Officials from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) have countered claims by the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee ( CHRAC) that the health services available to Democratic Kampuchea (DK) detainees Nuon Chea, 82, and Duch, 65, lack transparency and must be upgraded, local newspapers said on Monday.
CHRAC released a statement on Saturday claiming it is critical that the health of DK suspects is maintained adequately to ensure that justice is found for the victims of the regime, after the group's comments followed a medical check-up carried out on Nuon Chea at Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh the same day, reported Cambodian-language newspaper the Rasmei Kampuchea.
"Any failure in offering Nuon Chea a specialized treatment to ensure that he has good health condition will seriously affect negatively the process of the ECCC," said CHRAC, a collation of 23 groups, in its statement, reported English-language newspaper the Cambodia Daily.
ECCC spokesman Reach Sambath told another Cambodian-language newspaper the Kampuchea Thmey that though Nuon Chea has no serious diseases that it was the court's obligation to take him for the check-up, which took two or three hours and included X-rays.
Nuon Chea has spent a long time living in the forest where he rarely had access to medical care, added the spokesmen.
Hisham Mousar, a court monitor for rights group Adhoc, which chairs the coalition, told the Cambodia Daily that the tribunal cannot afford to lose another key suspect, as happened with key DK leader Ta Mok, who died in a Phnom Penh hospital in July 2006.
While Adhoc does not believe Nuon Chea is sick. If he is, he should not be treated in the same way as Ta Mok, Mousar told the newspaper.
"Clearly we think that the health system of ECCC is not sufficiently clear and does not yet answer in a sufficient manner the preoccupations we have," said Mousar.
Helen Jarvis, ECCC's chief of public affairs, said that there are five doctors, four nurses, and an ambulance permanently on standby should the two elderly suspects require treatment.
"I think it's (the health of DK suspects) always been an important consideration and that is why (we) have made these rather comprehensive arrangements," she told the Cambodia Daily.
Nuon Chea, the chief ideologist of DK and right-hand man to Pol Pot, was last week arrested by ECCC and charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On July 31, Toul Sleng (S-21) detention center chief Khang Khek Ieu - known as Comrade Duch - was transferred to the tribunal's custody and also charged with crimes against humanity.
The recently-built ECCC detention center provides detainees with access to a radio, TV, daily newspapers, three daily meals and an exercise court. Both Nuon Chea and Duch are allowed family visits.
Source: Xinhua
CHRAC released a statement on Saturday claiming it is critical that the health of DK suspects is maintained adequately to ensure that justice is found for the victims of the regime, after the group's comments followed a medical check-up carried out on Nuon Chea at Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh the same day, reported Cambodian-language newspaper the Rasmei Kampuchea.
"Any failure in offering Nuon Chea a specialized treatment to ensure that he has good health condition will seriously affect negatively the process of the ECCC," said CHRAC, a collation of 23 groups, in its statement, reported English-language newspaper the Cambodia Daily.
ECCC spokesman Reach Sambath told another Cambodian-language newspaper the Kampuchea Thmey that though Nuon Chea has no serious diseases that it was the court's obligation to take him for the check-up, which took two or three hours and included X-rays.
Nuon Chea has spent a long time living in the forest where he rarely had access to medical care, added the spokesmen.
Hisham Mousar, a court monitor for rights group Adhoc, which chairs the coalition, told the Cambodia Daily that the tribunal cannot afford to lose another key suspect, as happened with key DK leader Ta Mok, who died in a Phnom Penh hospital in July 2006.
While Adhoc does not believe Nuon Chea is sick. If he is, he should not be treated in the same way as Ta Mok, Mousar told the newspaper.
"Clearly we think that the health system of ECCC is not sufficiently clear and does not yet answer in a sufficient manner the preoccupations we have," said Mousar.
Helen Jarvis, ECCC's chief of public affairs, said that there are five doctors, four nurses, and an ambulance permanently on standby should the two elderly suspects require treatment.
"I think it's (the health of DK suspects) always been an important consideration and that is why (we) have made these rather comprehensive arrangements," she told the Cambodia Daily.
Nuon Chea, the chief ideologist of DK and right-hand man to Pol Pot, was last week arrested by ECCC and charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On July 31, Toul Sleng (S-21) detention center chief Khang Khek Ieu - known as Comrade Duch - was transferred to the tribunal's custody and also charged with crimes against humanity.
The recently-built ECCC detention center provides detainees with access to a radio, TV, daily newspapers, three daily meals and an exercise court. Both Nuon Chea and Duch are allowed family visits.
Source: Xinhua
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