Cambodia has finally arrested its most senior surviving Khmer Rouge leader. But the nation’s fight for justice and legal reform is far from over.
Sept 20, 2007
By Patrick Falby
Newsweek
Sept. 20, 2007 - Nuon Chea often said he was ready to face up to his past. As the Khmer Rouge leader dubbed Brother No. 2 (behind Cambodia's tyrannical Pol Pot), he said that he did not fear the prospect of being imprisoned for war crimes. “They can keep my body in jail,” Nuong Chea once proclaimed, “but my conscience will have served my nation and my people."
Now the country's most senior surviving Khmer Rouge leader is having that bravado put to the test. On Wednesday, Cambodian police finally surrounded Nuon Chea's home and arrested the 82-year-old on charges of crimes against humanity. He has denied the charges and his trial for his role in the communist regime that left an estimated 1.7 million dead between 1975 and 1979 could begin next year.
The arrest is a landmark event in Cambodia’s troubled history. Many genocide researchers say he actually played a greater role than Pol Pot in the regime's executions—but until now Brother No. 2 was living proof of the Southeast Asian country’s failure to confront its brutal past. His detention seems to indicate that Cambodia's U.N.-backed trial of senior Khmer Rouge leaders may finally take place.
"[Cambodian officials] have to show forward movement—the [trial] is bogging out," says Peter Maguire, professor of history at Bard College and author of the 2005 book “Facing Death in Cambodia” (Columbia University Press). "It's taken them more time to get a court up and running than it took to try every single Japanese and German war criminal after World War II."
Nuon Chea was arrested at home in a forest clearing near the town of Pailin, more than 200 miles from the capital of Phnom Penh and just feet away from the Thai border. Three years ago, I interviewed him at that house after showing up at his front steps with his doctor, my translator and a box of mangosteen fruit. Then 78 and frail in a tattered shirt and loose red trousers, he welcomed us into his wooden, stilted house. He was still highly regarded by former Khmer Rouge supporters in that area and showed few regrets about his past. In our hourlong interview he characterized himself as a patriot, told us he was disappointed people died under the Khmer Rouge, but said that his crime was carelessness, not genocide.
Born to a wealthy Chinese-Cambodian family, Nuon Chea dropped out of law school in Thailand some 50 years ago to join the communist guerrilla movement. As deputy secretary-general of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, he oversaw all of the party's organizations and helped direct the national-security police. The Khmer Rouge evacuated cities, abolished money and markets and forced everyone into slave labor. Cambodians were forced to work in fields for up to 18 hours per day on starvation rations. Cadres murdered those caught scavenging food; others died of malnutrition and disease. Nuon Chea, however, was careful to tailor his comments about those days. He sat with us at his kitchen table, quoting from Einstein and French literature and speaking knowledgeably about current world politics. But he smiled and tried to change the subject when asked about his specific role in the Khmer Rouge.
Glossing over the atrocities of the era, he said that mass starvation was caused by subordinates who “overimplemented guidelines.” For example, he said, his underlings cut people's rice rations from 12 kilograms per month to one kilogram without his knowledge.
What about the vast number of people tortured and executed? In documents issued to those in charge of the notorious S-21 prison, a commander referred to as "Uncle Nuon" ordered his forces to "smash" and "cleanly sweep away” party members thought to be CIA, KGB or Vietnamese agents. The result was that suspects were beaten, whipped or stuffed in tanks of water to coerce confessions, then taken with their families to killing fields where they were bludgeoned or shot to death. Some were executed for sabotaging the regime because they had simply acknowledged a mundane truth like a drop in rice production. "That is my regret. It was from our carelessness, but it was not our intention," said Nuon Chea of the deaths. "It happened in part from interference from foreign countries, and some among the regime's leaders were bad people, too."
Who were those bad people? Which foreign countries? Nuon Chea wouldn't say—partly, he said because pointing fingers could damage relations with those who now give aid to his still impoverished nation. "I want to clarify that in the Khmer Rouge regime there were some mistakes," he says. "But what level those mistakes were, people do not know yet. I don't know how many people died during the regime."
Back in Phnom Penh after that 2004 interview, Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which gathers evidence on atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge era, rejected Nuon Chea’s professions of ignorance. "We have so far identified over 19,000 mass graves around the country," said Chhang, whose sister's belly was sliced open by the regime's cadres when she was suspected of stealing rice. "He can visit some of those graves and he can ask every single Cambodian family how many of their family members have died during the Khmer Rouge regime."
After Vietnamese troops ousted the regime in 1979, Nuon Chea withdrew with Khmer Rouge forces to the area along the Thai border. There the cadres financed a guerrilla war with rubies, sapphires and timber torn from the surrounding hills and sold to Thai generals. The United States and China also bolstered them with weapons to fight Vietnam.
Nuon Chea subsequently surrendered in an amnesty deal along with former head of state Khieu Samphan in 1998, the same year Pol Pot died after a show trial, and the movement finally collapsed. Now trial officials have recommended that five senior party figures be charged. Most Cambodians hope the appearance of these former leaders in court will tell them how the Khmer Rouge came to murder its own people. They also hope the court will start a trend of reining in the powerful.
But justice—and punishment—will not come easily. Nuon Chea is ailing and suffering from heart disease; he may not live to see a verdict. And only one other person has been charged so far: Kaing Guek Eav—commonly known as Duch—who ran the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh. Many analysts believe that the pace of prosecution has been deliberately slowed by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen in a bid to control the trials—probably to prevent testimony that would prove embarrassing to members who used to be in the Khmer Rouge. After nearly a decade of unenthusiastic negotiations between the government and the United Nations, the trial format will mix international staff with Cambodia's inept, corrupt judiciary. Whatever the outcome of the war-crime prosecutions, that dubious legal system is unlikely to be overhauled anytime soon.
Sept 20, 2007
By Patrick Falby
Newsweek
Sept. 20, 2007 - Nuon Chea often said he was ready to face up to his past. As the Khmer Rouge leader dubbed Brother No. 2 (behind Cambodia's tyrannical Pol Pot), he said that he did not fear the prospect of being imprisoned for war crimes. “They can keep my body in jail,” Nuong Chea once proclaimed, “but my conscience will have served my nation and my people."
Now the country's most senior surviving Khmer Rouge leader is having that bravado put to the test. On Wednesday, Cambodian police finally surrounded Nuon Chea's home and arrested the 82-year-old on charges of crimes against humanity. He has denied the charges and his trial for his role in the communist regime that left an estimated 1.7 million dead between 1975 and 1979 could begin next year.
The arrest is a landmark event in Cambodia’s troubled history. Many genocide researchers say he actually played a greater role than Pol Pot in the regime's executions—but until now Brother No. 2 was living proof of the Southeast Asian country’s failure to confront its brutal past. His detention seems to indicate that Cambodia's U.N.-backed trial of senior Khmer Rouge leaders may finally take place.
"[Cambodian officials] have to show forward movement—the [trial] is bogging out," says Peter Maguire, professor of history at Bard College and author of the 2005 book “Facing Death in Cambodia” (Columbia University Press). "It's taken them more time to get a court up and running than it took to try every single Japanese and German war criminal after World War II."
Nuon Chea was arrested at home in a forest clearing near the town of Pailin, more than 200 miles from the capital of Phnom Penh and just feet away from the Thai border. Three years ago, I interviewed him at that house after showing up at his front steps with his doctor, my translator and a box of mangosteen fruit. Then 78 and frail in a tattered shirt and loose red trousers, he welcomed us into his wooden, stilted house. He was still highly regarded by former Khmer Rouge supporters in that area and showed few regrets about his past. In our hourlong interview he characterized himself as a patriot, told us he was disappointed people died under the Khmer Rouge, but said that his crime was carelessness, not genocide.
Born to a wealthy Chinese-Cambodian family, Nuon Chea dropped out of law school in Thailand some 50 years ago to join the communist guerrilla movement. As deputy secretary-general of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, he oversaw all of the party's organizations and helped direct the national-security police. The Khmer Rouge evacuated cities, abolished money and markets and forced everyone into slave labor. Cambodians were forced to work in fields for up to 18 hours per day on starvation rations. Cadres murdered those caught scavenging food; others died of malnutrition and disease. Nuon Chea, however, was careful to tailor his comments about those days. He sat with us at his kitchen table, quoting from Einstein and French literature and speaking knowledgeably about current world politics. But he smiled and tried to change the subject when asked about his specific role in the Khmer Rouge.
Glossing over the atrocities of the era, he said that mass starvation was caused by subordinates who “overimplemented guidelines.” For example, he said, his underlings cut people's rice rations from 12 kilograms per month to one kilogram without his knowledge.
What about the vast number of people tortured and executed? In documents issued to those in charge of the notorious S-21 prison, a commander referred to as "Uncle Nuon" ordered his forces to "smash" and "cleanly sweep away” party members thought to be CIA, KGB or Vietnamese agents. The result was that suspects were beaten, whipped or stuffed in tanks of water to coerce confessions, then taken with their families to killing fields where they were bludgeoned or shot to death. Some were executed for sabotaging the regime because they had simply acknowledged a mundane truth like a drop in rice production. "That is my regret. It was from our carelessness, but it was not our intention," said Nuon Chea of the deaths. "It happened in part from interference from foreign countries, and some among the regime's leaders were bad people, too."
Who were those bad people? Which foreign countries? Nuon Chea wouldn't say—partly, he said because pointing fingers could damage relations with those who now give aid to his still impoverished nation. "I want to clarify that in the Khmer Rouge regime there were some mistakes," he says. "But what level those mistakes were, people do not know yet. I don't know how many people died during the regime."
Back in Phnom Penh after that 2004 interview, Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which gathers evidence on atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge era, rejected Nuon Chea’s professions of ignorance. "We have so far identified over 19,000 mass graves around the country," said Chhang, whose sister's belly was sliced open by the regime's cadres when she was suspected of stealing rice. "He can visit some of those graves and he can ask every single Cambodian family how many of their family members have died during the Khmer Rouge regime."
After Vietnamese troops ousted the regime in 1979, Nuon Chea withdrew with Khmer Rouge forces to the area along the Thai border. There the cadres financed a guerrilla war with rubies, sapphires and timber torn from the surrounding hills and sold to Thai generals. The United States and China also bolstered them with weapons to fight Vietnam.
Nuon Chea subsequently surrendered in an amnesty deal along with former head of state Khieu Samphan in 1998, the same year Pol Pot died after a show trial, and the movement finally collapsed. Now trial officials have recommended that five senior party figures be charged. Most Cambodians hope the appearance of these former leaders in court will tell them how the Khmer Rouge came to murder its own people. They also hope the court will start a trend of reining in the powerful.
But justice—and punishment—will not come easily. Nuon Chea is ailing and suffering from heart disease; he may not live to see a verdict. And only one other person has been charged so far: Kaing Guek Eav—commonly known as Duch—who ran the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh. Many analysts believe that the pace of prosecution has been deliberately slowed by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen in a bid to control the trials—probably to prevent testimony that would prove embarrassing to members who used to be in the Khmer Rouge. After nearly a decade of unenthusiastic negotiations between the government and the United Nations, the trial format will mix international staff with Cambodia's inept, corrupt judiciary. Whatever the outcome of the war-crime prosecutions, that dubious legal system is unlikely to be overhauled anytime soon.
5 comments:
“but my conscience will have served my nation and my people."
at least he did joined the KR because his heart was in the right place.
can't say the same thing for Sihanouk. He did it for personal reasons and not in the best interest of her people.
Grant Noun Chea a pardon in exchange for disclosing all information of the regime, including Sihanouk's role.
I want to know who conducted weapons negotiations with China.
Yuon secret agents/spies, who are well-educated in Khmer culture, tradition, language, religion and custom...etc. can speak, read and write Khmer much better than about 80% Khmer peasants and farmers do, had secretly impersonated themselves as KR soldiers who were unfairly accused of killing their own people, but the most of killers are Yuon spies/Secret agents are all behind killing fields like Trinh Ba Cam, a spokesman for the Vietnamese Embassy, who can speak Khmer fluently when we heard his voice on RFA at 2007/08/17 05:30
After all Khmer victims really hated Angkar Leu/Cap Tren. Suddenly Yuon troops pretended to rescue us from their comrade-at arms KR. In fact nearly murderers are Yuon/Yavana secret agents/spies! They didn't want themselves to get caught in International Law/UN so they had to use their Yuon citizens who used to live in Cambodia before 1970 by borrowing KR's hands to kill our family members. Aren't they cunning like a fox?
U believe me or not. It's up to you! But u look at Kampuchea Krom and Champa which are clearly erased on the World Map, already.
Khmer sralanh/love Khmer!
King Jayavarman VII was reincarnated as DR Joshua Cooper who cares for his Khmer people in the 21st century trying to free Cambodian victims from oppressors, human rights violators and brutal Yavana/Yuon colonialists and communists/Commo leaders who are the worst violators of human rights on earth.
Thank you so much to Dr Joshua Cooper!
King Chey Chetha II was Reincarnated as Hun Sen, who loves sex with Yuon/Yavana taxigirls, serves his Hanoi masters to keep him in power so that any Yavana can come to live in Cambodia freely and safely. So in 30/50 years' time, Cambodia will be overpopulated by Yuon parasites/leeches like Champa and Khmer Krom for sure.
When Hun Sen, dies one day, whose body is buried without salt. (=No Coffin for him.) But if he can change his mind by protecting all his Khmer people during KRT, he will be considered as a Khmer National Hero until the end of earth.
Khmer sralanh Khmer said...
If we Victims of Vietnamese Hidden Faces Behind Killing Fields use microscope to find out Yuon/Yavana secret agents/spies secretly have been hiding in Cambodia since the Murderous French Colonial Period, we still can't find out any of them killing Khmer innocent people from 1975-1979, but if we can speak, read and write Yuon then we must impersonate ourselves working with Yuon restaurant owners or any department in both Cambodia and Khmer Krom and then we know all One Million Super-Dirty Demonic tricks all Yuon Hanoian Commo leaders used to kill Cambodians secretly in the name of Angkar Leu/Cap Tren. That's why A Chinese Proverb goes like this: What you see is not a true sign; [but] what you can’t see is a true sign. (Yuon secret agents/spies secretly used in cunning killing and rescuing operation. It means to kill Cambodian innocent people by using Yuon citizens living in Cambodia as KR and then they started to rescue Cambodians from the killing fields. Nearly whether all educated and uneducated Cambodians who are terribly misled that KR brutally killed their country fellowmen by thanking Yuon troops as their rescuers.)
Murderous Hanoian Leaders' One Million Super-Dirty Demonic Tricks are used to round up all Khmer nationalists who have a real human gut to reclaim our lands from Yuon coconut shells.
Yuon/Yavana secret agents/spies everywhere in Cambodia stirring up all unrests in the country can arrest any Khmer nationalist/KK by blaming to undermine Cambodia's relationship with Vietnam.
All Khmer compatriots must wake up from your day-dreams that Yuon coconut shells came to rescue you and your family from Pol Pot. In fact, the real murderers are all but Yuon/Yavana secret agents/ spies who secretly had impersonated themselves as the KR.
English proverb: Truth will out. (The truth always becomes known.)
All Killing Fields were secretly created by Vietnamese/Yavana secret agents/spies in order to erase all Cambodian race on earth. They have secretly been killing Cambodian people since 18th Century up until now. Read Khmer History of Tae Ong.
Murderous Hanoian commo leaders who are so cunning didn't want themselves to get caught in action so they used their Yuon/Yavana citizens, who used to live in Cambodia before 1970, are well-educated in Khmer language, culture, tradition, custom, and religion...etc. to have impersonated themselves as the Khmer Rouge soldiers to brutally kill Cambodian innocent people.
Now there are more than 4000 000 illegal Yuon citizens living in Cambodia so far so worse, many of whom are former Khmer Rouge soldiers/killers.
Hanoi commo leaders from now on in a big trouble when all Khmer Rouge leaders are put on trial with the UN in Phnom Penh. My Khmer compatriots, you will take revengeful action against Yuon citizens living in Cambodia. And Murderous Hanoi leaders will secretly order their secret agents to kill Khmer Krom people in revengeful manner.
There will be a big turmoil on its way to be erupted like earthquake soon during the KR Trial! Khmer victims will take revengefulness against Yuon who will kill KK in KK in return.
Trust in Lord Buddha!
Khmer Sralanh Khmer/Khmer love Khmer!
All true Khmer compatriots, ladies and gentlemen,
Cambodia has cancers that were embedded into her by China+YUONS+Vietminh-CPP-Hun Sen+all royal crooks through traitor Sihanouk's flesh and blood, also through his YUON wife Monique and Sihanouk’s clique.
To have true and lasting peace for Cambodia these cancers have to be removed once and for all, either by the law of ECCC-KRT or by any means, as long as the majority of true Khmers agree with it.
If these cancers remain inside Cambodia, without proper treatment, YUONS will continue to swallow us bit by bit every day and China will gobble the whole region without mercy toward Cambodian land and all Khmer people. They will achieve this with the continued assistance of NORODOM SIHANOUK and HUN SEN.
KULEN MONOROM
(the rice farmer's son)
“but my conscience will have served my nation and my people."
But Big Brother number II, you forgot to tell us who is your people and which one is your nation.
Big Brother number II, please do not complain of your lot 'cause you gotta pay for what you have done ... Bear in mind that no one can escape from the fate and your case is a good lesson for yours relatives and colleagues.
Good Night and have a nice dream, Big Brother number II (Number 2 dream...)
This poster 9;00 AM wrote "
Bear in mind that no one can escape from the fate and your case is a good lesson for yours relatives and colleagues."
If that is true then why the Viet Cong/Minh are not punished for the crimes they committed against Khmers for centuries? I have no doubt that Viet Cong/Minh have always been presence in Cambodia begining th eday they created Khmer Rouge, helped Khmer Rouge to fight US and Lon Nol, they have never left until now. Ong Hor, Ong Hok (Nguyen Van Son), Ong Tieng ..are holding high positions in our country. Ong Hor mau have ordered to kill many Khmers.
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