World Cambodian Congress for Peace and Development
A Not-for-Profit, Non-Government, Tax-Exempt Organization
WCCPD - PO Box 355, Thiells, NY 10984 - EIN # 22-3370708
Tel/Fax: (914) 356-6820 and Tel/Fax: (201) 568-2159

August 25, 1997

The Honorable Jesse Helms
Chairman - Senate Foreign Relations Committee
The Honorable Benjamin A. Gilman
Chairman - House International Relations Committee

Ref.: Suspension of Multilateral Aids to Cambodia, and War Criminal List for Coup Leader Hun Sen

Dear Mr. Chairmen:

We, Cambodian-Americans and friends of Cambodia were very concerned with the lack of strong leadership from the Administration in dealing with the July 5^th 1997 coup d'etat by Hun Sen and subsequent human rights violation reported by the United Nations Center for Human Rights. Your committee and yourselves have expressed your views very clearly to both the President and the State Department while the House Resolution No. 195 of July 28, 1997 called for specific measures to counter the efforts of those who are trying to legitimize that bloody coup as inevitable.

Cambodia relied heavily on international aids with more than 50% of the national budget funded by donor countries. These assistance, along with the original $2.8 billions that the world community paid for UNTAC efforts that culminated in the 1993 election were to foster a democratic society with respect of the rule of law and human rights for the Cambodian people. Yet, Hun Sen destroyed them all with his bloody coup of last July! It was inconceivable that such action was not condemned in the strongest terms by all governments, mainly the signatories of the 1991 Paris Accords. Therefore donors countries, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (M), along with the Asian Development Bank should withhold their aids to Cambodia until democracy will be restored. Furthermore, the World Bank and the IMF have just created a precedent by suspending aids to Kenya because of that country corruption and bad governance while Cambodia was plagued with rampant corruption, drug trafficking and environment destruction.

There were more than 40 killings of opposition officials only in and around the capital Phnom Penh where the United Nations Officers could operate. Communist style tortures in the very compound of Hun Sen by the head of his security guard and at the Interior Ministry by Hun Sen's head of the police along with cold blood killings were classical pattern of Hun Sen's style. Being a born and trained killer by the Khmer Rouge, he has repeatedly resort to such actions to eliminate perceived oppositions to consolidate his own power. Such were the March 30, 1997 grenade attack on a rally in front of the National Assembly, the killings of reporters who spoke out against corruption, the 1995 grenade attack at the Temple and the house of BLDP President Son San, and the killings of opposition leaders (more than 200) during the 1993 election. These events should be enough to convince peace lovers to put Hun Sen on the War Criminal List without going further to his early involvement with the notorious Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot.

To restore the spirit of the 1991 Paris Accords that called for the restoration of civil, political and personal liberties of the Cambodian people while stopping Hun Sen in his conquest for absolute power and tyranny, we would like to request the Senate and the House to:  

I - Intercede with the Administration to instruct Secretary Rubin of the US Treasury Department to using the newly announced policies regarding bad governance as a cause for aid suspension as has already been applied to Kenya by the World Bank and the IMF, and to request that these multilateral financial institutions suspend their aids because of the obvious pervasive corruption and bad governance in Cambodia in order to pressure Hun Sen to respect the rule of law and human rights in Cambodia. Considerations should be given to humanitarian aids that directly benefited the people to avoid further disruption of their life, but not Hun Sen and the CPP cadres. Concerted financial pressure would be very effective and would greatly limited Hun Sen ability to inflict further damages to the people;

2 - Set up a Special Task to document all atrocities conunitted by Hun Sen against the Cambodian people from the time he joined the notorious Khmer Rouge in early 1970's to the latest killings after the coup of July 5th 1997 to put him on War Criminal List along with Pol Pot and others killers for an international tribunal whose jurisdiction will be defined at an appropriate time. Justice must be rendered and nobody including Hun Sen should be above the law. Since Cambodian justice is politically controlled by Hun Sen, the international tribunal would be the only authority to judge Hun Sen's actions and to absolve or sentence him in a fair and legal sense. We also feel strongly that the FBI report on the March 30^th grenade attack which killed 19 people and wounded more than 100 others including a US citizen, Ron Abney of the IRI, must be immediately released. There is no more reasons to protect the political stability in Cambodia as argued by the US Embassy in Phnom Penh.

We strongly feel the above initiatives will stop Hun Sen's tyranny and give Cambodian people a fair and reasonable chance to have a durable, peaceful and stable society, and that the US$ 2.8 billions that the international community had already invested in fostering democracy in Cambodia will not be wasted.

Sincerely yours,

PekThov Tan
Chairman