Posted on 12/27/2004 11:55:03 PM PST by Calpernia
A Cambodian expert on the Khmer Rouge said Friday he has asked former U.S. President Bill Clinton to help raise funds for a long-delayed U.N.-backed tribunal to try surviving leaders of the genocidal regime.
The Cambodian government and the United Nations first discussed creating an internationally assisted tribunal in 1997. Cambodia finally ratified a pact with the United Nations for its creation in October this year. Finding funds for the court is seen as the final hurdle.
Earlier this month, the two sides agreed a budget of US$56.2 million (€42.4 million) for the court. The government will shoulder US$13.2 million (€10 million) of that cost and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was expected to call a donor conference soon to raise the remaining funds.
But Youk Chhang, director of an independent center documenting the Khmer Rouge atrocities, said Friday he's concerned that a delay in collecting funds will force Cambodians to wait even longer for justice. Many fear the top Khmer Rouge cadres could die of old age before the court is able to try them for crimes against humanity.
In a letter sent Thursday, Youk Chhang, of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, appealed to Clinton for help.
"You could be immensely important in helping Cambodians see justice done nearly a quarter of century after the genocide," he said in the letter provided to The Associated Press.
Clinton signed into law the 1994 Cambodian Genocide Justice Act, which created a State Department office to support research into the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.
Funding need not just come from other countries, but from corporate donations and foundations, and items such as furniture and computers would be just as welcome as money, Youk Chhang said Friday.
"Clinton is in a perfect position and the right person to raise this awareness ... among private institutions around the world, especially in the U.S.," Youk Chhang said.
There was no immediate response from the former U.S. president.
The surviving communist Khmer Rouge leaders are accused of the deaths of at least 1.7 million of their countrymen from starvation, disease, overwork and execution. None of the regime's top leaders has been brought to justice.
Top Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998. Several of his top lieutenants, aging and infirm, live freely in Cambodia.
Thank you for the freep mail!
Can you please use your Kerry ping list on this one? The "1994 Cambodian Genocide Justice Act" is significant here.
Thanks!
Ping!
Well, I'm just SURE John Fn Kerry and his unblushing bride would be GLAD to contribute to this through her TIDES Foundation project....it will help ol' KetchupBoy relive that Cambodian Christmas Eve when Genghis Khan seared, seared him like a French Fry in hot oil....(or should have)...
/sarcasm
I, personally, would love to learn more about the 'stories' of the 'US bombings' that occurred there, coupled with Kerry's claims of US Soldiers being there, and the use of POWs.
Were their plants????
Oh brother! LOL,what a surprise this guy's in for.
www.WinterSoldier.com I think will have some of that information, lots of stuff there. I wish I had a way to force our congresscritters to stop their daily mumbo-jumbo and prosecute TREASON. All this light dusting around the House and Senate, while there are wild hogs in the living room, bulls in the china shop....Kerry, Kennedy, Hillary, so many more RASCALS! GRRRR!
I'm very familiar with wintersoldier.com
I've even found other sites that have information expanded from theirs.
I have a research thread here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1209454/posts
That encompases alot of that info.
This is the thread that really taught me about the Vietnam War...since it was erased from the public school system.
that thread you sent me -- wow! Enough there to teach every kid what they need to know to save our Republic! And with extremely close attention being paid to more and more textbooks and curricula (Halleluia!) the pendulum of Learning is starting to swing back toward the truth....we're ONTO them!
You will want to see the link here and this thread, maybe.
Maybe I'm missing something in the above but if you're asking,
'did we have US military in Cambodia and did we conduct operations there?'The answer is yes.
Here's an excerpt:
MACV-SOG was established to assume the CIA's job of assisting, advising and supporting the new organization in the conduct of highly classified sabotage and psychological and special operations in North and South Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China.MACV-SOG was assigned about 2,000 Americans, mostly U.S. Special Forces, and over 8,009 highly trained indigenous troops. It had its own air force (90th Special Operations Wing) comprised of a squadron of U.S. Air Force UH-IF "Green Hornet" helicopters, a squadron of U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft, a covert C-123 aircraft squadron piloted and manned by Nationalist Chinese, as well as the South Vietnamese 219th "Kingbees" H-34 helicopter squadron. The U.S. Navy resources included SEAL's, Vietnamese Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) and fast patrol boats. Ground forces included army military intelligence, psychological operations and some 76 ground RT mobile-launch teams, later MACV-SOG reorganized its ground strike elements into three field commands; Command and Control South, Central and North (CCS, CCC and CCN).
Now as to 'us' using POW's, I don't have a clue as to what you mean?!? (no offense)
>>> Now as to 'us' using POW's, I don't have a clue as to what you mean?!? (no offense)
Not 'us'. I was wondering if our POWs were used in any operations by the Cong.
>>> I don't think it will be that difficult to prove we were there, for real, not kerry style.
I was actually thinking of the operations Kerry spoke of.
Do you think any of our POWs may have been used for them?
If not the POWs, maybe even the uniforms.
So if not for Kerry giving aid, comfort and moral boosting to the VC and NVA we'd never had reached 58,000 KIA. He might as well of shot them himself!
Thanks for the ping!
Yes. I only learned about all of that when I made this thread for my own research: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1209454/posts
The idea of the POWs and or uniforms being used in any cong type operation only came into my head because of the 'projection' Kerry and company use. I've noticed a lot of what they accuse others of is exactly what they are doing or have done.
Ahhhh the killing fields
of Arkansas
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