EDITORIAL
Khmer Rouge legacy lives on
- Published: 19 Mar 2013 at 00.00
- Newspaper section: News
The unlamented death in Phnom Penh last week of Ieng Sary is notable in several ways. During the 1,360 black days of Khmer Rouge rule in the late 1970s, Ieng Sary was the public face of the "Angka", the rightfully feared organisation that dictated every detail of every Cambodian's life and death. More recently, as a defendant, he became the centre of the shabby tribunal that has failed to provide either justice or closure for the battered nation.
The constantly smiling, well-educated Ieng Sary was largely responsible for hoodwinking many people in the late 1970s. He fooled dozens of countries and thousands of diplomats and journalists into accepting his big lie that the rule of Pol Pot _ his brother-in-law _ was just a system of agrarian reform.
In fact, Ieng Sary was a key member of what was arguably the most brutal regime, ever. Ieng Sary and the Khmer Rouge were not just responsible for the deaths of some two-sevenths of the entire population of a country. The worse horror is that it was their own country.
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