Trial of Khmer Rouge Leaders Finally Brings Cambodians Hope for Justice

The Cambodians can solve their own problems. They don't need condescending assholes from the western world telling them how to do things.

Most of the people who demand things be a certain way make me ill

That attitude is what allowed the Khmer Rouge to take over, asshole.

No, it isn't - it was Chinese support for the early incarnations of the Khmer which allowed them to take over, along with the inherent corruption of the previous government in Phomn Penh.
The inherent corruption of the illegal US invasion of South Vietnam created the conditions on the ground that resulted in Pol Pot's war crimes:

"President Nixon and his National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, discuss North Vietnamese sanctuaries and supply routes in the neutral border country of Cambodia.

"General Creighton Abrams, the US military commander in South Vietnam, wants those sites bombed, regardless of the fact that military strikes against locations in a neutral country would be flagrant violations of international laws and treaties.

"Abrams has assured the White House that no Cambodian civilians live in those areas—a false assertion.

"Nixon orders Kissinger to come up with a plan for bombing Cambodia. Kissinger, his military aide Alexander Haig, and Nixon’s chief of staff H. R. Haldeman develop the basic plan in two days.

"The first wave of bombings will begin three weeks later (see March 15-17, 1969). Nixon’s secret bombings of Cambodia—dubbed 'Operation Menu'—will trigger a wave of global denunciations, further energize the antiwar movement, and help precipitate the leak of the 'Pentagon Papers' (see March 1971)."

'Operation Menu'

Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were murdered, maimed, or made homeless by the carpet bombing of Laos and Cambodia; that's where the impetus for Pol Pot's "Year Zero" atrocities came from.
 
Three decades after the fall of Pol Pot, the first trial of the leaders of his genocidal Khmer Rouge regime is to begin Tuesday before a U.N.-backed tribunal -- the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

On Tuesday, a thin, elderly former schoolmaster will stand in the dock in a bland courtroom on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, accused of crimes against humanity committed 30 years ago.

Kang Kek Leu, known as Comrade Duch, was the director of the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, the torture and interrogation center in Phnom Penh where thousands of innocent people were sent to die.

FOXNews.com - Trial of Khmer Rouge Leaders Finally Brings Cambodians Hope for Justice - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News





why did they wait 30 years? Gathering forensics doyathink?

Glad this is happening.
 
Another staff strike in Khmer Rouge trials...
:eusa_eh:
Strike hits Cambodian war crimes court
Mon, Sep 02, 2013 - DISASTER FOR JUSTICE: Another setback stalls the besieged UN-backed crimes court, leading to fears that the aging Khmer Rouge leaders will not live to pay for their crimes
About 100 staff at Cambodia’s war crimes court for former Khmer Rouge leaders went on strike over unpaid wages yesterday in a fresh blow to the UN-backed body. The tribunal’s 250 Cambodian workers, including judges and prosecutors, have not been paid since June, amid cash shortages and delays that led UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday to appeal for international donors to step in. Tribunal spokesman Neth Pheaktra said that staff had officially confirmed they would not return to work until the salary issue was resolved. “If translators, interpreters and other sections do not work, it means that the work of the court will be stalled,” he said.

The tribunal has been frequently short of cash since it was set up in 2006 to push for justice for the deaths of up to 2 million people under the fanatical communist regime in the late 1970s. Two defendants — Khmer Rouge “Brother No. 2” Nuon Chea, 87, and former head of state Khieu Samphan, 82 — are currently on trial for their roles in the regime. Both deny charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Heather Ryan, a trial monitor at the Open Society Justice Initiative, said the strike could be “a disaster” for the court, raising the possibility of a halt in hearings at a crucial point in the current trial. “The court cannot function without key Cambodian staff — particularly translators, interpreters, judges and prosecution staff,” Ryan said.

The court was forced to suspend proceedings for about two weeks in March after a strike over unpaid wages. The Cambodian side of the hybrid tribunal — whose top donors include Japan, the EU and Australia — urgently needs around US$3 million to cover operational costs through to the end of this year. Ban on Wednesday warned that the “very survival of the court is now in question.” Led by “Brother No. 1” Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population through starvation, overwork or execution in a bid to create an agrarian utopia during their 1975 to 1979 rule.

So far the UN-backed court has achieved one conviction, sentencing a former prison chief to life in jail for overseeing the deaths of some 15,000 people. The trial has been hit by a string of high-profile resignations amid allegations of political meddling, as well as concerns about slow progress due to the octogenarian defendants’ ill health. Regime co-founder Ieng Sary died in March at 87, escaping a court judgement over his role in the regime’s reign of terror, and adding to doubts about whether other top leaders would live to face verdicts.

Strike hits Cambodian war crimes court - Taipei Times
 
Another staff strike in Khmer Rouge trials...
:eusa_eh:
Strike hits Cambodian war crimes court
Mon, Sep 02, 2013 - DISASTER FOR JUSTICE: Another setback stalls the besieged UN-backed crimes court, leading to fears that the aging Khmer Rouge leaders will not live to pay for their crimes
About 100 staff at Cambodia’s war crimes court for former Khmer Rouge leaders went on strike over unpaid wages yesterday in a fresh blow to the UN-backed body. The tribunal’s 250 Cambodian workers, including judges and prosecutors, have not been paid since June, amid cash shortages and delays that led UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday to appeal for international donors to step in. Tribunal spokesman Neth Pheaktra said that staff had officially confirmed they would not return to work until the salary issue was resolved. “If translators, interpreters and other sections do not work, it means that the work of the court will be stalled,” he said.

The tribunal has been frequently short of cash since it was set up in 2006 to push for justice for the deaths of up to 2 million people under the fanatical communist regime in the late 1970s. Two defendants — Khmer Rouge “Brother No. 2” Nuon Chea, 87, and former head of state Khieu Samphan, 82 — are currently on trial for their roles in the regime. Both deny charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Heather Ryan, a trial monitor at the Open Society Justice Initiative, said the strike could be “a disaster” for the court, raising the possibility of a halt in hearings at a crucial point in the current trial. “The court cannot function without key Cambodian staff — particularly translators, interpreters, judges and prosecution staff,” Ryan said.

The court was forced to suspend proceedings for about two weeks in March after a strike over unpaid wages. The Cambodian side of the hybrid tribunal — whose top donors include Japan, the EU and Australia — urgently needs around US$3 million to cover operational costs through to the end of this year. Ban on Wednesday warned that the “very survival of the court is now in question.” Led by “Brother No. 1” Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population through starvation, overwork or execution in a bid to create an agrarian utopia during their 1975 to 1979 rule.

So far the UN-backed court has achieved one conviction, sentencing a former prison chief to life in jail for overseeing the deaths of some 15,000 people. The trial has been hit by a string of high-profile resignations amid allegations of political meddling, as well as concerns about slow progress due to the octogenarian defendants’ ill health. Regime co-founder Ieng Sary died in March at 87, escaping a court judgement over his role in the regime’s reign of terror, and adding to doubts about whether other top leaders would live to face verdicts.

Strike hits Cambodian war crimes court - Taipei Times
We still got Henry to hang...

"Here is the secret in plain words. In the fall of 1968, Richard Nixon and some of his emissaries and underlings set out to sabotage the Paris peace negotiations on Vietnam.

"The means they chose were simple: they privately assured the South Vietnamese military rulers that an incoming Republican regime would offer them a better deal than would a Democratic one. In this way, they undercut both the talks themselves and the electoral strategy of Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

"The tactic 'worked,' in that the South Vietnamese junta withdrew from the talks on the eve of the election, thereby destroying the peace initiative on which the Democrats had based their campaign.

"In another way, it did not 'work,' because four years later the Nixon Administration tried to conclude the war on the same terms that had been on offer in Paris.

"The reason for the dead silence that still surrounds the question is that in those intervening years some 20,000 Americans and an uncalculated number of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians lost their lives.

"Lost them, that is to say, even more pointlessly than had those slain up to that point.

"The impact of those four years on Indochinese society, and on American democracy, is beyond computation.

"The chief beneficiary of the covert action, and of the subsequent slaughter, was Henry Kissinger."

The Case Against Henry Kissinger Part One by Christopher Hitchens

Imagine the Hope and Change that would follow from dropping Henry into a 6' by 10' cell for the rest of his life?
 
Japan may allow contributions to be used for salaries of striking workers...
:cool:
Japan May Help Funding Woes for Cambodian Tribunal
September 03, 2013 > Japan may allow some of its contributions to the international side of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal to be used to pay salaries of striking workers on the cash-strapped Cambodian side of the court.
The announcement comes a day after about 200 Cambodian staff at the U.N.-backed court walked off the job after not being paid since May. A tribunal spokesman said Tuesday the striking staff has yet to return to work. The Cambodian side of the court, short by nearly $3 million in funding, has been dealing with allegations of mismanagement, corruption and kickbacks since its inception in 2006. "Japan might allow the Cambodian side to use some of its $3 million contribution to the U.N. side," said Cambodian spokesman Ek Tha. "This is to ensure the operation of the [tribunal] without any suspension."

He made the comments following talks between Cabinet Minister Sok An and Japanese Ambassador Kumamaru Yuji. Japanese officials have not yet publicly commented on the news. The tribunal was set up to prosecute the top leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, which is blamed for the deaths of nearly two million Cambodians during its bloody, four-year rule in the late 1970s. The court has handed down only one conviction, and the advanced age of the remaining defendants has cast doubt on prospects of finishing its job while they are still alive, or able to participate in their trials for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, both in their 80s, are the only senior Khmer Rouge leaders alive and considered fit to stand trial. They deny the charges. The group's leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998, and co-founder Ieng Sary died earlier this year. Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as "Duch," was sentenced last year to life in prison for his role in killing more than 14,000 people while running the Tuol Sleng torture and execution center in Phnom Penh.

Japan May Help Funding Woes for Cambodian Tribunal
 

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