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Cambodian opposition leads only anniversary ceremony

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia on Monday largely ignored the 25th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge and its "killing fields" regime that led to the deaths of some 1.7 million people.

But opposition leader Sam Rainsy took the opportunity to criticise the government for foot-dragging over plans to take former Khmer Rouge leaders to trial and its failure to mark the anniversary.

"I would expect people higher placed to express the conscience of the nation," Sam Rainsy told reporters, citing King Norodom Sihanouk, his son, National Assembly chairman Prince Norodom Ranariddh, and premier Hun Sen.

Sam Rainsy said April 17, 1975, the day the Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh and launched their brutal rule, was the beginning of the end for nearly two million Cambodians.

"You cannot forget such a day," he said at a ceremony at Choeung Ek, a site about 15 km (9 miles) outside Phnom Penh that holds mass graves of Khmer Rouge victims.

Cambodia does not normally mark the anniversary.

Sam Rainsy led a remembrance ceremony at the execution site and was joined by some 200 villagers and monks who lit incense and made offerings.

"I lost five children during the regime of the Khmer Rouge," 74-year-old Prak Sophon said. "I want to see the international court put the former Khmer Rouge leaders on trial and give them a death sentence."

Cambodia does not have the death penalty.

No Khmer Rouge leader has ever been brought to court for the carnage during their 1975-79 rule but efforts are now underway to find justice.

The United Nations and the government have been discussing a tribunal but have so far failed to agree on the core issue of who would control a trial.

The government, many members of which were one-time Khmer Rouge members, wants to ensure it controls the proceedings while the United Nations says Cambodia's judicial system is so weak and prone to interference only international supervision can ensure proper justice.

Khieu Kanharith, secretary of state for the ministry of information, told Reuters last week that the government does not mark the anniversary of Phnom Penh's fall.

"There are conflicting views in Cambodia considering April 17 as a victory day or as the fall of Phnom Penh and the beginning of the Cambodian tragedy," he said.

Even in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin, the day was not marked.

"We have stopped celebrating the anniversary since we defected to the government," Koert Sothea, Pailin's deputy governor, told Reuters by telephone.

The surrender of Khmer Rouge forces in Pailin in 1996 marked the beginning of the end of the radical guerrilla group.

It's last commanders and fighters surrendered in December 1998, bringing peace to the whole country for the first time since the end of the 1960s.-Reuters