Friday, August 21, 2009

One member of the KRT civil party rejects Duch’s apology

20 August 2009
By Leang Delux
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy


This is the second day that Chum Sirath, a civil party in the KR Tribunal, declared that he will ignore Duch’s apology. Chum Sirath said that Duch’s apology is dishonest. Duch declared that he unconditionally accepts the scolding and the accusation by the civil party.

On Thursday, 68-year-old Chum Sirath, who is part of the civil party, declared during the court chamber hearing that the apology offered by the accused Duch was dishonest and it was offered to dupe the public and comfort his personal feelings only. Chum Sirath continued his declaration while fixing his glaze on Duch, saying that he does not care at all about Duch’s apology. He said that he came to KRT to demand justice, a justice that will tell him about the cause and the timing of the murder of his younger brothers.

Chum Sirath has 2 younger brothers, one sister-in-law, and a nephew who were sent to the S-21 center. According to Chum Sirath’s claim, Chum Sinarith, one of his two brothers sent to S-21, was a friend of the accused Duch.

However, Duch could not fulfill Chum Sirath’s request. Duch replied to Chum Sirath that he did not even know that Chum Sinarith, his former friend, was sent to S-21 which was then under his control. During the hearing, Duch sadly indicated that several of his friends were sent to S-21. However, he had to turn away from all his friends to save himself because he did not have the ability to help any of them. Duch also declared that he unconditionally accepts all the scolding and the accusations leveled by the civil party with a smile.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh my God, Chum Sinarith was a good teacher at 18 March and Chum Sinareth was a student of dentistry and was also one of my friend. I lived next to their niece in Tuol Kork. They were all good academic family . May they rest in peace!! Areak Prey