Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen accused the UN and the West yesterday of hypocrisy for demanding a role in a war crimes tribunal for the Khmer Rouge regime, and rejected their efforts to advise Phnom Penh on conducting trials.
Hun Sen's comments cast further doubt on whether the international community will be part of the forthcoming trials of at least two leaders of the Khmer Rouge's "killing fields" regime of the late 1970s.
The UN, the US and others are calling for a joint tribunal to ensure it meets minimum international standards of justice.
But Hun Sen has asserted that Cambodia must control the process, and said his government will go it alone early next year if the UN does not accept a minor role.
The prime minister continues to point out that the UN, backed by the US, Britain and others, allowed the Khmer Rouge to keep its UN seat after the genocidal Pol Pot regime was toppled by Vietnam in 1979.
The West then slapped Cambodia's Hanoi-installed government with a decade-long economic embargo in the 1980s, during which Hun Sen was foreign minister and later prime minister.
"I think these [countries] should not advise Hun Sen to accept their wish to bring Khmer Rouge leaders to justice," the prime minister said during a ceremony marking the introduction of non-governmental organizations into Cambodia 20 years ago.
"When Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was sentenced [in absentia by Vietnam 1979], these [countries] gave him Cambodia's seat in the UN," Hun Sen said.
"Now, they demand that Khmer Rouge leaders be brought to trial beyond what we want to do. The people who used to punish us during that time [with economic sanctions], they should not give advice or be our mentors on Khmer Rouge trials."
Negotiations between the UN and Phnom Penh on a joint tribunal ended in a deadlock in August, and despite ongoing mediation by the US, hopes are fading that a deal can be reached.
Many international legal experts have said Cambodia's corrupt and untrained judiciary is incapable of staging fair trials by itself.
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