Sunday, May 23, 2010
SRP MP demands the release of 12 villagers jailed in the land dispute case in
Chikreng district
Injured victims of cops opening fire on protesting villagers in Chikreng
commune, Siem Reap province (Photo: Savyouth, RFA)
THE FACTS ARE :
1.UN Passes Strong Resolution on Cambodia Human Rights Abuses
Feb. 27, 1982 : UN Commission on Human Rights meeting in Geneva adopted a
resolution condemning Vietnam’s occupation of Cambodia as a violation of
Cambodian human rights. The vote was 28 in favor, 8 against, and 5 abstentions.
2. Oct. 21, 1986 The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution A/RES/41/6, by
vote of 116-21 with 13 abstentions, calling for a withdrawal of Vietnamese
forces from Cambodia.
Meaning "Srok Khmer has changed a lot.",Cambodia has thousands and thousands
illegal Vietnamese SETTLERS, 24 Vietnamese associations across the country,
200 000 Vietnamese troops still station on the soil of Cambodia.
Date: Sun, 23 May 2010 07:21:17 -0700
Subject: Talking won't work with North Korea
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Youk Chhang <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, May 22, 2010 at 8:46 PM
latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kirk-cambodia-20100519,0,5640802.story
Talking won't work with North Korea
Vietnam ousted the murderous Khmer Rouge by force; expecting peaceful change in
North Korea is folly.
Donald Kirk
Los Angeles Times
May 19, 2010
Is the regime of Kim Jong Il the cruelest the world has seen since Adolf
Hitler's in Germany or Josef Stalin's in the Soviet Union? For all the world
has heard about North Korea and its people's suffering, the answer is no. The
dubious distinction of cruelest probably belongs to Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. They
took over Cambodia in 1975 and ruled from the once-tranquil capital of Phnom
Penh until December 1978, when Vietnamese communist troops drove them out.
About 2 million people are estimated to have died at the hands of the Khmer
Rouge, from disease, starvation, executions and torture.
The suffering under the Khmer Rouge is resonant with the plight North Koreans
have endured for many more years. Today, however, Phnom Penh is bustling, alive
with shops selling an incredible variety of silk, statuary, silver objects and
souvenirs. Restaurants offer just about any menu. The streets are swarming with
traffic as motor scooters dart in and out and larger vehicles carry people and
commercial products. Motorcycles pulling what look like small, old-fashioned
carriages offer taxi services. Internet cafes thrive in every marketplace.
Casinos and nightclubs lure those in search of higher-priced fun, and the
National Museum and Royal Palace offer lush and rich glimpses of Khmer
civilization and heritage going back 2,000 years.
So what lesson is there — for North Korea and the world — in the transformation
of Cambodia from a frightening dictatorship into a hustling if not exactly
democratic society? Cambodia's current system, in which Hun Sen has ruled as
prime minister, with the backing of Vietnam, almost continuously for 25 years,
is not at all ideal. Many of the country's 15 million people continue to suffer
economically. And it's fair to assume that torture and killings go on, although
not on a mass scale.
In an imperfect world, however, Cambodia gives every appearance of having
recovered its erstwhile reputation as an "oasis of peace." That was how Prince
Norodom Sihanouk described his kingdom when navigating a treacherous course of
neutrality as American and South Vietnamese forces fought the North Vietnamese
until the U.S.-backed regime fell in Vietnam two weeks after the defeat of
Cambodia in 1975. It was a measure of Sihanouk's incredible finesse that he was
able to return to Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, even though a number of his
children were killed at the hands of the forces that isolated him in his royal
quarters.
Sihanouk has somehow survived, even though he has no real power. He is more or
less a king emeritus, a revered figure who is able to appear above the tawdry
power politics that periodically shakes up the elite six years after his eldest
surviving son, Norodom Sihamoni, was crowned as his successor. The endurance of
the throne, however, represents a grand compromise in which momentous changes
had to occur before Cambodia could begin to reach its current level of peace
and prosperity. The Pol Pot regime had to fall, and the men around him — those
responsible for forms of torture comparable to the security apparatus of North
Korea's "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il — had to flee, to be killed or captured, to
disappear forever. That should not be lost on South Koreans or their American
ally in weighing how far to go in attempting reconciliation or "talks" with
North Korea. At some point someone in responsibility has to face the question:
At what point does intervention become necessary?
In that debate, the Khmer Rouge comparison assumes still greater relevance. The
question is how was it that the forces of a communist country —- against which
the Americans and South Vietnamese, supported by two divisions of South
Koreans, had fought for a generation — accomplished such a stunning success for
the everlasting benefit of the Cambodian people? The answer in part is that
Vietnam, after the communist victory in 1975, was never a terrible
dictatorship. As Vietnam's leadership went through its own tortuous policy
shifts, market capitalism began to flourish. Vietnamese gained a level of
cultural and economic freedom that had not appeared possible in 1975. Moreover,
Ho Chi Minh, who led Vietnam's communist regime until his death in 1969, never
gained a reputation for pervasive cruelty over his own people, even as he
ruthlessly suppressed opponents.
It's difficult to compare such different societies and cultures as those in
Cambodia and North Korea, but the lesson is clear. There can be no real
compromise with the Kim regime. The history of regimes such as Cambodia's under
the Khmer Rouge is that they do not willingly yield, do not suddenly adopt
humanitarian policies and do not give up the props of their rule, notably their
weapons. It's wishful thinking to expect North Korea to shift its policies or
honor any agreement on much of anything, including its nuclear weapons program.
It took an upheaval to bring about relief from suffering in Cambodia, and it
will take another on that scale to reform North Korea.
Donald Kirk, based in South Korea, covered Cambodia and Vietnam in the late
1960s and early '70s for newspapers and magazines. He is the author of several
books, most recently "Korea Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine."
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its
own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
t: +855 23 21 18 75
f: +855 23 21 03 58
h: +855 12 90 55 95
e: [email protected]
www.dccam.org
Observing the ECCC. Daily Report; please visit: www.cambodiatribunal.org
Transform the River of Blood into a River of Reconciliation.
A River of Responsibility. Break the Silence.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
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