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."