Khmer Rouge survivors demand apology from opposition leader

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) - An estimated 10,000 survivors from the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) held a peaceful protest on Sunday at the capital's Freedom Park to demand Kem Sokha, vice- president of opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP),  apologize for his alleged denial of Khmer Rouge crimes.

Meanwhile, the protests were held simultaneously throughout the country, urging Kem Sokha to apologize for his alleged insulting remarks, according to local Bayon television, owned by Hun Mana, daughter of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The television showed protesters marched and burnt Kem Sokha's portraits in some provinces.  

The demonstration was held after Kem Sokha allegedly claimed that the Khmer Rouge regime's notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh was an artificial place.

The prison was the main torture center during the regime, and around 14,000 people were killed there.

In February last year, a special tribunal sentenced ex-chief of Tuol Sleng prison Kaing Guek Eav to life in prison for overseeing the deaths.

"If this place (Tuol Sleng prison) was truly Khmer Rouge, they would have demolished it before they left," Kem Sokha said in an audio recording recently circulated by the government.

"If the Khmer Rouge killed a lot of people (there), they would not be stupid to keep it to show to everyone, they would destroy it to eliminate evidence. I believe that it was just staged," he said at his party's public forum.

Protest organizer Chhum Mey, president of the Victims Association of Democratic Kampuchea and one of the survivors from the Tuol Sleng prison, said the gathering was held to protest against Kem Sokha's statement that Tuol Sleng prison was just a make-up.

"We ask Kem Sokha to apologize to the victims at Tuol Sleng prison because his remarks bring back the suffering of Cambodian people once again and insult the souls of millions of Cambodian people who were cruelly and unfairly killed during the regime," he said.

However, CNRP's spokesman Yim Sovann reiterated Sunday that the Kem Sokha's recording was fabricated against the opposition leader ahead of July's general election.

"Kem Sokha has not made any mistake, so he will not apologize," he told Xinhua. "He has never denied the atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge regime or at Tuol Sleng prison. His parents had also been killed during the regime."

On Friday, the National Assembly of Cambodia unanimously adopted a law to make it illegal to deny crimes committed during the period of the Democratic Kampuchea after Prime Minister Hun Sen's appeal.

Under the law, individuals who refuse to acknowledge, diminish, deny or challenge the existence of crimes or glorify crimes committed during the regime will be jailed from six months to two years and fined between 250 U.S. dollars and 1,000 U.S. dollars.