People gather
yesterday in Malai district to pay their respects to the late Ieng Sary,
who served as foreign minister during the Khmer Rouge regime.
Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
March 20, 2013
Hundreds of relatives and former Khmer Rouge fighters are expected to
gather Thursday for the cremation of regime co-founder Ieng Sary, who
died last week while on trial for genocide.
The 87-year-old's death cheated Cambodians of a verdict over his role
in the hardline communist regime's atrocities and handed another blow
to the UN-backed tribunal, which has been blighted by delays and cash
shortages.
Grieving in Ieng Sary's hometown of Malai close to the Thai border has illustrated the lingering divide between supporters of the former regime and those who survived its brutality.
"He is a hero for the people of Malai," said former Khmer Rouge
fighter Long Run, 78, describing the Khmer Rouge's former foreign
minister as a "patriot" who defended the country from Vietnamese invaders.
"I was shocked when I heard he was dead. We're sorry that we lost him
now," he told AFP as he paid his respects at Ieng Sary's home in Malai,
a small bustling town where former Khmer Rouge cadres sell goods in a
local market.
Ieng Sary's body was returned last Thursday to his powerbase in the
remote northwestern border area where he held out with fellow Khmer
Rouge members after the regime fell from power until his defection in
1996.
Monks have held religious rites each day as part of a week-long
funeral, and a crematory has been built outside the family home for the
cremation, which is expected to be held at about 6:00 pm (1100 GMT) on
Thursday.
Several hundred villagers attended a funeral ceremony on Friday with
some crying, according to witnesses, even though Ieng Sary was accused
of overseeing purges and the murder of intellectuals as foreign
minister.
"Although people from outside this area accused him of genocide, he
did good things for the poor people here," said former Khmer Rouge cadre
Nhem Preuong, 58.
"I regard him as my parent," he added.
The death of Ieng Sary, one of the regime's few public faces,
intensified fears his remaining two elderly fellow defendants may also
die before verdicts can be reached at the embattled tribunal.
The one-time radical student was the oldest of three former leaders
on trial, along with "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, 86, and former head
of state Khieu Samphan, 81.
All have denied charges including war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge killed an
estimated two million Cambodians through starvation, overwork or
execution in a bid to create an agrarian utopia.
So far the UN-backed court has achieved just one conviction,
sentencing former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, to
life in jail for overseeing the deaths of about 15,000 people.
suy/dr/jw
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130320/cambodia-cremate-khmer-rouge-co-founder
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