Mon, Aug 03, 2009
Tommie Ullman
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (AFP)- Sweden rejected a US plan to capture Pol Pot before the former Cambodian dictator's death and transfer him to the Scandinavian country to stand trial, Swedish Radio reported Monday.
The report cited declassified Swedish diplomatic papers that revealed American authorities had asked Sweden and a number of other unnamed countries to take Pol Pot into custody and put him on trial for genocide and murder.
But according to the documents dated March 31, 1998 - two weeks before the Khmer Rouge leader's death - the Swedish government declined Washington's request.
Stockholm took the view that capturing Pot and bringing him for trial in this way would amount to unlawful detention and could tarnish the Scandinavian country's human rights record.
"Sweden's jurisdiction could be called into question if Pol Pot was brought to Sweden in an unlawful manner," Swedish Radio quoted the documents as saying.
"To 'dump' Pol Pot in Sweden would subject him to crimes against Swedish law, something Sweden ought not be part of," the documents said according to the radio report.
Pol Pot, who headed up Cambodia's communist regime from 1975 to 1979, died on April 15, 1998 at the age of 69.
Historians say he was responsible for the death of nearly two million people during his brutal reign.
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Sweden rejected US request for Pol Pot trial
Mon, Aug 03, 2009
AFP
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN - Sweden rejected a US plan to capture Pol Pot before the former Cambodian dictator's death and transfer him to the Scandinavian country to stand trial, Swedish Radio reported Monday.
The report cited declassified Swedish diplomatic papers that revealed American authorities had asked Sweden and a number of other unnamed countries to take Pol Pot into custody and put him on trial for genocide and murder.
But according to the documents dated March 31, 1998 - two weeks before the Khmer Rouge leader's death - the Swedish government declined Washington's request.
Stockholm took the view that capturing Pot and bringing him for trial in this way would amount to unlawful detention and could tarnish the Scandinavian country's human rights record.
"Sweden's jurisdiction could be called into question if Pol Pot was brought to Sweden in an unlawful manner," Swedish Radio quoted the documents as saying.
"To 'dump' Pol Pot in Sweden would subject him to crimes against Swedish law, something Sweden ought not be part of," the documents said according to the radio report.
Pol Pot, who headed up Cambodia's communist regime from 1975 to 1979, died on April 15, 1998 at the age of 69.
Historians say he was responsible for the death of nearly two million people during his brutal reign.
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