Comrades protecting Khmer Rouge leaders

Comrades protecting Khmer Rouge leaders

By David Brunnstrom

PHNOM PENH (Reuters): The return of two top Khmer Rouge
defectors to a town controlled by their old comrades means the
Cambodian government would have to use military force if it wants
them back to stand trial for genocide, analysts say.

Human rights groups and Cambodia's main pro-democracy
organization have slammed Prime Minister Hun Sen for not
arresting Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea after bringing them to
Phnom Penh last week.

But some analysts believe he was caught between a rock and a
hard place when they showed up in the town of Pailin over
Christmas and had little choice but to allow them to return
there.

Pailin is run by Ieng Sary, another Khmer Rouge leader who
received a royal amnesty after his 1996 defection to the
government. Though nominally under government control, its old
Khmer Rouge political and military hierarchy remains intact.

On Friday, Hun Sen suggested Thailand had forced his hand. He
said "a neighboring country" which previously sheltered the two
had said Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea would be handed over if
Phnom Penh accepted them back into society.

Bangkok, which has long denied sheltering Khmer Rouge leaders,
rejected this suggestion with its prime minister, Chuan Leekpai,
accusing Hun Sen of trying "to pass the buck to Thailand".

But some diplomats and other analysts believe Hun Sen would
have far preferred Thailand to have taken the responsibility for
handing the Khmer Rouge leaders over for a trial.

Nate Thayer of the Far Eastern Economic Review, a Khmer Rouge
expert who maintains close contacts with the group, backed the
government's contention that it would have risked reigniting
civil war if it had tried to arrest the two in Phnom Penh.

But by not doing so Hun Sen has run afoul of members of the
international community who have insisted Khmer Rouge leaders
should stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity.

And if he tried now to get them back from Pailin he would have
a full-scale battle on his hands, Thayer said.

"Not just Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea but everyone in Pailin
is absolutely petrified of being called in front of an
international tribunal," he said. "Hun Sen was up against a
wall."

"The Khmer Rouge military force in Pailin is limited, but they
would fight. If they were confronted they would bring up every
male between the ages of 14 and 50 to resist."

The deputy governor of Pailin made it clear on Monday that the
old brotherhood would protect Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea from
any attempt, for instance by the Americans, to seize them for
trial.

Asked if he feared such an attempt, Ieng Vuth, who is Ieng
Sary's son, said:

"I don't think the Americans would do that. If Americans were
killed it would impact on the credibility of the U.S. president."

No country has indicated an intention to use force to seize
the two men but Washington has been vocal in calling for Khmer
Rouge leaders to be brought to account for an estimated 1.7
million deaths during their 1975-1979 revolution.

Experts hired by the United Nations have been looking at the
possibility of a tribunal along the lines of those for Rwanda and
Bosnia and are due to report at the end of the month.

Hun Sen said on Friday he backs a trial for Khmer Rouge
leaders but this was something for the courts, not him, to
arrange. His government says that since no arrest warrants have
been issued, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea were free to go where
they chose.

Lao Mong Hay, the director of the Khmer Institute for
Democracy, said the government had missed its chance to ensure
justice for victims of the Khmer Rouge.

"They should have arrested them while waiting for the United
Nations to decide on a trial," he said.

He and other analysts said the government now risked further
peril by allowing the senior Khmer Rouge leadership to congregate
in Pailin.

"Except Ta Mok, all the remaining Khmer Rouge are now in
Pailin with more or less 10,000 former Khmer Rouge soldiers,"
said political analyst Raoul Jennar, referring to the Khmer Rouge
military commander who remains at large.

"Unless there's some secret deal Hun Sen has made we don't
know about Pailin can now become a source of new political
strength for the Khmer Rouge."

Thayer said Hun Sen had misplayed an unwelcome hand.

"He thought he could create a political solution to the Khmer
Rouge problem and end the civil war. What he didn't think was
that he would be stuck with this international image problem.

"And now the only way he can get them out is by a military
assault."