Aides to Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, both key architects of Pol Pot's brutal rule, warned a trial of the notorious leaders would only reap fresh havoc on the country. ``A trial will not benefit the nation. It will involve the 200 days and nights of American bombing. It will also drag in China,'' asserted Long Norin, a close aide to the defectors who were today concluding a trip to this seaside resort.

The aide also warned it might not be in everyone's interest to hear the Khmer Rouge leaders' account of their brutal regime that left up to two million dead. ``It is a very complicated issue: if they push for international tribunal we will dig up the past and present. We will prepare our things to say, then we will go to The Hague together for trial,'' he told reporters.

Im Sopheap, a former KhmerRouge official also angrily dismissed questions over King Norodom Sihanouk's refusal to support a de facto amnesty given to Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan. ``You can have peace or a trial, but not both. Do you want this country to be like Palestine or Afghanistan,'' complained the source close to Khieu Samphan. ``This issue is very painful, but it is foreigners who want the trial not Khmers.'' Despite the assertion, there is growing internal pressure for setting up of a proposed tribunal and opposition to Prime Minister Hun Sen's warm reception of the defectors and his appeal to ``dig a hole and bury the past.''