Television in press room shows live video footage of witness Sous Thy testifying at Extraordinary Chambers of Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh, 28 Jul 2009By Luke Hunt, VOA
Phnom Penh
29 July 2009
In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal has headed into a short recess after hearing grisly evidence from guards at S-21, the regime's most notorious extermination center.
Since the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, began in March, Cambodians have flocked to the court to hear testimony of how he ran the notorious S-21 prison in the capital, Phnom Penh.
Reach Sambath, the tribunal's chief spokesman, says more than 13,500 people have attended 51 days of public hearings held since the tribunal opened its doors.
"They consider this court is their court, this court is working for them. That means for the people of Cambodia. That is the reason they keep coming more and more," he said.
Seeing Khmer Rouge leaders brought to justice is a personal matter for many Cambodians. Almost every family in Cambodia lost members during the rule of the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s.
More than a million Cambodians died of hunger and disease, or were executed before invading Vietnamese troops ousted the Khmer Rouge in early 1979.
The court audiences heard guards testify that prisoners were malnourished to the point of starvation and tortured with electric shocks and waterboarding. At times they had their blood drawn, for use in hospitals.
Finally, the prisoners were told they would be freed. It was a ruse that allowed Duch's staff to ferry their victims to the outskirts of town where they were bludgeoned with an ox-cart axle, had their throats slit and bodies dumped in mass graves, now known as the Killing Fields.
About 14,000 people are believed to have perished at S-21, just one of hundreds of camps the Khmer Rouge established after they came to power in April 1975.
The victims of S-21 included up to 200 children and a handful of Westerners who strayed into international waters.
Duch is the first surviving member of the Khmer Rouge leadership to face trial. It took the government and the United Nations more than a decade to establish the tribunal to handle human rights abuse cases. During that time, many of the top leaders died, but four are awaiting trial.
His trial resumes next Monday, and may head into the final phase within several weeks.
Since the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, began in March, Cambodians have flocked to the court to hear testimony of how he ran the notorious S-21 prison in the capital, Phnom Penh.
Reach Sambath, the tribunal's chief spokesman, says more than 13,500 people have attended 51 days of public hearings held since the tribunal opened its doors.
"They consider this court is their court, this court is working for them. That means for the people of Cambodia. That is the reason they keep coming more and more," he said.
Seeing Khmer Rouge leaders brought to justice is a personal matter for many Cambodians. Almost every family in Cambodia lost members during the rule of the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s.
More than a million Cambodians died of hunger and disease, or were executed before invading Vietnamese troops ousted the Khmer Rouge in early 1979.
The court audiences heard guards testify that prisoners were malnourished to the point of starvation and tortured with electric shocks and waterboarding. At times they had their blood drawn, for use in hospitals.
Finally, the prisoners were told they would be freed. It was a ruse that allowed Duch's staff to ferry their victims to the outskirts of town where they were bludgeoned with an ox-cart axle, had their throats slit and bodies dumped in mass graves, now known as the Killing Fields.
About 14,000 people are believed to have perished at S-21, just one of hundreds of camps the Khmer Rouge established after they came to power in April 1975.
The victims of S-21 included up to 200 children and a handful of Westerners who strayed into international waters.
Duch is the first surviving member of the Khmer Rouge leadership to face trial. It took the government and the United Nations more than a decade to establish the tribunal to handle human rights abuse cases. During that time, many of the top leaders died, but four are awaiting trial.
His trial resumes next Monday, and may head into the final phase within several weeks.
3 comments:
In spite of jobless around the world, KRT maintains to beg money from outsiders to keep going, though the KRT is under the one man who owned Cambodia.
we work they perk..........
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 to the enemy.
Angkorian Krama Man
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