24/07/2006
AP
Anlong Veng - Hundreds of followers and relatives buried notorious former Khmer Rouge leader Ta Mok on Monday.
Eighty-year-old Ta Mok died in a military hospital in Phnom Penh on Friday, before he could be brought to trial for his alleged role in the deaths of about 1.7 million people during his rule in the 1970s.
Seventy-two Buddhist monks chanted prayers to bless Ta Mok's body before it was laid on a pickup truck for a procession to his final resting place at a Buddhist temple in Anlong Veng, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold 305km north of the capital Phnom Penh.
About 1 000 mourners watched as Ta Mok's coffin was placed in a concrete monument at the temple.
Some, including former followers, wept as they bid a final farewell to the man they regarded as their benefactor.
"Finally, he has escaped legal prosecution but I don't think he can escape from (history's verdict) and public condemnation," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, an independent group which researches Khmer Rouge crimes.
Ta Mok nicknamed 'The Butcher'
Ta Mok had been in government custody since 1999.
Cambodian and foreign prosecutors for a United Nations-backed tribunal were gathering evidence to determine who would be indicted in the trials. The trials were expected to begin in 2007.
Ta Mok was a feared guerrilla leader, whose ruthlessness earned him the nickname "The Butcher".
He was believed to be a participant in the atrocities of the 1975 to 1979 Khmer Rouge rule, when about 1.7 million people were executed or died from starvation, disease, or overwork.
But in Anlong Veng, where Ta Mok ruled as a warlord for years until his capture, many people considered the one-legged veteran revolutionary a benevolent leader who looked after followers and brought much-needed improvements to local people's lives.
'Society will be divided'
Instead of burying him in the ground, relatives put his body in a 2m by 2.5m monument at the Anlong Veng Buddhist temple.
Ta Mok's son-in-law, Meas Muth, said on Sunday that relatives wanted to give Ta Mok "the honour he deserved".
About $5 000 (about R35 000) - a princely sum in impoverished Cambodia - would be spent on the monument, said Meas Muth, a former Khmer Rouge soldier but now a major general in the Cambodian army.
The elaborate three-day funeral presided over by Buddhist monks contrasted sharply with the Khmer Rouge's treatment of its victims.
The Khmer Rouge usually buried the dead in shallow mass graves that dot the countryside.
Youk Chhang, a Khmer Rouge survivor, said that without Ta Mok facing trial and judgment, "it would be very difficult for the victims... and those who continued to believe he was a hero, to reconcile.
"Without prosecution, these two groups will continue to divide society for many decades to come.
"This is the legacy Ta Mok has left us."
Eighty-year-old Ta Mok died in a military hospital in Phnom Penh on Friday, before he could be brought to trial for his alleged role in the deaths of about 1.7 million people during his rule in the 1970s.
Seventy-two Buddhist monks chanted prayers to bless Ta Mok's body before it was laid on a pickup truck for a procession to his final resting place at a Buddhist temple in Anlong Veng, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold 305km north of the capital Phnom Penh.
About 1 000 mourners watched as Ta Mok's coffin was placed in a concrete monument at the temple.
Some, including former followers, wept as they bid a final farewell to the man they regarded as their benefactor.
"Finally, he has escaped legal prosecution but I don't think he can escape from (history's verdict) and public condemnation," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, an independent group which researches Khmer Rouge crimes.
Ta Mok nicknamed 'The Butcher'
Ta Mok had been in government custody since 1999.
Cambodian and foreign prosecutors for a United Nations-backed tribunal were gathering evidence to determine who would be indicted in the trials. The trials were expected to begin in 2007.
Ta Mok was a feared guerrilla leader, whose ruthlessness earned him the nickname "The Butcher".
He was believed to be a participant in the atrocities of the 1975 to 1979 Khmer Rouge rule, when about 1.7 million people were executed or died from starvation, disease, or overwork.
But in Anlong Veng, where Ta Mok ruled as a warlord for years until his capture, many people considered the one-legged veteran revolutionary a benevolent leader who looked after followers and brought much-needed improvements to local people's lives.
'Society will be divided'
Instead of burying him in the ground, relatives put his body in a 2m by 2.5m monument at the Anlong Veng Buddhist temple.
Ta Mok's son-in-law, Meas Muth, said on Sunday that relatives wanted to give Ta Mok "the honour he deserved".
About $5 000 (about R35 000) - a princely sum in impoverished Cambodia - would be spent on the monument, said Meas Muth, a former Khmer Rouge soldier but now a major general in the Cambodian army.
The elaborate three-day funeral presided over by Buddhist monks contrasted sharply with the Khmer Rouge's treatment of its victims.
The Khmer Rouge usually buried the dead in shallow mass graves that dot the countryside.
Youk Chhang, a Khmer Rouge survivor, said that without Ta Mok facing trial and judgment, "it would be very difficult for the victims... and those who continued to believe he was a hero, to reconcile.
"Without prosecution, these two groups will continue to divide society for many decades to come.
"This is the legacy Ta Mok has left us."
No comments:
Post a Comment