The Gazette (Montreal, Canada)
Out of the more than 14,000 people who were sent to Tuol Sleng, a notorious Khmer Rouge prison, barely a dozen survived. Only six lived long enough to see "Comrade Duch," who ran the centre, stand trial this year before the grandly named Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
This is the joint United Nations-Cambodia tribunal whose credibility has been questioned, its ability to render justice undermined by allegations of political interference. Critics of the tribunal question its usefulness as an instrument of justice.
But however flawed, it was the only forum available to VanNath, a 63-year-old artist, to tell his fellow Cambodians what happened.
VanNath testified in June at the trial of Comrade Duch, the first of five top Khmer Rouge to face charges in connection with the death by starvation, disease, overwork and murder of 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979.
VanNath told of being beaten and electrocuted. His fingernails were pulled out and he underwent a form of waterboarding, the Independent reported him saying. He lived on insects and six teaspoons of rice porridge a day.
VanNath told the court that testifying "is my privilege, this is my honour. I do not want anything more than justice."
When Comrade Duch's trial started in February, 85 per cent of Cambodians knew nothing about it. Ten months later, the country is rivetted. For younger Cambodians, the trial is a history lesson. For older Cambodians, it is an acknowledgment that crimes were committed on a massive scale.
But the trial is also a lesson in the need for the international community to ensure that its tribunals are not compromised by political interference, sometimes a danger in still fragile democracies.
This week, a report from the international monitor Open Society Justice Initiative warned that the Cambodian tribunal is being hurt by allegations of interference by Prime Minister Hun Sen's administration.
Hun Sen has refused to authorize the arrest of five additional Khmer Rouge suspects, saying the arrests could lead to renewed civil war.
Thirty years after the Khmer Rouge regime fell, as many as 20,000 former Khmer Rouge are reported to be living openly in Cambodia. Onetime Khmer Rouge cadres are also said to be part of Hun Sen's government.
But for the sake of the victims and those who have come after them, the tribunal must keep going, resisting political interference to the best of its ability. Awakened to their past, Cambodians want justice. These trials are the way forward.
This is the joint United Nations-Cambodia tribunal whose credibility has been questioned, its ability to render justice undermined by allegations of political interference. Critics of the tribunal question its usefulness as an instrument of justice.
But however flawed, it was the only forum available to VanNath, a 63-year-old artist, to tell his fellow Cambodians what happened.
VanNath testified in June at the trial of Comrade Duch, the first of five top Khmer Rouge to face charges in connection with the death by starvation, disease, overwork and murder of 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979.
VanNath told of being beaten and electrocuted. His fingernails were pulled out and he underwent a form of waterboarding, the Independent reported him saying. He lived on insects and six teaspoons of rice porridge a day.
VanNath told the court that testifying "is my privilege, this is my honour. I do not want anything more than justice."
When Comrade Duch's trial started in February, 85 per cent of Cambodians knew nothing about it. Ten months later, the country is rivetted. For younger Cambodians, the trial is a history lesson. For older Cambodians, it is an acknowledgment that crimes were committed on a massive scale.
But the trial is also a lesson in the need for the international community to ensure that its tribunals are not compromised by political interference, sometimes a danger in still fragile democracies.
This week, a report from the international monitor Open Society Justice Initiative warned that the Cambodian tribunal is being hurt by allegations of interference by Prime Minister Hun Sen's administration.
Hun Sen has refused to authorize the arrest of five additional Khmer Rouge suspects, saying the arrests could lead to renewed civil war.
Thirty years after the Khmer Rouge regime fell, as many as 20,000 former Khmer Rouge are reported to be living openly in Cambodia. Onetime Khmer Rouge cadres are also said to be part of Hun Sen's government.
But for the sake of the victims and those who have come after them, the tribunal must keep going, resisting political interference to the best of its ability. Awakened to their past, Cambodians want justice. These trials are the way forward.
4 comments:
40 years in prison is not enough in my opinion. This guy is very mean when he was in power, killing far too many innocent people even his own in-law, his own family. He should be hung alive, broadcast on TV so the Cambodian people can see to relieve anger, and to teach other KR bad guys not to follow this astrocity. German in WWII killed too many people also, but those killed are not their own people. But the KR loved to kill his own Khmer, his own blood. What made them do that? what they get out of it? Retaliation, revenge....yes!
Those KR were in power not to rebuild the country, not to build a good and clean society. They in power to kill, period. In Cambodia history, no era like KR era.
What are you going to tell your kids when they see pictures of skulls and bones on TV or on portraits?
JUSTICE HAS BEEN PARTIALLY SERVED!
"Khmer Rouge trials feed Cambodians' need for justice"
The title of this article wrote by this Canadian journalist is deadly outrageous and humiliated for the victims of khmer rouge genocide. In the moral sense, it is not less criminal than crimes committed by duch but being led differently
cambodia needs and can use a lot of justice in our country and society, really!
Hun Sen government interfere the trail must has a reason. The reason is Youn tries to cover its atrocity toward Khmer people during the Khmer rouge era. One day the truth will pop up. We need only time. Personally, I’ve found that Youn is a very cheap nation.
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