PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodia's powerful ruling party Monday warned against politicising the country's genocide trials, while voicing its support for prosecuting leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the 29th anniversary of the ouster of the Khmer Rouge, Chea Sim, president of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), said he believed the trials had international backing.
But he also lashed out at "absent-minded elements" and "ill-willed political circles" who oppose efforts by Cambodia to reconcile after years of civil strife, which include trying those behind the Khmer Rouge killing fields.
"We condemn any acts to use the courts with the aim of creating instability or disrupting society," he said.
The five top surviving leaders of the regime, blamed for the deaths of up to two million people through overwork, execution or starvation between 1975 and 1979, were arrested last year by Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal.
The first public trials are expected to be held this year, but the tribunal has been plagued over the last decade by delays amid concerns over political interference.
Rights groups and some opposition politicians have accused the government of trying to derail the trials for fear of exposing atrocities committed by former regime cadres currently serving in Prime Minister Hun Sen's administration.
Hun Sen himself was a former Khmer Rouge military commander who later fled to Vietnam and returned as part of a Hanoi-backed military force that helped overthrow the regime in January 1979.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the 29th anniversary of the ouster of the Khmer Rouge, Chea Sim, president of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), said he believed the trials had international backing.
But he also lashed out at "absent-minded elements" and "ill-willed political circles" who oppose efforts by Cambodia to reconcile after years of civil strife, which include trying those behind the Khmer Rouge killing fields.
"We condemn any acts to use the courts with the aim of creating instability or disrupting society," he said.
The five top surviving leaders of the regime, blamed for the deaths of up to two million people through overwork, execution or starvation between 1975 and 1979, were arrested last year by Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal.
The first public trials are expected to be held this year, but the tribunal has been plagued over the last decade by delays amid concerns over political interference.
Rights groups and some opposition politicians have accused the government of trying to derail the trials for fear of exposing atrocities committed by former regime cadres currently serving in Prime Minister Hun Sen's administration.
Hun Sen himself was a former Khmer Rouge military commander who later fled to Vietnam and returned as part of a Hanoi-backed military force that helped overthrow the regime in January 1979.
1 comment:
Samdech Chea Sim and all those who joined forces with Vietnamese troops to overthrow the Khmer Rouge regime should take the lead in filing complaints against all Khmer Rouge leaders in the ECCC. They were victims of their crimes and must have a lot of factual evidence of these crimes to help the court to convict those Khmer Rouge leaders.
Such action could help speed up the trial, save money and time, and indeed prevent the trial from being politicised and destabilizing the society. Inaction only generates doubts; doubts could lead to politisation; and politisation could destabilise the society.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
Post a Comment