(New York, December 27, 1998 -) Human Rights Watch said today that the two top Khmer Rouge leaders who defected to the Royal Cambodian Government should be arrested and tried for mass murder before there is any discussion of national reconciliation.
Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, both senior officials under Pol Pot during the 1975-79 massacres in Cambodia that resulted in the deaths of more than one million people, defected on Friday. Government officials in Cambodia have given mixed signals about how the two men will be treated, with Prime Minister Hun Sen appearing to favor accepting the men back as ordinary citizens rather than putting them on trial.Human Rights Watch pointed out that in other countries where there has been both a pattern of massive abuses -- South Africa, Argentina, Rwanda, Chile -- and a desire for national reconciliation, the consensus has been that no reconciliation can take place until those responsible for the abuses have been identified and the extent of their crimes fully known.
"If the government wants to pardon these two once they have brought to trial before an independent international court on charges of crimes against humanity and the Cambodian public has heard all the evidence against them, that is their prerogative," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "But to allow these men to return to society as if one of the worst massacres of the twentieth century never took place -- that's unthinkable."
Jones questioned the government?s priorities when it came to human rights, with mass murderers receiving better treatment than non-governmental human rights defenders. "The government has allowed known international criminals to live comfortable lives in absolute freedom, but orders human rights monitors jailed for trying to monitor protests," said Jones, referring to the recent arrest of human rights workers after a protest against toxic waste dumping in Sihanoukville turned violent.
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