Rob Hamill's brother Kerry was one of three foreigners who were murdered by the 1975-1979 communist movementTuesday, August 18, 2009
By Suy Se
AFP
PHNOM PENH — A New Zealand Olympic rower told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court Monday how he had felt like killing the boss of the Khmer Rouge prison where his brother was killed by the regime.
Rob Hamill's brother Kerry was one of three foreigners who were murdered by the 1975-1979 communist movement after their yacht was blown off course and into Cambodian waters.
Hamill, who represented New Zealand at the 1996 Olympics, was testifying at the trial of jail chief Duch, who was accused of overseeing the torture and execution of about 15,000 people at the Tuol Sleng detention centre.
"At times I have wanted to smash you, to use your word, in the same way that you smashed so many others," he said. Duch has said that the Khmer Rouge used the official term "smash" to refer to killing its enemies.
"Today, in this court room, I am giving you all the crushing weight of emotion -- the anger, the grief, and the sorrow. I am placing this emotional burden on your head," Hamill said.
Kerry Hamill, 27, was sailing through the Gulf of Thailand in 1978 with two friends, Canadian Stuart Glass and Briton John Dewhirst, when their yacht was intercepted by a Cambodian patrol boat.
Glass was shot dead immediately while Dewhirst and Hamill were taken for interrogation and torture at Tuol Sleng for two months, during which they were forced to confess to being CIA agents. They were then killed.
Earlier Monday, Frenchwoman Martine Lefeuvre wept as she told the tribunal how her Cambodian husband was tricked into returning from overseas to die at Tuol Sleng.
She said her French-educated spouse, Ouk Ket, was asked to return home in 1977 from his job as a diplomat in Senegal, Dakar, to help the reconstruction of Cambodia.
But she said that on arrival Ouk Ket was "kidnapped with his hands tied behind his back, blindfolded, and brought in a truck" and went to "hell" at the jail.
Lefeuvre said that in 1991 she and her family came to see Tuol Sleng, which was turned into a genocide museum after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and found his name on a list of the dead.
"I came before this chamber in order to ask for justice to be done for this barbaric crime," the 56-year-old nurse told the court, demanding the "maximum sentence" for Duch.
Duch, a 66-year-old former maths teacher whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, said he felt remorse for their suffering.
"I was such a coward at that time. I did not dare to assist anybody," Duch told Hamill.
Duch has previously accepted responsibility for running the jail and begged forgiveness, but insists that he did not have a central role in the Khmer Rouge hierarchy.
Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia, resulting in the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and torture.
Rob Hamill's brother Kerry was one of three foreigners who were murdered by the 1975-1979 communist movement after their yacht was blown off course and into Cambodian waters.
Hamill, who represented New Zealand at the 1996 Olympics, was testifying at the trial of jail chief Duch, who was accused of overseeing the torture and execution of about 15,000 people at the Tuol Sleng detention centre.
"At times I have wanted to smash you, to use your word, in the same way that you smashed so many others," he said. Duch has said that the Khmer Rouge used the official term "smash" to refer to killing its enemies.
"Today, in this court room, I am giving you all the crushing weight of emotion -- the anger, the grief, and the sorrow. I am placing this emotional burden on your head," Hamill said.
Kerry Hamill, 27, was sailing through the Gulf of Thailand in 1978 with two friends, Canadian Stuart Glass and Briton John Dewhirst, when their yacht was intercepted by a Cambodian patrol boat.
Glass was shot dead immediately while Dewhirst and Hamill were taken for interrogation and torture at Tuol Sleng for two months, during which they were forced to confess to being CIA agents. They were then killed.
Earlier Monday, Frenchwoman Martine Lefeuvre wept as she told the tribunal how her Cambodian husband was tricked into returning from overseas to die at Tuol Sleng.
She said her French-educated spouse, Ouk Ket, was asked to return home in 1977 from his job as a diplomat in Senegal, Dakar, to help the reconstruction of Cambodia.
But she said that on arrival Ouk Ket was "kidnapped with his hands tied behind his back, blindfolded, and brought in a truck" and went to "hell" at the jail.
Lefeuvre said that in 1991 she and her family came to see Tuol Sleng, which was turned into a genocide museum after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and found his name on a list of the dead.
"I came before this chamber in order to ask for justice to be done for this barbaric crime," the 56-year-old nurse told the court, demanding the "maximum sentence" for Duch.
Duch, a 66-year-old former maths teacher whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, said he felt remorse for their suffering.
"I was such a coward at that time. I did not dare to assist anybody," Duch told Hamill.
Duch has previously accepted responsibility for running the jail and begged forgiveness, but insists that he did not have a central role in the Khmer Rouge hierarchy.
Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia, resulting in the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and torture.
13 comments:
Rob Hamill, Fuck you MAN. I wish you could have came to my country.
AngkorianKM
Rob Hamill you are a hero. You are unlike 1.7 millions Cambodians who were smashed to dead without putting a small fight. These coward Cambodians didn't even rebel against KR nor KR sodiers rebelled against their bosses. How chicken these people were. Today, they will do anything for money even selling 12 years old children for prostitution.
YES, DON'T FORGET 5 KHMER ROUGE ON TRIAL IS NOT ENOUGH, ITS NOT JUSTICE.
mr. hamill, please fight for khmer victims, too. thank you!
the stupid KR has no rights to kill people and destroyed cambodia! thank god they are history now!
To 4:20am
Here is the picture of 1.7 millions dead Cambodian under Kmmer rouge.
April 17th 1975, everyone turned your gun in to angkar. Angkars' gun were behind your back.
pack your belonging
leave your home
don't come back. Hyjack style.
just go. to hell or wherever you want to go and out of the city!
you lost your way, got seperate you were runing out of food. You have became ill and disoriented
Wherever you looked , you saw only this angkar or Krama men with guns. Now if you have dead wish then you fight and you did, but you were alone. One by one you were gone and the bones had piled up to 1.7 miliions. That is how Khmer as a whole had earned the name of coward under your computer's key board. How about the ousider or you? when you knew that there was no news, no communication and no connection what so ever. Why didn't you search for us or raise question at the UN? or demanding to open the border or do the UN style inspection like it was in Iraq? From April of 1975 until January of 1979 was a long time. Why none of you did anything? Why not?!!!
Yes! BABY you wish to all Khmer, Khmer Rougebe destroyed. 'YOUN' will take over Cambodia and don't be sad when that happend. Okay MAN?
AngkorianKrama MAn
4:2oam. go and call a group 1000 prisoners with heavily arms guards a coward or ask them why did you prisoners fight back with those police officers? Go and call them coward!
Cambodian people were simply treated as prisoners during Khmer Rouge's years and nothing more. They have no right. Zero. They were no longer considered as human being. They were just a machine and power for angkar to do thing.
If you cann't do it. You're dead.
I really do want to know the result of Khmer Rouge Trial. It has been taken for long time.
http://myzone-music.blogspot.com
6:36 AM, Very well put,
4:20 AM, I like to see your response if you are not ignorant.
Ignorant 4:20AM's response,
1.7 millions were killed out of 7 millions who were controlled by skinny bonny 14-15 years old kids KR soldiers. Not even one person dare to fight back and willing to die while taking at least 2 KR lives. If 50 to 100 thousands persons willing to die at that time, Cambodian civilians would be freed since 1976 and 1.6 million lives would be saved. We were freed way before Vietnamese's invasion in 1978. Majority of Cambodians are coward people. Very few are willing to die for freedom like Japaneses or Palestines. Unfortunate people.
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