Tuesday August 18, 2009Source: NZPA
Rob Hamill, brother of the New Zealander tortured and slain by the Communist regime in Cambodia 31 years ago, has had his day in court.
An emotional Hamill testified before the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh about the "incredible" impact the horrific death of his brother Kerry, 27, had on his family, a "massive and unquantifiable impact".
Hamill, former Olympic and long-distance rower, told NZPA he had waited a long time to confront his brother's killer and to tell the story about the impact on his parents and siblings.
Hamill's mother is now dead and his father is in a nursing home.
The New Zealander's wife Rachel and their two-year-old son were in the packed public gallery as Hamill spoke for a full hour.
Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch as he is known, the man responsible for Kerry Hamill's death, was in court and listened impassively to Hamill's testimony as it was translated.
Duch, 66, has pleaded guilty to murder but the five judges - New Zealander Dame Silvia Cartwright, a French national and three Cambodians - will decide Duch's innocence or guilt after hearing all the evidence.
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Dame Silvia was in court to hear Hamill who was accepted as a civil party.
Kerry Hamill was captured by the Khmer Rouge when the yacht on which he and friends were sailing strayed into Cambodian waters in August 1978.
Crewman Stuart Glass, a Canadian was shot while Hamill and Briton John Dewhirst were interrogated and tortured for two months before being killed in Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng Prison run by Duch.
Thousands of Cambodians were killed at the prison.
Duch has pleaded the same defence as some of the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials after World War 2, maintaining he was simply carrying out orders and would have been shot had he not done so.
Hamill says his parents were hugely affected by their son's appalling death.
"It changed them. They were never the same after it all happened," Hamill told the court. "They were terribly affected, as any parents would have been."
Hamill, 14 at the time of his brother's death, added: "The death of their first-born was the worst possible news for our family. He had not just been killed, he had been tortured."
He noted that Duch used the phrase "smash them", words meaning prisoners were to be tortured and then killed.
"I've wanted to smash Duch," he told NZPA.
Hamill says there was no provision for execution but he hoped that Duch would be given a life sentence "a real life sentence so he would spend the rest of his days in a cell.
"I'd be happy with that.
TVNZ's Miriama Kamo traveled to Cambodia for the war crime trials earlier in the year. Read her blogs under related items.
An emotional Hamill testified before the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh about the "incredible" impact the horrific death of his brother Kerry, 27, had on his family, a "massive and unquantifiable impact".
Hamill, former Olympic and long-distance rower, told NZPA he had waited a long time to confront his brother's killer and to tell the story about the impact on his parents and siblings.
Hamill's mother is now dead and his father is in a nursing home.
The New Zealander's wife Rachel and their two-year-old son were in the packed public gallery as Hamill spoke for a full hour.
Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch as he is known, the man responsible for Kerry Hamill's death, was in court and listened impassively to Hamill's testimony as it was translated.
Duch, 66, has pleaded guilty to murder but the five judges - New Zealander Dame Silvia Cartwright, a French national and three Cambodians - will decide Duch's innocence or guilt after hearing all the evidence.
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Dame Silvia was in court to hear Hamill who was accepted as a civil party.
Kerry Hamill was captured by the Khmer Rouge when the yacht on which he and friends were sailing strayed into Cambodian waters in August 1978.
Crewman Stuart Glass, a Canadian was shot while Hamill and Briton John Dewhirst were interrogated and tortured for two months before being killed in Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng Prison run by Duch.
Thousands of Cambodians were killed at the prison.
Duch has pleaded the same defence as some of the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials after World War 2, maintaining he was simply carrying out orders and would have been shot had he not done so.
Hamill says his parents were hugely affected by their son's appalling death.
"It changed them. They were never the same after it all happened," Hamill told the court. "They were terribly affected, as any parents would have been."
Hamill, 14 at the time of his brother's death, added: "The death of their first-born was the worst possible news for our family. He had not just been killed, he had been tortured."
He noted that Duch used the phrase "smash them", words meaning prisoners were to be tortured and then killed.
"I've wanted to smash Duch," he told NZPA.
Hamill says there was no provision for execution but he hoped that Duch would be given a life sentence "a real life sentence so he would spend the rest of his days in a cell.
"I'd be happy with that.
TVNZ's Miriama Kamo traveled to Cambodia for the war crime trials earlier in the year. Read her blogs under related items.
10 comments:
Whittie what do you want?
AngkorianKM
Rob Hamill you can grab Duch's neck with one hand while the other hand pull his tong out or stick your fingers into both of his eyes. I would do it if I were there. Dutch and all KR are savages below PRETTs.
mr. hamill, please fight for khmer victims, too. thank you.
This is a lesson learnt from hearing about victim's side. Denial of what had happened to suffer them psychologically,turns any people regardless race or culture.
Quite sensible that Duch life sentence is verdicted due to horrible and a huge number that he directly and indirectly involved.
At the same time, we as cambodians ought to avoid abuses of all form to own race, simply it is killing ourselve in long run.
Causes and affects will always go through its cycle. It is first Buddha principle.
Neang SA
correct:turns people to hate regardless race or culture.
Neang Sa
i know, it's ignorant and like destroying our own country. i hope we learnt from our bad history from now on. please be smarter. two wrongs don't make it right! god bless cambodia.
What's the deal? It's over it's past thirty years. We all should be moved on. You make Khmer and Khmer hate forever.
AngkorianM Krama Man
Ah Duch should be hang outside to the Public...
To 9:40 AM,
And you should be hanged for the public as well.
Angko Krma Man
Hi Angar Krama Man, you are also ought to be hung outside. You are one of the blood sucker cockcroach KRs.
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