Inter Press Service
Jul 26, 2006
BANGKOK - The death of Ta Mok, known widely in Cambodia as "The Butcher" for his alleged role in crimes against humanity committed during the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror from 1975-79, has cast new doubts on the United Nations-sponsored war-crimes tribunal recently established to bring the former regime's leaders to justice.
The 80-year-old Khmer Rouge cadre died of natural causes last week after suffering from respiratory complications and slipping into a coma. A violent falling-out with former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot in 1997 signaled the Khmer Rouge's final dissolution. Ta Mok was imprisoned after other senior Khmer Rouge leaders defected to current Prime Minister Hun Sen's government.
Legal experts say there was significant evidence that Ta Mok, a former member of the Khmer Rouge's Central Committee and head of the country's southwest zone, played a key role in the regime's execution policies, including ordering subordinates to arrest and kill cadres in his own ruling party. He also stood accused of failing to prevent or punish atrocities by his subordinates in the region he controlled for the government.
Ta Mok had claimed in press interviews that he was ignorant of any Khmer Rouge atrocities.
The mind-numbing crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge resulted in close to 1.7 million deaths, nearly a quarter of the country's population at the time. Most Cambodian victims were either executed or died because of forced labor or starvation.
During his reign of terror Pol Pot, who died in 1998, aimed to turn Cambodian into an agrarian paradise. His long list of enemies included intellectuals and people from cities, whom he famously labeled "parasites'.' The one-legged Ta Mok, who became the army chief in 1977, played a pivotal role in the Khmer Rouge policy of purging cities of their inhabitants.
"I really wanted to see him go before the court and explain why they killed so many people," Khieu Kola, a senior Cambodian journalist who survived the Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975-79, said in a telephone interview from Phnom Penh. "It is disappointing that he died before the trial. We fear this may happen to the others."
Khieu Kola was among the nearly 2 million people expelled from the capital Phnom Penh into rural areas where they were required to perform hard labor in slave-like conditions. "I witnessed many deaths there," said Khieu Kola, who was separated from his family. He said his younger brother was killed by the Khmer Rouge "because he stole a piece of potato to eat".
A book detailing Khmer Rouge atrocities, Seven Candidates for Prosecution, names other surviving leaders such as Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan, Sou Met and Meah Met as being linked to policies that led to mass executions and torture. Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot's deputy, has denied any involvement in any crimes and is now free since receiving a pardon from the Hun Sen government Sen in December 1998.
Others on that list enjoying similar liberties are Khieu Samphan, former head of state during the Khmer Rouge years, and Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister. Hun Sen himself was a junior member of the brutal regime before defecting to the Vietnamese that drove Pol Pot from power in 1979. Until Ta Mok's death, it was believed among legal analysts that he and Kang Kech Eav, widely known as Duch, the chairman of the infamous S-21 prison, were the mostly likely to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
It has taken 27 years for Cambodia's victims finally to believe that justice was possible. The hurdles placed in the way of the trial, now backed by the UN, were shaped by years of great power Cold War politics, years of civil war and disagreements about the composition of the tribunal between the Hun Sen government and United Nations officials.
The tribunal, known officially as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, began work on July 3, when 13 international jurists and 17 Cambodian judges were sworn in at a special ceremony at the royal palace in Phnom Penh. On July 10, the co-prosecutors began their investigations to build cases against the accused, including Ta Mok.
Shortly afterward, the independent Phnom Penh-based Documentation Center of Cambodia handed over boxes full of evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities it has gathered to help the tribunal in its investigations. It included gruesome details from some 20,000 mass graves, 189 prisons and 30,000 victim interviews.
Uncertainties about this tribunal include whether its court sessions will reveal the involvement of governments such as the United States, China and Thailand during a bloody phase of Cambodian history spanning over two decades. As part of its war in Vietnam in the late 1960s, Washington launched a secret bombing campaign of Cambodia. After Pol Pot was driven out of power by Vietnamese invaders in 1979, his group was indirectly aided by the US, Chinese and Thai governments, all of which opposed Vietnam's intervention in and occupation of Cambodia.
"Ta Mok's death serves a message to us. We need to push the tribunal to accelerate its work," said Thun Saray, president of the Phnom Penh-based Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association. "We have lost an important witness and a main accused. This tribunal is the only one that will provide justice and peace for the people. "It is better to try some leaders than have nothing at all."
The 80-year-old Khmer Rouge cadre died of natural causes last week after suffering from respiratory complications and slipping into a coma. A violent falling-out with former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot in 1997 signaled the Khmer Rouge's final dissolution. Ta Mok was imprisoned after other senior Khmer Rouge leaders defected to current Prime Minister Hun Sen's government.
Legal experts say there was significant evidence that Ta Mok, a former member of the Khmer Rouge's Central Committee and head of the country's southwest zone, played a key role in the regime's execution policies, including ordering subordinates to arrest and kill cadres in his own ruling party. He also stood accused of failing to prevent or punish atrocities by his subordinates in the region he controlled for the government.
Ta Mok had claimed in press interviews that he was ignorant of any Khmer Rouge atrocities.
The mind-numbing crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge resulted in close to 1.7 million deaths, nearly a quarter of the country's population at the time. Most Cambodian victims were either executed or died because of forced labor or starvation.
During his reign of terror Pol Pot, who died in 1998, aimed to turn Cambodian into an agrarian paradise. His long list of enemies included intellectuals and people from cities, whom he famously labeled "parasites'.' The one-legged Ta Mok, who became the army chief in 1977, played a pivotal role in the Khmer Rouge policy of purging cities of their inhabitants.
"I really wanted to see him go before the court and explain why they killed so many people," Khieu Kola, a senior Cambodian journalist who survived the Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975-79, said in a telephone interview from Phnom Penh. "It is disappointing that he died before the trial. We fear this may happen to the others."
Khieu Kola was among the nearly 2 million people expelled from the capital Phnom Penh into rural areas where they were required to perform hard labor in slave-like conditions. "I witnessed many deaths there," said Khieu Kola, who was separated from his family. He said his younger brother was killed by the Khmer Rouge "because he stole a piece of potato to eat".
A book detailing Khmer Rouge atrocities, Seven Candidates for Prosecution, names other surviving leaders such as Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan, Sou Met and Meah Met as being linked to policies that led to mass executions and torture. Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot's deputy, has denied any involvement in any crimes and is now free since receiving a pardon from the Hun Sen government Sen in December 1998.
Others on that list enjoying similar liberties are Khieu Samphan, former head of state during the Khmer Rouge years, and Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister. Hun Sen himself was a junior member of the brutal regime before defecting to the Vietnamese that drove Pol Pot from power in 1979. Until Ta Mok's death, it was believed among legal analysts that he and Kang Kech Eav, widely known as Duch, the chairman of the infamous S-21 prison, were the mostly likely to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
It has taken 27 years for Cambodia's victims finally to believe that justice was possible. The hurdles placed in the way of the trial, now backed by the UN, were shaped by years of great power Cold War politics, years of civil war and disagreements about the composition of the tribunal between the Hun Sen government and United Nations officials.
The tribunal, known officially as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, began work on July 3, when 13 international jurists and 17 Cambodian judges were sworn in at a special ceremony at the royal palace in Phnom Penh. On July 10, the co-prosecutors began their investigations to build cases against the accused, including Ta Mok.
Shortly afterward, the independent Phnom Penh-based Documentation Center of Cambodia handed over boxes full of evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities it has gathered to help the tribunal in its investigations. It included gruesome details from some 20,000 mass graves, 189 prisons and 30,000 victim interviews.
Uncertainties about this tribunal include whether its court sessions will reveal the involvement of governments such as the United States, China and Thailand during a bloody phase of Cambodian history spanning over two decades. As part of its war in Vietnam in the late 1960s, Washington launched a secret bombing campaign of Cambodia. After Pol Pot was driven out of power by Vietnamese invaders in 1979, his group was indirectly aided by the US, Chinese and Thai governments, all of which opposed Vietnam's intervention in and occupation of Cambodia.
"Ta Mok's death serves a message to us. We need to push the tribunal to accelerate its work," said Thun Saray, president of the Phnom Penh-based Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association. "We have lost an important witness and a main accused. This tribunal is the only one that will provide justice and peace for the people. "It is better to try some leaders than have nothing at all."
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