Don't Let the Nightmare Return

IMAGINE the United States supporting the Nazis at the end of World War II. As appalling as the idea might sound, the U.S. government has essentially said that it is ready to supply money and weapons to the Khmer Rouge, a party that murdered over a million Cambodians while in power during the late 1970s, so that they may regain partial control of Cambodia.

The United States and other non-communist countries are overlooking the atrocious acts of genocide committed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. For four years they terrorized the Cambodian population, sent people off to labor camps and let thousands starve to death. The Khmer Rouge intentionally kept food rations low so that Cambodians would be too weak to organize resistance against them. At least 20,000 were arrested and tortured for political crimes. To this day, there are rooms full of skulls lying in anonymous heaps, dug from the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge.

The United States would not be sending the money directly to the Khmer Rouge. Officially, we support Prince Nordom Sihanouk, who ruled Cambodia in the '60's and leads the opposition coalition that includes the Khmer Rouge.

NOW that the Vietnamese troops have pulled out of Cambodia, the opposition is in a position to overthrow the government installed by the Vietnamese. The Khmer Rouge government, receiving military assistance from China, was overthrown in the Vietnamese invasion in 1979.

While the U.S. has done all it can to get Prince Sihanouk to break with the Khmer Rouge, he has remained their ally since they provide the main military forces for the opposition coalition. The Paris negotiations have been adjourned, having reached a stalemate over whether the Khmer Rouge should play a role in the newly organized government. So far, India is the only non-communist country that has taken a strong stance against the Khmer Rouge.

THE problem lies in the alternative--leaving a Vietnamese government in Phnom Penh. Unwilling to let Vietnam extend its sphere of influence, both China and the United States would prefer the opposition coalition that includes the Khmer Rouge. But the Cambodian people would not.

The U.S. may argue that Prime Minister Hun Sen is a communist and push for a democratic government, but it should not do so against the wishes of the Cambodian people. Vietnam freed Cambodia from an oppresive and inhumane regime. Although many Cambodians still do not trust the Vietnamese, they would like to avoid a civil war.

What Cambodia needs most is domestic stability and a place in the international economy. According to The New York Times, Phnom Penh markets are filled with rice and other food, but they have been unable to export such commodities as hardwood, rubber, rice and seafood.

The U.S. holds out hope that Prince Sihanouk willd be able to control the Khmer Rouge and effectively lead a democratic government in Phnom Penh. But the fact that he chooses to ally himself with a guerrilla group repulsive to the majority of Cambodians does not speak will of his political judgment. While Prince Sihanouk argues that the Khmer Rouge will continue fighting their guerilla war unless they are given some say in governing Cambodia, that hardly justifies negotiating with mass murderers.

The crucial step for the U.S. and other countries is to listen to the people of Cambodia. After so many years of war, "social reform" and oppresive government, most would simply like a chance for peace.

"To many Cambodians, it doesn't matter whether they are living under [opposition co-leader] Lon Nol or Hun Sen; it's all the same," only, "They worry about their children having to fight a war," Dith Pran wrote in a New York Times Magazine piece on his return to Cambodia for the first time since his escape from the Khmer Rouge. While the U.S. may have to swallow its pride by accepting a diplomatic victory for the Vietnamese for the moment, everyone would benefit in the long run. Everyone, that is, except the Khmer Rouge.