Ought to make Israel happy anyway....
"Cambodia approves legislation making genocide denial a crime; Critics say it will be used against the opposition" by Sopheng Cheang | Associated Press, June 08, 2013
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The National Assembly approved a bill on Friday making it a crime to deny that atrocities were committed by the country’s genocidal 1970s Khmer Rouge regime, a law that critics allege will be used as a weapon against the political opposition.
Sometimes, here in AmeriKa, it feels like a crime to implicate AmeriKa for such conduct. I'm sure it will be one day soon. Been an honor serving you, and thanks for coming.
The assembly passed the bill unanimously in the absence of opposition lawmakers, who were expelled from the legislature this week. A committee controlled by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party said the opposition legislators must relinquish their seats because they had left their old parties to join a new, merged party to contest the country’s general election in July.
The recently established Cambodia National Rescue Party faces an uphill battle against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s well-organized, well-financed political machine. It is already handicapped by having its leader, Sam Rainsy, in self-exile to avoid jail on what are widely seen as politically motivated charges. Hun Sen’s party, which holds 90 seats in the assembly, is expected to win an overwhelming share of the 123 seats at stake.
Sounds so familiar to me.
The expulsion of the 28 opposition lawmakers from the assembly hurts their ability to campaign by depriving them of their salaries as well as their parliamentary immunity from arrest. The government aggressively uses defamation laws to punish the kind of critical remarks that would be common in an election campaign.
I point that out only to say if you come here someday and the blog is gone, well, it wasn't me. Congratulations, AmeriKa! Or maybe they just like knowing I'm here and are getting a few laughs, too.
Hun Sen, who has been prime minister since 1985, called for the new law after a leading opposition lawmaker reportedly suggested that some of the evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities was fabricated by Vietnam, whose army invaded to oust the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
Okay, look, I don't believe it in this case, the Vietnam invasion probably the closest to true humanitarianism in world history; however, I asked some Cambodians I worked with long ago about it and they said war, invasion, never a good thing.
Looking back now I'm thinking, yeah, no matter what the intent, they kill more people.
Hun Sen was once a Khmer Rouge cadre, and his political allies include people linked by scholars to Khmer Rouge atrocities.
That makes for a sticky situation.
The Cambodia National Rescue Party said it was ‘‘disappointed’’ by the bill’s passage and felt it was illegal because the expulsion of its lawmakers left the assembly without the quorum needed to pass legislation.
It also suggested that any such law should not allow former Khmer Rouge leaders to hold high positions in society, including prime minister and the presidents of the National Assembly and Senate. Like Hun Sen, National Assembly President Heng Samrin and Senate President Chea Sim are former Khmer Rouge members.
Some other guys were tried for war crimes -- proving only losers in power struggles are subject to prosecution.
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My position is no matter what your beliefs, as offensive as they are to people (some may find me offensive; I find war propaganda and bank apologists offensive), the freedom of speech should never be abridged.
Also see: Cleaning Up Cambodia
Look, I'm all for the war crimes trials and the closure they bring; I just wish we could get some of our own over here.
Heck, Cambodians died in the massive US bombing campaign during the 1960s and 1970s. That ought to be worth at least an apology. One could even argue that the U.S. created the very conditions that led to the Khmer Rouge takeover.
UPDATE:
"Khmer Rouge leaders tell victims’ kin they are sorry" by Sopheng Cheang | Associated Press, May 31, 2013
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Former leaders of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge being tried by a UN-backed genocide tribunal apologized on Thursday to families of victims of the regime’s atrocities, bringing a rare emotional note to a trial dominated by the detailed recounting of names and dates.
Khieu Samphan, the head of state of the 1970s communist regime, and Nuon Chea, the group’s main ideologist, were responding to questions posed by the so-called civil parties, who are representing the victims’ families.
The radical policies of the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, are generally blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect, and execution. Both men have previously issued expressions of regret, but they have denied legal responsibility and insisted they served with the best interests of their country and its people in mind.
The two are charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, religious persecution, homicide, and torture, although their current trial focuses on the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh, the capital, when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975.
Their statements Thursday were notable chiefly for the context. They were responding directly to the family members who had testified in emotional detail to the manner in which they lost their loved ones to Khmer Rouge brutality.
Because prosecutors must prove the defendants bore responsibility for the actions, much of the testimony has sought to draw a legalistic line showing their knowledge through a chain of command.
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It's never too late to apologize.
"Cambodia welcomes statues’ return from US museum" by Sopheng Cheang | Associated Press, June 12, 2013
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Two 10th-century Cambodian stone statues displayed for nearly two decades at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art were returned to their homeland Tuesday in a high-profile case of allegedly looted artifacts.
The voluntary return of the pair of ‘‘Kneeling Attendants’’ statues by one of America’s foremost cultural institutions is seen as setting a precedent for the restoration of artworks to their places of origin, from which they were often removed in hazy circumstances.
It comes as the Cambodian government is asking other museums to return similar objects. At the government’s request, US authorities have begun legal action against Sotheby’s auction house to try to force the handover of a contested piece.
Cambodian officials and Buddhist monks were on hand for a ceremony for the life-size sandstone statues at the capital’s international airport.
‘‘The statues are very important to our country,’’ said Chan Tani, secretary of state for the Cabinet office. ‘‘We got back those ancient statues that left us, so we should be proud.’’
The statues come from the Koh Ker temple in Siem Reap province, which is home to the famed Angkor Wat temples. Officials say they were stolen from the temple in the 1970s. Museum officials said the statues were given to the museum in pieces by different donors between 1987 and 1992.
The museum announced in May it was returning the statues after researchers discovered evidence indicating they had been illegally exported.
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