Phnom Penh (FN), May 22 – Cambodian Senate President, Samdech Techo Hun Sen urged the conference attendees and foreign friends to learn from the struggle against the genocidal regime. He particularly underlined the need to understand the two mistakes made by certain countries in supporting the leaders of the genocidal regime in Cambodia.

Samdech Techo spoke on Wednesday (May 22) at the closing of the conference on the “Future of Cambodia Without Genocide” at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

Samdech Techo underscored, "To prevent the recurrence of a third mistake, I would like to call on the conference to learn from the two historical mistakes that some countries made on Cambodia. The first mistake occurred when certain foreigners, claiming to be pro-democracy, supported the coup to overthrow the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk. This action served as a catalyst for the outbreak of war in Cambodia, ultimately leading to the ascension of the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime, which inflicted catastrophic damage on the Cambodian people.”

Samdech Techo continued, “The second mistake is the continued support of some countries for the Khmer Rouge regime, granting them representation at the United Nations despite 12 years of diplomatic and economic sanctions they imposed against millions of genocide survivors. This support runs counter to the efforts of the government that liberated the people from the depths of despair.”

Samdech Techo underlined that in the future, we must exercise extreme caution to prevent any sector of society from fostering extremist ideologies, promoting resistance movements, fostering hatred against legitimate authorities, or attempting undemocratic changes and promoting racism.

Beyond that, the international community needs to work together to put up a barrier to any opposition that could trigger a new Cold War and ultimately push for a physical conflict or war based on geopolitical competition. Eventually it causes the loss of wealth and development opportunities, especially the loss of life of people, as is happening in some parts of the world.
=FRESH NEWS