, 10 October 2008
Thet Sambath The Phnom Penh Post
Oddar Meanchey Province

In Trapaing Prasat district, men young and old say ongoing tensions on the Thai border have persuaded them to enlist for service in the military
DRIVEN by ongoing hostilities between Cambodia and Thailand over disputed border lands, a growing number of Cambodian men are putting their lives on hold and enlisting for military service .

Loth Sokhean, a 19-year-old student from Anlong Veng district in Oddar Meanchey province, quit his studies to join Brigade 43 - a military unit mostly made up of former Khmer Rouge fighters - shortly after the standoff near Preah Vihear temple began in July.

He is currently stationed at Phnom Trop, about two or three kilometres from the temple, where the simmering tensions exploded in a hail of gunfire between troops from the two sides last week.

"I joined the RCAF voluntarily, not by force," he told the Post. "I was angry when Thai soldiers invaded our temple."

"I carried my father's gun when I was a small child, and I have experience hiding from shelling in the battlefield with my father during the 1990s," he said.

Other men - not all of them young - have felt compelled by the border tensions to become soldiers.

Nun Rom, 39, lives with his wife and three children near Dangrek mountain, which demarcates Cambodia's border with Thailand.

I JOINED BECAUSE I SAW THAI SOLDIERS CONFISCATING CAMBODIAN LAND.

He served in the army from 1980 to 2003 and appealed to military commanders to allow him to return.

"I was accepted as a soldier after submitting my application," he said. "I was told I would receive my identification card from the Ministry of Defence this month."

Nun Rom said he was happy to be back in uniform and that he wanted to defend his country against any further incursion by Thai soldiers.

He added that some 280 men have joined the military from his home district of Trapaing Prasat.

Chheng Phea, 43, comes from the same village as Nun Rom and volunteered for service at about the same time.

"I joined because I saw Thai soldiers confiscating Cambodian land. If I didn't become a soldier, how could I prevent this encroachment?" he said.

Chhim Sereyrath, the 24-year-old son of a former Khmer Rouge cadre, told the Post he is ready to serve the Kingdom as a soldier if he is needed.

"If the government needs me, I will do it, and I know my friends and many others feel the same way," he said.

Chin Touch, 53, served as a Khmer Rouge medical officer from 1971 to 1980. She told the Post her sons would be prepared to volunteer in the event of a war with Thailand.

"I have three sons. They will serve if the government needs them," she said. "If there is war, I will tell them to be soldiers."

RCAF officials told the Post they have recruited new soldiers in Trapaing Prasat and Anlong Veng districts, as well as in several other provinces.

But Nuon Nov, deputy commander of Military Region 4, said he was not aware of recruitment efforts along the Thai-Cambodian border.

Thai troops are facing battle-tested former Khmer Rouge fighters

Cambodian troops moving to the front (Photo: Koh Santepheap)
Khmer soldiers cleaning up machine gun
Khmer solider getting ready for battle

Ex-Khmer Rouge troops, officers talk tough at standoff

Tuesday, 22 July, 2008
AFP

PREAH VIHEAR: They may wear flip-flops, but most the Cambodian forces facing Thai troops at a border standoff are battle-tested former Khmer Rouge fighters, officers and soldiers said yesterday.

More than 500 Thai troops and well over 1,000 Cambodian soldiers have been stationed for a week around a small Buddhist pagoda on the slope of a mountain leading to the ruins of the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple.

The mood at the standoff was calm yesterday as each side chatted, snapped photos and shared meals with each other, a stark contrast to Thursday when they pointed guns at each other, though no shots were fired.

The former Khmer Rouge guerrillas said they were eager to fight and the Thai troops should not be fooled by their appearance – the Cambodians wear flip-flops and sport Cold War-era guns.

“They said we are small and are wearing flip-flops, but with flip-flops we can move very quickly. We know the area very well. We are small but strong,” said Doung Tay, 32, who began fighting for the Khmer Rouge when he was 12.

The Thai troops, with modern arms and uniforms, appear better prepared.

“The Thai soldiers only know the theories of fighting. They said that we are small but they don’t know that we are wild chickens,” said Yan San, 47, who became a Khmer Rouge soldier when he was 15.

“I want to fight with the Thai soldiers,” he added.

Brigadier Chea Keo, commander of forces in the disputed area and himself a former Khmer Rouge soldier, said more than 60% of his troops fought for the brutal Marxist regime which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

Leaders from both countries have ordered troops not to fire and called for a peaceful solution. Thai and Cambodian defence officials met yesterday in a bid to resolve the crisis which broke out last week.

Nearly 2mn people died from starvation, overwork, torture and execution during the four-year Khmer Rouge regime before it was swept from power by Vietnam-backed troops.

Preah Vihear temple was the scene of the final surrender of several hundred remaining Khmer Rouge guerrilla forces in 1998.

The current confrontation around Preah Vihear began after three Thai protesters were arrested for jumping a fence to reach the temple last Tuesday.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that Preah Vihear belongs to Cambodia. But the most accessible entrance to the Khmer ruins lies in Thailand and 4.6 sq km of the surrounding land remains in dispute.

Villagers, Soldiers Clash Over Land [-The KR soldiers are back ... wearing Hun Sen's army uniform]

By Kong Soth, VOA Khmer
Battambang
16 April 2008

[Editor's note: In the weeks leading into national polls, VOA Khmer will explore a wide number of election issues. The "Election Issues 2008" series will air stories on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a related "Hello VOA" guest on Thursday. This is the first in a two-part series examining concerns of rural voters.]

In Battambang province’s Kos Krol district, 415 families are waiting for a solution to a land conflict they say stems from former Khmer Rouge who are now part of the armed forces.

More than 50 kilometers outside of Battambang town, along a red, dusty road, the families of Dung Ba commune live in homes of thatched roofs behind walls of blue plastic sheets or plywood.

Seng Sothy, a villager who has called this place home for nine years, said in early March, soldiers clashed with villagers, firing shots over their heads and sending them running into the night.

Soldiers here say they were protecting their land from a mob.

Seng Sothy says she has never seen a problem like this.

“They said to us that if we do not leave our houses, they will burn them and killed us all,” she told VOA Khmer. “We had to run into the forest at night.”

The land dispute, between resettling villagers and integrated former Khmer Rouge, is not unlike many across the country, as Cambodia undergoes a land price boom.

It is just one issue that rural Cambodians will face as they head to the polls in general elections in July.

Land that was once worth little except those who farmed it has become a premium, and residents here say the soldiers want to reclaim what they left when they folded into the government.

Vanna Ra, who abandoned the Khmer Rouge and joined the government in 1996, told VOA Khmer that armed villagers were trying to take land away from the soldiers, forcing them to defend themselves.

“The shooting was only to threaten them, because they wanted to hold a protest,” he said. “So we were only defending ourselves.”

Ang Dung, village chief of Kon Touth, where the clashes took place, said his was a new village, where hundreds of families now occupy a former battleground. They have lived here in safety since 1999, farming more than 1,000 hectares of land.

Vann Bo, another villager here, said high prices were driving the soldiers of Military Region Five to demand land they once controlled during the war.

“When our people did not want to leave, they came and shot at us,” she said. “We cannot sleep in the house, and go out and sleep out in the field, in the rain, in front of a police station.”

In Kong Chith, an investigator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights familiar with the conflict, said soldiers had used undue violence against the villagers.

“Intimidation seriously threatens people’s security,” he said. The soldiers’ “activities were very violent, and they abused the law on human rights.”

Chum Bunrong, spokesman for the National Land Dispute Authority, said he was not aware of the specific conflict in Battambang, but he encouraged those involved to file a complaint with his office.

Tribunal's Results Allay Doubts Among Soldiers and People

Khmer Rouge soldiers at the Independence Monument (Photo: DC-Cam)

Wednesday, March 12, 2008
By Layum
Rasmei Kampuchea
Unofficial Translation from Khmer by KRtrial.info

Banteay Meanchey: The results of the Khmer Rouge tribunal have reduced the doubts among the Royal Armed Force and the people about justice finding and reconciliation in Cambodia.

Major General Seng Hun, military commander of Region 5, said in a meeting to review the military activities in Banteay Meanchey province that the establishment and the results of the Khmer Rouge tribunal had contributed a lot to the maintaining of peace, stability, and justice. "Moreover, the results have made the efforts in peace protection and negotiation between the Royal Armed Force and the Khmer Rouge guerrillas successful," he said.

The Major General pointed out that the royal armed force had played an important role in ending the war and the former Khmer Rouge guerrillas who were the “successors” of Democratic Kampuchea. “When the Khmer Rouge tribunal moved forward, the solders were not concerned with the problem anymore,” he said.

Chamrong Sar, Banteay Meanchey's deputy governor, said in the National Culture Day in early March, 2008 that the Khmer Rouge tribunal had achieved what had been planned. "It is the achievements of the royal government and Cambodians who have been trying to seek justice and heal the Khmer Rouge victims' trauma and who had rebuilt the living conditions and the country," he said.

The deputy said that justice from the tribunal would strengthen the morality and social development.

Sou Prum, Oddar Meanchey's deputy governor, said in a public forum on justice and reconciliation in the province that the time was approaching for the victims and the surviving victims of Democratic Kampuchea to seek justice and prevent such a regime to happen again.

It should be reminded that in the meeting with Emese Loigon, charge d'affaires of Canadian Embassy in Cambodia, and Joanna Harington, legal expert of the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in charge of International Criminal Courts, H.E. Sok An, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister in charge of the Office of the Council of Ministers, claimed that the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), commonly known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, had achieved five main records. “First, the Internal Rules were adopted only within one year. Second, consuming approximately $20 million per year, the ECCC spends relatively low compared to the [international] courts in other countries such as Rwanda’s international court, which has spent up to $135 million per year. Third, the arrest of suspects were made within 4 months—we have arrested five suspects without any fleeing away while in other international courts, they spent tens of years to chase the suspects as some of them had escaped. Fourth, the participation and interest among the public are very high—no less than 500 participants including journalists and ordinary people attend each hearing. And fifth, the Khmer Rouge tribunal is the second tribunal to allow the victims to create the Civil Parties to participate in the process of the tribunal,” pointed out the Deputy Prime Minister.

“Fiona Kochod”, deputy head of the mission of Australian Embassy in Cambodia, said recently in Oddar Meanchey that Australia had been supporting justice and reconciliation in Cambodia. "Australia has contributed with international community, Cambodia and its people bring to justice the Khmer Rouge leaders. Therefore, the results of the efforts of the international community, NGOs, Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge tribunal have created confidence [among people]," he said.

Sok Kheang Ly, official of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said in the public forum that it was a part of an important big mission and that the center was helping approximately 10,000 surviving victims to file complaints against the Khmer Rouge leaders. “We have done with 500 people already and are re-activating the complaints victims submitted to the United Front for National Protection and Reconstruction of Cambodia in 1982. That was a commission to seek the truth of the Khmer Rouge regime. Our support has helped the Khmer Rouge tribunal to achieve the results in its process,” he said.

Aunt Chan, who is living in Prey Kantuot, Ta Loa, Bakan, Pursat told us that she did not want any reparations from her loss during the Khmer Rouge regime, but only wanted the “masterminds” of the killings of her family members and other people to admit to them and to be imprisoned and the perpetrators—though not tried—to apologize the victims.

Political Cartoon: The Children of God from Pailin

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Former Khmer Rouge Turn to Christ

By Kong Soth, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
06 March 2008

A small number of former Khmer Rouge say they are moving from bad karma and Buddhism toward forgiveness and Christianity.

In the former rebel stronghold of Pailin, there are at least two Christian churches, and as many as 100 converts.

Pou Him is a former Khmer Rouge soldier living in Pailin. He said he believes very strongly in Jesus Christ, and he also has the Bible to read at home.

He said he was working under the Khmer Rouge for many years, and at that time believed in Buddhism, which follows a belief in karma.

If you do something wrong, he said, you can receive bad karma and cannot be cleaned of what has been done. So, after coming back from a refugee camp along the Cambodian-Thai border in 1992, he converted to Christianity.

"Jesus does everything for us, to bless us, and what we have committed," he said. "I have been baptized, so Jesus will help me pray away from the devil."

Some Khmer Rouge soldiers, like Meas Kim, say poverty changed their religion.

Meas Kim lived in Koh Kong province during the war, but in peace, she moved to Pailin with her family and six children. She has been a believer in Christ for almost 20 years, she said, and hopes God will help the family.

"I hope my children can go to school, because Jesus Christ can help them and train them," she said. "I believe that it is very just for me, that I can pray away my bad devils, and hope that He will take the bad devil from me."

Mean Lab, a priest at For Good News Church in Pailin, said there are at least 100 former Khmer Rouge soldiers who believe in Jesus Christ, though some of them are not 100 percent sure.

"Jesus, when he was born a human, his purpose was to save humans on Earth, to free them from the Devil," he said. "Our people want to know why Jesus came to the Earth. He came to the Earth because he wanted to save the people."

Roth Phanith, a priest at a Presbyterian church in Pailin, said that there are some people who "believe" only in order to get a gift.

"That's why sometimes we have some difficulty to go out and do this outreach about God to the people in Pailin," he said.

There is no kept number of churches or religious organizations in Cambodia, said Chhorn Em, secretary of state for the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

There are "a lot," he said, adding that this did not affect the nation's predominant Buddhist traditions.

"For the future, we are worried for the youth, because we consider much about the elderly people, the old generation, and we never take care of the new one," he said. "This is a problem in the future. But for the present, it's only a small number."