Clinton: Khmer Rouge Is Not Dead
Despite Pol Pot's death, President Clinton is pledging to pursue justice against other Khmer Rouge leaders who share guilt in their "murderous reign of terror" in Cambodia.
"We must not permit the death of the most notorious of the Khmer Rouge leaders to deter us from the equally important task of bringing these others to justice," Mr. Clinton said late Thursday in a written statement.
 |
Pol Pot's death "has again brought to international attention one of the most tragic chapters of inhumanity in the 20th century," Mr. Clinton said.
Senior Khmer Rouge leaders "are still at large and share responsibility for the monstrous human rights abuses committed during this period."
Mr. Clinton, in Chile for a hemispheric summit, said, "Now is a time to remember the victims of Pol Pot's murderous reign of terror and to underscore our determination to help the Cambodian people achieve a lasting peace based on respect for basic human rights and democratic principles."
Hours after the first reports that 73-year-old Pol Pot had died of apparent heart failure late Wednesday, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin noted that no American officials were in the jungle, 275 yards from the Thai border, where Pol Pot was said to have died.
"We have little hard information on this subject," Rubin said, adding that an autopsy would have been helpful.
Up to 2 million Cambodians, or about 25 percent of the Asian nation's population, were believed to have been killed during Pol Pot's reign. He had received some western support, funneled through Thailand, before he was toppled by Vietnam.
The State Department recently sought to enlist China and other nations in arranging a war-crimes trial of Pol Pot. Undersecretary Thomas Pickering went to Beijing this month for consultations.
Rubin said the United States would continue efforts to bring to justice other Cambodians who participated in the bloody repression two decades ago of intellectuals, anti-Communists and others suspected of opposing Pol Pot's attempt to convert Cambodia into an agrarian society modeled on Maoist China.
The Khmer Rouge had a collective leadership, and those responsible with Pol Pot for the executions "should be brought to justice," Rubin said.
Several serve in the current Cambodian government, wit which the United States has diplomatic relations and provides limited humanitarian assistance.
©1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed