AP
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: The United States has welcomed the move by Cambodia's genocide tribunal to proceed with trying a former Khmer Rouge prison chief on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The U.S. Embassy said Wednesday (13 Aug) that the tribunal's indictment of Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, "is a very good first step toward acknowledging and healing the suffering inflicted upon the Cambodian people" by the radical communist group in the 1970s.
"The people of Cambodia have stoically waited a very long time for justice," embassy spokesman John Johnson said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
The group's radical policies are considered responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution
On Tuesday (12 Aug), the U.N.-assisted tribunal's investigating judges issued a 45-page indictment of Duch, who headed the main Khmer Rouge prison in Phnom Penh.
The judges ordered him to stand trial as they closed their yearlong inquiry into his case.
Duch, who was a schoolteacher before joining the Khmer Rouge, is the first suspect to be indicted by the tribunal. He and four other former senior members of the group, which ruled Cambodia in 1975-79, were taken into custody last year.
No date has yet been set for a trial, but tribunal officials have previously said it was expected to begin in late September.
Duch, 66, headed S-21 prison, which was the Khmer Rouge's largest torture facility. About 16,000 men, women and children are believed to have been held there. Only 14 are thought to have survived.
The site used to be a school and is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
Duch's pending trial will be the first held by the tribunal, which began its work in early 2006. No senior member of the group has ever stood trial for its atrocities.
The U.S. Embassy said Wednesday (13 Aug) that the tribunal's indictment of Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, "is a very good first step toward acknowledging and healing the suffering inflicted upon the Cambodian people" by the radical communist group in the 1970s.
"The people of Cambodia have stoically waited a very long time for justice," embassy spokesman John Johnson said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
The group's radical policies are considered responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution
On Tuesday (12 Aug), the U.N.-assisted tribunal's investigating judges issued a 45-page indictment of Duch, who headed the main Khmer Rouge prison in Phnom Penh.
The judges ordered him to stand trial as they closed their yearlong inquiry into his case.
Duch, who was a schoolteacher before joining the Khmer Rouge, is the first suspect to be indicted by the tribunal. He and four other former senior members of the group, which ruled Cambodia in 1975-79, were taken into custody last year.
No date has yet been set for a trial, but tribunal officials have previously said it was expected to begin in late September.
Duch, 66, headed S-21 prison, which was the Khmer Rouge's largest torture facility. About 16,000 men, women and children are believed to have been held there. Only 14 are thought to have survived.
The site used to be a school and is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
Duch's pending trial will be the first held by the tribunal, which began its work in early 2006. No senior member of the group has ever stood trial for its atrocities.
1 comment:
Khmer farmer: Prevention is the best medicine! Why didn't the US prevent it from happening in the first place, so we do not have to deal with this human garbage?
That's what happening when you created a monster without thinking about the unintended consequences. Now, you have to live with a lot of human gargabe because of your ignorance and arrogance.
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