US should forgive its 45-year-old loan to Cambodia

THE American ambassador to Cambodia made a fresh demand last month for Phnom Penh to repay a 45-year-old loan worth US$500 million - extended ironically to help the country buy American food because its farmlands were destroyed by US bombardment in the first place.

Cambodia may respond by renewing its own demand for war reparations, using as a model a proposal made by the Cambodian chief of state Prince Norodom Sihanouk in 1964 for the United States to pay compensation for the damage it caused to his country. The Sihanouk proposal was based on a Cuban-style settlement in which Havana successfully pressured the US to pay for its abortive invasion of Cuba in 1961.

But now, in a cruel paradox - and a continuing tragedy - the US is blocking the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from lending to Phnom Penh until it repays its debt to Washington.