Rob Hamill files CP applicatio​n to ECCC in Case 003/004 - PRESS RELEASE

Rob HAMILL files Civil Party application in Case 003/004

8 April 2011

at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)

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PRESS RELEASE

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It is my wish that family members of victims murdered by the Khmer Rouge regime will recognise that they are not alone in their grief and suffering.  I am not a Cambodian national but I am a victim of its politics.  I hope this application provides the motivation for others to stand up and say out loud what needs to be said.  All those who are being investigated because they held a leadership position during the rule of Democratic Kampuchea must surely stand trial and be exposed for the part they played in the death of 1,700,000 people.


NB I do not support any form of capital punishment.

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Between April 17 1975 and 6 January 1979 more than 1,700,000 people were murdered, starved or worked to death during the rule of the Khmer Rouge regime, yet to date only one person has stood trial for the atrocities. 

On 26 July 2010, Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch) was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role as commandant of S-21 (aka Tuol Sleng), the Phnom Penh based prison where approximately 14,000 people were tortured and murdered.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) close to beginning Case 002, the trial of the four highest ranking surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime: Mr. NUON Chea, Mr. IENG Sary, Mr. KHIEU Samphan and Mrs. IENG Thirith.

However, investigations into Case 003/004 of five unnamed individuals who operated in the high echelons of the Khmer Rouge regime are sitting in limbo largely due to overt political interference and UN lethargy.

HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND, Friday 8 April 2011: 

On Friday, 8 April 2011, Mr Rob HAMILL, in his private capacity, lodged an application to become a Civil Party in Case 003/004 against Khmer Rouge commanders Mr MEAS Muth and Mr SOU Met, two of the five individuals believed to be under investigation by the United Nations personnel at the Office of Co-Investigating Judges of the ECCC.

Mr HAMILL’S Civil Party application is the second to be submitted to the ECCC for Case 003/004, the first being from Cambodian human rights activist and Khmer Rouge survivor Ms Theary SENG (www.thearyseng.com) on Monday 4 April 2011.

“I am doing this to remind the UN and its member countries that justice for the 1,700,000 people who were murdered, starved or worked to death has not yet been served,” says Hamill.  “Just what is the magic number that deems it appropriate to cease further proceedings?  Among the hundreds, if not thousands of killers, trying five is not enough, and pushing for the additional five prosecutions in Case 003/004 is not unreasonable – if there is no magic number. 

“The current situation is akin to halting post World War II proceedings at Nuremburg when only a few Nazi’s had been tried,” says Hamill.  “The world simply would not have accepted that outcome yet now, when society is apparently more sophisticated and advanced in all facets of life, the victims of these heinous and incomprehensible atrocities are expected to sit back and accept one conviction (that of Duch), a trial pending for four others, but knowing that at least five more culpable cadres remain un-charged.”

Mr HAMILL said he is also submitting his application to reinforce civil rights activist Theary Seng’s application made on Monday 4 April, 2011.  “She is a very brave woman who deserves to be heard above the deafening silence that pervades domestically and internationally in Case 003/004.” 

Mr HAMILL holds Mr MEAS Muth and Mr SOU Met personally, individually, criminally responsible for the death of his brother Kerry Hamill, inter alia, for their roles as military commanders who contributed to the common purpose and design in the arrests and executions specifically in their respective divisions and generally for the whole of Cambodia and who also controlled the Navy and Air Force of Democratic Kampuchea, respectively.

Particular emphasis is given to MEAS Muth, who, in his role as commander of the Khmer Rouge navy played a pivotal role in the capture of Rob Hamill’s brother, Kerry Hamill who, on 13 August 1978, was moored off Koh Tang Island when attacked by a Khmer Rouge gunboat and taken prisoner at Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh.  Kerry Hamill was tortured, forced to sign a confession that he was a CIA operative, then executed.  Both Meas Muth and SOU Met knew of and contributed countless victims to Tuol Sleng prison. 

“One of my concerns lays in the fact that Case 003 and 004 appears to be dormant.  In fact, there is growing information suggesting the imminent dropping of the case,” says Mr Hamill.

“For me and my family this is not good enough.  It harks back to the post Khmer Rouge cold war politics of the time.  In the late 1970’s through to the mid 1980’s many countries still recognised the Khmer Rouge leadership at the UN.  This included the National Party lead Government of the time here in New Zealand that still acknowledged Pol Pot’s regime at the UN.” 

“At the time my father, Miles Hamill, wrote many letters to our government.  In one letter to the Prime Minister he wrote ‘Mr Muldoon Sir, if you can faintly understand the shock and grief I and my family are suffering over this ghastly affair, then you will surely do all in your power as the Head of New Zealand’s governing body to investigate my son’s death.’  He went onto ask ‘Why has New Zealand ever recognised the Pol Pot regime in Kampuchea?  To recognise must surely mean to condone their actions as a Government?’”

“The recognition of the Pol Pot regime at that time was politically driven and was totally unacceptable to my father,” says Rob Hamill.  “If the ECCC drop Case 003/004 this would be equally unacceptable.”

Immediately after the lodging of his application, he will be available for comment to discuss the matters with interested media:  

For further information, please feel free to contact Rob HAMILL at rob@wave.co.nz +64 (0)7 825 9921 or +64 (0)274 936677 or 

Ms Lyma NGUYEN lyma.nguyen@gmail.com +61 (0)404 111 579 or

SAM Sokong samsokong@yahoo.com +855 (0)1260 6101

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Power of Attorney

Ms Lyma NGUYEN lymanguyen@gmail.com +61 (0)404 111 579 (international lawyer)

Mr SAM Sokong samsokong@yahoo.com +855 (0)1260 6101 (national Cambodian lawyer)

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Other reading material available:

ECCC Internal Rules, 23 Feb. 2011 (Rev. 7)

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Seven Candidates for Prosecution:

http://www.wcl.american.edu/warcrimes/khmerrouge.html

Accountability for Crimes of the Khmer Rouge

By Prof. Stephen Heder and Brian D. Tittemore

American University, War Crimes Research Office (June 2001)

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Judgement of ECCC Case 001

http://www.eccc.gov.kh/documents/court/judgement-case-001

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Closing Order of ECCC Case 002

Sept. 2010

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Open Society Justice Initiative Reports

Rob Hamill

www.brothernumberone.co.nz – the film

www.thegreatrace.co.nz

T  +64 (0)7 825 9921 (try first)

M +64 (0)274 936677

F  +64 (0)7 8259961

www.robhamill.com