A woman visits a stupa displaying the remains of the 9,000 victims who were exhumed from the Choeung Ek extermination camp (Photo: Reuters)2009-02-18
Radio France International
Click here to download and listen to François Roux, Duch's defense lawyer
Click here to downland and listen to Theary Seng, CSD Director
Click here to downland and listen to Theary Seng, CSD Director
The first hearing in the trial of Khmer Rouge torturer Kaing Guek Eav, better-known as Duch, ended Wednesday after an argument over the admissibility of a Vietnamese film as evidence. Defence lawyer François Roux said that his client accepts that the charges against him are true and called for the trial to help Cambodians "regain their humanity".
"The Khmer Rouge denied victims their humanity. And, by doing so, the Khmer rouge lost their own humanity," Roux told the court on Tuesday. "Our responsibility at this trial, and the purpose of this trial itself, is to allow people on both sides to regain their humanity."
But on Wednesday the defence argued that a film taken by Vietnamese soldiers who invaded Cambodia and toppled the Khmer Rouge in 1979 should not be accepted as evidence.
Roux's colleague Kar Savuth argued that the film, which showed horrific scenes at the prison which Duch ran in Phnom Penh, was "propaganda", designed to "disguise the truth of the nature of the event".
The seven minutes of black-and-white footage show bloated corpses strapped to iron bedframes where they appear to have been tortured and five children who survived by hiding in a pile of washing.
Prosecutors argued that the film is essential to the case, partly because it shows that children were held at the jail.
In the audience were 25 villagers who had travelled over eight hours by bus to visit Phnom Penh's genocide museum and watch the hearing.
They were taking part of the reconciliation process, which brings together former Khmer Rouge members and their victims, organised by the Centre for Social Development.
The trial will be "a very important and necessary first step in building a culture of dialogue", says the centre's Theary Seng.
"They’re very interested in the proceedings because within the last two years civil society has been doing a lot of outreach in terms of disseminating information to the population," she told RFI. "So they know that there’s a Khmer Rouge tribunal. It’s still a complicated concept in their minds because it’s very technical; it’s very legal."
During Wednesday's hearing lawyers presented lists of witnesses for the court to judge if they can be taken.
Chief judge Nil Nonn announced the end of the session without giving a date for the start of the trial itself. Court officials say that the hearings are likely to begin in late March.
"The Khmer Rouge denied victims their humanity. And, by doing so, the Khmer rouge lost their own humanity," Roux told the court on Tuesday. "Our responsibility at this trial, and the purpose of this trial itself, is to allow people on both sides to regain their humanity."
But on Wednesday the defence argued that a film taken by Vietnamese soldiers who invaded Cambodia and toppled the Khmer Rouge in 1979 should not be accepted as evidence.
Roux's colleague Kar Savuth argued that the film, which showed horrific scenes at the prison which Duch ran in Phnom Penh, was "propaganda", designed to "disguise the truth of the nature of the event".
The seven minutes of black-and-white footage show bloated corpses strapped to iron bedframes where they appear to have been tortured and five children who survived by hiding in a pile of washing.
Prosecutors argued that the film is essential to the case, partly because it shows that children were held at the jail.
In the audience were 25 villagers who had travelled over eight hours by bus to visit Phnom Penh's genocide museum and watch the hearing.
They were taking part of the reconciliation process, which brings together former Khmer Rouge members and their victims, organised by the Centre for Social Development.
The trial will be "a very important and necessary first step in building a culture of dialogue", says the centre's Theary Seng.
"They’re very interested in the proceedings because within the last two years civil society has been doing a lot of outreach in terms of disseminating information to the population," she told RFI. "So they know that there’s a Khmer Rouge tribunal. It’s still a complicated concept in their minds because it’s very technical; it’s very legal."
During Wednesday's hearing lawyers presented lists of witnesses for the court to judge if they can be taken.
Chief judge Nil Nonn announced the end of the session without giving a date for the start of the trial itself. Court officials say that the hearings are likely to begin in late March.
2 comments:
How you can help a wound while you are helping to crew it more deeper? How much you can reconciliate destroyed life basing on much denying, lies, injustice and cruelties? How you expect victims to cure their opened wound while you are opening it more deeper and wider by pursing acid on it and cry victory?
International community always supported and consent with vietongs or khmer rouge and nothing changed today
How do you, Roux the devil advocage help us gain our humanity? The only your help is help the evil Duch!
Picture worth a thousand of words. The purpose of the trial is to make the evil Duch pay for his evil thing done to our loves one. Roux you may go to hell with Duch, you stupid mother fucker.
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