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Time runs out for Cambodian
conspirator
By Todd Crowell
Yasith Chhun must have thought he led a
charmed life, protected by powerful political
friends in Washington. Chhun is the leader of an
outfit called Cambodian Freedom Fighters, which is
dedicated to overthrowing the Cambodian government
of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Chhun never
made much of an effort to conceal his activities.
When Joshua Kurlantzick, foreign editor of The New
Republic, interviewed Chhun in his accountant's
office in Long Beach, California, for an article
in The New York Times a year ago, he recounted
that Chhun openly discussed future attacks on the
phone in front of him.
This brazen but
foolish conspirator certainly had supporters in
Republican Party ranks. Before his arrest on June
1 on charges of plotting to overthrow the
Cambodian government, he had raised money for the
National Republican Congressional Committee and
attended meetings of the committee's business
advisory panel.
An estimated 50,000
Cambodian-Americans live in southern California,
the largest concentration of Cambodians outside
Phnom Penh, it is said. They tend to support the
Republican Party and are an important source of
funds and votes for Republican legislators.
But last week federal authorities came
down on Chhun like a boulder. They charged him
with conspiracy to kill in a foreign country,
conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a
foreign country and engaging in a military
expedition against a nation with whom the United
States is at peace. The charges carry a possible
life term without parole.
A Cambodian
court tried Chhun in absentia in 2001 and
sentenced him to life in prison. Phnom Penh has
repeatedly asked Washington to turn him over, but
Cambodia and the US do not have an extradition
treaty. Dozens of other Cambodian Freedom Fighter
members have been imprisoned in Cambodia.
US Magistrate Judge Paul L Adams denied
Chhun bail on his first court appearance after
Assistant US Attorney Brian Hershman argued that
the defendant remained "intent on another attack"
in Cambodia. The accused's own attorney, Leonard
Matsuk, argued that Chhun was merely a fundraiser.
"To my knowledge, he doesn't advocate the use of
violence." Matsuk described Chhun and his
followers as patriots who just wanted to see their
freedom, just like the Cuban community wanted
Fidel Castro out of their country.
One of
Chhun's main supporters, Representative Dana
Rohrabacher (Republican, California), putting on a
brave face, told a California newspaper, "Unless
these guys have been planning some kind of
terrorism, meaning attacks on civilians, [the
prosecution] is wrong-headed." However, the
Neutrality Act under which Chhun is charged makes
no such distinctions.
Chhun and his wife,
Sras Pech, are also charged with running a
tax-fraud scheme, allegedly submitting false
income tax returns for Cambodians living in the US
in order to claim unearned tax refunds. This may
put a damper on any prominent politicians coming
to Chhun's public defense.
The main
allegations in Chhun's case involve a comic-opera
putsch that he orchestrated from the Thai border
on November 24, 2000, in an effort to topple the
Cambodian government. Cambodian Freedom Fighters
attacked buildings housing the Ministry of
Defense, the Council of Ministers and army
headquarters with grenades and automatic weapons.
Comic, except that at least four attackers were
killed.
An element in the Republican Party
still harbors a virulent animosity against Hun
Sen, whom it believes to be a communist dictator
and a participant in Cambodia's 1975-79 genocide.
However, this is not the official position of the
George W Bush administration, which recognizes Hun
Sen's government as legitimate.
The leader
of this highly influential group in Washington is
the International Republican Institute (IRI), one
of several interest groups created during the
Ronald Reagan years (1981-89) that is formally
"dedicated to advancing democracy, freedom,
self-government and the rule of law worldwide".
To hear the IRI tell, Cambodia is a
second-tier member of the "axis of evil", and its
longtime premier, Hun Sen, is a kind of
junior-grade Kim Jong-il without nukes. Cambodia,
it argues, is in the same class as such
dictatorships as Zimbabwe or Myanmar. The
comparison does not appear to be shared by those
in Asia.
This group's animosity toward Hun
Sen dates back to 1997, and possibly beyond. In
March of that year some grenades were tossed into
an opposition party rally, killing more than a
dozen members of the Khmer Nation Party (now the
Sam Rainsy Party). Also wounded was an American,
Rod Abney, who was working in Cambodia for the
IRI.
Aside from being well connected with
conservative think-tanks, foundations and policy
institutes, the IRI also occupies strategic
positions in Congress. Its operatives are well
placed in the Senate Foreign Operations
Appropriations Sub-committee, which controls aid
money to foreign countries and is chaired by
Republican Majority Whip Mitch McConnell.
This committee has already blocked any US
financial assistance to the International War
Crimes Tribunal that is expected to convene later
this year in Phnom Penh to bring Khmer Rouge
leaders Ta Mok, Comrade Deuch, "Brother No 2" and
the other perpetrators of the last century's
second-worst genocide to justice before they die
in comfort of old age.
Washington, in
theory, supports the tribunal, but it is barred by
a law that prevents the US government from
providing a single penny for its support. The law
states unequivocally: "None of the funds
appropriated or otherwise made available by this
act may be used to provide assistance to any
tribunal established by the government of
Cambodia."
Many observers believe the only
practical effect of Chhun and his merry band has
been to hand Hun Sen a plausible excuse to arrest
opponents as being members of the Cambodian
Freedom Fighters and occasionally to ridicule
Washington for "harboring terrorists".
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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