LETTERS Look and learn
Sir: In his misleading letter (29 May) John Pilger expressed the hope that the Hun Sen regime (which he has assiduously support- ed) would win the May elections in Cambo- dia. Well, it did not. An astonishing 913 per cent of the electorate voted, and the oppo- sition party, Funcinpec, won 45 per cent of the vote to the regime's 38 per cent. In some provinces, like Kompong Chain, where the regime has been most brutal, the rejection was even clearer.
The election was a stunning defeat for both the Khmer Rouge, which demanded that the people boycott the polls, and the regime, which ordered them to vote for it. This was a vote against the violence of both sets of communists. But the hardline com- munists in the regime have refused to accept the results, and while demanding parity in a new coalition, continue to exert terror where they can. In the last week, over 4,000 Funcinpec workers and officials have fled to Phnom Penh to escape official vengeance and violence, including murder in the eastern provinces where, for a few days, a part of the regime declared an `autonomous zone', in protest at losing the election.
The extraordinary courage of the Cam- bodian people in the election was made possible only by the Paris Peace Agreement which Pilger has shamefully and constantly denigrated — usually on the basis of utterly tendentious evidence. It is a pity that Pilger did not come here to learn as the UN Cam- bodians voted freely for the first time ever. Now he should come and report on how those he hoped would win have been trying to steal the people's victory.
William Shawcross
Phnom Penh
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