Trial of Khmer Rouge Leaders Finally Brings Cambodians Hope for Justice

[WillowTree]

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?

 

[Sky Dancer]

It'll take 30 years to try Bush for his war crimes.


After 30 years, no one has been tried, convicted or sentenced for the crimes of one of the bloodiest regimes of the 20th century," said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "This is no accident. For more than a decade, China and the United States blocked efforts at accountability, and for the past decade, [Cambodian Prime Minister] Hun Sen has done his best to thwart justice."


For many Cambodians, Jan. 7 is a bittersweet date: It marks their deliverance from the Khmer Rouge but also the beginning of a 10-year occupation by Vietnam.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/07/AR2009010702466.html

 

[Chris]

We can only hope to one day have a democracy as good as Cambodia.

 

[Sky Dancer]

This is interesting:

"The process of negotiating and organising an internationally acceptable tribunal for trials of Khmer Rouge leaders started in 1997. Experts advised then Secretary-General Kofi Annan that, due to wide scale corruption among judges and prosecutors, and their subservience to the government, it was impossible for a local tribunal to conduct fair and credible trials. They also ruled out a hybrid court, being convinced that its Cambodian members would take orders from prime minister Hun Sen, who, along with some of his Cabinet colleagues, had previously been part of the Khmer Rouge. It recommended a fully international tribunal, sitting outside Cambodia, but in a neighbouring country, so that Cambodians could follow the proceedings. Annan favoured this approach.

The UN-Cambodia Agreement and the Status of the ECCC Law

After long and intense negotiations, in which almost all the points of a UN draft were rejected by the Cambodian government, and under pressure particularly from the governments of France and Japan, UN negotiators reached an agreement based largely on a 2001 Cambodian law, which envisaged a tribunal, which was part of the Cambodian system.

he institutions and rules for decision-making are complex, indeed cumbersome. They require constant negotiations between the international and local judges, prosecutors and administrative staff. The use of three languages and some tensions between judges trained in the common law and those in the civil law have added to the problems.

The Cambodian government has interfered in various ways in the work of the ECCC. In this way the weakness and corruption within the national legal system have infected the ECCC, instead of the ECCC influencing the conduct of local judges and prosecutors. "
The Standard | Online Edition :: The Khmer Rouge tribunal: Lessons for Kenya?

 

[Avatar4321]

You know, its amazing how news like this makes liberals immediately bring up President Bush. He hasnt committed any crimes and you all know it.

As for the hope for justice, is it really justice to take an old man to trial for crimes that happened decades ago? Are the surviving victims still full of despair over what happened?

Im not saying the people involved shouldnt face justice. But if they have already reached old age and havent been doing anything for the last few decades, maybe we should just let God deal with the justice and forgive them and move on.

Obviously there are still people who want to see them pay. I understand that. But I dont think hope ever comes from people being punished, even if that punishment is just. Hope comes from a greater source.

 

[waltky]

Khmer Rouge trials have run out of money...

Cambodia Khmer Rouge tribunal staff going unpaid
Jan 18,`13 -- About 300 Cambodian staff members at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal trying former leaders of the Khmer Rouge have been working since December without pay, and face the prospect of not getting paid this year unless foreign aid donors contribute more funds, a tribunal official said Friday.

Khmer Rouge tribunal spokesman Neth Pheaktra said that $9.3 million is needed for salaries and daily operating costs in 2013 for the Cambodian component of the operation. All functions of the tribunal have Cambodian and international personnel operating in tandem but with separate budgets.

The tribunal is tasked with seeking justice for atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge during their four years in power in the late 1970s. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the radically communist regime from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions. The tribunal spent $141.1 million from 2006 through 2011. It expects total costs of $230.7 million by its projected conclusion in 2013, and has warned that it faces severe budgetary shortfalls. The salary delay has demoralized the Cambodia staff, said Neth Pheaktra.

On Friday the tribunal announced that Japan has contributed $2.5 million to the U.N., or international, component of the tribunal, which is also short of funds but not quite as desperate. Japan is the biggest contributor to the tribunal with $79.13 million in total, while France, Germany and Britain are also major donors. The statement said Japan considers it important for the tribunal to proceed "in a fair, efficient, and expeditious manner, given the advanced age and frail health of the persons charged and in order to achieve the long overdue justice for the people of Cambodia."

The age and infirm health of the defendants has raised concerns they may not live long enough to hear a verdict on the changes against them. They are the 81-year-old former head of state, Khieu Samphan, the 86-year-old ideologist of the group, Nuon Chea, and 87-year-old Ieng Sary, former foreign minister. The three have been charged for crimes against humanity and other offenses. Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea were hospitalized this week suffering from fatigue and shortness of breath and acute bronchitis, respectively.

Source

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Oh please, too little too late. I know a few Cambodians who have relatives on both sides of the terror

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

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

 

[waltky]

Will Pol Pot's regime escape justice due to lack of money to try them?...

Cambodia Khmer Rouge tribunal staff go on strike
4 Mar.`13 — Cambodian translators angry that they have gone without pay for three months stopped working at the U.N.-backed genocide trial of former Khmer Rogue leaders on Monday, a new setback for an international justice effort that has been hobbled by conflicts with the Cambodian government.

Khmer Rouge tribunal spokesman Neth Pheaktra said that about 30 Cambodian staff members from the translation section announced they were going on strike just before the court was to hear testimony from a foreign expert. Testimony that had been scheduled to be given this week and next has been postponed until the dispute can be resolved, he said. Neth Pheaktra said local staff members who worked at the tribunal have not been paid since December because the countries that have agreed to fund the tribunal have not contributed on time. Foreign workers involved in the trial are paid through a separate budget.

In this Oct. 19, 2011 file photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, court officers of the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal are seen through windows during a hearing of former Khmer Rouge top leaders in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Cambodian translators angry that they have gone without pay for three months stopped working at the genocide trial of former Khmer Rogue leaders on Monday, March 4, 2013, a new setback for an international justice effort that has been hobbled by conflicts with the Cambodian government. Khmer Rouge tribunal spokesman Neth Pheaktra said that about 30 Cambodian staff members from the translation section announced they were going on strike just before the court was to hear testimony from a foreign expert.

The court has appealed to donors for more money, Neth Pheaktra said, but he added that it was unclear when the workers might be paid. The tribunal, which formed in 2006, is tasked with seeking justice for atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge during its four years in power in the late 1970s. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the radically communist regime from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and execution.

Three former leaders have been on trial since November 2011, charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and other offenses: Khieu Samphan, the 81-year-old former head of state, Nuon Chea, the 86-year-old chief ideologist of the group, and Ieng Sary, 87, the former foreign minister. A fourth defendant, former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, was deemed mentally unfit and set free. The defendants' age and infirm health has raised concerns they may not live long enough to hear a verdict. Just one person, chief Khmer Rouge jailer Kaing Guek Eav, has been convicted by the tribunal so far; he is serving a life sentence.

More Cambodia Khmer Rouge tribunal staff go on strike - Yahoo! News

 

[SteadyMercury]

This is such a joke.

Look at their Prime Minister Hun Sen, he was Khmer Rouge and surely participated in his share of atrocities until he got caught up on the losing end of their internal power struggles and had to flee to Vietnam.

 

[waltky]

Justice delayed by tribunal strike...

Khmer Rouge Genocide: Justice Delayed may be Justice Denied
March 10, 2013 - Under Cambodia's murderous Khmer Rouge, Meas Mut and Sou Met, now two-star generals in their 80s, are said to have hauled prisoners to S-21, a torture center that symbolized the horrors of a regime that wiped out nearly a quarter of the population.

Another soldier, Im Chaem, now a Buddhist nun in her 60s, is suspected of running a forced labour camp where fellow Khmer Rouge cadres Ta An and Ta Tith oversaw massacres in the ``Killing Fields'' revolution of 1975-79. Those allegations, contained in cases known as 003 and 004 at a UN-backed tribunal, are plunging Cambodia into soul searching over how far to pursue war-crimes accusations against former commanders, some of whom now occupy senior roles in government. They are also fuelling criticism of the United Nations over whether its cash-strapped joint Cambodian tribunal will ever deliver justice for victims of the ultra-Maoist regime that tore Cambodia apart and was responsible for up to 2.2 million deaths.

The European Union, the second-biggest donor after Japan, has called on Cambodia to come up with more funding for the tribunal, where some workers went on strike last week after going for more than two months without pay. Cambodia says it has given more than its fair share and has appealed for bigger donations. The tribunal's new American judge, Mark Harmon, said last month he wanted to reopen case 003 involving former Khmer Rouge navy chief Meas Mut and former air force chief Sou Met. That puts him on a collision course with authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been accused of interfering to limit probes that could implicate powerful politicians. Meas Mut and Sou Met are now advisers to the Defense Ministry.

A Cambodian gestures outside the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) courtroom during the trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders on the outskirts of Phnom Penh Jan. 10, 2012.

Hun Sen, a close ally of China which was a key supporter of the Khmer Rouge during the ``Killing Fields'' years, has vowed to prevent new indictments and has said he would be happy if the United Nations left Cambodia. He was himself a Khmer Rouge fighter before defecting to Vietnam, which invaded Cambodia and toppled Pol Pot's regime in 1979. Almost every Cambodian alive lost a family member under the Khmer Rouge. Many fear the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC), which began work in 2006 after an agreement between the Cambodian government and the United Nations to try those “most responsible” for the killings, will fail to bring justice. The court, dogged from the outset by allegations of corruption, political interference and profligacy, had spent $175.3 million by the end of last year and handed down just one conviction - that of S-21's former prison chief, Kaing Guek Eav, alias “Duch”, who was jailed for life for the deaths of more than 14,000 people. He has repeatedly said he was ``just following orders''.

Now on trial in the court's second case, known as 002, are the only remaining members of the inner circle of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, who died in 1998: chief ideologue Nuon Chea, 86, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, 87, and head of state Khieu Samphan, 81. They may not live to hear the verdicts. Ieng Sary and Nuon Chea have been in and out of hospital for years. Most of the suspects live in isolation away from the capital and have not talked about the accusations in public. While Hun Sen's government has done little to stop case 002, it has reason to be concerned with 003 and 004: some government officials occupied Khmer Rouge positions similar to those held by the suspects.

Case “Remains Open”

 

[bripat9643]

Oh please, too little too late. I know a few Cambodians who have relatives on both sides of the terror

So? My brother's brother-in-law is a child molester. Does the fact that I'm distantly related mean he shouldn't be in jail?

 

[bripat9643]

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.

 

[Antares]

LOL....and who gives a fuck what makes you ill kid?

You love ole Pol don't you?

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

 

[waltky]

Co-founder of Khmer Rouge dies while on trial...

Khmer Rouge insider Ieng Sary dies while on trial
Mar 13,`13 -- Ieng Sary, who co-founded Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge movement in 1970s, served as its public face abroad and decades later became one of its few leaders to face justice for the deaths of well over a million people, died Thursday morning. He was 87.

His death came during the course of his trial with two other former Khmer Rouge leaders by a joint Cambodian-international tribunal. Lars Olsen, a spokesman for the tribunal, confirmed his death. Ieng Sary founded the Khmer Rouge with leader Pol Pot, his brother-in-law. The communist regime, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, claimed it was building a pure socialist society by evicting people from cities to work in labor camps in the countryside. Its radical policies led to the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

Ieng Sary was foreign minister in the regime, and as its top diplomat became a much more recognizable figure internationally than his secretive colleagues. In 1996, years after the overthrown Khmer Rouge retreated to the jungle, he became the first member of its inner circle to defect, bringing thousands of foot soldiers with him and hastening the movement's final disintegration. The move secured him a limited amnesty, temporary credibility as a peacemaker and years of comfortable living in Cambodia, but that vanished as the U.N.-backed tribunal built its case against him.

The Khmer Rogue came to power through a civil war that toppled a U.S.-backed regime. Ieng Sary then helped persuade hundreds of Cambodian intellectuals to return home from overseas, often to their deaths. The returnees were arrested and put in "re-education camps," and most were later executed, said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, an independent group gathering evidence of the Khmer Rouge crimes for the tribunal.

As a member of the Khmer Rouge's central and standing committee, Ieng Sary "repeatedly and publicly encouraged, and also facilitated, arrests and executions within his Foreign Ministry and throughout Cambodia," Steve Heder said in his co-authored book "Seven Candidates for Prosecution: Accountability for the Crimes of the Khmer Rouge." Heder is a Cambodia scholar who later worked with the U.N.-backed tribunal. Known by his revolutionary alias as "Comrade Van," Ieng Sary was a recipient of many internal Khmer Rouge documents detailing torture and mass execution of suspected internal enemies, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia.

MORE

 

[waltky]

The wheel of justice grinds slowly in Cambodia...

Khmer Rouge leader ‘fit for trial’
Tue, Mar 26, 2013 - KILLING FIELDS:The Khmer Rouge regime wiped out nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population through starvation, overwork or execution from 1975 to 1979

Pol Pot’s former deputy Nuon Chea is fit to continue with his trial for war crimes and genocide, medical experts told Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge court yesterday following the death of a co-defendant. “From a physical point of view, I felt he is well enough to continue with the trial,” John Campbell, a geriatrician from New Zealand, told the UN-backed tribunal. Another expert who examined the physical and mental conditions of the 86-year-old “Brother No. 2,” British forensic psychiatrist Seena Fazel, said his mental health and cognitive function “is currently good.” Nuon Chea, the most senior surviving leader of the hardline communist regime which oversaw the “Killing Fields” era in the late 1970s, is currently on trial alongside former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, 81.

The death on March 14 of regime co-founder Ieng Sary at the age of 87 intensified fears that the remaining two co-defendants may also die before verdicts can be reached in their trial, which began in June 2011. Nuon Chea has suffered a number of illnesses, including high blood pressure, acute bronchitis and back pain. “One of the questions we asked ourselves is would we be surprised if this person was not alive in six months? I have to say in Nuon Chea’s situation, we would not be surprised,” Campbell said. “Life is very unpredictable at age 86, especially with the underlying problems that he has.” Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan deny charges including war crimes and genocide from their roles in a regime blamed for the deaths of up to 2 million people.

Ieng Sary’s widow, Ieng Thirith, the regime’s former social affairs minister, was freed in September last year after being deemed unfit for trial due to dementia. 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 from 1975 to 1979. Fazel said that Nuon Chea “has a clear understanding” of the consequences of a verdict in this trial. “He explained that if he was found guilty, one possibility was life imprisonment,” he said, adding that Nuon Chea believed that he would not receive capital punishment “because it wasn’t part of the national law.”

Khmer Rouge leader ?fit for trial? - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

Kinda late for apologies, don't ya think?...

Khmer Rouge leaders apologize to victims' families
May 30, 2013 — Former leaders of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge being tried by a U.N.-backed genocide tribunal apologized Thursday to families of victims of the regime's atrocities, bringing a rare emotional note to a trial dominated so far by the detailed recounting of names and dates.

Khieu Samphan, the head of state of the 1970s communist regime, and Nuon Chea, the group's main ideologist, were responding to questions posed by the so-called civil parties, who are representing the victims' families at the trial. The radical policies of the communist Khmer Rouge, who ruled Cambodia from 1975-79, are generally held responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions. Both men have issued expressions of regret before for the killings, but they have denied legal responsibility and insisted they served with the best interests of their country and its people in mind. They have also not hesitated to cast blame on their former colleagues and other parties.

The two men are charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture, though their current trial focuses on the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh, the capital, when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975. Their statements Thursday were notable chiefly for the context — they were responding directly to the family members who had testified in emotional detail to the manner in which they lost their loved ones to Khmer Rouge brutality.

Hundreds of former Khmer Rouge victims' bone and skulls are displayed in a memorial at Choeung Ek "Killing Field" in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, May 20, 2013. Cambodian Buddhist monks, nuns, civil servants, students attend the annual Day of Anger events to remember the atrocities and killings committed under the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule.

Because prosecutors must try to prove the defendants bore responsibility for the actions, much of the testimony has sought to draw a legalistic line showing their knowledge through a chain of command. Thursday's testimony touched on the moral implications of one of the most shocking historical episodes of the 20th century. "I feel extremely sorry for the disappearance and extremely brutal killing of your father," Khieu Samphan told Yim Roum Doul, claiming, however, that he did not know at the time about "the atrocities committed by the military commanders and leaders." "I did not know the great suffering of our people," he said, adding that the perpetrators "must be brought to justice."

He said he joined the Khmer Rouge not to kill fellow Cambodians but with the "determination to protect our country and to develop our country." "But unfortunately it turned out to be a complete disaster," he said, describing those responsible as "the most stupid persons on earth." In testimony earlier this week, Khieu Samphan did not neglect to point the finger at other parties whom he believed contributed to the Cambodian holocaust. He spoke to one civil party about the American B-52 bombing during Cambodia's 1970-75 civil war, and the resultant death and destruction. Some scholars suggest that the bombing polarized and radicalized Cambodian society, contributing to the hash policies implemented when the Khmer Rouge took power.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Head Khmer Rouge torturer sent to public prison...

‘Duch’ transferred to public prison
Fri, Jun 07, 2013 - TORTURER-IN-CHIEF: Kaing Guek Eav was convicted last year of overseeing the extermination of thousands of men and women during the Khmer Rouge regime

Cambodia’s war crimes court yesterday transferred the Khmer Rouge’s torturer-in-chief to a public prison to serve out his life sentence for the slaughter of about 15,000 people, officials said. Kaing Guek Eav, a former math teacher better known as Duch, was convicted last year of overseeing the extermination of thousands of men, women and children at a notorious torture jail in Phnom Penh.

He was taken from detention at the purpose-built UN-backed court — where he has been held since 2007 — to a local prison in Kandal Province, according to a court statement. “Duch is being held in a separate cell from other prisoners” for his own safety, General Department of Prisons director-general Kuy Bun Sorn said. “Duch is a criminal of a genocidal regime ... for those who lost their relatives under the Khmer Rouge regime, how could they not express their anger against him?” he added.

The 70-year-old was found responsible for torture and murder at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, known as S-21, in Cambodia’s capital during the communist regime’s brutal 1975 to 1979 rule. “It is the end of his life journey with the Khmer Rouge. He ends up in jail for life,” said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities. “Comrade” Duch begged for forgiveness during his trial for crimes committed under his command at the jail, where prisoners were tortured into denouncing themselves and others as foreign spies. Last week, the Khmer Rouge’s former No. 2 Nuon Chea for the first time expressed remorse for the actions of a regime blamed for the deaths of up to 2 million people in the late 1970s.

The regime former head of state Khieu Samphan also expressed a “sincere apology” in court on May 30 and said that he was not aware at the time of the “great suffering” of the Cambodian people under the regime. Nuon Chea, the most senior surviving leader of the “Killing Fields” era, is currently on trial alongside Khieu Samphan, 81. Both deny charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Led by “Brother No. 1” Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for one of the worst horrors of the 20th century, wiping out up to 2 million people through starvation, overwork and execution. Regime co-founder Ieng Sary died in March at the age of 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.

?Duch? transferred to public prison - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

Cambodia's version of lyin' to the FBI...

Cambodia criminalises Khmer Rouge atrocity denial
7 June 2013 > Cambodia's parliament has approved a bill which makes it illegal to deny that atrocities were committed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.

The move comes amid political in-fighting in the run-up to elections. Anyone found guilty of denying or playing down the crimes could face up to two years in prison. About 1.7 million people, about one-third of the population, are thought to have been killed, or died of over-work, starvation or torture from 1975-1979.

Prime Minister Hun Sen proposed the law after an opposition leader apparently blamed Vietnam for some of the deaths and reportedly said that the infamous S-21 torture prison "was staged". The lawmaker maintains that the recording of his words was doctored. The Vietnamese invasion in January 1979 shattered the Khmer Rouge's leadership in Cambodia.

'Election-related'

The bill was drafted within a week and passed unanimously but in the absence of all opposition politicians. They were expelled from parliament after forming a new party, the Cambodia National Rescue party. The party said it was "disappointed" by the move because the expulsion of its lawmakers had left parliament without a quorum, the Associated Press news agency reported. Critics say the denial law runs the risk of being used as a weapon against the political opposition.

Human Rights Watch's Asia director Brad Adams said Prime Minister Hun Sen's advocacy of the law was "entirely election-related". "It's a tool to try to intimidate the opposition but also to galvanise his side, to demonise the opposition as unfit to govern, and to show that he's in charge, to show the country that he can completely dominate the opposition - and make them squirm," he said.

The Khmer Rouge regime fell in 1979, and the process of trying its senior figures has taken many years. The only former Khmer Rouge leader to have been successfully prosecuted was chief jailer Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in running the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, where thousands of inmates were killed.

BBC News - Cambodia criminalises Khmer Rouge atrocity denial

 

[Saigon]

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.