PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s National Assembly on Friday approved a bill making it a crime to deny that atrocities were committed by the country’s genocidal 1970s Khmer Rouge regime, a law that critics allege will be used as a weapon against the political opposition.
The assembly passed the bill unanimously in the absence of opposition lawmakers, who were expelled from the legislature this week. A committee controlled by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party said the opposition lawmakers must relinquish their seats because they had left their old parties to joined a new, merged party to contest the country’s general election in July.
The recently established Cambodia National Rescue Party faces an uphill battle against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s well-organized, well-financed political machine. It is already handicapped by having its leader, Sam Rainsy, in self-exile to avoid jail on what are widely seen as politically motivated charges.
Hun Sen, who has been prime minister since 1985, called for the new law after a leading opposition lawmaker reportedly suggested that some of the evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities was fabricated by Vietnam, whose army invaded to oust the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
Hun Sen was once a Khmer Rouge cadre himself, and his political allies include people linked by scholars to Khmer Rouge atrocities.
The radical policies of the communist Khmer Rouge are generally held responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition. A U.N.-assisted tribunal is currently trying two of the group’s surviving former leaders for genocide and other crimes.
The bill approved Friday must go through several more pro forma stages before becoming law. It would punish anyone denying that crimes were committed by the Khmer Rouge with imprisonment of six months to two years, and a fine of 1 million to 4 million riel ($250 to $1,000).
Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, commented in a prepared statement that his group does not deny that serious crimes were committed under the Khmer Rouge, but it does not consider a law prohibiting such denials to be necessary.
“Restricting debate, discussion and education about the Khmer Rouge period through such a law would be to the detriment of survivors, rather than for their benefit,” he said. “The law is therefore a blatant politicization of our country’s history in order to score points before the national elections.”
