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VVAW Joins Campaign to Oppose Return of Khmer RougeBy VVAWWE BELIEVE THAT THE CAMBODIAN PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND TO A FREE, NEUTRAL, AND INDEPENDENT CAMBODIA. THE CAMBODIAN PEOPLE MUST DECIDE THEIR OWN FUTURE. HOWEVER, WE ALSO BELIEVE THAT AS A PERPETRATOR OF GENOCIDE AGAINST THE CAMBODIAN PEOPLE, THE KHMER ROUGE HAS NO MORAL RIGHT TO A PLACE IN THE FUTURE OF CAMBODIA. WE THEREFORE BELIEVE THAT THE POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT SHOULD SUPPORT SETTLEMENT OF THE CAMBODIAN CRISIS BASED ON THE EXCLUSION OF THE KHMER ROUGE AS A POLITICAL/MILITARY ENTITY. The memories are haunting. Piles of skulls; sightless eyes turned skyward; forced labor camps; a once-bountiful and beautiful country first destroyed by B-52 bombers and then ravaged in an effort to turn back history. By the end of Pol Pot's 3-year reign in 1978, Cambodian had become a vast killing field. His fanatical Khmer Rouge tortured, shot, starved, or hacked to death more than one million Cambodian, a slaughter that was halted only by a Vietnamese invasion at the end of that year. After its defeat the demoralized Khmer Rouge army stumbled into Thailand. It was at this point that Western and Asian countries, led by the United States and China, decided to rebuild the Khmer Rouge as a political and military force in order to prevent the stabilization of Cambodia's new government installed by the Vietnamese. Incredibly, the United Nations went along with this scheme, allowing its relief operations to feed and shelter the Khmer Rouge and even seating Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge (and later, the Khmer Rouge-led Coalition Government o Democratic Kampuchea) as the legitimate representative of Cambodia at the U.N.! These and other channels of aid primarily from the U.S. Thailand and China, have succeeded in sustaining the tens of thousands of troops of the Khmer Rouge and its military allies. In the border camps in Thailand over 300,000 Cambodians live as virtual prisoners, denied refugee status elsewhere but unable to go home. Mainly thousands of them are forced to live in camps controlled by the Khmer Rouge and are often pressed into service by the Khmer Rouge army. Now the United States government, with the full knowledge that he Khmer Rouge committed genocide against its own people, last proposed that they be invited to participate in a political solution to the civil war in Cambodia. The Nazis were not invited to participate in a German "settlement" after the Second World War. They were not guaranteed a seat a the conference table, nor the right to participate in free and fair elections. Why is our government insisting that the Khmer Rouge be included in a negotiated Cambodian settlement? Why did it first help create the Coalition grouping that they lead and then continue to supply this Khmer Rouge/Sihanouk/Son Sann Coalition with military, paramilitary, diplomatic support? The answer is that big-power geopolitical considerations of China and the U.S. have taken precedence over the neutrality, independence, welfare, and even lives of the Cambodian people. It is time for U.S. citizens to speak out again before Cambodia experiences another catastrophe. THE CAMPAIGN TO OPPOSE THE RETURN OF THE KHMER ROUGE needs your support now to reverse our government's policy toward Cambodia. Please join us! WE NEED YOUR HELP! TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC BY: Building on existing information bout the Khmer Rouge genocide; informing opinion makers and others concerned citizens about the policies which have sustained the Khmer Rouge; Finding effective expression or latent citizen opposition to these policies; Mobilizing the Campaign's existing networks to organize spring activities across the nation for a Week for Cambodia during the first week of May; Circulating the new video, Cambodia: Year Ten and other resources about Cambodia (speakers, movies, fact sheets, and other printed materials). TO ADVOCATE IN CONGRESS AND PRESSURE THE ADMINISTRATION, TO: Stimulate wider concern on Capitol Hill about U.S. policy toward Cambodia through identification land education of key Congress people; Activate concerned citizens to write and lobby these members, both generally and for specific legislation; Work with key people in Congress to introduce specific legislation (such as a bill to stop funding the civil war); Create timely pressure on the Administration through such legislation, as well as through petitions, visits by key citizens and Congress people, media, publicity, and other forms of public pressure; Mobilize the Cambodia Campaign's contacts throughout the country for letter writing and lobbying projects as needed. TO INFORM THE MEDIA, BY: Stimulating opinion maker when appropriate—and fostering friendly contacts with local media—for the purpose of ensuring full and accurate national coverage of Cambodia issues; Lobbying for extensive showings on television stations of the British Television documentary, Cambodia: Year Ten; Keeping the national media informed of the current situation in Cambodia through timely press releases, press conferences, and resource promotion, and through stimulation of editorials and op-eds by opinion makers. BASED ON OUR STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES, THE CAMPAIGN TO OPPOSE RETURN OF THE KHMER ROUGE WILL SEEK THE FOLLOWING CHANGES IN UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT POLICY. WE URGE OUR GOVERNMENT TO: 1) Seek to exclude the "Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea" (CGDK0—dominated by the Khmer Rouge—from the United Nations and to leave Cambodia's seat empty pending a negotiated settlement and/or free and fair elections. 2) End United States diplomatic support and de-facto recognition of this or any coalition which includes the Khmer Rouge. 3) Stop U.S. military aid, both lethal and non-lethal, to any Cambodia faction which insists on including the Khmer Rouge in a political settlement. 4) Support a ceasefire by all sides and call for an end to all military aid to all parties. 5) Prevent all U.S. humanitarian aid to the Thai-Cambodian border camps from any continued use as a political or military tool by the Khmer Rouge or allies. 6) Press the United Nations to provide all Cambodians in border camps with official refugee status, with proper United Nations protection, and with the free choice of relocating to a neutral site while awaiting the opportunity for safe representation of resettlement abroad. 7) Use U.S. diplomatic influence with China to urge termination of all Chinese aid to the Khmer Rouge. 8) Support Thailand's initiative for a zone of peace in Indochina and us U.S. influence with Thailand to end Thai collaboration with and support for the Khmer Rouge military effort in Cambodia. 9) Remove the current United States aid and trade embargoes on Cambodia so that urgently needed relief, reconstruction and development assistance can reach the Cambodian people. 10) Encourage and support international efforts to bring justice Pol Pot and the major Khmer Rouge leaders for the crime of genocide in keeping with obligations incumbent on the United States as a signator of the Genocide Convention. Campaign to Oppose Sponsors: Oxfam America, Cambodian Association of Oregon, Federation of American Scientists, Khmer Humanitarian Organization of USA, Sane/Freeze, Asia Resource Center, Humanities, Operation California, Vietnam Project, Mobilization for Survival, Women's International League for Peace and freedom Center of Concern, National Network on Indochina Activists, Walker Ecumenical Center, Endorsers: American Friends Service Committee, Church World Service, Unitarian Universalist Peace Network, Emergency Campaign to Defend Cambodia, War Resisters League.
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