Original report from Phnom Penh
29 July 2009
Judges at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal halted proceedings in the trial of prison chief Duch Wednesday, after a clerk began reading documents with witness’ names that were supposed to be concealed.
The atrocity crimes trial for Duch, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, will resume next week, as court officials seek to protect the identities of witnesses that they fear could be compromised if their true identities were known.
Judge Nil Nonn, head of the tribunal’s Trial Chamber, said the names of the witnesses will have to be changed in documents before their testimony is read in court. He postponed proceedings until Aug. 3.
Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said Wednesday the court “respects the rights of the witnesses who do not want to be named in a public hearing.”
Some witnesses had asked that their identities be disguised, and the court would now “prepare all the records to hide the identities of the witnesses,” he said.
Kong Sam Onn, a lawyer for the defense unit, said witnesses could suffer from pressure outside the court if they are identified, potentially compromising their neutrality.
“The court stopped reading the record because it could affect the safety and security of the witnesses,” he said.
The atrocity crimes trial for Duch, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, will resume next week, as court officials seek to protect the identities of witnesses that they fear could be compromised if their true identities were known.
Judge Nil Nonn, head of the tribunal’s Trial Chamber, said the names of the witnesses will have to be changed in documents before their testimony is read in court. He postponed proceedings until Aug. 3.
Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said Wednesday the court “respects the rights of the witnesses who do not want to be named in a public hearing.”
Some witnesses had asked that their identities be disguised, and the court would now “prepare all the records to hide the identities of the witnesses,” he said.
Kong Sam Onn, a lawyer for the defense unit, said witnesses could suffer from pressure outside the court if they are identified, potentially compromising their neutrality.
“The court stopped reading the record because it could affect the safety and security of the witnesses,” he said.
5 comments:
Why don't they hang this guy, Duch, like they did to Sadam Hussein. What are they trying to prove?
duch is another of yuon hunxen try to scam the UN, if no duch then no money for them.
Hanging Duch doesn't mean much.Hanging SIHANOUK will heal everything.
Yes! N.Sihanouk an Ex-Viet king had helped Hanoi to Vietnamise Cambodia, and kiled over two millions khmers.
100% Sihanouk should be hanged, hanged so high like his ex-friend Pr3esident of Romania.
Khmer Rouge aint’ dum, stupid and bad, Khmer Rouge is smart, we protected the country for no one can invaded our territory at that era. Now, you can see there’s lot of foreigners in Cambodia, land grabbing etc. Those who said lot of ‘Youn’ in Cambodia, why is that? because there’s no more Khmer Rouge to protect Cambodia. Again let take a look at the border Khmer-Thai would you? Again there is no more Khmer rouge to protect Cambodia. You keep putting the blame on Khmer Rouge. You always keep saying Khmer Rouge killed million of people. Of course we already knew that lot of Khmer dead you don’t have to keep mention over again and again. It’s past now and over I wish you do not bring up, it’s not going to do any good for young generation. Who to blame? China? I should blame CHINA. You should not blame Khmer Rouge even we had bad reputation, I know this will never been vanished from your heart. I, a former Khmer Rouge soldier feel sorrow for those whose lost families during Khmre Rouge regime. In according to Duck’s case now he is over 60s year old of age, it seems nothing the United Nation can do beside put him in jail when found guilty. Objectively, you can’t blame ALL Khmer Rouges are bad, human NOT all bad, think and look around you. Do you think you could find good people around you to be trustful? Absolutely not there’s no one you can trust. Can you see some people get kill almost everyday by car accident, brutal argument etc, and being discriminated by race Black-Khmer and White-Khmer-Chinese, using her/his as slavery everyday at home. Hey! let me tell you especially the Phnom Penh people I’ve seen now very dicriminated against Black-Khmer, why? Because they consider Black-Khmer as a slave, low value, White-Khmer Chinese treat them high class better than Black-Khmer. This is abuse than Khmer Rouge living regime. Can you see it, this living society now is worse than Khmer Rouge. I hope you know what I meant? If you still keep getting mad, hate Khmer Rouge, it’s not going to do any good in the future. Khmer Rouge is KHMER and you are KHMER too, thus we must end now in order to have the country growth. SAMAKEE, SAMAKEE, SAMAKEE we will always win with to the enemy.
AngkorianMAN Krama Man
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