COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515

 

 

STATEMENT OF

THE HONORABLE ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA

CHAIRMAN

 

before the

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ASIA, THE PACIFIC, AND THE

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

 

 

An Overview of Cambodia and the Need for Debt Recycling:

How can the U.S. be of Assistance?

 

February 14, 2008

 

 

 

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Cambodia and I am convinced that no person of conscience could walk away from the experience without wanting to lend a helping hand.  There is not an individual now living in Cambodia who has not in some way been impacted by the atrocities or crimes against humanity committed by the communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge which ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979.   

 

Led by Pol Pot, also known as Brother Number One, the Khmer Rouge was one of the most brutal regimes of the 20th century.  Responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people out of a population of only about 7.5 million, its heartless motto was “To keep you is no benefit.  To destroy you is no loss.” 

 

While we could debate, like historians are now doing, whether or not the U.S. bombing campaign from 1965-1973 and the suspension of U.S. aid to Cambodia in 1973 led to Pol Pot’s rise, and while we can take issue with Prime Minster Hun Sen’s seizure of power in 1997 and the serious problems associated with his government today, I would like to begin the first of our hearings this year by putting politics aside and focusing on how we might be of assistance to our brothers and sisters in Cambodia who have suffered enough. 

 

To those who think we should turn a blind eye, I would invite you to visit the Toul Sleng prison where men, women, and children, and families, like yours and mine, were systematically tortured and slaughtered by suffocation and skinning a person alive.  To this day, I cannot erase from my mind the images of Toul Sleng.  Neither can I forget the killing fields where I saw massive graves of some 9,000 bodies buried one on top of the other, a sickening reminder that the Khmer Rouge had beaten to death or buried alive innocent people whose blood now cries up to God for justice that most assuredly will come. 

           

According to His Excellency Cham Prasidh, Cambodia’s Minister of Commerce, who lost both parents to the Khmer Rouge, only 69 intellectuals survived this genocide.  From ashes, Cambodia has been forced to rebuild, and has looked to anyone to help.  In my discussions with Minister Prasidh, I was particularly struck by his words when he said, “When you are drowning, you do not care about the color of the hand that is saving you.” 

 

            These days, China is one of the largest sources of foreign assistance to Cambodia lending a hand of $800 million in aid and loans in 2006-2007.  The United States provided a little over $100 million in the same time period.  What does this kind of disparity in support mean for U.S.-Cambodia relations, or U.S. security interests in the region?  CRS reports that “for several years the United States remained the only major donor country that had not resumed bilateral or government-to-government aid to Cambodia.”  I commend the Bush Administration for lifting a ten-year ban on direct bilateral aid to Cambodia in February of 2007, and I am hopeful that we can do more.  Specifically, I am hopeful that we can forgive or recycle Cambodia’s debt to the U.S.

 

            The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that it provided commodities totaling $276 million to Cambodia by way of loan during the Lon Nol period from 1970-1975.  Again, I want to remind my colleagues that shortly after taking out this loan from the U.S., the Khmer Rouge wiped out the lives of more than 1.7 million Cambodians.  I also want to remind my colleagues that historians suggest that the U.S. was in part responsible for the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

 

            Having said this, it is almost incomprehensible to me how the U.S., a country built on Judeo-Christian principles, could demand that Cambodia pay back this loan with interest now totaling $339 million.  Such a request by the United States reminds me of the parable of the unforgiving servant.  In Matthew, we read that a servant owed his king an amount so large he could not repay but, out of compassion, the king forgave him the debt.  But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him a small amount, and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, “Pay me what you owe.”  The fellow servant pleaded for mercy but he cast him in prison till he should pay the debt.  So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and reported unto the king all that was done.  Then the king, after he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt.  Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

 

            In my humble opinion, when the U.S. is partly responsible for the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, I believe we have a large debt that we cannot pay.  I also believe it makes us unforgiving servants to take Cambodia by the throat and demand that it pay the small debt it owes.  Cambodia’s debt is not a new debt accumulated by its current administration which seized power by force.  Cambodia’s is an old debt accumulated between 1970-1975 and, most likely, expended by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979.  If the U.S. really wants its penny back, extract it from the Khmer Rouge who have been arrested and charged with crimes against humanity.  Do not take it from a people struggling to get back on their feet.

 

            Yes, Cambodia needs to correct what is wrong in its government and rid itself of corruption but that is not the subject of this hearing.  This hearing is about whether or not the U.S. should demand that Cambodia pay the small debt it owes.  If the U.S., knowing Cambodia’s history and our role in that history, insists on Cambodia paying what it owes, then certainly at a minimum we can forgive the interest and recycle the debt. 

 

            As I have said many times before, I do not believe the U.S. gives the Asia-Pacific region the attention it deserves, and the need for debt recycling in Cambodia is a case in point.  By our failure to assist Cambodia, we are unintentionally inviting Cambodia to partner with others who may not share our ideologies, and this does not bode well for U.S. security interests in the region. 

 

We must do a better job, and I would invite our U.S. Treasury to do its part when it comes to Cambodia.  I am very disappointed that the U.S. Treasury was unable to provide a witness for today’s hearing given the importance of this subject and that people are suffering in Cambodia as we speak.  Regardless of whether or not our Treasury has a small staff, I think it sends the wrong message that a principal player in this discussion was unable to provide a witness or submit a statement for the record. 

 

I appreciate that Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Marciel from the U.S. State Department is with us, and I also appreciate the work U.S. Ambassador Mussomeli is doing in Cambodia to promote debt recycling.  I also thank the USDA for being with us. 

 

I look forward to the testimony of our witnesses and I am hopeful that as a result of this hearing we will be able to put forward a bi-partisan piece of legislation that would make it possible for the U.S. to forgive or recycle Cambodia’s debt given that there is historical precedent for either option.

 

I now recognize our Ranking Member, my good friend from Illinois, for his opening remarks.