Four top surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime were indicted today by a U.N.-backed tribunal. They are, from left, Nuon Chea, 84, the group's ideologist; former head of state, Khieu Samphan, 79; former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, Ieng Thirith, ex-minister for social affairs, both in their 80s. (Photo: AP)Mike Eckel
AOL News
AOL News PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Sept. 16) -- A United Nations-backed tribunal today indicted four senior Khmer Rouge officials, setting up the most important legal reckoning yet with the radical communist movement whose utopian agricultural policies led to the deaths of as much as one-quarter of Cambodia's population in the late 1970s.
The court, formally known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, accused Nuon Chea, the top deputy to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, of crimes against humanity, genocide and other charges. Also indicted were Khieu Samphan, who was head of state from 1976 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge's foreign minister, Ieng Sary, and his wife, Ieng Thirith, the regime's minister for social welfare.
When the former Khmer Rouge leaders formally answer those charges in the courtroom next year, they won't be the only ones facing a trial. So too will the court itself, which has been fiercely criticized for its slow progress, leading only to a single previous trial.
The four, in their late 70s and 80s, have been in Cambodian custody since 2007. They have all maintained their innocence, claiming they were unaware of the waves of carnage that ravaged the Cambodian people, as described in the award-winning 1984 film "The Killing Fields." Pol Pot, the French-educated Marxist revolutionary who led the regime to power and through its collapse, died in 1998, living under nominal house arrest in a northern Cambodia district.
Scheduled to begin sometime next year, the trial will be the only the second for the unusual hybrid court, which has U.N. backing, is staffed by Cambodian and foreign judges, and is funded primarily by the U.S., Japan, and the European Union.
The first trial ended in July with the conviction of Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his alias Duch, who oversaw the torture and death of more than 14,000 people while running the Khmer Rouge's main prison in the capital, Phnom Penh.
These four defendants were higher in the murderous regime's hierarchy, experts said. Their trial "should tell a broader story of how the Khmer Rouge lived and how they operated," said Heather Ryan, a lawyer who monitored the Duch proceedings for Open Society Justice Initiative. "So this will be much more important trial."
Though Duch admitted his guilt, that trial was hampered by disputes over the role of Cambodians giving testimony and allegations of corruption among court and personnel. Many Cambodians were already impatient at how long the process took and the fact that in the 13 years since the U.N. agreed to help set up the tribunal, only one trial had been conducted. The dismay turned to outrage when Duch received a 19-year prison sentence; many victims complained that he should have been imprisoned for life.
Sponsored Links Many legal experts say the second trial will be far more complicated, given that the four leaders have denied the charges and that defense lawyers have been much more aggressive in challenging the prosecutors and the court than during the first proceedings.
That could further alienate Cambodians, many of whom are skeptical of how a court run under Western legal principles could ever help the country reckon with the estimated 2 million deaths and other atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. Many also fear that the four defendants' elderly and frail condition could slow down the proceedings, or that they could die in custody without facing victims or prosecution.
"If it gets delayed beyond a certain point, or if the trial chamber appears that it's not adequately controlling the defense, it will lead to frustration among Cambodian people. And the donors," Ryan said.
The court has also faced political pressure from the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, himself a former Khmer Rouge military leader who helped overthrow the regime in 1979. Several top political leaders have refused to give testimony despite the court's request, and Hun Sen has openly said that further trials could fuel strife and animosity in the destitute Southeast Asian nation.
The court, formally known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, accused Nuon Chea, the top deputy to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, of crimes against humanity, genocide and other charges. Also indicted were Khieu Samphan, who was head of state from 1976 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge's foreign minister, Ieng Sary, and his wife, Ieng Thirith, the regime's minister for social welfare.
When the former Khmer Rouge leaders formally answer those charges in the courtroom next year, they won't be the only ones facing a trial. So too will the court itself, which has been fiercely criticized for its slow progress, leading only to a single previous trial.
The four, in their late 70s and 80s, have been in Cambodian custody since 2007. They have all maintained their innocence, claiming they were unaware of the waves of carnage that ravaged the Cambodian people, as described in the award-winning 1984 film "The Killing Fields." Pol Pot, the French-educated Marxist revolutionary who led the regime to power and through its collapse, died in 1998, living under nominal house arrest in a northern Cambodia district.
Scheduled to begin sometime next year, the trial will be the only the second for the unusual hybrid court, which has U.N. backing, is staffed by Cambodian and foreign judges, and is funded primarily by the U.S., Japan, and the European Union.
The first trial ended in July with the conviction of Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his alias Duch, who oversaw the torture and death of more than 14,000 people while running the Khmer Rouge's main prison in the capital, Phnom Penh.
These four defendants were higher in the murderous regime's hierarchy, experts said. Their trial "should tell a broader story of how the Khmer Rouge lived and how they operated," said Heather Ryan, a lawyer who monitored the Duch proceedings for Open Society Justice Initiative. "So this will be much more important trial."
Though Duch admitted his guilt, that trial was hampered by disputes over the role of Cambodians giving testimony and allegations of corruption among court and personnel. Many Cambodians were already impatient at how long the process took and the fact that in the 13 years since the U.N. agreed to help set up the tribunal, only one trial had been conducted. The dismay turned to outrage when Duch received a 19-year prison sentence; many victims complained that he should have been imprisoned for life.
Sponsored Links Many legal experts say the second trial will be far more complicated, given that the four leaders have denied the charges and that defense lawyers have been much more aggressive in challenging the prosecutors and the court than during the first proceedings.
That could further alienate Cambodians, many of whom are skeptical of how a court run under Western legal principles could ever help the country reckon with the estimated 2 million deaths and other atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. Many also fear that the four defendants' elderly and frail condition could slow down the proceedings, or that they could die in custody without facing victims or prosecution.
"If it gets delayed beyond a certain point, or if the trial chamber appears that it's not adequately controlling the defense, it will lead to frustration among Cambodian people. And the donors," Ryan said.
The court has also faced political pressure from the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, himself a former Khmer Rouge military leader who helped overthrow the regime in 1979. Several top political leaders have refused to give testimony despite the court's request, and Hun Sen has openly said that further trials could fuel strife and animosity in the destitute Southeast Asian nation.
7 comments:
Look at the 4 KR idiot ideologists. Fuck you the killers.
Unfair unless Sihaknuk Hun Sen included
Forget it old men, you will be in the jail for ever, your soul too, you participated to kill too many innocent Cambodians.
the man that had his mouth the same
as parrot's mouth should be punish
him a little harder .
While they had to kill my brother and sister they had not said nay
any justice to all victims .
All of them are killer, they were very happy to kill our relatives in 1975,
they sent all of Yuons to Vietnam from 1975 to 1976,
and after they killed Khmers once more time accusing that we were Yuon.
i think the KR had some of good ideas, however, they seemed to be lawlessness during their reign of terror. i think if they did not allow killing, starvation, deny medical care, etc to the people during their reign, they would be ok; but hell no, we know, the did the opposite, so now bad karma follows they until their death! they were truly "frog in the well" mentality. they failed to see the bigger picture of the world out there and think that everything on earth evolved around them, how ignorant, really!
After the four charged and convicted, Sihanouk and Hun Sen would be next. They both had KR connections.
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