The battle-weary soldiers who put down their guns five years ago to join the government will gather today in the Banteay Meanchey province village of Phnom Malai to mark the fifth anniversary of a defection many say crippled the Khmer Rouge.
News of the defection on Aug 8, 1996, came in a surprise announcement from then-Second Prime Minister Hun Sen. After months of negotiations, Hun Sen announced that 3,000 soldiers had defected to the government. The soldiers were from Divisions 450 and 415, based in Phnom Malai and Pailin, respectively.
“This is extremely pleasant news!” Hun Sen said at the time. Defections continued in the following months. Those defections are regarded as the final downfall of the Khmer Rouge regime and, perhaps, the beginning of a long effort to hold the Khmer Rouge accountable for the more than 1 million deaths blamed on the movement.
Thousands of Khmer Rouge cadre who defected to the government have never been fully integrated into Cambodian society, said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia.
“I think their role [in Cambodia] was not clear at the time of the defection. No one was socially integrated, so you would see two groups of people living in one nation. I think a [Khmer Rouge] tribunal would help them to become socially integrated,” Youk Chhang said.
At least two Khmer-language newspapers have reported that Khmer Rouge soldiers in the northwest are rearming in response to the government’s support for a law establishing a tribunal. Military leaders have denied the reports, however, and the deputy governor of Pailin said today’s ceremony is proof of the peaceful intentions of the former Khmer Rouge soldiers.
“It is a peaceful day in the whole of Cambodia. This ceremony is not done to strengthen armed forces in responding to the Khmer Rouge law signed by King Norodom Sihanouk and Prime Minister Hun Sen,” Ieng Vuth said. “Don’t accuse and exaggerate and don’t paint the wrong color. We should solve the problems through the national assembly.”
Mey Makk, chief of the Pailin Cabinet, said the anniversary is a reminder that former Khmer Rouge soldiers needed to cut themselves off from Pol Pot’s policies “because we need peace and national reconciliation.”
“If we did not join the government and we still followed Pol Pot’s way, we would have had only more fighting of Khmer against Khmer. Almost all people in Pailin do not want to make war. They have had enough after 20 years,” he said.
Mey Makk cautioned, however, that any tribunal should be limited to top Khmer Rouge leaders. Any attempt to try lower-ranking members will lead to armed conflict, he said.
“If the trial is confused and spread out among many people, they [the former Khmer Rouge soldiers] would be against it,” Mey Makk said.
Suong Sikoeun, spokesman for the Democratic National Union Movement, a political group formed by remnants of the Khmer Rouge, told Agence France-Presse Tuesday that top Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary should not be a focal part of the tribunal because he was abroad during much of the Khmer Rouge years.
“But he must bear some moral responsibility because he was among the leadership,” said Suong Sikoeun, who worked under Ieng Sary.
In previous years, the anniversary ceremony was held at Pailin, but this year’s ceremony was moved to Malai, site of a defection ceremony five years ago at which Ieng Sary and Hun Sen met to oversee the former rebels’ integration.
(Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse)
