Human bones stacked up around Cambodia as monuments to Khmer Rouge victims will not be cremated, the country's Prime Minister vowed, saying they must be kept as evidence of the regime's atrocities.
Prime Minister Hun Sen rejected calls from former king Norodom Sihanouk to burn the victims' remains according to Buddhist tradition, saying this would hamper efforts to try the former regime leaders.
His comments came as a United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal continues to flounder amid allegations of graft and infighting over the trials' internal rules.
PHOTO: EPA
"We really don't want to keep the corpses of our people for tourists to see, but it is evidence of genocidal crime," Hun Sen said in a speech.
"There are demands to cremate (the bones) in order for the victims' souls to be reborn. But if the bones are gone, the Khmer Rouge trials cannot be done," he added.
Up to two million people died under the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime, which abolished religion, property rights, currency and schools in its drive to create an agrarian utopia.
Regime leader Pol Pot died in 1998.
The countryside is dotted with scores of grim monuments to the communist guerrillas' killing spree, with the skulls and bones of tens of thousands stacked into piles in monasteries, ruined schools and other public places.
Some have become popular tourist sites, with more than 100,000 people visiting Choeung Ek last year.
"They want to know how cruel Pol Pot was," Hun Sen said. "If we cremate the bones, it will be the same as in the early 1980s ... when no one believed such a thing happened."(AFP)
柬埔寨總理誓言,堆疊在柬埔寨各地的赤色高棉受難者骨骸將不會火化,將保存當作赤色政權暴行的證據。
總理韓森反對前國王西哈努克基於佛教傳統將受難者遺體火化的打算,認為這將危害對赤色政權領導者審判的諸多努力。
聯合國支持的赤色高棉審判法庭,持續在貪污指控與審判規定爭論不休中掙扎之際,韓森做出了評論。
韓森在演講時提到︰「我們實在不希望觀光客看到人民屍體,但這是消滅種族罪行的證據。」
他也提到︰「為了讓受難者靈魂轉世,有人提出將受難者遺骸火化的要求。不過,假如遺骸消失了,赤色高棉的審判就無法完成。」
高達兩百萬人在一九七五至一九七九年間的赤色高棉統治時期罹難。赤色政權當時廢除了宗教、私有財產權、貨幣與學校,冀望建構一個農業烏托邦。
赤色政權領導者波布於一九九八年逝世。
柬埔寨境內遍布共產游擊隊大肆殺戮的殘酷紀念碑,成千上萬個頭骨與骨骸堆疊在佛教寺院、傾毀的學校與其他公共場所。
有些地方已成為熱門觀光勝地,去年就有逾十萬人參觀萬人塚。
「他們想知道波布有多殘忍,」韓森說︰「假如我們火化這些遺骸,就跟一九八○年代初期沒有兩樣‥‥當時無人相信曾發生這種事。」 (法新社╱翻譯︰賴美君)
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