A US congressional delegation concluded a two-day visit to Cambodia Monday with warm praise for the Cambodia Senate’s approval of the Khmer Rouge tribunal law.
Richard Gephardt, minority leader of the US House of Representatives, spoke for the nine-lawmaker delegation as it headed for its plane at Pochentong Airport.
“We are very, very pleased the tribunal is going forward,” he said. “This is a great step forward for Cambodia, [and] very important for the sake of justice.”
He said the delegation would be reporting back to their colleagues in the US Congress “about the progress we have seen in Cambodia.”
The day’s schedule was a busy one, as the congressmen met with King Norodom Sihanouk, Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Assembly President Norodom Ranariddh, as well as several nongovernmental organizations.
Among other topics, Gephardt said, they discussed the possibility of the US resuming direct aid to Cambodia. The US cut off all but humanitarian aid to Cambodia after the factional fighting of 1997.
Gephardt said that while he favors resumption of aid, he believes it should be delivered through NGOs, rather than directly to the government. “I think the NGOs are doing a remarkably good job,” he said.
The visitors began their day with a stop at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh.
The congressmen and their entourage of nearly 40 people were virtually silent as they toured the dusty rooms where an estimated 20,000 people were interrogated and tortured between 1975 and 1979.
The photographs of the victims seemed to hit the delegation the hardest. Many shook their heads as they scanned the walls where hundreds of faces—some just young children—stared silently back.
“It is a very moving experience,” said Gephardt as he left the museum. “I had the same empty, sad, tragic feeling inside that I had after visiting concentration camps in Germany.
“Man’s inhumanity to man has not ended. We hope for the Khmer Rouge trials to bring these matters to justice.”
