26 February 2007
Cambodian Leader Urges Preservation of Khmer Rouge Victims'
Remains for Trial Evidence
By The Associated Press
"killing fields" should be preserved because they could serve as
critical
evidence in upcoming genocide trials, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said
Monday.
Human remains, particularly skulls, serve as the centerpieces of several
memorials to the victims of the Khmer Rouge, who were responsible for the
deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodian from starvation, overwork,
medical neglect and execution when the communist group held power from
1975-79.
Former King Norodom Sihanouk, with whom Hun Sen has many differences, has
long advocated cremation of the remains.
The former king, who lost many members of his family to the Khmer Rouge, has
in the past said the public display of the remains inflict added humiliation
and dishonor on the victims.
None of the Khmer Rouge leaders has ever been tried for the atrocities. Last
year,
try them for genocide and crimes against humanity, but it is not clear yet
when the trials will be convened.
"The remains are the evidence of the crime of genocide. If they disappear,
it would be difficult to try former Khmer Rouge leaders," said Hun Sen.
He also renewed his objection to suggestions that the remains be cremated
according to the country's Buddhist traditions.
Hun Sen spoke Monday at a ceremony marking the start of repairs to the road
linking the capital Phnom Penh to Choeung Ek, a former Khmer Rouge mass
grave site about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) to the south.
Choeung Ek, now a grim tourist attraction, was where most of the prisoners
who had been tortured at the Khmer Rouge's S-21 prison in the capital were
taken to be killed. The prison is now the
Noun Chea, a former top leader of the Khmer Rouge, last month alleged that
photographs showing the skulls of people killed by the group were fakes,
doctored using modern, high-tech retouching techniques.
The comments, made in an interview with the biweekly English-language Phnom
Penh Post newspaper, were the latest in a long series of denials by former
Khmer Rouge leaders that they were involved in any atrocities.
Hun Sen challenged the comments. "How could those skulls be artificial
when
they (Khmer Rouge) killed so many people?" he asked. "Those skulls at
Choeung Ek and other places across
Copyright 2007
The International Herald Tribune