November 5, 2005
BUT THE PLAN WAS FLAWLESS...
Thirty years after the killing fields, Pol Pot's deputy is brought to justice (Andrew Williams, The Telegraph, November 5th, 2005)
The man who served as deputy to Pol Pot has admitted responsibility in part for Cambodia's genocide and is prepared to go before a United Nations tribunal to be questioned about his crimes.Nuon Chea, 78, was the closest comrade of one of the 20th century's most blood-stained dictators for more than 30 years. He was personally responsible for ordering thousands of executions in Cambodia.
In a rare interview, he confessed: "Yes, we take responsibility. We do not deny it but there are different types of responsibility: executive, legal, moral. Our mistake was that we did not go out into the country's fields to find what was really happening."[...]
"We, the senior leaders, did not control the party properly," Nuon Chea admitted.
The UN tribunal is expected to question him closely about the part he played in orchestrating these bloody purges and it will be able to draw on evidence from the chairman of the party's security office, who claims he received direct orders from Nuon Chea to kill hundreds of prisoners.
He is unrepentant: "Some people did not admit their mistakes and wrong-doings, others admitted their mistakes and were accepted. But we did not kill many - we killed the bad people not good ones."
He does not acknowledge Pol Pot's great socialist experiment to have been at fault. Instead, he blames the starvation and the executions on "bad elements".
Can anyone explain why so many humanist, utopian statist leaders had such bad luck with their assistant directors of operations?
Posted by Peter Burnet at November 5, 2005 7:11 AMAnd his definition of "bad" is straight from the Mickey Maoist Club handbook. I wonder how Professor Chomsky will find this, too, to be America's fault?
Posted by: Mikey at November 5, 2005 8:58 AMNot a good Communist yet. Let's have a trial and hurry things along.
Posted by: Lou Gots at November 5, 2005 9:45 AMThe explanation is that they not only had bad assistants, but were also afflicted with terrible weather.
Whenever these utopianists clawed their way to the top, the weather immediately just turned horrible for the harvests, thus compounding the problem. Floods, drought, too much.. um... "moderate weather", or something like that...whole nine yards.
I mean, it's just a run of really, really bad luck with these guys. They have my sympathy.
Posted by: Anderw X at November 5, 2005 10:18 AMIt's a UN tribunal, Lou. He'll die in his own bed.
Posted by: jefferson park at November 5, 2005 2:19 PMHe'll die in his own bed.
Around 2025 or so.
"Can anyone explain why so many humanist, utopian statist leaders had such bad luck with their assistant directors of operations?"
You refer, of course, to Karl Rove?
Posted by: Rick Perlstein at November 5, 2005 8:11 PMThere goes Rick again, calling Bush a "humanist, utopian statist leader".
It could almost make a good Pol Pot supporting Democrat vote for the guy!
Posted by: Randall Voth at November 5, 2005 9:43 PMPerhaps he just didn't vet the guy properly.
Now, the Germans followed their leader perfectly, no?
Nice snark there, Mr. garlic bread. But have you decided yet whether Rove is the brain or just the barrier? He can't be both. You guys hate Bush too much for that.
Posted by: ratbert at November 5, 2005 11:19 PMYou refer, of course, to Karl Rove.
Oh my goodness, Rick, don't tell us totalitarianism is descending on the United States? Not again?
Posted by: Peter B at November 6, 2005 4:26 AMIt really is all about Bush for you, isn't it Rick?
If it rains, it's Bush's fault.
If the sun's out it's Bush's fault.
If you stub your toe, it's Bush's fault.
Bush, Bush, Bush! Yeaaaaaarghhhhhhh!
Posted by: Mikey at November 6, 2005 8:25 AMRick:
Can you hate Condi (or McCain, or Rudy, or even George Allen) for 8 years? You might find it tiring, enervating even. Give yourself a break, for your sake. Leave the screeching for van den Heuval, Matthews, and Pelosi/Reid. At least they get some perks for it.
Posted by: jim hamlen at November 6, 2005 2:48 PM