Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Verdict Marks End of Impunity for Khmer Rouge Torturer

Newspapers with pictures of former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav are displayed at a newspaper stand in Phnom Penh on July 27. (photo: Reuters)

Wednesday, July 28, 2010
By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR
IPS WRITER


BANGKOK — For a country plagued by a weak judiciary and where government officials have profited from a culture of impunity, Monday’s verdict in the first case to try a surviving commandant of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime broke new legal ground in Cambodia.

The ruling by a UN-backed special war crimes tribunal against Comrade Duch, whose real name is Kaing Khek Eav, brought to an end the fears by the estimated five million survivors of that dark period in the South-east Asian nation’s history that the Khmer Rouge hierarchy would in the end get away with their brutality.

After all, the verdict came 31 years after the Khmer Rouge was toppled by advancing Vietnamese forces, followed by years of civil war and feuding between Cambodian political factions, where talk of an international war crimes tribunal or hauling Khmer Rouge commanders to face justice were remote in the countryside.

The 77-day trial of Duch, which began in March 2009, marked a turning point for those who survived to tell the tale of the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror from April 1975 to January 1979. Some 1.7 million people, nearly a fourth of Cambodia’s population at the time, died of starvation or forced labour, or were killed during those years.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) found the 67-year-old Duch guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes and initially slapped him with a 35- year prison sentence. But the jail term was reduced to 19 years after the court accounted for the five years he had been illegally detained by a military tribunal since his arrest in 1999 and the further 11 years he had been behind bars till his trial began.

Duch’s trial and the verdict dispensed by this hybrid court, which had a mix of international and national jurists, offered a stark contrast to the period of Khmer Rouge terror, during which Duch was the torturer-in-chief of Tuol Sleng, a former high school in Phnom Penh where prisoners were interrogated, tortured and killed for being enemies of the regime.

The ECCC verdict has also taken a small step further the prospect of political figures and leaders being held accountable for their actions while in power.

"The mixed court deserves credit for its effort to ensure a fair trial and a verdict," said Chea Vannath, former president of the Centre for Social Development, a Phnom Penh-based think tank. "The verdict may not satisfy everybody 100 percent but for me, something is better than nothing."

"The court also sends a strong message to officials in power today and in the future," added Chea, who lost relatives during the Khmer Rouge genocide. "They need to be careful about their actions because the people now know that justice is possible for those who abuse their authority."

The trial also offered the first public accounting of the horror Duch and his jailers unleashed with mathematical precision in Tuol Sleng, where 14,000 people, including babies, were killed. Only 11 people came out alive from S- 21, as that torture chamber was known at the time.

The process by which this trial was carried out—it reportedly cost US$ 100 million—has made it a benchmark. Duch’s trial was largely free of political interference from the increasingly authoritarian regime of Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge functionary before he defected to the pro-Vietnamese camp.

The composition of the court in this experiment in international justice is also being seen in better light following the Duch trial, in contrast to the bitter debates that preceded the ECCC’s first case.

The acrimonious lead-up to the ECCC’s creation at times pitted the United Nations, international funders, international human rights groups against the Hun Sen regime. Concerns about the quality and integrity of some Cambodian jurists even prompted a call for the tribunal to be held in a neutral foreign country, following the path of the war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

"A mixed tribunal of having national participants in the justice process is necessary and proper," Roger Normand, Asia-Pacific director at the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, said after the Duch verdict.

"Having a process that is externally driven and seen as stemming from pressure from outside is not sustainable."

"Whatever the criticism of the tribunal, this is a positive model given the background of interference and lack of fairness in the domestic legal process," he told IPS. "The trial process also served as a public education about a dark period of Cambodia’s past."

Still, the ECCC itself will continue to be on trial as it takes up the cases against other Khmer Rouge leaders who were more dominant players in that extremist Maoist movement than Duch.

The global rights lobby Human Rights Watch (HRW) is urging the ECCC to go beyond the four Khmer Rouge leaders due to go on the dock—Nuon Chea, who was deputy to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, Khieu Samphan, the country's president then, Ieng Sary, the foreign minister at the time, and his wife, the former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith.

"Only holding five people responsible for the Khmer Rouge genocide falls far short of what the ECCC could accomplish," Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division at the New York-based HRW, told IPS. "Others should also be prosecuted for their roles in the Khmer Rouge genocide."

"This should be an evidence-based process, not politically determined by one side or one group of people," he added.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

may god bless my country cambodia.

Anonymous said...

The international communities reading too much into the verdict.It is a show trial nothing more the verdict does not translate anything unless the the old and new KR cadre to accountable. The question then should be asked how can judgement can be just when you the law only apply the the selective few? Who was the party the the regime for whatever reasons?
As a member of the victims I denounced such a show trial unless the tribunal has the power to summon any one to question, now it will not be possible and will never happened.
The trial is just another show for the legitimacy of the current regime and of course making a number of them rich in the process.

Shame to the shonky justice running by a bunch of shonky judges

Anonymous said...

Duch, when you ordered to turture and kill, you felt strong, powerful, while people were tortured and killed, you was very proud of yourselh, that is what you are guilty..

Anonymous said...

Shame Face's Killing Fields

Anonymous said...

Vietnam laughing and mocking at khmer right now...they'r so happy that khmer still got fooled by them!

Anonymous said...

Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime

Members:
Pol Pot
Nuon Chea
Ieng Sary
Ta Mok
Khieu Samphan
Son Sen
Ieng Thearith
Kang Guek Eav
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka
Hun Sen...

Committed:
Tortures
Brutality
Executions
Massacres
Mass Murder
Genocide
Atrocities
Crimes Against Humanity
Starvations
Slavery
Force Labour
Overwork to Death
Human Abuses
Persecution
Unlawful Detention


Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime

Members:
Hun Sen
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka...

Committed:
Attempted Murders
Attempted Murder on Chea Vichea
Attempted Assassinations
Attempted Assassination on Sam Rainsy
Assassinations
Assassinated Journalists
Assassinated Political Opponents
Assassinated Leaders of the Free Trade Union
Assassinated over 80 members of Sam Rainsy Party.

Sam Rainsy LIC 31 October 2009 - Cairo, Egypt
"As of today, over eighty members of my party have been assassinated. Countless others have been injured, arrested, jailed, or forced to go into hiding or into exile."
  
Executions
Executed over 100 members of FUNCINPEC Party
Murders
Murdered 3 Leaders of the Free Trade Union 
Murdered Chea Vichea
Murdered Ros Sovannareth
Murdered Hy Vuthy
Murdered 10 Journalists
Murdered Khim Sambo
Murdered Khim Sambo's son 
Murdered members of Sam Rainsy Party.
Murdered activists of Sam Rainsy Party
Murdered Innocent Men
Murdered Innocent Women
Murdered Innocent Children
Killed Innocent Khmer Peoples.
Extrajudicial Execution
Grenade Attack
Terrorism
Drive by Shooting
Brutalities
Police Brutality Against Monks
Police Brutality Against Evictees
Tortures
Intimidations
Death Threats
Threatening
Human Abductions
Human Abuses
Human Rights Abuses
Human Trafficking
Drugs Trafficking
Under Age Child Sex
Corruptions
Bribery
Embezzlement
Treason
Border Encroachment, allow Vietnam to encroaching into Cambodia.
Signed away our territories to Vietnam; Koh Tral, almost half of our ocean territory oil field and others.  
Illegal Arrest
Illegal Mass Evictions
Illegal Land Grabbing
Illegal Firearms
Illegal Logging
Illegal Deforestation

Illegally use of remote detonate bomb on Sokha Helicopter, while Hok Lundy and other military officials were on board.

Lightning strike many airplanes, but did not fall from the sky.  Lightning strike out side of airplane and discharge electricity to ground. 
Source:  Lightning, Discovery Channel

Illegally Sold State Properties
Illegally Removed Parliamentary Immunity of Parliament Members
Plunder National Resources
Acid Attacks
Turn Cambodia into a Lawless Country.
Oppression
Injustice
Steal Votes
Bring Foreigners from Vietnam to vote in Cambodia for Cambodian People's Party.
Use Dead people's names to vote for Cambodian People's Party.
Disqualified potential Sam Rainsy Party's voters. 
Abuse the Court as a tools for CPP to send political opponents and journalists to jail.
Abuse of Power
Abuse the Laws
Abuse the National Election Committee
Abuse the National Assembly
Violate the Laws
Violate the Constitution
Violate the Paris Accords
Impunity
Persecution
Unlawful Detention
Death in custody.

Under the Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime, no criminals that has been committed crimes against journalists, political opponents, leaders of the Free Trade Union, innocent men, women and children have ever been brought to justice. 

Anonymous said...

Which one of these Khmer Rouge(s) list below is a prison chief of Boeung Trabek prison?

a) Pol Pot
b) Nuon Chea
c) Ta Mok 
d) Khieu Samphan 
e) Son Sen 
f) Kang Guek Eav
g) Ieng Sary 
h) Ieng Thearith
i) Chea Sim
j) Heng Samrin
k) HOR NAMHONG
l) Keat Chhon
m) Ouk Bunchhoeun
n) Sim Ka
o) Hun Sen

Source:
DC-CAM

Fact:
During the Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime;
There are 196 prisons.
There are 196 prison chiefs.
There are 1.7 million innocent Khmer peoples killed by the Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime.

Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime's leaders and members:
Pol Pot
Nuon Chea
Ieng Sary
Ta Mok
Khieu Samphan
Son Sen
Ieng Thearith
Kang Guek Eav
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka
Hun Sen...

Kang Guek Eav is a prison chief of Toul Sleng prison.

The UN back Khmer Rouge Tribunal court (EEEC) must indict 195 other prison chiefs.

"I will not allow the UN back Khmer Rouge Tribunal court (EEEC) to indict more Khmer Rouge Regime leaders, I rather let the court fail."
"Indict more Khmer Rouge Regime's leaders will lead the country into a civil war."
Sammaak Mirt Hun Sen
Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime's leaders

Sammaak Mirt Hun Sen will no allow the UN back Khmer Rouge Tribunal court (EEEC) to indict more Khmer Rouge Regime leaders who is responsible for killing 1.7 million innocent Khmer peoples.

Sammaak Mirt Hun Sen threaten to turn Cambodia into the Killing Fields all over again.

War with whom?
War with innocent Khmer peoples without weapon?

Once a Khmer Rouge, always a Khmer Rouge.

Khmer Rouge(s) continue to kill innocent Khmer peoples.

Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime's leaders and members:
Hun Sen
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka...

"Duch (Kang Guek Eav) 19 years sentence is too short and not fit his crimes."
Sammaak Mirt Hor Namhong
Prison Chief of Boeung Trabek prison

What's Hor Namhong trying to do is, he want the whole world to know that he is not a Khmer Rouge and a prison chief of Boeung Trabek prison.

Hor Namhong is a prison chief of Boeung Trabek prison.
Source: Phnom Penh Post

Hor Namhong said to the French judge that he is not a prison chief of Boeung Trabek prison, in fact members of his family was killed by Khmer Rouge(s).

Hor Namhong can lies all he want, at the end, he got summoned and will get indict, prosecute, convict and sentence.

Criminals likes to lies.

The place where criminals lies the most is inside the court room in front of the judge(s).

Anonymous said...

"The court also sends a strong message to officials in power today and in the future," added Chea, who lost relatives during the Khmer Rouge genocide. "They need to be careful about their actions because the people now know that justice is possible for those who abuse their authority."

Watch out potato-heads CPPs. It might come your way at a distance future. Yah all hear?

Anonymous said...

hanoi secretly agents working in ANGKA LEU ordered prison chief to kill all the educated Khmer people in order to iron down then to plant the puppet government in Cambodia like today gov.
16 years in prison for Duch is just a joke for Cambodia,it means life in Cambodia in hun sen's hands and hanoi influence are less value than animals.