Who should be punished more severely: Those who supported the KR regime or the former KR commander?

Hun Sen attacks the UN on the KRT

24 Feb 2009
By Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

Hun Sen said that the UN, which recognized the Khmer Rouge “until 1991,” should be punished more severely than Pol Pot.

In a speech given at the diploma distribution ceremony held on 24 Feb in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen sharply criticized the UN’s action toward the KR during the 80s.

Hun Sen gave his thought after the publication of a joint communiqué between Sok An, the vice-PM, and Peter Taksoe-Jensen, the UN under-Secretary-General for legal affairs, which was made public on Monday 23 Feb. The two parties agreed to set a bipartite structure in charge of improving the ECCC’s administration in order to avoid new corruption scandal.

“A group of people knew about the killings perpetrated between 1975 and 1979, but they continued to support the KR up until the 90s,” Hun Sen accused while indicating that this group should be punished “more severely than Pol Pot.”“If we have to judge on what happened in the past, we must first put the UN on trial, along with the countries that have recognized the KR up until 1991,” Hun Sen added.

“Now, the UN tells us to this and that … We organized a trial in 1979, they have decided not to recognize it. Now, they demand for a new trial which is complicated and costs millions of dollars! As for me, I don’t care about it. I’m doing my work,” Hun Sen added.

Between 15 and 19 August 1979, the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) regime put the “Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique” on trial, and the pair was sentenced to death in absentia. In 1996, Ieng Sary received a royal pardon as a reward for his surrender.

“Have you ever seen in the world a government that travels to, and that sent in its National Assembly president, its president and its prime minister to signal their surrender by traveling all the way to the home of the new prime minister?” Hun Sen asked. “It was unnoticed because Cambodia is a small country … But I still have the video recording of this meeting.”

“For me, all that I did, I did it for human rights,” Hun Sen went on. “And human rights, it’s first of all the rights to life. Me, I won over the KR regime, I prevented them from returning back, I put an end to their government, I negotiated for the creation of the [KR] tribunal, and I delivered 5 to the face justice. What amuses me nowadays is to see those who talk the most about the [KR] Tribunal are those who supported the KR!”

At the 1979 UN general assembly, 71 states voted for the recognition of the Khmer Rouge accreditation at the UN (35 voted were against this recognition and 34 abstention). Among those countries voting for the recognition of the KR, were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, West Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, New Zealand, Portugal, the UK and the US. Austria, France, Finland, Ireland and Sweden abstained, while the Soviet Union and its allies wished to see a recognition of the PRK.