Ponchaud Father Francis has dedicated his life to the Cambodians, consoling their sorrows and listening to their doubts. First to condemn the Khmer Rouge and author of Cambodia Year Zero , no one can deny that is a leading authority on the subject. Interview bluntly about the trial of all the controversy ...
People in rural areas are they interested in Khmer Rouge trial? Not at all. I walk alongside the Khmer people, I listen to the confidences of many people. Well, actually, they prefer to know first what they will eat. That is their number one problem. And many complain: "We judge the Khmer Rouge, who killed the people but not judge the Khmer Rouge in power in Phnom Penh! . There is a resentment against Hun Sen, who is very strong! The Khmers are angry against the government ...
If Cambodians lose interest, do you think the trial will continue?
In a few months there will be a question of confidence: "is continued or stopped?" . I suspect they will stop. This court is the court of international hypocrisy and injustice. I told the prosecutor. It has not rained, but I persist and I sign. Damn, all these countries who want to try the Khmer Rouge, they all have supported for 14 years until 1989!
is the position of the United States that bothers you? I
the recollection of an anecdote. It was during a symposium in Oslo in 1978, Jimmy Carter sent a telegram calling Pol Pot's largest "violator of human rights of humanity" . With Charles Meyer, former advisor to King Sihanouk, we slammed our desk and we left. What they have done them, the Americans with King Sihanouk? Vietnam? And the American bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail? And then in 1973 when they razed Cambodia so that the kingdom does not become a rear base of the Vietcong? United States also violated human rights with impunity! When the Khmer Rouge was overthrown, even Jimmy Carter has supported them for another 10 years ... I understand very well either in the geo-strategy. It supported the Khmer Rouge even if they hated. It should support China, put a thorn in the back of the Soviet Union represented in Southeast Asia by Viet Nam. But I find inappropriate from the United States to pay money for this international court, so they committed themselves to crimes against humanity!
And the French position?
Rama Yade has come to bring money to the court. I have taken advantage of: "Okay, human rights, I too am for. But tell me how the various governments of the right or left supported the Khmer Rouge for 14 years?" . She said: "But you know, it was the end of the Sino-Soviet Cold War ..." . I told him "While the rights of man, you sit on it? Before they went into loss and profit on behalf of international politics. And now you reactivate? It appears to me not serious ... ". There she was very annoyed, did not know what to say. As for Americans, there were strategic reasons ....
Why are you talking about" international trial of hypocrisy ?
I can speak personally. I filed my testimony to the Committee on International Human Rights UN September 15, 1978. I'm really an alien past. "But what Did he just do that? ". I hardly believed it myself. The UN has agreed to pose some questions to the government Cambodia's it. Today, the international community considers those she supported. She gives lessons to the Cambodians that they do not deserve. What has been done to help them from 1975 to 1989? Nothing.
And why is it the "court of injustice"?
Douch lost the case on that day but his final was correct: "Well I worked with the court. I said what I knew about S21. I'm a bastard, I know. But I'm not the scumbag. There are other camps far greater than mine. I have killed Khmer leaders Red while others have killed tens of thousands of people. Them, nobody worried ". His conclusion is acceptable. There were still 198 torture centers in Cambodia! S21 is simply the most publicized prison ... It is largely due to the good preservation of its records. Duch was smarter to burn ...
Are there still an interest in court?
This trial is interesting in that it will perhaps shed light on history. Justice picks countless documents. In a few years if researchers want to trace the phenomenon "Khmer Rouge", they have documents to do so.
Interview by Marion Le Texier (www.lepetitjournal.com / cambodge.html) Monday, July 5, 2010
SreAmbel, Cambodia France 
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