Rainsy targets leaders, Vietnam

www.khmertimeskh.com, January 30, 2017

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has kept up his attacks on ruling party leaders by recalling a period after the Khmer Rouge regime and accusing Vietnam of ordering Khmer leaders such as Hun Sen and Heng Samrin to kill their own people.

This was to be done through the K5 plan, drawn up to keep Khmer Rouge forces from returning to Cambodia from across the border in Thailand, he said.

Mr. Rainsy claimed the K5 plan was organized by Vietnam to kill more people after the Pol Pot regime in 1979. The plan was drawn up in Hanoi in the early 1980s and was started in 1981.

It was implemented gradually before coming fully into force from 1984 to 1988.

The K5 plan involved clearing and mining a swath of land along the border with Thailand with the aim of denying cover to infiltrating Khmer Rouge.

But it reportedly brought death to hundreds of thousands of people, along with those injured and disabled.

Under the plan, people were moved from provinces to work in the target areas, at risk of landmines, malaria, starvation and overwork. Some were shot by Vietnamese soldiers, he said.

Mr. Rainsy, who is in exile and facing many defamation complaints over comments he has made on Facebook, posted another comment this month recalling the K5 plan, which ruling party officials believe brought peace and political stability to Cambodia.

He claimed the truth behind the K5 plan was that Vietnam used Cambodian leaders, whom they installed in the leadership, to kill Cambodian people.

It was under the People’s Republic of Kampuchea that the K5 plan was carried out. Bou Thorng was the defense minister at the time, Hun Sen was the secretary-general of the Khmer People’s Revolutionary Party and Heng Samrin was prime minister and head of state.

“These three figures will one day have to face charges of committing crimes against humanity because of the K5 plan, under which hundreds of thousands of people were forced to their death just like the Pol Pot regime,” Mr. Rainsy said.

Sok Eysan, the ruling CPP spokesman, said the K5 plan was a strategy to prevent the return of the Khmer Rouge regime and played a key role against the remaining Khmer Rouge soldiers.

He accused Mr. Rainsy of distorting history.

“Sam Rainsy has become abnormal and he has attacked the ruling party without fear of litigation because he believes we can’t arrest him since he is abroad now,” Mr. Eysan said.

“He kept on defaming the ruling party after he lost power in the political scene, so he finds chances to criticize without consideration.”

The purpose of the K5 plan has been interpreted differently by many political analysts, just as the opposition and the ruling parties have. These doubts have led the public to call for an in-depth study, but none has been announced so far.

According to Mr. Rainsy, the late Pen Sovann, the prime minister of the Republic of Kampuchea in 1982, was imprisoned in Vietnam for more than 10 years after he openly opposed the plan.

Chan Sy, who took his office, was secretly killed by the end of 1984 because he dared to oppose the plan, Mr. Rainsy said.

Late in 1985, Mr. Hun Sen took office as prime minister, replacing Chan Sy, and agreed to cooperate with Vietnam in implementing the K5 plan.