AKP Phnom Penh, August 29, 2011 –This is the commentary from Mr. Raoul M. JENNAR, Former “diplomatic consultant to the International NGO Forum on Cambodia”(1989-1993), former consultant to UNTAC, to the UNESCO to the European Union in Cambodia (1993-1999) and to the Royal Government of Cambodia (2007-2011). Author of several books on Cambodia, whose the latest is “Trente ans depuis Pol Pot. Le Cambodge de 1979 à 2009″, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2010 and the next is “Khieu Samphan et les Khmers Rouges. Réponse à Jacques Vergès” Paris, Editions Demopolis: to be published the coming September.
The following is the full text of the commentary:
“This year is the 20th anniversary of the Paris peace accords that ended the Cambodian war and any further threat from the murderous Khmer Rouge” wrote Elisabeth Becker in her opinion published by the New York Times on August 17. This is, from someone who used to be a responsible journalist, a surprising statement.
Like her, I reported all the peace negotiations. Like her, I wrote many comments about UNTAC, the UN operation that was in charge of implementing the accords. But I do not share her global evaluation of the agreements signed in Paris in 1991 and the way they have been implemented. Because the peace accords failed to bring peace in Cambodia. They failed to end the Khmer Rouge threat.
Facing the refusal by the Khmer Rouge to open the fourth of the Cambodian territory under their control to the UN blue helmets, facing their refusal to disarm and to demobilize their 40.000 soldiers, the UN Secretary general, B. Boutros-Ghali, an old friend of Khieu Samphan, the former Democratic Kampuchea head of State, imposed a “patient diplomacy” that let the Khmer Rouge problem without solution when UNTAC left the country.
In September 1993, at the end of the UN operation, the territory under the control of Pol Pot and his fellow murderers was larger than two years before. Fighting resumed at the same level than before UNTAC. 28% of the annual budget of the Royal Government of Cambodia were allocated to the military activities. Three hundred thousands people remained under the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge. Hundreds if not thousands of civil servants of the legitimate authorities and ordinary citizens lost their life between 1993 and 1998, victims of the men of Pol Pot and Khieu Samphan. Dozens of fishermen and their families were massacred by the Khmer Rouge because they were of Vietnamese origin. Bridges were destroyed; trains were attacked. Even three foreign tourists, together with thirteen Cambodians, were captured on July 26, 1994 and murdered with iron bars by the Khmer Rouge. I don’t think that the relatives of Australian David Wilson, 29, Briton Mark Slater, 26, and Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet, 27, and the thirteen Cambodians will appreciate the words of Elisabeth Becker.
In the eighties, 200.000 Vietnamese soldiers failed to destroy the Khmer Rouge movement. During UNTAC, 16.000 Blue Helmets failed to disarm the Khmer Rouge soldiers. Immediately after UNTAC, the negotiations with Khieu Samphan led by King Norodom Sihanouk failed also. It was the so called “win-win policy” implemented by the Royal Government of Cambodia that brought finally peace in Cambodia. The surrender of Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea in December 1998 and the capture of Ta Mok, the “butcher of Cambodia”, in March 1999, ended a war that started three decades before. A war that the Paris peace accords failed to stop. These are facts. And they are indisputable.
The following is the full text of the commentary:
“This year is the 20th anniversary of the Paris peace accords that ended the Cambodian war and any further threat from the murderous Khmer Rouge” wrote Elisabeth Becker in her opinion published by the New York Times on August 17. This is, from someone who used to be a responsible journalist, a surprising statement.
Like her, I reported all the peace negotiations. Like her, I wrote many comments about UNTAC, the UN operation that was in charge of implementing the accords. But I do not share her global evaluation of the agreements signed in Paris in 1991 and the way they have been implemented. Because the peace accords failed to bring peace in Cambodia. They failed to end the Khmer Rouge threat.
Facing the refusal by the Khmer Rouge to open the fourth of the Cambodian territory under their control to the UN blue helmets, facing their refusal to disarm and to demobilize their 40.000 soldiers, the UN Secretary general, B. Boutros-Ghali, an old friend of Khieu Samphan, the former Democratic Kampuchea head of State, imposed a “patient diplomacy” that let the Khmer Rouge problem without solution when UNTAC left the country.
In September 1993, at the end of the UN operation, the territory under the control of Pol Pot and his fellow murderers was larger than two years before. Fighting resumed at the same level than before UNTAC. 28% of the annual budget of the Royal Government of Cambodia were allocated to the military activities. Three hundred thousands people remained under the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge. Hundreds if not thousands of civil servants of the legitimate authorities and ordinary citizens lost their life between 1993 and 1998, victims of the men of Pol Pot and Khieu Samphan. Dozens of fishermen and their families were massacred by the Khmer Rouge because they were of Vietnamese origin. Bridges were destroyed; trains were attacked. Even three foreign tourists, together with thirteen Cambodians, were captured on July 26, 1994 and murdered with iron bars by the Khmer Rouge. I don’t think that the relatives of Australian David Wilson, 29, Briton Mark Slater, 26, and Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet, 27, and the thirteen Cambodians will appreciate the words of Elisabeth Becker.
In the eighties, 200.000 Vietnamese soldiers failed to destroy the Khmer Rouge movement. During UNTAC, 16.000 Blue Helmets failed to disarm the Khmer Rouge soldiers. Immediately after UNTAC, the negotiations with Khieu Samphan led by King Norodom Sihanouk failed also. It was the so called “win-win policy” implemented by the Royal Government of Cambodia that brought finally peace in Cambodia. The surrender of Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea in December 1998 and the capture of Ta Mok, the “butcher of Cambodia”, in March 1999, ended a war that started three decades before. A war that the Paris peace accords failed to stop. These are facts. And they are indisputable.
4 comments:
Thank you for putting the true fact out; I am sure you will be disputed by other Khmer citizens living abroad. I have told many of my Khmer fellow again and again that Royal government brought peace for Cambodia but many were blind by short sight political view because of the hatred against Vietnamese blind them from seeing anything. Don't get me wrong, there are long history between the two countries and many politician capitalize on this history to make a name of themselve as the "savior" of Cambodia.
This guy is known in European circles as the "Belgian charlatan". He has consistently defended the Hun Sen dictatorship and made money out of it. He is a paid "advisor" to the Cambodian government, exactly like "Lok Chumteauv Helen Jarvis" whose husband ,Allen Myers, produced the previous "anonymous" attack on Elizabeth Becker posted by AKP.
Myers of course is the former Secretary General of the Trotskyst Party of Australia (a kind of Marxist conglomerate).
Time and time again they have attacked the pro-Chinese Khmer Rouge (and rightly so) for what they did to the Khmer people but they have avoided any criticism of the current pro-Haoi Khmer Rouge regime in Phnom Penh because they are being paid handsomely by Hun Sen and Sok An. These dishonest people are making money out of the misery of thousands of Cambodians whose rigths continue to be violated by the Hun Sen dictatorship.
Furthermore Jennar made money working as a Consultant for the UNTAC operation which he now criticises so readily. It is time Cambodia rids itself of these international mercenaries.
Elizabeth Becker should be commended for having the guts to tell the truth about contemporary Cambodia.
Why Hun Sen could not end war before Paris Peace accords? It the same thing can Hun Sen born without his parents, especially his mother delivered him?
Without the UN and the Resistance fighters, the Viet will not withdraw from Cambodia and still occupy Cambodia till today. And without the UN and the Resistance fighters, there won't be any peace agreement and no peace because the Viet will still occupy Cambodia. Without Hun Sen, Cambodia would be very prosperous. With Hun sen Cambodia grows but very slow.
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