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Not long ago, Hun Sen was assuring his people he backed the idea of putting Khmer Rouge leaders on trial. Why the about-face? "Hun Sen is showing he is the boss, the chief of the Khmers, much more than King Sihanouk and everyone else," says veteran Cambodia analyst Raoul Jennar in Phnom Penh. "On television, we saw the defectors shake hands with Hun Sen and sit with him at his home. It shows people that everyone in society is paying respect to the chief, even the people who were his bitterest enemies." At week's end, Hun Sen issued a clarification stating that he wanted an investigation of Khmer Rouge crimes but that any prosecution would have to be handled by the courts, not the politicians.
Ordinarily Cambodians seem less than happy over the turn of events. "The people might get angry if Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea and Ta Mok are not brought to justice," says a shopkeeper in the capital. (Ta Mok, a one-legged commander nicknamed "the Butcher" for his ferocity, is the last Khmer Rouge leader still in the jungle.) Eam Chann, one of a handful of people who survived imprisonment in Tuol Sleng , the Khmer Rouge torture center in Phnom Penh, agrees: "Just to say sorry is not enough. They must be put on trial." From Beijing last week, Sihanouk announced he would not consider giving the two defectors a royal pardon like the one he granted another Khmer Rouge leader, Ieng Sary, in 1996. (Ieng Sary's defection touched off the final disintegration of the Khmer Rouge.) But technically, the king has nothing to pardon--and won't unless Hun Sen's government arrests, tries and convicts Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea.
Pressure from the outside world could make a difference, but the international community is hardly united. Just days before the two defections, Hun Sen held talks in Beijing with ex-Premier Li Peng; both China and neighboring Thailand are worried that a showcase trial of the Khmer Rouge will inevitably highlight their own one-time support for the group. "The key is the desire of Beijing and the Thai military, or the former Thai military, to put this matter to rest," says scholar Steve Heder, currently in Cambodia doing work for the War Crimes Research Office of Washington's American University Law School. "But both the U.S. and the United Nations were serious about this tribunal and continue to be. If the rest of the West and Japan take a stronger stand, things could be very different." Washington immediately condemned Hun Sen's embrace of the defectors. "We think that these people should be brought to justice," said a State Department official. A team of legal experts studying the feasibility of a Khmer Rouge trial are due to give their report to the U.N. this month, around the same time that a meeting of Cambodia's aid donors will take place in Tokyo. "They will have to move fast," warns Heder. If not, justice for Cambodia may be buried with the many other victims of the Khmer Rouge.
Reported by Caroline Gluck/Phnom Penh and Douglas Waller/Washington
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