The US Embassy held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday to unveil the site of the new $50 million “flagship” embassy building in Phnom Penh—an embassy complex which will meet post-Sept 11 security standards.
“The new embassy will be a very safe and secure facility for the Americans and the Cambodians who work inside,” said US Charge d’Affairs Alex Arvizu on Wednesday. “The world has changed. We have no choice but to do this.”
Construction for the new 2.6- hectare embassy, located on the site of the former International Youth Club near Wat Phnom, will begin in early 2003 and is expected to be completed in late 2005.
Khmer Rouge officials reportedly executed members of the Lon Nol regime near the tennis courts of the International Youth Club, then known as the Cercle Sportif, when they overtook Phnom Penh in April 1975, according to US journalist and author Elizabeth Becker.
Such claims, though, have never been verified, according to another US journalist and author, Henry Kamm.
The new embassy will have state-of-the-art security system as well as a housing facility for a detachment of US Marines, who will serve as a security force for the complex, said Charles Williams, the director and chief operating officer of the US State Department’s Overseas Building Operations.
The new embassy will be “a flagship project for a new generation” of US embassies around the world,” Williams said.
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said the government is “still ready to negotiate with the UN” for a UN-assisted Khmer Rouge trial.
Hor Namhong also said that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told him during a recent visit to UN headquarters in New York that Annan is waiting for a UN mandate before continuing negotiations with Cambodia on the stalled Khmer Rouge trials talks.
“We still want to try the Khmer Rouge with a fair trial, with the international norm,” Hor Namhong said.
