Khmer Rouge see the light

Parishioners at a service in Battambang’s Samlot district. (Photo by: Sun Narin)

TUESDAY, 03 MAY 2011
SUN NARIN
The Phnom Penh Post
Battambang province

“I want God to forgive what I did during the regime,” said former Khmer Rouge member Mann Man, 50. “I want my soul to be open and laid to rest by God.”

Last week, investigating judges at the Khmer Rouge tribunal announced that they had concluded investigations in the court’s controversial third case.

Despite the gravity of the crimes the court is tasked with investigating, many observers believe judges have no intention of taking this case – which has run into opposition from Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials – to trial.

Battambang province’s Samlot district was one of the last redoubts for the Khmer Rouge insurgency, and remains home for former KR navy commander Meas Muth and many other former cadres. The area would be an obvious starting point should the tribunal choose to make arrests in its final cases, but whatever the outcome of these investigations, many Samlot residents are more concerned with judgment of a different sort