US-Cambodia debt issue raises questions of morality and humaneness

RUSSIA has made a gesture of goodwill to restructure its outstanding loans to Cambodia worth US$1.5 billion. The Russian example could serve as a model for the United States to settle its own outstanding debt worth US$500 million. Washington, ironically, gave the loan to Phnom Penh to feed Cambodian victims of widespread bombardment by American jets in the 1970s.

The debt issue raises the big questions of international relations: Questions of morality and humaneness, and of law.

Russia, during the Cold War, sought a foothold in South-east Asia and found an ally in Cambodia, to whom it loaned money. The funds enabled the Heng Samrin regime (precursor to the present Hun Sen government) to purchase weapons to fight the Khmer Rouge in the 1980s. Cambodia had requested Russia to cancel the debt in 2006 and 2008, but was unsuccessful both times.