Saturday, May 31, 2008

Former Khmer Rouge Minister Appeals for Release


By VOA Khmer, Washington
Video Editor: Manilene Ek
30 May 2008


A former Khmer Rouge government minister, facing charges of crimes against humanity before Cambodia's UN-assisted genocide tribunal, appealed for release from pre-trial detention in Phnom Penh on Wednesday May 21, 2008.

Ieng Thirith, who was the Khmer Rouge social affairs minister, is among five suspects facing trial for their alleged roles in the regime's brutality.

The Cambodian lawyer for the 76-year-old Ieng Thirith has cited a lack of evidence for detaining her and said she suffers from chronic illnesses, "both mental and physical," that require constant medical treatment.

The suspect is the wife of Ieng Sary, who was the regime's deputy prime minister and foreign minister. He is also detained on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Ieng Thirith is also the sister-in-law of Khmer Rouge supreme leader Pol Pot, who died in 1998.

In a detention order issued in November, the tribunal's investigating judges said Ieng Thirith was to be tried for supporting Khmer Rouge policies and practices that were "characterised by murder, extermination, imprisonment, persecution on political grounds and other inhuman acts".

She rejected the charges against her as "100 percent false," according to the detention order.

Ieng Thirith, who was among the first generation of female Cambodian intellectuals, studied English literature in Paris and worked as a professor after returning to Cambodia in 1957. Three years later she founded a private English school in the capital, Phnom Penh.

She followed her husband into the jungle to flee government repression in 1965. Their communist movement later became a guerrilla force that toppled the pro-American government in 1975, turning the country into a vast slave-labour camp in which anyone deemed bourgeois was executed or imprisoned.

The husband and wife, who are held in separate cells, have been allowed to occasionally see each other in the presence of detention guards.

Information for this report was provided by APTN.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:18 AM

    what! what about the victims of the KR atrocity, they can't rise back from the graves to appeal? she's not special. hang her!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:31 AM

    Dear 5:18 AM;

    Understood your grief and feeling. I myself lost a father to the regime, and of course, he can't rise back an appeal.

    This hybrid court is here to trial those responsible for the atrocity committed during the regime.

    Many of us want to have and so does the international community have pushed along for a standard which recognizes as International Standard. So please be patient and let the court perform its due deligent course.

    If her lawyer can prove that there is not evidence to detain her let him argue, however, if there is plenty evidence again her then she shall be remain in custody until day facing the court and charges. At the meant time, should her health condition is detatoriated and indeed need medical attention shall by all means in according to the law sending her to hospital where appointed by the court and under 24/7 surveillance.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6:54 AM

    No problem, in Siem Reap there a crocodile zoo there, enjoy your freedom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:25 AM

    You deserve that, Khmers' murderers.

    You and your associates had worked for yuons invaders. You killed us for facilitating the Vietnamisation of Cambodia. Do you know that ?

    Your husband had ordered to killed all 82 Khmer pilots, in 1976, in front of the Japanese agricultural rice experimentation center in Phnom Thom, including General Kong Lach. Many witnesses are still living until today.

    The author: Norna chea Kheatakors ?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous10:22 AM

    To see ah IENG SARY praise is troubling to all of us.This vicious animal was a true killer and he has never believed in bhuddhism at all in his life .What he is doing now is just fake.Chop him up along with his bitch and feed the crocs.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous1:56 PM

    Ieng Sary worked with yuon invader? Hahahah, LOL, hahaha. That is committing suicide. What is psycho (7:25)?

    ReplyDelete