VZCZCXRO5317
OO RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHPF #1374/01 2120655
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 310655Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7093
INFO RUEHZS/ASEAN COLLECTIVE
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PHNOM PENH 001374 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, S/WCI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KJUS PREL CB
SUBJECT: REACTION TO KHMER ROUGE LEADER'S DEATH 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary.  Ung Choeun, widely known as Ta Mok, age 82, 
passed away on July 21 at a military hospital where he had been 
hospitalized since June 29.  Since his passing, government 
officials, the media, and civil society leaders have discussed the 
impact of his death on the proceedings of the KRT; specifically, the 
concern that other elderly leaders of the Khmer Rouge might die 
before the ECCC trials are completed and justice is realized for the 
victims of Cambodia's genocide of 1975-79.  End Summary. 
 
Ta Mok Dies, Escapes Justice 
---------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U)  Ung Choeun, widely known as Ta Mok, passed away on July 21 
at the Military Hospital of Preah Ketomealear, following a recent 
illness.  A former senior commander of the Khmer Rouge, Ta Mok had 
remained in military detention since his arrest in 1999 awaiting 
trial for alleged involvement in the genocide committed during the 
Khmer Rouge period (1975-79).  Om Yentieng, President of the 
Government's Human Rights Committee and a senior advisor to Prime 
Minister Hun Sen, relayed the government's disappointment that the 
KR leader passed away before facing justice.  Yentieng told the 
Embassy that both the military detention facility and medics at the 
hospital tried to save Ta Mok, but the former Khmer Rouge leader 
could not survive due to old age compounded by a variety of diseases 
and history of poor health.  Pok Porn, a government military 
prosecutor, said the military court regretted that Ta Mok's life 
could not be saved despite the best efforts of the military 
hospital. 
 
¶3.  (U)  Ta Mok died just days after the Extraordinary Chamber in 
the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) investigating judges and prosecutors 
began their work on July 10.  The former Khmer Rouge commander was 
among a handful of senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge to stand trial 
before the ECCC.  The rest are also elderly and could die before the 
ECCC's completion - a concern shared by many government officials 
and civil society leaders. 
 
Opposition Leader Demands Autopsy; Local Reaction 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Opposition leader Sam Rainsy demanded that the government 
carry out a forensic examination to determine the cause of Ta Mok's 
death.  Stating that he felt sorry for the loss of an important 
defendent in the upcoming trials, Sam Rainsy said the timing of Ta 
Mok's death - coming at the beginning of ECCC's work - was too 
coincidential.  "I fear that someone was behind his death," Sam 
Rainsy told the Embassy on July 21.  "They might fear that, with Ta 
Mok alive, his testimony could affect them or the former Khmer Rouge 
leader might be willing to tell the truth before the tribunal." 
Additionally, Sam Rainsy demanded the ECCC and the government take 
effective and immediate action to protect the safety and health of 
other senior Khmer Rouge leaders to ensure they stand trial. 
 
¶5.  (U)  ECCC spokesman Reach Sambath expressed the ECCC's regret 
over Ta Mok's death because Ta Mok was a potential source of 
genocide-related information.  The spokesman added that the ECCC 
believes Ta Mok received appropriate care and treatment prior to his 
death, noting that a group of Cambodian Red Cross representatives 
visited Ta Mok at the hospital. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Kem Sokha, Director of Cambodian Center for Human Rights 
(CCHR) said that Ta Mok's death was unfortunate as he was considered 
an important defendant and potential witness for the ECCC.  As a 
senior former Khmer Rouge commander, Ta Mok was well placed to 
understand what transpired under Pol Pot that led to the deaths of 
over one million Cambodians between the years 1975-79.  Concerning 
Ta Mok's death, Sokha blamed the Cambodian government in part 
because, according to complaints from Ta Mok's relatives, the 
military hospital where Ta Mok was treated was inadequate.  Sokha 
warned that the government should pay greater attention to the 
health of Kaing Kek Iv, alias Duch, who is also in military 
detention awaiting trial before the ECCC. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Kek Galabru, LICADHO director, said that she was sorry 
for Ta Mok's death but could not lay blame on the government absent 
a medical examination.  She further expressed regret over the long 
delay in establishing the ECCC and urged expedited trials for those 
surviving members of the Khmer Rouge regime.  While the ECCC is 
unlikely to provide judicial satisfaction to every victim of the 
Khmer Rouge, the trials can be a symbol of justice that could 
prevent further impunity in Cambodia and other countries in the 
world, she noted. 
 
Funeral in Anlong Veng 
---------------------- 
 
¶8.  (U)  On July 21, Ta Mok's body returned to Anlong Veng, the 
former stronghold of the Khmer Rouge in northwestern Cambodia's 
Oddar Meanchey province where Ta Mok was based in 1997 and where Pol 
 
PHNOM PENH 00001374  002 OF 002 
 
 
Pot died in 1997 under Ta Mok's custody.  Ta Mok received Buddhist 
burial rituals and his funeral drew hundreds of well-wishers to 
Anlong Veng throughout the weekend.  An American journalist who 
witnessed the event (and who had visited Anlong Veng in the 
mid-1990s before Ta Mok's arrest in 1997) noted the older tensions 
of being in a former Khmer Rouge-held zone had dissipated.  Former 
Khmer Rouge cadre in the region have moved on with their lives and 
the communities are more open to outsiders, he said.  The funeral 
for Ta Mok and outpouring of sympathy in Anlong Veng over his 
passing stood in stark contrast to the mood throughout much of the 
rest of the country where Cambodians remembered the former Khmer 
Rouge leader as the regional commander in the Southwest zone, where 
treatment of the population was often considered the harshest - even 
by Khmer Rouge standards. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  We believe that Ta Mok died of natural causes due to his 
age, complications from a history of diseases and old injuries, and 
rudimentary medical treatment - but no poorer than what the vast 
majority of Cambodians receive.  We put no stock in speculations 
regarding foul play.  However, Cambodians are rightfully concerned 
that other elderly Khmer Rouge leaders may also escape justice 
before the ECCC trials are completed in the court's three-year 
tenure, given that international tribunals tend to continue beyond 
their projected timeframe.  An ECCC detention facility will not be 
completed before mid-2007; until then, the court is unwilling to 
take responsibility - for personal security or medical care - for 
Duch or any of the other potential defendents.  End Comment. 
 
MUSSOMELI