U.S. Bureaucrats Kill Refugees’ Hopes

In the next few weeks 25,000 Cambodian refugees in Thailand are to be removed to that country’s chaotic, war-torn border with Cambodia. Survivors of the Khmer Rouge reign of terror that murdered more than 1 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979, they face removal because the United States has rejected or simply not considered them for admission to our country. Even Dith Pran, whose heroic struggle to live through that holocaust was depicted in the film “The Killing Fields,” would be turned down if he sought resettlement today. The reason? In far too many cases it is the mere suspicion that the applicant might be affiliated with the communist Khmer Rouge.

In fact, like Dith Pran, these people suffered grievously at the hands of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge henchmen. Many have relatives in the United States. Nevertheless, our government has rejected many of their applications for resettlement simply because their personal histories tell of some minimal involvement with the Khmer Rouge, which is considered proof that they were involved in atrocities.

This position flies in the face of the overwhelming consensus among Cambodia scholars, former U.N. personnel, relief officials and other experts who contend that the vast majority of rejected persons are innocent of any wrongdoing. They are guilty of no more than survival.

How has U.S. refugee policy gone wrong so tragically? Ignoring the experts’ views, Washington assigned inadequately trained personnel to interview Cambodians in Thailand, and provided no clear guidance as to what past conduct would indicate actual Khmer Rouge affiliation. These U.S. officials thus operated on the fundamentally flawed assumption that even the most harmless and unavoidable associations with the Khmer Rouge are incriminating.

The case of Dith Pran illustrates how ludicrous this approach can be. He would fall under suspicion because he prepared meals for a Khmer Rouge official and was entrusted with the care of the man’s son--tasks that Pran performed only to survive. Having suffered slightly less than other Cambodians would also make him suspect, even though he toiled like a slave and was nearly executed. Similarly, farmers who gave rice to Pol Pot’s soldiers somehow are seen as having “cooperated” in atrocities, though their alternative to handing over food was execution.

The United States has also rejected some Cambodians in the belief that inconsistencies in their personal histories hide Khmer Rouge membership. But many apparent inconsistencies stem from poor translation at interviews, cultural barriers and the sheer difficulty of recalling details of life under Pol Pot--a nightmarish haze of disease, hunger, forced marches, enslavement and unspeakable brutality.

Now the innocents who survived those years are condemned by bureaucratic mistakes. Frustrated with U.S. policy, the Thai government is closing camp Khao I Dang, where residents had refugee status under U.N. protection. The government intends to move the refugees to border camps; their status will be reduced to “displaced persons.”

Those camps are extremely vulnerable to attacks by Vietnamese troops based just a few miles away in Cambodia, as well as to nocturnal raids by savage bandits wielding automatic weapons and grenades.

The broader implications of Khao I Dang’s closure are equally troubling. Removing its residents from U.N. protection would set an ominous precedent for the treatment of other refugees in Thailand and around the globe.

America must act now to save Cambodia’s victims from the double punishment of rejection for resettlement and life on the border. If U.S. authorities would consult the experts, they could screen out the few Khmer Rouge in Khao I Dang. And, by admitting many of the rejected Cambodians, the United States could more persuasively press the Thai government to protect those who remain, as well as other Indochinese refugees in Thailand.

No one more vehemently detests the Khmer Rouge and wants to bar them from resettlement than those who urge fairness for the rejected Cambodians. But Khao I Dang’s residents should not suffer for Pol Pot’s crimes yet again. The coming weeks represent the last chance for the United States to start viewing these survivors of the killing fields clearly, and to stop seeing a Khmer Rouge phantom behind each innocent victim’s face.