Khmer Rouge Leader Convicted

JULY 26, 2010
By PATRICK BARTA
The Wall Street Journal

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—A U.N.- backed tribunal found a key leader of Cambodia's notorious Khmer Rouge regime guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 35 years in prison, marking its first successful prosecution after more than a decade of work to bring the group's top officials to justice.

The court found that Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was at least partly responsible for the deaths of some 14,000 or more Cambodians who were brought to the Tuol Sleng prison he ran in Phnom Penh during the brutal years of Khmer Rouge rule from 1975 to 1979. The prisoners were brought there by Khmer Rouge officials who accused them of disloyalty to the regime; once inside, they were often electrocuted or beaten with metal bars before being hauled away to their deaths.

The court is still deciding whether to take other, more senior Khmer Rouge officials to trial, including several former government ministers and other members of the group's central planning organization who are now in their 70s and 80s. The court is expected to decide whether to proceed with further cases by September.

Monday's sentence was a lighter than expected. Mr. Kaing Guek Eav, who is 67 years old, acknowledged his role in overseeing the prison but denied personally killing or torturing any victims and argued he was only following orders in running the jail. He asked for leniency partly on the basis that he had cooperated with prosecutors and had already served several years in jail.

The Khmer Rouge were a radical Communist rebel group that rose to power during the Vietnam War and outlawed money and private property in a failed bid to turn Cambodia into a nation of agricultural collectives. Some 1.7 million people died of starvation, illness or were killed before the regime was toppled by invading Vietnamese forces in 1979.

The country, which is peaceful now, has spent much of the past 30 years trying to come to terms with the genocide. The tribunal itself was beset with numerous setbacks, including funding shortfalls and allegations of political interference from Cambodian authorities that delayed its work.

Legal experts said that completing the first trial marked a watershed moment in Cambodian history and raised hopes the tribunal would be able to bring more Khmer Rouge leaders justice before they die.

Tens of thousands of Cambodians attended parts of the Kaing Guek Eav trial after it began last March, and millions more followed its progress on television.

A former math teacher who joined the Khmer Rouge in the 1960s, Mr. Kaing Guek Eav is the only major figure to admit some responsibility for the group's crimes. Only a handful of people survived incarceration at his prison, in a converted elementary school that is now is a museum.

The Khmer Rouge's senior-most leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.

Write to Patrick Barta at patrick.barta@wsj.com