Former King to Tribunal: Expect No Cooperation

Former King to Tribunal: Expect No Cooperation

http://www.voanews.com/khmer/2007-09-07-voa2.cfm

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
07 September 2007



Former king Norodom Sihanouk has told the Khmer Rouge tribunal he has nothing to say to the judges, following the declination of an invitation to the palace by tribunal officials.

In hand-written notes on a tribunal letter addressed to him, Sihanouk swore on the "Five Supreme Monks" he had nothing to add to the tribunal's investigations of Khmer Rouge leaders.

He scribbled his message underneath an official letter of from Michelle Lee, which declined an earlier invitation for a meeting, and circulated the letter with his notes.

Sihanouk said he had already talked as much about the Khmer Rouge period as he planned, and would not speak further, not even to judges.

International tribunal jurists this week declined an invitation by the king to meet him Saturday, claiming there was no judicial protocol for them to do so.

Sihanouk positioned himself at the head of a coalition that included the Cambodian communists, who would come to be known as the Khmer Rouge, in the early 1970s, following his ouster by a US-supported coup.