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Hun Sen's testimony sought
Attorneys have asked the UN-backed Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal for permission to interview Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and former King Norodom Sihanouk, according to confidential documents obtained on Monday.
Bubbles is still alive? He must be 189 or so...
The request was made by the defense team for Nuon Chea, the main ideologist of the regime whose 1975-1979 rule left an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians dead.
I think Bubbles was in Gay Paree and/or Beijing subsequent to the Khmer Rouge takeover. Hun Sen was in Vietnam. I imagine any testimony they could give would be minimally relevant to procedings against Mr. Ideologue of Mass Murder.
The long-delayed tribunal begins its first trial later this month, while the trial for Nuon Chea - charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity and facing life imprisonment - is expected to begin later this year.
Life imprisonment doesn't last as long as being dead, especially when you've been allowed to grow old in relative comfort waiting for your trial to start.
The confidential court documents obtained by The Associated Press also request testimony from current senate president Chean Sim and assembly president Heng Samrin. Both men, along with Hun Sen, were members of the Khmer Rouge regime but defected to Vietnam before it was ousted.
Hun Sen and Heng Samrin were Vietnam-style commies at the time, both members of the Indochina Communist Party. I've always thought it was much to both men's credit that they were too good to get involved with the Khmer Rouge approach to good government.
'They are likely in possession of much relevant information to the pending judicial investigation,' one of the documents said. All have denied any role in atrocities.
... the atrocities being the reason, presumably, they left for Vietnam.
Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for more than two decades, was a former Khmer Rouge soldier who fled to Vietnam in 1977 and became prime minister of a Vietnamese-installed communist government after the regime's fall.
I said that.
Son Arun, Nuon Chea's Cambodian attorney, confirmed the authenticity of the documents but said he had not personally filed the request, an apparent effort to distance himself from the move to put Cambodia's strongman on the stand.
Hun Sen is still in charge, and will remain that way...
The defense team said that the 86-year-old former King Sihanouk,
Bubbles lies about his age. He's at least a hundred years older than that.
who briefly served as a symbolic head of state after the Khmer Rouge took power, had 'rare access to the Khmer Rouge leadership, their strategies and policies' and was 'privy to a range of sensitive information.'
He was a figurehead and he's got the physical courage of a sparrow. I think he was in China when he was annointed "king." Prior to that he had possessed a bit more power as Prince Sihanouk. I think he was dethroned by the Cambodian regime in 1971 or thereabouts, which was why he left for Paris. Or maybe just stayed there, since I think he spent most of his time there...
The tribunal's first trial, scheduled to begin March 30, is for 65-year-old Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, who headed the Khmer Rouge's largest torture center.
In a world with any justice in it that trial would last about five minutes, followed by a quick but maximally painful execution. It also would have taken place at least 25 years ago.
Later trials will be held for Khieu Samphan, the group's former head of state; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; and his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs.
Kill them all, just like they did their countrymen. They're vermin.
Posted by: Fred 2009-03-03
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=263966