Cambodian judges pray as foreign judges look on during the swearing in ceremony in Phnom PenhBy Sebastien Berger in Phnom Penh
Telegraph (UK)
(Filed: 04/07/2006)
The judges who will try the leaders of the Cambodian genocide were sworn in yesterday amid defiance and proclamations of innocence from senior survivors of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime.
In a ceremony held beneath the golden-roofed pavilions of Phnom Penh's royal palace, 17 Cambodian judges and eight foreign jurists took their oaths.
Before the chief monk, the local judges invoked "the angels and the spirits of the forest and the souls of the former kings of Cambodia" to "punish us, destroy us, our lives and our property" if they betrayed their oaths. The United Nations-backed court has a unique dual structure, with majorities required among both the Cambodian and international justices.
"The time for justice has finally arrived," said Nicolas Michel, the UN under-secretary general for legal affairs.
It took nine years of negotiations to set up the court, not least because the government did not want it to threaten the position of many senior officials who were mid or low-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge, including the prime minister, Hun Sen, who is not directly implicated in the atrocities.
Nearly two million lives were lost through execution, famine or disease from 1975 to 1979. The regime turned Cambodia into a vast collective farm in its drive for an agrarian utopia, forcing millions into the countryside and abolishing religion, property rights, currency and schools.
The court is expected to bring to trial only five to 10 high-ranking figures, with the first 18 months devoted to preparing the prosecution case.
Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot's deputy, Khieu Samphan, who is a former head of state, and a former foreign minister, Ieng Sary, are still at large and are likely to be charged.
Only two leading figures are in custody accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity: Ta Mok, a brutal regional commander, and Kaing Khek Iev, known as Duch, who ran the regime's main detention centre.
Youk Chhang, the director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, said: "Two million people died under their rule. Their families want to know why those people were executed, why they led the regime in such a way."
His organisation has assembled a million pages of documents, evidence from 20,000 mass graves, 189 prisons and 80 skull storage sites, and 30,000 victim and perpetrator interviews, all of which will be made available to prosecutors.
Naly Pilorge, the director of Licadho, a human rights group, said that the country was still suffering from the horrors it had gone through, despite its superficial smiles and gentleness.
"Underneath, very close, there's a level of violence that's so high," she said. "You see that in mob killings, acid attacks, domestic violence and the rape of very young children."
The culture of impunity that endures in Cambodia is best displayed in Pailin, a stronghold of the Khmer Rouge close to the Thai border and home to Nuon Chea, who has been described as "one of the cruelest of the Khmer Rouge leaders".
But it is difficult to reconcile the image of the burly second in command with the frail old man of 80, who moves slowly, using a metal walking stick. In a querulous voice he complained about his high blood pressure. It is the only thing that keeps him awake at night, rather than the deaths of vast numbers of people.
"I feel regret about the people who lost their lives," he said. "This is my country, I regret it a lot." But he showed no guilt or remorse.
"I made mistakes, but what kind of mistakes? I was president of the national assembly at that time. What was I responsible for? I don't have any feelings about the swearing in, it's up to the government," he insisted. Pol Lang, a former soldier and now a district official, said: "Of course people died under Pol Pot's control. Why? There were Khmers [Cambodians] who fought for the Americans. That's why we had to have the killing fields.
"As a soldier I showed my anger against the enemy. There were Khmer enemy, American enemy, Vietnamese enemy."
Like many, he attributed all blame to Pol Pot, who since his death in 1998 has become a convenient scapegoat for the rest of the Khmer Rouge, and outside forces, saying that American bombing of Cambodia was responsible for the creation of the movement.
"Why do you want to try Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, they have done nothing wrong, they were under Pol Pot," he said. "If they didn't implement his orders they would be killed."
asiasoutheast@telegraph.co.uk
In a ceremony held beneath the golden-roofed pavilions of Phnom Penh's royal palace, 17 Cambodian judges and eight foreign jurists took their oaths.
Before the chief monk, the local judges invoked "the angels and the spirits of the forest and the souls of the former kings of Cambodia" to "punish us, destroy us, our lives and our property" if they betrayed their oaths. The United Nations-backed court has a unique dual structure, with majorities required among both the Cambodian and international justices.
"The time for justice has finally arrived," said Nicolas Michel, the UN under-secretary general for legal affairs.
It took nine years of negotiations to set up the court, not least because the government did not want it to threaten the position of many senior officials who were mid or low-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge, including the prime minister, Hun Sen, who is not directly implicated in the atrocities.
Nearly two million lives were lost through execution, famine or disease from 1975 to 1979. The regime turned Cambodia into a vast collective farm in its drive for an agrarian utopia, forcing millions into the countryside and abolishing religion, property rights, currency and schools.
The court is expected to bring to trial only five to 10 high-ranking figures, with the first 18 months devoted to preparing the prosecution case.
Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot's deputy, Khieu Samphan, who is a former head of state, and a former foreign minister, Ieng Sary, are still at large and are likely to be charged.
Only two leading figures are in custody accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity: Ta Mok, a brutal regional commander, and Kaing Khek Iev, known as Duch, who ran the regime's main detention centre.
Youk Chhang, the director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, said: "Two million people died under their rule. Their families want to know why those people were executed, why they led the regime in such a way."
His organisation has assembled a million pages of documents, evidence from 20,000 mass graves, 189 prisons and 80 skull storage sites, and 30,000 victim and perpetrator interviews, all of which will be made available to prosecutors.
Naly Pilorge, the director of Licadho, a human rights group, said that the country was still suffering from the horrors it had gone through, despite its superficial smiles and gentleness.
"Underneath, very close, there's a level of violence that's so high," she said. "You see that in mob killings, acid attacks, domestic violence and the rape of very young children."
The culture of impunity that endures in Cambodia is best displayed in Pailin, a stronghold of the Khmer Rouge close to the Thai border and home to Nuon Chea, who has been described as "one of the cruelest of the Khmer Rouge leaders".
But it is difficult to reconcile the image of the burly second in command with the frail old man of 80, who moves slowly, using a metal walking stick. In a querulous voice he complained about his high blood pressure. It is the only thing that keeps him awake at night, rather than the deaths of vast numbers of people.
"I feel regret about the people who lost their lives," he said. "This is my country, I regret it a lot." But he showed no guilt or remorse.
"I made mistakes, but what kind of mistakes? I was president of the national assembly at that time. What was I responsible for? I don't have any feelings about the swearing in, it's up to the government," he insisted. Pol Lang, a former soldier and now a district official, said: "Of course people died under Pol Pot's control. Why? There were Khmers [Cambodians] who fought for the Americans. That's why we had to have the killing fields.
"As a soldier I showed my anger against the enemy. There were Khmer enemy, American enemy, Vietnamese enemy."
Like many, he attributed all blame to Pol Pot, who since his death in 1998 has become a convenient scapegoat for the rest of the Khmer Rouge, and outside forces, saying that American bombing of Cambodia was responsible for the creation of the movement.
"Why do you want to try Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, they have done nothing wrong, they were under Pol Pot," he said. "If they didn't implement his orders they would be killed."
asiasoutheast@telegraph.co.uk
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