US search for soldiers to resume in Cambodia
October 13, 2018
Cambodian state media published a letter to US Congressmen Saturday, saying Hun Sen had revoked the search ban he imposed a year ago in reprisal for a Washington refusal to issue visas to senior Cambodian officials.
The US government lists 48 Americans as still untraced in Cambodia where US administrations, principally under President Richard Nixon, ran aerial bombing raids and ground force incursions during the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.
That campaign, begun secretly by Nixon in 1969, led to widespread student-led anti-war protests as US authorities expanded the draft of soldier recruits.
Hun Sen in his letter — addressed to Washington state Senator Doug Ericksen and Washington state Representative Vincent Buys, both Republicans who had appealed for a resumption — wrote he would allow US searches to resume even though the US denial of visas remained in place.
His government was exhibiting a "compassionate spirit" in restarting cooperation with the US program to locate remains, Hun Sen wrote.
Tensions between Cambodia and Western nations escalated during Cambodia's disputed general election in July as opposition figures in Phnom Penh faced a crackdown.
Analysts cited by the French news agency AFP speculated that the 66-year-old was trying to ward off potential trade sanctions by the European Union.
Long effort to remove ordnance
Three decades after the US bombing, which was followed by genocidal Khmer Rouge rule until 1979, Cambodia remains strewn with war-era ordnance.
In June, education officials told schools to stop recovery of bomb and shell casings for conversion into school bells because of the risk of belated explosions.
A number of organizations now seek out and deactivate ordnance, which since 1979 has killed around 20,000 people and maimed tens of thousands.
ipj/rc (AFP, AP)