Dear Editor,

I was interested to read the comments of Jacques Verges in the December 8 edition of the Post regarding his defence of Klaus Barbie: "I defended Klaus Barbie. Because I was involved in the Free French Forces, I could not be accused of being a collaborationist".

I recently watched a documentary (My Enemy's Enemy) about Klaus Barbie. In it Jacques Verges is described as having been a Maoist communist. Most biographies mention his membership of the French Communist Party and his connections with the Khmer Rouge leadership. Considering his history, does that mean that he is being collaborationist in his defence of Khieu Samphan, despite his assertion (in the light of the Khmer Rouge regime's split with the Vietnamese Communist Party and its subsequent, well-documented links with Maoist China) that the Khmer Rouge were "Jacobins"?

Dan Besant

Phnom Penh