The substantive part of the long awaited trail of the Khmer Rouge security chief has opened as Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Duch - heard the charges against him.
30 Mar 2009
By Thomas Bell, South East Asia Correspondent
The Telegraph (UK)
The former maths teacher headed Security Office 21, or S-21, during the ultra-Maoists' reign of terror in Cambodia during the late 1970s.
As many as 17,000 men, women and children were sent to the Phnom Penh prison, where they were brutally tortured before being driven to the "killing fields" and clubbed to death.
Of the thousands of prisoner sent to Duch little over a dozen are known to have survived. Many of the victims are shown in black and white mug-shots that line walls in the prison, which is now a genocide museum.
Around 1.7 million Cambodians are believed to have died during the 3 year Khmer Rouge rule.
The trial formally opened earlier this month with a procedural hearing but this is the first time the trial will hear evidence of the Khmer Rouge's crimes.
Duch, a born again Christian who acknowledges his role in the slaughter, is expected to make a brief speech on Wednesday afternoon and give evidence next week.
"I never thought that this day would come," said 64-year-old Svay Simon, among hundreds of Khmer Rouge victims who gathered at the court on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
The court, known as the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, is a mixture of international and local lawyers and has been blighted by delays and controversy. It was created in 2006 after a decade of often bitter negotiations between the international community and a reluctant Cambodian Government.
It has taken until now - 30 years after the regime's fall - for the first trial to begin.
The current Cambodian government contains many former Khmer Rouge members and although none are accused of committing the regime's worst abuses it is widely believed that they wish to avoid a close examination of the past.
The prime minister himself, Hun Sen, was a Khmer Rouge army officer.
30 Mar 2009
By Thomas Bell, South East Asia Correspondent
The Telegraph (UK)
The former maths teacher headed Security Office 21, or S-21, during the ultra-Maoists' reign of terror in Cambodia during the late 1970s.
As many as 17,000 men, women and children were sent to the Phnom Penh prison, where they were brutally tortured before being driven to the "killing fields" and clubbed to death.
Of the thousands of prisoner sent to Duch little over a dozen are known to have survived. Many of the victims are shown in black and white mug-shots that line walls in the prison, which is now a genocide museum.
Around 1.7 million Cambodians are believed to have died during the 3 year Khmer Rouge rule.
The trial formally opened earlier this month with a procedural hearing but this is the first time the trial will hear evidence of the Khmer Rouge's crimes.
Duch, a born again Christian who acknowledges his role in the slaughter, is expected to make a brief speech on Wednesday afternoon and give evidence next week.
"I never thought that this day would come," said 64-year-old Svay Simon, among hundreds of Khmer Rouge victims who gathered at the court on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
The court, known as the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, is a mixture of international and local lawyers and has been blighted by delays and controversy. It was created in 2006 after a decade of often bitter negotiations between the international community and a reluctant Cambodian Government.
It has taken until now - 30 years after the regime's fall - for the first trial to begin.
The current Cambodian government contains many former Khmer Rouge members and although none are accused of committing the regime's worst abuses it is widely believed that they wish to avoid a close examination of the past.
The prime minister himself, Hun Sen, was a Khmer Rouge army officer.
1 comment:
That son of a bitch HIM HUY should put him on trial, he killed people without an order at all! he's lying his ass up! and all of khmer rouge chief out there are still hidding their identity, please bring them and arrest them to justice!!
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