Original report from New York
02 October 2009
Cambodia will ask the US to cancel hundreds of million dollar war-era debt the country owes, Cambodia’s foreign minister said Sunday, a day before meeting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Hor Namhong, in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly, told VOA Khmer in an interview that it was fair if the debt was cancelled.
"I will ask [Clinton] to ask the US government to relieve Cambodia's debt, because it was from the Lon Nol regime,” Hor Namhong said at a hotel near UN headquarters.
"The loan was for buying war weaponry to fight in Cambodia. I will tell her that Cambodia has never demanded reparations for the [US] bombing during the Vietnam War, which killed many Cambodians and caused damages...Therefore, the US should understand the debt Cambodia owes,” he added.
Hor Namhong, Cambodia’s longtime foreign minister, is scheduled to meet Clinton Monday in New York, Cambodian officials said. They are expected to discuss an array of issues.
Cambodian officials have said Cambodia owes more than $300 million to the US dating back to the 1970s.
This is the first time that Cambodia will discuss the matter with US senior officials after several public requests and discussions by Cambodia's top leader, legislative body and international organizations with some US officials.
"First, we will ask the US to totally cancel the debt, but if this is not possible, we will then ask to turn the majority of it into development assistance, and Cambodia will pay a certain small portion of it," said Hor Namhong.
Some countries which the US relieves debt through the form of development assistance use the money for investing in education - an example some international organizations have suggested for Cambodia.
Cambodia's biggest opposition party also agrees with the government.
"We support the government in asking some countries to cancel debts that Cambodia owes from the past, but from today onward all foreign loan should be done with care,” said Yim Sovann, member of parliament and spokesperson for the Sam Rainsy Party. “It should be used effectively not extravagantly and get lost due to corruption."
One third of Cambodia external debts are from Russia and the US.
Hor Namhong, in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly, told VOA Khmer in an interview that it was fair if the debt was cancelled.
"I will ask [Clinton] to ask the US government to relieve Cambodia's debt, because it was from the Lon Nol regime,” Hor Namhong said at a hotel near UN headquarters.
"The loan was for buying war weaponry to fight in Cambodia. I will tell her that Cambodia has never demanded reparations for the [US] bombing during the Vietnam War, which killed many Cambodians and caused damages...Therefore, the US should understand the debt Cambodia owes,” he added.
Hor Namhong, Cambodia’s longtime foreign minister, is scheduled to meet Clinton Monday in New York, Cambodian officials said. They are expected to discuss an array of issues.
Cambodian officials have said Cambodia owes more than $300 million to the US dating back to the 1970s.
This is the first time that Cambodia will discuss the matter with US senior officials after several public requests and discussions by Cambodia's top leader, legislative body and international organizations with some US officials.
"First, we will ask the US to totally cancel the debt, but if this is not possible, we will then ask to turn the majority of it into development assistance, and Cambodia will pay a certain small portion of it," said Hor Namhong.
Some countries which the US relieves debt through the form of development assistance use the money for investing in education - an example some international organizations have suggested for Cambodia.
Cambodia's biggest opposition party also agrees with the government.
"We support the government in asking some countries to cancel debts that Cambodia owes from the past, but from today onward all foreign loan should be done with care,” said Yim Sovann, member of parliament and spokesperson for the Sam Rainsy Party. “It should be used effectively not extravagantly and get lost due to corruption."
One third of Cambodia external debts are from Russia and the US.
36 comments:
All debts should be offsets, because of US policy, bombards and destroyed so many things in my village "Chantrea" and the rest of my homeland "cambodia", i still blamed US policy till these day for killing my family and the other cambodian life, US must continue to offer more aid and help build my beloved country back to the way it used to be....
victims of "Chantrea village"
sorry, my english is not good like you guy living abroad.
How much should the Vietnamese pay for violating Cambodian border during their war with the US?
What will the US ask in exchange for this debt forgiveness?
Vietnam never violates Cmabodian borders. Hun Sen begs them to come in to protect him in Cambodia, therefore they must come, in exchange for some land and islands.
It' was Vietnamese revenged! because Gen. Lon Nol had ordered the killing so many Vietnamese immigrants, during Lon Nol time...Mr. Hun Sen was right!
Yep! Khmer shouldn't provoked the Vietnam that time! we are the one that started the fire first, because of DAM TEA ONG THINGS!
Yuon got a revenge of Pol Pot, not Lon Nol, for sending his armed men to kill more than 400 Yuon villagers at HaTien in the mids of 1977.
Cambodia should pay the U.S because of its policy under Tmil Sihanouk for allowing the Vietcong to stay on its territory and launch the attacks against South Vietnam and Americans.All the khmer frontiers villages were destroyed because of the provocative act by the communist north and vietcong.
2:15 am, your English is better than me living abroad. I am somewhat agreeing with you for blaming the US unintentionally killing our brothers and sisters, but the stupid King was the one that allowing Viet Cong to infiltrated our country. We can not just blaming the US alone for this evil act, the dumb king also has Khmer's blood in his hand. The truth, the US have been and still is monetary supporting Khmer government at the present day.
Did the US ever ask Hanoi to pay for the debt of the Nguyen Van Thieu (South Vietnam) regime? What did Hanoi respond? Or maybe it easy to pick on Cambodia.
Vietnam pay back Debts to Washington that worth about $140 million, incurred by Saigon Government.
Cambodia current debt 2.9 billion.
No way I am urging the government to take all the debt plus the interest because with out them USA won't lost with the Vietnam War.
Sihaknuk helped Vietcong in Cambodia Sihaknuk must find the money to pay the country debt.
5:15AM, I agree! It's all ah si-ah-nouk fauts for killing and destroying his own nation. Yet, some people still respect this idiot!
yes, the USA can help to make a real difference in all of cambodia, really. USA, please help cambodia to become better for all to enjoy. we need america's economic power to help ignite the economic growth in cambodia. yes, there are more to cambodia than some people think, really. may god bless cambodia and all our khmer people.
Cambodian corrupted leaders are asking the US Government for a Debt Forgiveness. I truly think that the US Government should/must say "NO". The Cambodian Debt is due to the corrupted leaders pocketing the money. If the Debt relates to helping the poor and developing the nation then it makes sense to forgive such debt.
"How much should the Vietnamese pay for violating Cambodian border during their war with the US?"
For that, the Viet. Cong should return South Vietnam back to Cambodia.
"I will ask [Clinton] to ask the US government to relieve Cambodia's debt, because it was from the Lon Nol regime,”. How MR Hor 5 Hong will ask Russia about Cambodian dept to Russia more Billion USD. Because that was also the Hen Samrin regime? I think that If Marshal Lon Nol hear about this news who will take the new commer go to hell.
Khmer son
Why is it that it took 30 years later for the Cambodian gov't to ask for this "debt forgiveness?"
So, the current Gov't sort of wipe their hands free and forward all debt to Lon Nol?
How pathetic is that!
I say, if you can't pay back your debt then foreclosure your country. We will take over from here before Vietnam/Thailand take full control of it.
I tried to ask Bank of America to forgive my credit card debts due to my needs during my first arrival to the USA, but no luck. I told the bank that it's all USA faults to bring me to the US. What an excuse for Hor Nam Hong of Cambodia and thanks to the bankrupcy law in the US.
5:58 am so you mean the debt is the debt right ? Then Cambodia must pay their duties to maintain in good credit
Huynh Sen gov't should start filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy at days end.
When this process is complete, repeat this process about 20 time. Maybe then, Cambodia will be debt free.
....... or continue to do what you've been doing.....put up two hands and beg.
If U.S will forgive this dept, Hun Sen and his cronies will pocketed more for their own families-trees for benefitting Vietnamese illegal immigrants flocking by thousands every month into Cambodia, and not fair to share these aids deserved for Cambodian, the real victims of Khmer Rouge Pol Pot/Hun Sen, and the invasion of Cambodia by Viet troops.
Today, tomorrow and the future is more important than yesterday, least we can all do is learned from past mistakes and turn it into a positive learning outcome. So, let the past be bye gone. And when we talk about debts, there shouldn't be any debts because at the time there were a number of countries involved in the down fall of the regimes. However, least we can all do is to move into the right direction. The bible say "forgive and you will be forgiven", and that the "righteous will live forever and the wicked will pay the price". Therefore I believe those governments who were once involved in the down fall need to do the right thing this time, so that the majority of the goods can have a good life and at the same time we need to learn not to take advantage of each other’s country because we all are only human being and It is very significant if we can create a common law to protect every individual on earth from further harm. We all need to acknowledge about war and what it can do to us individually like, the impacts of grief and loss or the impacts of physical, social, mental and psychological traumas, e.g. post traumatic disorder in which it can be prevented from happening to anyone else again. Aust
There are many shameful actions taken by Hun Sen's government that I do not agree with. However, in the case of this debt incurred by Lon Nol's government I agree that the US should forgive and forget about it. Beeing a US citizen, I still think that we should do the right thing. This debt incurred as result of the US aggressive policies toward Cambodia in the '60s and the '70s. I know that Sihanouk screwed up royally but; without the US support, there wouldn't be a coup-d'etat and there wouldn't be KR either. After that the US provided military assistance to its puppet Lon Nol's regime and the debt is the result of that. I feel that the US should provide more indirect (not to the corrupted Hun Sen's government) humitarian / educational assistance to cambodia. the poor are much better served thru more USAID programs.
....it's agreeable. Yesterday has passed by. If we all are Khmer either now living in our Cambodia country or abroad should not just point finger to each other to just gain the advantage from this existing issue for individual. We should unify to form a right DEMOCRACY party to take over current ruling system of Hun Sen and to continue developing our country to be better then today. http://www.camldp.org/voice.php
All the relatives of the khmer rouge victims should sue CHINA and Sihanouk for their support of the khmer rouge .
Most of you are pretty myopic regarding your analysis of the situation during the Vietnam War erra. First of all, our king was not stupid nor he is to fully blame for the atrocities that caused Cambodia to fall.
You see, the U.S. was so fearfull of the spread of communism that it would do anything to make sure that didnt happen. You seem to forget how peaceful and beautiful Cambodia was before 1965. And our King did a good job with that.
It is shameful to blame one person for what happen to Cambodia. It was series of events that lead to the the downfall.
I'm not saying Sihanouk is not to blame. He is somewhat responsible for guiding the nation on the wrong path. However, no matter what he did the damn Vietcong would respect the neutrality of Cambodia. They would use our country as their launching pad to attack the U.S.
Enought of the personal attack and the character assissination. I bet facing the same circumstaces like the king did, you wouldnt know how to react.
Bull shit.If Sihanouk did not take side with the communist by allowing safe sanctuaries for vietcong and north vietnamese inside CAMBODIA, or keep the country real neutral.The yuon communist aggression would have been stopped at the 17th parallel dividing the north and the south, much like the korean peninsula of today .But Sihanouk was and still is a communist sympatizer ,that's why he's the one that should be blamed.
3:27,
amen, brother!
Bullshit, the Vietnam War creator commenced their war quitting as early as 1968. Cambodia was dragged in to be part of the war retreating chess game and more or less used to fight the rear guard while the war maker was bucking out. Kapish?
This is like comparing orange to apple for the Korean war to the Vietnam war.
All of you must be crazy to say that Sihanouk allowed The Viet troops to stay in Cambodia. He did not have the resources nor strong armies to stop that any way. How was he going to do that ?? You make it sound like The Viet was going to listen to him. They were in Cambodia because they were running for their lifes, from US bombing. You already saw what happened when Lon Nol Gov. tried to do that.
The bottom line is Cambodia was just the victim of the Vietnam war. It is easy to say after the fact but if you are in the same situation I don't think you know what to do.
Oh fuck,Sihanouk was informed fully by the U.S and the world but he ignored them and not only that he made an effort to cover it up.Furthermore ,he cut off relationship with America and established full relationship with vietcong.So he can do whatever to help the yuon communist.
Remember,you just can not harbor a killer in your house so that he can go out and terrorize your neighbor.And Sihanouk did just that.
it is the right thing for cambodia to do this. and the USA can take this golden opportunity to establish a strong political influence in cambodia, really. think about it. after all, it was the vietnam war that indirectly caused cambodia to have the KR, suffering, etc..., really! this is the least good people of america can do to help cambodia. thank you and may god bless cambodia and all our beautiful khmer people and citizens.
Diem was a staunch anti-communist, Catholic and South Vietnamese president in the early 1960's. He and the US were allies in the war against Communist. That did not mean that he was excluded from elimination when he did not stick with the program. Diem was very oppressive on the South Vietnamese Buddhist population and the US feared that Diem's action would not help their war effort. So a coup d'etat was hatched in 1963. It was led by some South Vietnamese generals with a full knowledge of the US. The US inexplicable was silent and inaction. Another word it was a green light. Subsequently, Diem and his brothers were shot/murdered in the back of a M-113 APV.
So you are an ally and yet you can be taken out just like that because you displease your partner. How can you trust your what so-called ally???? Stop living in a La La land. Somebody needs to wise up.
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