July 20, 2006
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, July 19 (Agence France-Presse) — Cambodia’s former king demanded Wednesday that the bones of Khmer Rouge victims be cremated according to Buddhist tradition, rather than displayed “for the pleasure of tourists.”
With efforts under way to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, who laid waste to Cambodia during their rule from 1975 to 1979, the former king, Norodom Sihanouk, has attacked government claims that the bones must be kept as evidence.
Cambodia is dotted with evidence of the Khmer Rouge’s destruction, with the bones of tens of thousands piled in monasteries, ruined schools or other public places.
“To continue to exhibit without decency, for the pleasure of tourists and other ‘visitors,’ the skulls, the bones” of innocent victims, the former king said on his Web site, “shows extraordinary contempt and a total lack of pity.”
The most famous site where the bones are on display are the Cheung Ek killing fields, to which several thousand tourists flock each month to see an enormous Buddhist shrine containing victims’ skulls and the pits from which their bodies were recovered.
The government came under fire last year for handing the management of Cheung Ek over to a private Japanese firm, which critics said commercialized the Cambodian genocide.
The former king, who has repeatedly petitioned the government to hold funeral rites for the victims, said the souls of those killed by the Khmer Rouge would find no peace until “all of their bones are cremated according to Buddhist rites.”
Norodom Sihanouk, who stepped down in 2004 but still wields considerable influence, has in the past both supported and condemned the tribunal to try the former leaders. He said this week that he would testify at the proceedings, but he has also called them “ridiculous and ineffective.”
The best current estimate is that 1.7 million people died of starvation, forced labor or disease or were killed during the Khmer Rouge era, when Pol Pot and his followers tried to create an agrarian utopia, forcing millions onto vast collective farms in the countryside.
Pol Pot died in 1998, and surviving Khmer Rouge leaders are in their 70’s and 80’s, prompting fears that they could die before facing justice.
Prosecutors began their investigations last week, but the first trials are not expected until mid-2007.
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, July 19 (Agence France-Presse) — Cambodia’s former king demanded Wednesday that the bones of Khmer Rouge victims be cremated according to Buddhist tradition, rather than displayed “for the pleasure of tourists.”
With efforts under way to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, who laid waste to Cambodia during their rule from 1975 to 1979, the former king, Norodom Sihanouk, has attacked government claims that the bones must be kept as evidence.
Cambodia is dotted with evidence of the Khmer Rouge’s destruction, with the bones of tens of thousands piled in monasteries, ruined schools or other public places.
“To continue to exhibit without decency, for the pleasure of tourists and other ‘visitors,’ the skulls, the bones” of innocent victims, the former king said on his Web site, “shows extraordinary contempt and a total lack of pity.”
The most famous site where the bones are on display are the Cheung Ek killing fields, to which several thousand tourists flock each month to see an enormous Buddhist shrine containing victims’ skulls and the pits from which their bodies were recovered.
The government came under fire last year for handing the management of Cheung Ek over to a private Japanese firm, which critics said commercialized the Cambodian genocide.
The former king, who has repeatedly petitioned the government to hold funeral rites for the victims, said the souls of those killed by the Khmer Rouge would find no peace until “all of their bones are cremated according to Buddhist rites.”
Norodom Sihanouk, who stepped down in 2004 but still wields considerable influence, has in the past both supported and condemned the tribunal to try the former leaders. He said this week that he would testify at the proceedings, but he has also called them “ridiculous and ineffective.”
The best current estimate is that 1.7 million people died of starvation, forced labor or disease or were killed during the Khmer Rouge era, when Pol Pot and his followers tried to create an agrarian utopia, forcing millions onto vast collective farms in the countryside.
Pol Pot died in 1998, and surviving Khmer Rouge leaders are in their 70’s and 80’s, prompting fears that they could die before facing justice.
Prosecutors began their investigations last week, but the first trials are not expected until mid-2007.
4 comments:
All of the Khmer Rouge former leaders need to be brought to justice quickly before they all die.
cc:S-21
The fomer king is being haunted day and night by all his victims of killing fields. He worried that all young Cambodians discovering that all the death were cause by his revenge for power from Lon Nol. One mistake from him has caused over three millions deaths. During that time, if he was mature enough to stay aways from desastrous politic, Cambodain wouldn't suffered that many lives. That is the reality. I will remember this all the time.
The youn's puppet government should displace the many death for tourists of the K-5 program too.
Not this stupid old ass king again...Wake up fucking king, these days no one is stupid to do what you say.. as a matter of fact none one is listening to you. You're a piece of shit. shut the fuck up or your ass will be on fire!!
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