DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Khmer Rouge leaders' wives plan opposite tacks on husbands' trials” plus 9 more

PAILIN, Cambodia, June 21, Kyodo - The wives of two of the Khmer Rouge's most notorious leaders plan different approaches to their husband's trials for genocide and crimes against humanity that begin next week in Phnom Penh.

Ly Kimseng, 75, said she will boycott the trial of her husband Nuon Chea, Brother No. 2 in the bloody regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

Sitting under the patio of a wooden house in Pailin near the border with Thailand, Ly Kimseng said, ''I am not going to attend the hearing. I don't want to listen or hear anything of the trial.''

But So Socheat, wife of former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan said she will be at the U.N.-backed tribunal every day her husband is on trial.

''I want to go to the initial hearing that will begin June 27 along with my children. We are preparing to go there to listen and see with our own eyes the environment, atmosphere and the hearing process, especially, the questions and answers,'' she said.

But Ieng Thirith, wife of the third leader facing trial next week, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, 86, has no choice but to hear all the evidence against her husband, because much of it will pertain to her as well.

As social affairs minister in the Khmer Rouge regime, Ieng Thirith, 79, will be in the dock alongside her husband, also facing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity stemming from the killing of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians during Khmer Rouge rule.

But even if Ly Kimseng does not want to hear the evidence against her husband presented in court, she is standing by him.

She makes the nearly 400 kilometer trip from Pailin to Phnom Penh once a month by taxi, staying for about two weeks at a time to visit Nuon Chea in the detention center of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

The other two weeks a month she lives with a daughter, a son and her grandchildren at Prum Market in Pailin.

Defending her decision to boycott the trial, she said she is ''disgusted'' by ''repeated questions'' and ''wrong charges'' against her 84-year-old husband.

And So Socheat, 59, similarly claims the charges against her husband, Khieu Samphan, 79, are ''unjust.''

''They should find out the real cause why such (killings) happened during the regime. Who was responsible? The charges were made in order to arrest him and it seems that it was orchestrated by a superpower like the U.S.,'' she charged, adding the United States could not have been ''happy'' with her husband because he did not join the U.S. side during the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia in the 1960s and 70s.

''I think the U.S. should be held responsible for the (killings) in Cambodia because they were involved in staging a (1970) coup here,'' she said.

So Socheat also charged the ECCC is biased, saying facilitating people to visit sites such as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum or Cheung Ek Killing Fields just aims to ''show bad things'' about the Khmer Rouge.

The mother of two sons and two daughters also said the charges against her husband are simply an attempt to take revenge on him, not to find the real causes behind the killings in the 1970s.

Initial hearings of the four defendants are to begin June 27.

Kaing Guek Eav, 68, better known as the regime's chief jailer Duch, has already been convicted by the ECCC of war crimes and crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Cambodian National Committee for World Heritage highly appreciates Supalak Ganjanakhundee's inspiring article "Democrats wrong from the start on Preah Vihear," published in The Nation on 16 June 2011, which clearly highlights Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva'sinconsistent interpretation of the Temple of Preah Vihear case.

However, the Cambodian National Committee for World Heritage is obliged to clarify a statement in the said article saying "Cambodia has agreed, at least for now, to use that line as the Preah Vihear boundary in its proposal for the temple's listing and management."To be crystal clear, Cambodia has never ever known nor used the so-called Cabinet-drawn line, unilaterally produced by the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand.

It is recalled that, according to Joint Communiqué signed on 18 June 2008 by the High Representatives of the two countries, witnessed by Madam Françoise Rivière, Assistant Director-General for Culture as the Representative of UNESCO, both parties agreed on the inscription of the Temple of Preah Vihearon the World Heritage list without a buffer zone. Consequently, Cambodia's nomination file submitted for the World Heritage Committee's decision in its 32^nd Session includes the Revised Graphic Plan of the Property (RGPP) which illustrates only the perimeter of the Temple, but contains no boundary line whatsoever.

The inscription of the Temple in 2008 followed the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and its Operational Guidelines. In particular, the listing is in accordance with the Article 11.3 of the Convention, which stipulates that: "The inclusion of a property in the World Heritage List requires the consent of the State concerned. The inclusion of a property situated in a territory, sovereignty or jurisdiction over which is claimed by more than one State shall in no way prejudice the rights of the parties to the dispute". This was also reconfirmed by the two State Parties on 22 May 2008 meeting at UNESCO Headquarters that "the inscription of the Temple of Preah Vihear on the World Heritage list shall be without prejudice to the rights of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Kingdom of Thailand on the demarcation works of the Joint Commission for Land Boundary (JBC) of the two countries".

As clearly stated in the World Heritage Committee's Decision 32COM.8B.102 in Quebec 2008, the inscription of the Temple of Preah Vihear was based on "an outstanding masterpiece of Khmer architecture, which is very pure both in plan and the detail of its decoration."

Therefore, the inscription was purely a related cultural issue alone and is completely separated from the boundary one.

In a nutshell, the Cambodian National Committee for World Heritage once again reiterates that Cambodia has never agreed nor used the so-called Cabinet-drawn line as the boundary in its proposal for the Preah Vihear Temple's inscription and management.