Susan Postlewaite, Chronicle Foreign Service
San Francisco Chronicle
Phnom Penh, Cambodia -- Vann Nath's dark memories of the 20 months he spent in a Khmer Rouge prison are portrayed vividly in his paintings hanging on his office walls.
After 30 years of waiting for justice, he is eager for Tuesday's trial of Kaing Guek Eav, the ex-commandant of Security Prison 21 who allegedly sent some 14,000 Cambodians to their deaths. While he languished in S-21, Vann Nath's two small children died of starvation.
"What happened cannot be restored," said Vann Nath, one of five living survivors of the prison, who says he escaped death only because Kaing Guek Eav assigned him to paint portraits of the late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
Also known as "Comrade Duch," Kaing Guek Eav is the first Khmer Rouge leader to be put on trial for crimes against humanity committed after the Maoist-style revolutionaries strived to remake Cambodia into an agrarian, communal society. During the regime's reign between 1975 and 1979, some 1.7 million Cambodians died of torture, execution, starvation and disease.
At S-21, prisoners were killed after being starved and tortured until they confessed to being an enemy of the state, most historians say. Prison officials kept meticulous records and photographs of each prisoner, and records show that only a handful survived. The building is now a museum.
Kaing Guek Eav was arrested a decade ago after a photographer recognized him from old photos while living in a northwestern village. The 66-year-old former math teacher is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, and he faces Cambodia's maximum penalty of life in prison. The trial is expected to last three to four months.
Kaing Guek Eav has cooperated extensively with the prosecution, guiding the court through an emotional re-enactment of crimes committed at S-21 and the killing fields known as Cheung Ek. As a result, a conviction is all but certain.
"There is no smoking gun in this case," said William Smith, an Australian deputy co-prosecutor who has a decade of war crimes experience working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. "The strength of the prosecution's case is in the numbers of witnesses, documents and photographs that all corroborate the same set of facts - that thousands of people were tortured and killed at S-21, and Duch was centrally involved in their deaths."
As the United Nations backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC, prepares its first case, negotiations are underway for the next scheduled trial of four Khmer Rouge leaders sometime next year, and a possible third trial for as-yet unnamed defendants. The second trial charges the following four leaders with crimes against humanity: Khieu Samphan, 77, the Khmer Rouge's former head of state; Ieng Sary, 83, its foreign minister, and his wife Ieng Thirith, 76, former minister for social affairs; and Nuon Chea, 82, the movement's chief ideologue, known as Brother No. 2.
Pol Pot, Brother No. 1, died more than a decade ago. French attorney Jacques Verges, who represented international terrorist "Carlos the Jackal" and Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, is expected to defend Khieu Samphan.
All four defendants are frail, raising concern that one or more may not live to be sentenced by the court. Although the United Nations and the Cambodian government began discussions to create a special tribunal to try Khmer Rouge leaders a decade ago, disagreements and doubts over its ability to meet international standards of justice - especially by the United States - delayed its creation until 2006.
But on Friday, John Johnson, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, said, "We welcome the first trial ... and are looking forward to continuing proceedings of the court." Washington finally pledged to release $1.8 million for court proceedings in September.
But disagreements between Cambodian and international members of the court continue to plague the tribunal.
Since July, the United Nations has refused to release funds to the Cambodians on the court due to allegations they were required to pay kickbacks to the government to keep their jobs.
And in the latest legal squabble, co-prosecutor Robert Petit of Canada insists there be a third trial of Khmer Rouge leaders while his Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang, disagrees.
"The international prosecutor (Petit) thinks (the third trial) is appropriate and the national prosecutor (Leang) thinks it wouldn't add anything significant to what happened and the need for accountability," said Helen Jarvis ECCC public affairs chief.
But some sources close to the ECCC believe Leang is acting on behalf of the Cambodian government, many of whose senior figures were once members of the Khmer Rouge, including Prime Minister Hun Sen. The dispute will ultimately be decided by three Cambodian judges and two international judges.
A third trial is critical to upholding the court's independence and credibility, some human rights groups say. According to a recent report by UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center, 33 percent of Cambodians believe the U.N.-Cambodian court is not neutral.
"Hun Sen has spent most of the past 10 years trying to undermine U.N. efforts to establish a credible tribunal, miring it in delay and fights over jurisdiction," said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "Now he is trying to stop a few more cases from being filed."
"The court needs to demonstrate to the public it is operating free of political pressure - in areas such as the determination of who is charged by the court," added Heather Ryan, a trial monitor for the New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative. "But the beginning of the Duch trial marks huge progress."
On Tuesday, dozens of relatives who lost loved ones at S-21 prison are expected to attend and some will be asked to testify. "It's important to hear about the different sufferings" the regime inflicted on society, said Silke Studinsky, a German attorney who represents 18 victims and two prison survivors.
At his home, where his wife runs an open air restaurant, Vann Nath concedes that he has been frustrated by the numerous delays in trying Khmer Rouge leaders, the fact so many live freely in Cambodia and the lack of a public apology for the crimes they committed.
"I was angry. But my angry period has passed," said Vann Nath. "Justice for me is having the perpetrators admit their guilt. I hope the judges can find justice for us."
----------------
UC Berkeley report on the victims
Nearly 80 percent of Cambodians still consider themselves to be victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, according to a recent report by UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center.
---------------
Timeline of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge
-----------------------
Next trial of Khmer Rouge leaders Scheduled for sometime in 2010.
Defendants
E-mail Susan Postlewaite at foreign@sfchronicle.com
After 30 years of waiting for justice, he is eager for Tuesday's trial of Kaing Guek Eav, the ex-commandant of Security Prison 21 who allegedly sent some 14,000 Cambodians to their deaths. While he languished in S-21, Vann Nath's two small children died of starvation.
"What happened cannot be restored," said Vann Nath, one of five living survivors of the prison, who says he escaped death only because Kaing Guek Eav assigned him to paint portraits of the late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
Also known as "Comrade Duch," Kaing Guek Eav is the first Khmer Rouge leader to be put on trial for crimes against humanity committed after the Maoist-style revolutionaries strived to remake Cambodia into an agrarian, communal society. During the regime's reign between 1975 and 1979, some 1.7 million Cambodians died of torture, execution, starvation and disease.
At S-21, prisoners were killed after being starved and tortured until they confessed to being an enemy of the state, most historians say. Prison officials kept meticulous records and photographs of each prisoner, and records show that only a handful survived. The building is now a museum.
Kaing Guek Eav was arrested a decade ago after a photographer recognized him from old photos while living in a northwestern village. The 66-year-old former math teacher is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, and he faces Cambodia's maximum penalty of life in prison. The trial is expected to last three to four months.
Kaing Guek Eav has cooperated extensively with the prosecution, guiding the court through an emotional re-enactment of crimes committed at S-21 and the killing fields known as Cheung Ek. As a result, a conviction is all but certain.
"There is no smoking gun in this case," said William Smith, an Australian deputy co-prosecutor who has a decade of war crimes experience working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. "The strength of the prosecution's case is in the numbers of witnesses, documents and photographs that all corroborate the same set of facts - that thousands of people were tortured and killed at S-21, and Duch was centrally involved in their deaths."
As the United Nations backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC, prepares its first case, negotiations are underway for the next scheduled trial of four Khmer Rouge leaders sometime next year, and a possible third trial for as-yet unnamed defendants. The second trial charges the following four leaders with crimes against humanity: Khieu Samphan, 77, the Khmer Rouge's former head of state; Ieng Sary, 83, its foreign minister, and his wife Ieng Thirith, 76, former minister for social affairs; and Nuon Chea, 82, the movement's chief ideologue, known as Brother No. 2.
Pol Pot, Brother No. 1, died more than a decade ago. French attorney Jacques Verges, who represented international terrorist "Carlos the Jackal" and Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, is expected to defend Khieu Samphan.
All four defendants are frail, raising concern that one or more may not live to be sentenced by the court. Although the United Nations and the Cambodian government began discussions to create a special tribunal to try Khmer Rouge leaders a decade ago, disagreements and doubts over its ability to meet international standards of justice - especially by the United States - delayed its creation until 2006.
But on Friday, John Johnson, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, said, "We welcome the first trial ... and are looking forward to continuing proceedings of the court." Washington finally pledged to release $1.8 million for court proceedings in September.
But disagreements between Cambodian and international members of the court continue to plague the tribunal.
Since July, the United Nations has refused to release funds to the Cambodians on the court due to allegations they were required to pay kickbacks to the government to keep their jobs.
And in the latest legal squabble, co-prosecutor Robert Petit of Canada insists there be a third trial of Khmer Rouge leaders while his Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang, disagrees.
"The international prosecutor (Petit) thinks (the third trial) is appropriate and the national prosecutor (Leang) thinks it wouldn't add anything significant to what happened and the need for accountability," said Helen Jarvis ECCC public affairs chief.
But some sources close to the ECCC believe Leang is acting on behalf of the Cambodian government, many of whose senior figures were once members of the Khmer Rouge, including Prime Minister Hun Sen. The dispute will ultimately be decided by three Cambodian judges and two international judges.
A third trial is critical to upholding the court's independence and credibility, some human rights groups say. According to a recent report by UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center, 33 percent of Cambodians believe the U.N.-Cambodian court is not neutral.
"Hun Sen has spent most of the past 10 years trying to undermine U.N. efforts to establish a credible tribunal, miring it in delay and fights over jurisdiction," said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "Now he is trying to stop a few more cases from being filed."
"The court needs to demonstrate to the public it is operating free of political pressure - in areas such as the determination of who is charged by the court," added Heather Ryan, a trial monitor for the New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative. "But the beginning of the Duch trial marks huge progress."
On Tuesday, dozens of relatives who lost loved ones at S-21 prison are expected to attend and some will be asked to testify. "It's important to hear about the different sufferings" the regime inflicted on society, said Silke Studinsky, a German attorney who represents 18 victims and two prison survivors.
At his home, where his wife runs an open air restaurant, Vann Nath concedes that he has been frustrated by the numerous delays in trying Khmer Rouge leaders, the fact so many live freely in Cambodia and the lack of a public apology for the crimes they committed.
"I was angry. But my angry period has passed," said Vann Nath. "Justice for me is having the perpetrators admit their guilt. I hope the judges can find justice for us."
----------------
UC Berkeley report on the victims
Nearly 80 percent of Cambodians still consider themselves to be victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, according to a recent report by UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center.
- 83 percent of Cambodians still have "feelings of hatred towards those Khmer Rouge responsible for violence."
- 23 percent said nothing can be done to make them forgive the Khmer Rouge.
- 40 percent said the Khmer Rouge "must be punished" before being forgiven.
- 77 percent want more information about what happened during the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979).
- 76 percent said it is more important to focus on Cambodia's current problems than on the Khmer Rouge.
- 33 percent said they believe the Cambodia-U.N. court set up to try Khmer Rouge leaders is not neutral.
- Since two-thirds of Cambodia's population is under 29 and did not live during under the Khmer Rouge, 80 percent said they know little or nothing about that era.
---------------
Timeline of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge
- April 17, 1975: The Khmer Rouge enter Phnom Penh, overthrow the Lon Nol government.
- Jan. 7, 1979: Vietnamese army overthrows Khmer Rouge.
- April 15, 1998: Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot dies in a jungle hideout at age 73.
- Dec. 1998: The last senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge surrender to the government.
- June 2003: Cambodia, U.N. agree to cooperate on a tribunal that will try Khmer Rouge leaders.
- Feb. 2006: The joint Cambodia-U.N. Extraordinary Court in the Chambers of Cambodia is created. In July, ECCC judges are sworn in.
- July 2007: Kaing Guek Eav ("Comrade Duch") is taken into custody, marking the court's first arrest.
- Sept.-Nov. 2007: Four more Khmer Rouge leaders - Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Thirith Sary, and Khieu Samphan - are taken into court custody. Their trial is set to begin in 2010.
- Feb. 17, 2009: The trial of Kaing Guek Eav begins.
-----------------------
Next trial of Khmer Rouge leaders Scheduled for sometime in 2010.
Defendants
- Ieng Sary, 83, deputy prime minister of foreign affairs of Democratic Kampuchea, the name given to Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge.
- Khieu Samphan, 77, president of Democratic Kampuchea.
- Nuon Chea, 82, Khmer Rouge's chief ideologue and second in command to Pol Pot.
- Ieng Thirith, 76, minister of social affairs and wife of Ieng Sary.
- All are charged with crimes against humanity. All but Ieng Thirith are charged with war crimes.
E-mail Susan Postlewaite at foreign@sfchronicle.com
No comments:
Post a Comment