Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, right, meets with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at Cambodian Council of Minister in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, Nov. 1, 2010. Clinton on Monday urged Cambodia to confront its troubled past by ensuring the Khmer Rouge are brought to justice for crimes against humanity in the 1970s and improve its current human rights record.
(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
By Arshad Mohammed
PHNOM PENH
Mon Nov 1, 2010
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The United States and Cambodia agreed on Monday to resume negotiations on settling a $445 million debt accumulated by a U.S.-backed Cambodian military regime in the early 1970s.
Making her first visit to the South East Asian nation, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she would send a team to reopen talks, last held in 2006, about an issue that remains an irritant despite generally improving U.S.-Cambodian ties.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has called for the United States to forgive what he has called the "dirty debt" built up by the Lon Nol military government that came to power in a 1970 coup backed by Washington.
The Lon Nol government was toppled in 1975 by the brutal, ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime under which an estimated 1.7 million people died in less than four years.
"We very much want to see this matter resolved and, as his excellency said, in accordance with Paris Club principles and in service of Cambodia's development," Clinton told a news conference with Cambodian deputy prime minister and foreign minister Hor Namhong.
Earlier, she told a group of Cambodian students there were various ways the debt could be settled.
"You could have some repayment, you could have debt for nature, you could have debt for education. There are things that the government of Cambodia could do that would satisfy the need to demonstrate some level of accountability but, more importantly, to invest those funds in the needs of the people of Cambodia," she said.
While she did not elaborate, Clinton appeared to be alluding the possibility of the United States using Cambodian debt payments to fund programs in the country on education and the environment.
'A VERY DISTURBING EXPERIENCE'
The Khmer Rouge period plunged Cambodia into decades of poverty and political instability.
The country has been growing fast in recent years and has been generally stable although the government has come under criticism over its human rights record.
Last week, Hun Sen told visiting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to remove the head of a U.N. human rights office, threatening to close it if not.
Clinton made clear she did not want this, saying: "We think the work is important, and we would like to see it continue."
Hor Namhong stressed that there had been no decision to close the office and said that its agreement with Cambodia provided for the office to continue through January 2012.
Clinton began her visit to the Cambodian capital with a tour of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a Khmer Rouge prison and torture center known as S-21 where at least 14,000 people were forced to confess to various crimes against the regime and then taken away to be killed.
"It's a very disturbing experience," she said after viewing the dozens of photographs of those killed at the prison. Other exhibits including 'water-boarding' devices to torture people by simulating drowning and the skulls of some of the victims.
"The pictures, both the pictures of the young Cambodians who were killed and the young Cambodians who were doing the killing were so painful," Clinton said. "But I also came away very impressed. Because a country that is able to confront its past is a country that can overcome it.
In July, the prison's former chief, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, became the first Khmer Rouge commander to be convicted and was sentenced to 35 years in prison, although he is only likely to serve about half of that.
The United States is competing for influence in Cambodia with China, which has reached out to the country though aid, investment and trade.
Speaking to the students, Clinton made an argument for Cambodia to diversify its foreign relations.
"I think it is smart for Cambodia to be friends with many countries," she said. "It's like our relationship with other countries. You look for balance. You don't want to get too dependent on any one country."
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The United States and Cambodia agreed on Monday to resume negotiations on settling a $445 million debt accumulated by a U.S.-backed Cambodian military regime in the early 1970s.
Making her first visit to the South East Asian nation, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she would send a team to reopen talks, last held in 2006, about an issue that remains an irritant despite generally improving U.S.-Cambodian ties.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has called for the United States to forgive what he has called the "dirty debt" built up by the Lon Nol military government that came to power in a 1970 coup backed by Washington.
The Lon Nol government was toppled in 1975 by the brutal, ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime under which an estimated 1.7 million people died in less than four years.
"We very much want to see this matter resolved and, as his excellency said, in accordance with Paris Club principles and in service of Cambodia's development," Clinton told a news conference with Cambodian deputy prime minister and foreign minister Hor Namhong.
Earlier, she told a group of Cambodian students there were various ways the debt could be settled.
"You could have some repayment, you could have debt for nature, you could have debt for education. There are things that the government of Cambodia could do that would satisfy the need to demonstrate some level of accountability but, more importantly, to invest those funds in the needs of the people of Cambodia," she said.
While she did not elaborate, Clinton appeared to be alluding the possibility of the United States using Cambodian debt payments to fund programs in the country on education and the environment.
'A VERY DISTURBING EXPERIENCE'
The Khmer Rouge period plunged Cambodia into decades of poverty and political instability.
The country has been growing fast in recent years and has been generally stable although the government has come under criticism over its human rights record.
Last week, Hun Sen told visiting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to remove the head of a U.N. human rights office, threatening to close it if not.
Clinton made clear she did not want this, saying: "We think the work is important, and we would like to see it continue."
Hor Namhong stressed that there had been no decision to close the office and said that its agreement with Cambodia provided for the office to continue through January 2012.
Clinton began her visit to the Cambodian capital with a tour of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a Khmer Rouge prison and torture center known as S-21 where at least 14,000 people were forced to confess to various crimes against the regime and then taken away to be killed.
"It's a very disturbing experience," she said after viewing the dozens of photographs of those killed at the prison. Other exhibits including 'water-boarding' devices to torture people by simulating drowning and the skulls of some of the victims.
"The pictures, both the pictures of the young Cambodians who were killed and the young Cambodians who were doing the killing were so painful," Clinton said. "But I also came away very impressed. Because a country that is able to confront its past is a country that can overcome it.
In July, the prison's former chief, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, became the first Khmer Rouge commander to be convicted and was sentenced to 35 years in prison, although he is only likely to serve about half of that.
The United States is competing for influence in Cambodia with China, which has reached out to the country though aid, investment and trade.
Speaking to the students, Clinton made an argument for Cambodia to diversify its foreign relations.
"I think it is smart for Cambodia to be friends with many countries," she said. "It's like our relationship with other countries. You look for balance. You don't want to get too dependent on any one country."
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
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