A breakthrough in efforts to try surviving Khmer Rouge leaders for the deaths of up to 2 million people emerged yesterday with the UN holding out an olive branch to the Cambodian government.
A breach in the four-month impasse followed an offer by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to re-open tribunal talks if he receives a mandate from the UN Security Council or the General Assembly.
Government officials, tribunal advocates and diplomats welcomed the offer signaling justice might yet be found for those who perished under Pol Pot's 1975 to 1979 regime through alleged genocide and starvation.
"I think that this is a fresh opening after a long delay," said Prince Norodom Ranariddh, head of the royalist FUNCINPEC party.
The offer came in a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen and was made public by Annan as the UN's top human rights chief, Mary Robinson, arrived here.
Senior diplomats were hopeful the offer would end bitterness between Phnom Penh and the UN, sparked on Feb. 8 when the UN broke-off four years of negotiations with the Cambodian government aimed at staging a trial.
Then, the UN cited this country's inability to hold objective and impartial hearings. But it later emerged the chief sticking point centered around who would ultimately control the trial process, Cambodia or the UN.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has spent seven years compiling evidence of atrocities committed by the ultra-Maoists, welcomed the decision saying only China posed a potential obstacle.
"It's the kind of gesture that's creating a position to collaborate so it's a positive step but now it's up to the government to take action and seek that mandate and convince the UN that they are serious," he said.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS