Justice for the Khmer Rouge Leaders: Some Are More Equal Than Others

It's a temporary jail of Khmer Rouge Tribunal (Picture by: ECCC)

December 10, 2007
By Neth Pheaktra
Somne Thmey
Posted at krtrial.info

Cable TV, daily newspapers and a fitness center: amenities available only in the very few high end Cambodian hotels. Throw in round the clock medical care and you have a dream come true for most Cambodians. Yet this is not some new resort but the detention center of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT) and its residents former Khmer Rouge (KR) leaders.

Since the end of July, the five most senior surviving KR leaders, people who share the responsibility the death of countless Cambodians, have been arrested and detained by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). As they await trial, prosecutors have a maximum of one year for the investigations and the gathering of evidence, not to mention a trial which will certainly take months. Until the verdicts are reached, all those charged will be hosted in the KRT’s detention center, a high security unit designed as much for protection as to prevent the escape.

KRT detention center

According to the agreement between the UN and the Cambodian government, the KRT’s detainees are the government’s responsibility. The KRT’s detention center, built to international standards, was jointly funded by the Japanese and Indian governments to the tune of almost US$80,000. It contains a total of 14 rooms; eight rooms are designated for mail detainees, two for females.

According to KRT spokesman Reach Sambath, the other six rooms have different uses; one room as a dormitory for the prison warder, another his work room, one room for standby doctors, one reception room, one bathroom, and a fitness center. Many victims have asked if such luxury is available to other Cambodian detainees, such as those charged with a single murder.

Only five of the eight detention rooms are currently in use with Duch, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, and Khiev Samphan, Ieng Thirith housed separately, said Sambath. The KRT cooperated with the International Red Cross to design rooms which would provide comfort to detainees.

The KRT spokesman said the detainees have access to rich sources of information, such as cable television, newspapers, a radio, and meetings with attorneys and family. The Khmer Rouge leaders detention center does not contain refrigerators, although there are electric fans, Sambath said.

Services

As the detainees will be vital in unraveling the history of the Kampuchea Democratic (DK) regime, officials pay close attention to their health and living conditions. “Whatever the Khmer Rouge Tribunal does is in line with all international standards,” Reach Sambath said. “The process of the management of Khmer Rouge leaders’ detention center is not like other ordinary detention centers in Cambodia, because former Khmer Rouge leaders are charged with serous international crimes such as crimes against humanity and war crimes, but not a crime of killing one person or cause injury to one person. Therefore, the level of attention is different.”

With many of the suspects elderly and frail, healthcare is seen as a priority.

“The tribunal has 24-hour standby doctors and a 24-hour ambulance service,” Sambath continued. “As for food, we provide former Khmer Rouge leaders three meals a day. Former Khmer Rouge leaders breakfast on rice or noodle as they wish, and they just tell the staff working over there, and then the staff will make it for them immediately.”

Cooks in the detention center prepare food to order which would seem a luxury to many ordinary Cambodians.

“Even though they are all Khmer Rouge leaders, the food that each likes to eat is different. For example, Duch likes to eat meat, Nuon Chea likes to eat fish and vegetables. Each is different.”

Sambath said that the number of cooks working at the KRT is higher than other detention centers and that they have been trained to cook food that is “nutritious and contains the right number of calories to energize former Khmer Rouge leaders to debate against the law.”

Speak no evil

Management forbids contact between the detainees, Reach Sambath said, with even exercise segregated to guard against loss of evidence.

Regarding the ban on discussion, Reach Sambath claimed that former Khmer Rouge leaders’ attorneys know about it and that it is in line with the law and has the approval of experts.

However, Ieng Sary’s attorney Ang Udom, who could not be contacted for comment, previously said: “In a detention center, usually it is not wrong to meet each other and ask after each other.”

Nuon Chea’s lawyer Son Arun disagreed. “As far as I know, the Khmer Rouge leaders are all politicians charged with Khmer Rouge cases,” he said. “The persons in the detention center are not like those in a fish market who can walk discussing anything freely. The prohibition of speaking is the detention center’s regulations.”