Killing Fields verdict casts cloud over tribunal

Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Agencies

• Cambodians see Duch sentence as miscarriage of justice
• Concerns that Khmer Rouge masterminds won’t be punished
• UN expert hails ‘milestone’ Khmer Rouge verdict

PHNOM PENH: A United Nations-backed court set up to find justice for 1.7 million people killed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s is at risk of losing credibility and relevance among Cambodians outraged by its first verdict.

Kaing Guek Eav, a former prison chief better known as Duch, was on Monday found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and received less than half the 40-year sentence sought by prosecutors for his role in the 1975-1979 reign of terror.

The ruling devastated many of the estimated five million survivors and raised questions among Cambodians over a tribunal that spent $78.4 million over nearly five years to bring its first case in one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century.

Duch, a 67-year-old former schoolteacher, admitted to overseeing the deaths of up to 14,000 people as chief of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison. During the eight-month trial, he expressed ‘excruciating remorse’ for his actions.

That contrition helped to reduce his sentence, said the joint, five-judge UN-Cambodian tribunal, which gave Duch 35 years but shocked the court by saying the term would be cut to 19 given the amount of time he already has been detained.

Cambodians who hoped to see Duch spend his remaining years behind bars, or for the country to re-introduce the death penalty, say they are struggling to understand how he could be freed before he dies. Court authorities said he may be eligible for an early parole if he demonstrates he is rehabilitated.

“Almost all Cambodians have been affected in some way and there will likely be widespread disillusionment,” he said. “People might just give up on this process.”

Many Cambodians question whether other indicted former Khmer Rouge cadres will face justice for their roles in the Maoist revolution that wiped out nearly a quarter of the country’s population through execution, disease, starvation or overwork under the leadership of top commander Pol Pot, who died in 1998.

Cambodia’s government has historic ties to the Khmer Rouge, with several ministers accused of high-level involvement. It has offered little support to the tribunal, claiming civil war could flare if it broadens its investigation.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the court’s credibility would be undermined if political meddling prevailed.

Duch’s prison symbolised the horrors of the regime. Most inmates, including women and children, were tortured and forced to confess to spying and other crimes before they were bludgeoned to death at the “Killing Fields” execution sites during the revolution, which ended with the 1979 invasion by Vietnam.

The UN human rights expert on Cambodia on Tuesday hailed the conviction of a Khmer Rouge prison chief for crimes against humanity as a ‘historic milestone’ in tackling impunity in the country.

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Cambodia Surya Subedi welcomed the verdict delivered on late Monday by the UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnon Penh against Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav.

“It represents a historic milestone in holding those responsible for human rights violations accountable for their actions,” said Subedi in a statement.