Former US Ambassador to Cambodia: ECCC Useless

In an exclusive interview with VOA, former Ambassador John Gunther Dean said he does not see much use in putting former Khmer Rouge on trial because many top leaders have died, others are very old, and the world already knows the atrocities they committed in Cambodia. "If you go to Phnom Penh and you see the torture chambers and the mountains of skulls and bones, you know what happened," he said. "They are the best proof people will never forget." Mr. Dean, who now lives in Paris traveled to the Jimmy Carter Center in Atlanta last month to donate documents from his time as ambassador to Cambodia in 1974 and 1975. He says he does not believe a Khmer Rouge trial will help young Cambodians and the money it would cost could be better used. "And I think the $56 million which has been collected to convict half a dozen people, would it not be much better to use that to build some hospitals under the name of 'Lest We Forget?'" he asked.