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Another Kerry in Cambodia Reference - US News May 8 2000
A Mission to Cambodiaby Kevin Whitelaw | May 08 '00 Sen. John Kerry made his first forays into Cambodia during the Vietnam War as a Navy lieutenant on clandestine missions to deliver weapons to anticommunist forces. Lemmee see - CIA agents, patrolling weapons deliveries. Sound like a Baron von Munchausen complex to me. When he returned last week, the mission was official, but dicey nonetheless. At the request of the United Nations, Kerry is trying to broker a compromise on how to try leaders of the former Khmer Rouge regime, whose late 1970s reign of terror claimed the lives of some 1.7 million Cambodians. Broker a compromise? How Kerry! Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen wants to control any court looking into genocide charges, but U.S. and U.N. officials have demanded an international tribunal. "You can't have a situation where a justice system that many people view as inoperative will have the ability to trump the international community's consensus," says Kerry. Kerry is offering a compromise to allow for co-prosecutors and co-investigators. Both Cambodian and foreign judges would have to agree before an indictment could be thrown out. Hun Sen had initially accepted the proposal but ran into hard-line opposition from his political allies. Kerry anticipates a deal could be struck as early as this week. UN wannabe? Still, the parliament needs to go along, and many members of the ruling party (including Hun Sen) held low- or mid-level posts in the Khmer Rouge regime and might be reluctant to sign on. A legislative debate has been delayed until late May, ostensibly because of a termite infestation of the parliament building. But what about the war crimes? The CIA agent and the above mentioned weapons in the dark of night Dec 24 1968? Remember President-elect Nixon was jumping the gun before the oath was taken and usurping LBJ!!!!! Posted by: BigEd 2004-08-10 |
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