U.S. Policy and the 1997 Easter Sunday Massacre in Cambodia

U.S. Policy and the 1997 Easter Sunday Massacre in Cambodia

By Al Santoli Special To The U.S. Veteran Dispatch March/April/May/ 1997

On the morning of Easter Sunday, a peaceful rally against Government corruption in the plaza outside of the Parliament building in Phnom Penh, Cambodia was turned into a killing field by grenade hurling soldiers. The blasts, which killed 20 and wounded 117, were part of a calculated attack by troops loyal to Second Prime Minister Hun Sen,a former Khmer Rouge field commander who was placed in government by invading Vietnamese Communist troops in 1979 and is now backed by Hanoi and U.S. policy makers.

Eyewitness accounts and a video tape of the massacre made available to The U.S. Veteran Dispatch depict a methodical attempt by Hun Sen's troops to assassinate Sam Rainsy, an elected member of the Parliament and the leader of the democratic Khmer Nation Party. The attack occurred after keynote speaker Sam Rainsy invited a female factory worker and her two small children to the stage to describe exploitation of factory workers. As the woman began speaking, one of Rainsy's bodyguards took the children in his arms while international news reporters and cameramen encircled the stage. The woman described 15 hour work days, 7 days per week for a $20 monthly paycheck. Rainsy noticed that Hun Sen' menacing storm troopers dressed in U.S. Army style uniforms, who routinely monitor political events, began backing away from the crowd. Suddenly, other soldiers rushed forward and began pitching grenades.

The first grenade landed on the stage, One of Rainsy's aides pushed him to the ground while covering the frail 45 year old parliamentarian with his own body. The blast killed the woman, blowing off both of her lower legs, while severely wounding her children. Rainsy, blinded because his eyeglasses were destroyed, began to crawl away covered with the blood of his dead bodyguard. A second grenade exploded on the spot from which he had moved. A third grenade was hurled into the fleeing crowd by a soldier in a white uniform. It exploded a few feet from Rainsy's wife Samoura, who was shielded from the blast by victims who fell around her.

A fourth grenade, pitched at Rainsy, bounced off a pile of motorcycles and exploded into the crowd, as Rainsy was being carried onto a pick-up truck by his supporters. Members of the rally began chasing the grenade throwers, who were allowed safe passage through the storm troopers perimeter. As the pursuing crowd approached, Hun Sen's troopers aimed their rifles to force them back.

The plaza was covered in blood and numerous dismembered arms and legs. The storm troopers passively walked through the area while casually turning over bodies to check identities, without calling for ambulances or attempting to administer first aid. The cries and moans of wounded men, women and children caused taxi drivers to leap from their vehicles to attempt to aid the victims. However, the killing continued as Hun Sen's troops turned their rifles on the rescuers, killing at least two unarmed men.

During the chaotic aftermath, Rainsy was driven to the home of Cambodia's First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who heads the FUNCINPEC Party which is loyal to the Cambodian king, Norodom Sihanouk. Rainsy, dressed in his blood covered clothes, gave an emotional press conference blaming Hun Sen for the massacre. During the past three years, Rainsy, the country's former Finance Minister who resigned after accusing the government of massive corruption, drug smuggling and graft has received numerous death threats. Recently phone callers, believed connected to Hun Sen's security forces, have threatened to kidnap and harm Rainsy's nine year old daughter.

Rather than an isolated event, the Easter massacre was part of a pattern of systematic violence by Hun Sen's "former" communist party leading into the 1997 local elections and 1998 national elections. During 1995, after public threats by Hun Sen, a similar grenade attack occurred during a meeting of the democratic Buddhist Liberal Party. Among the wounded in that attack was Son Soubert, the Vice-Speaker of the Cambodian parliament. An inquiry by the Cambodian Judiciary, which is controlled by Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP), was unable to apprehend or identify the attackers. In addition, Hun Sen has frequently made public threats against his opponents in the government and private sector. In other incidents, Hun Sen, an inflammatory public speaker, has encouraged mob violence while providing government transportation for vigilantes to attack and destroy opposition newspapers and political offices.

In a cynical response to Sam Rainsy's Easter press conference, the former Khmer Rouge Hun Sen made a national radio address, accusing Sam Rainsy of being responsible for the attack, threatening to arrest him and issuing orders to prohibit Rainsy from leaving the country for a previously scheduled trip to the United States and Europe. However, Rainsy, protected by a convoy of non-communist troops loyal to Prince Ranariddh, departed for Washington on April 5, 1997. He, his wife, Samoura and their 9 year-old daughter are scheduled to return to Cambodia at the end of April. In addition, another Cambodian democracy advocate, Prince Norodom Sirivudh, who was sentenced to prison in absentia by Hun Sen, is scheduled to return to Cambodia in mid-April. In response, Hun Sen has publicly stated that he would not allow any commercial airliners that may carry Prince Sirivudh to land in Cambodia on that date. Thus far, all commercial airlines, except one Hong Kong carrier, have canceled flights scheduled for that date.

During a week-long visit to Washington from April 6 through April 12, Rainsy and Samoura met with a number of officials in the Clinton Administration and the Congress to request stronger U.S. political action against Hun Sen and in support of democracy in Cambodia. Following the Easter massacre, the State Department issued a tepid statement requesting that the Hun Sen government find the killers, but did not criticize Hun Sen and the CPP for their violent tactics and systematic abuses. The U.S. Ambassador in Cambodia, Ken Quinn, was a primary architect of the normalization of relations with the Vietnamese Communist. In addition, Quinn was an advocate during the Carter Administration to accept Hanoi's false denials that they had fully accounted for missing American servicemen who were known to have been captured or suspected of being alive in areas of Southeast Asia under Hanoi's control.

Officials in the U.S. Defense Department have also advocated supporting the Hun Sen dominance of the Cambodian "coalition" government. A son of Hun Sen is currently a cadet at West Point, at U.S. taxpayers' expense. Experts on Southeast Asia have expressed concern about the ongoing program of U.S. military advisors stationed in Cambodia. In an effort to "win the confidence" of Hun Sen and Hanoi , the Pentagon and the State Department have refused to acknowledge the substantial role of Vietnamese communist military advisors and personnel in Hun Sen's security forces.

Ironically, Ron Abney, an American wounded in the Easter attack, worked in Cambodia for the International Republican Institute (IRI), a private organization funded by the U.S. Government. The IRI is chaired by Senator John McCain, who traveled to Phnom Penh and Hanoi immediately following Bob Dole's defeat in the presidential campaign in November 1996.

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