A Sary defense

Rich Garella, who in the mid-1990s worked as a reporter an editor for the Cambodia Daily and later as a spokesperson for the Sam Rainsy Party, has this to say about the KR Trials.

There will never be a meaningful trial of Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia while Hun Sen is in power. … Ieng Sary will never be a convict in prison in a Cambodia ruled by Hun Sen, regardless of evidence, trial, sentencing etc.

Obviously, no one yet knows who, if anybody, will actually face the court. But Garella is certainly correct; The chances of Ieng Sary going to prison are about as good as Hunter S. Thompson coming back from the grave and taking that bet himself.

(In February, Sary was reportedly hospitalized in Bangkok with a “serious heart condition.” Some are skeptical, and his whereabouts today are unknown. Even in the unlikely event that Sary should resurface, he has been given amnesty by the government and is immune from prosecution.)

The argument that Garella gives for this conclusion, however, is anything but straight-forward.

The problem for Hun Sen is not so much that he is obliged to prevent the trial from being meaningful. … The problem is that once the trial, such as it is, is over, Hun Sen will have lost the main carrot he has been holding out in front of the foreign donkey for the past decade. Once the donkey has at last eaten that tiny, shriveled carrot, and pronounced it delicious, Hun Sen will be left holding only a stick.

An interesting point perhaps, but how the donor community and the government get on after the trial hardly seems relevant to anything.