By Zoe Daniel in Phnom Penh
ABC News (Australia)
The first defendant in Cambodia's Khmer Rouge war crimes trials has made a final plea for clemency as lawyers wind up the case against him.
Comrade Duch has admitted his crimes and apologised to the Cambodian people in the interests of national reconciliation.
But prosecutors say he has only partly confessed and they want him jailed for 40 years.
Duch has listened intently, took notes and occasionally shook his head as the case against him was summarised over more than two days.
When it was his chance to speak through an interpreter, he passionately broke his silence.
"I am deeply remorseful of and profoundly affected by destruction on such a mind-boggling scale," he said.
The former head of the S21 prison is the first of the regime's leaders to come before the specially convened court, more than 30 years after the "Killing Fields" horrors committed by the Khmer Rouge.
But for the families of those killed, the blood is still fresh.
Chim En, 62, says he lost family and friends in S21, and he wants the prison leader punished with a long sentence.
The UN-sanctioned court has heard graphic details of violence against so-called enemies of the extreme communist regime.
Duch is accused of ordering and overseeing his subordinates to mutilate and kill. Babies were bashed to death on tree trunks, men had needles inserted under their fingernails, women were raped with sticks and worse.
Almost no-one left the prison alive.
Prosecutor William Smith says the victims never had the chance to plead their case as Duch has done.
"They were falsely accused and arbitrarily punished," Mr Smith said. "On the contrary, the accused ensured they were treated as animals.
"To him, they were enemies of the state who deserved no mercy and no compassion."
Duch is seeking a shortened sentence because he has apologised to the families of his victims.
He argues that he was acting under orders from his superiors and would have been killed if he had disobeyed.
Duch is now a born-again Christian and says he wants to contribute to national reconciliation.
"For the victims of S21 and their families, I still claim that I am solely and individually liable for the loss of at least 12,380 lives," Duch said
"I still and forever wish to most respectfully and humbly apologise to those dead souls. I have worshipped God to honour the dead."
But both the prosecution and lawyers for ordinary Cambodians who have appeared before the court say his confession has been selective and not completely honest.
Prosecutors are calling for a sentence of 40 years which, for 67-year-old Duch, means the rest of his life. The court will deliberate its verdict until the New Year.
Comrade Duch has admitted his crimes and apologised to the Cambodian people in the interests of national reconciliation.
But prosecutors say he has only partly confessed and they want him jailed for 40 years.
Duch has listened intently, took notes and occasionally shook his head as the case against him was summarised over more than two days.
When it was his chance to speak through an interpreter, he passionately broke his silence.
"I am deeply remorseful of and profoundly affected by destruction on such a mind-boggling scale," he said.
The former head of the S21 prison is the first of the regime's leaders to come before the specially convened court, more than 30 years after the "Killing Fields" horrors committed by the Khmer Rouge.
But for the families of those killed, the blood is still fresh.
Chim En, 62, says he lost family and friends in S21, and he wants the prison leader punished with a long sentence.
The UN-sanctioned court has heard graphic details of violence against so-called enemies of the extreme communist regime.
Duch is accused of ordering and overseeing his subordinates to mutilate and kill. Babies were bashed to death on tree trunks, men had needles inserted under their fingernails, women were raped with sticks and worse.
Almost no-one left the prison alive.
Prosecutor William Smith says the victims never had the chance to plead their case as Duch has done.
"They were falsely accused and arbitrarily punished," Mr Smith said. "On the contrary, the accused ensured they were treated as animals.
"To him, they were enemies of the state who deserved no mercy and no compassion."
Duch is seeking a shortened sentence because he has apologised to the families of his victims.
He argues that he was acting under orders from his superiors and would have been killed if he had disobeyed.
Duch is now a born-again Christian and says he wants to contribute to national reconciliation.
"For the victims of S21 and their families, I still claim that I am solely and individually liable for the loss of at least 12,380 lives," Duch said
"I still and forever wish to most respectfully and humbly apologise to those dead souls. I have worshipped God to honour the dead."
But both the prosecution and lawyers for ordinary Cambodians who have appeared before the court say his confession has been selective and not completely honest.
Prosecutors are calling for a sentence of 40 years which, for 67-year-old Duch, means the rest of his life. The court will deliberate its verdict until the New Year.
5 comments:
Atleast Duch has admited his guilts against cambodian people, i think Pol Pot and Noun Chea, Son Sen, Ta Mok are the most responsible for the killing, after listening to duch confessed and final statements...
This trial is at risk of being the longest running in history.
Nuremberg took 4 years (1945-49), but carried far greater caseloads due to the total political defeat of the Nazi involving at least 40 major prosecutions. That is understandable. However, given the fact that the Khmer people have had to wait almost 30 years for the trail to get underway at all, in the course of which many of the surviving victims have since passed away themselves, and the fact that the accused are likewise beginning to show frailties of old age, one wonders if they are being effectively granted amnesty through this frustratingly slow legal process should they follow Brother Number One's example by escaping justice through timely death.
It was not too long ago that the likes of Ieng Sary had been spotted in Phnom Penh's social occasions and circles chatting and enjoying the pleasures of life as if he was still the Foreign Minister of DK in a city he had once turned into a ghost town.
Duc is a major piece in the KR puzzle, and there is the need to account for the crimes committed providing in the process a healing catharsis for the victims - and perhaps, perpetrators too - and hence the stage is set for one of the most heinous political movements known to man to be publicly inveighed against and discredited.
Yet, Duc for all his worth had been a far lesser instrument in that KR nightmare and maelstrom than his standing in this trail might otherwise suggest. This is not meant to understate the suffering of his victims, but simply to reflect his overall influence within that secretive organisation.
With so many 'events' turned easily into national crises by cynical politicians to camouflage their incompetence and failures over issues of urgent and direct concern to ordinary people from environmental degradation to adversely receding border lines in the East and South-West alike, the least we need is the distraction of a prolonged and politically staged trail.
MP
Duch must get 40000 years in jail because he had killed 16000 innocent Cambodians.
Khmer Rouge had killed more than 4 million innocent Cambodians:
* 1.5 million died of instant killing by KR butchers.
* 2.5 million died of starvation, disease, labour exhaustion, ...
* 600000 died in the civil war from 1970 to 1975.
Great Affection to all of you who are willing to absorb this opinion.
Many thanks.
Ly
Duch must get 40000 years in jail because he had killed 16000 innocent Cambodians.
Khmer Rouge had killed more than 4 million innocent Cambodians:
* 1.5 million died of instant killing by KR butchers.
* 2.5 million died of starvation, disease, labour exhaustion, ...
* 600000 died in the civil war from 1970 to 1975.
Great Affection to all of you who are willing to absorb this opinion.
Many thanks.
Ly
Vietnam is happy and smile right now..
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