05/28/2011
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)
Those who want to petition the ECCC to continue investigate can do so online at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cambodiansurvivorsseekjustice/
LONG BEACH — The four older Cambodian women walked along Anaheim Street and greeted passersby and talked with a sense of purpose to shop owners.
Refugee women survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide, are not typically known for such forthright and outward displays, but here they were united and strong.
The four women, accompanied by local activist and Cal State Long Beach professor
Leakhena Nou, were out to rally support among the immigrant community and pass out petitions to urge a tribunal court in their home country to press forward with prosecutions of alleged perpetrators of atrocities.
The effort by the women, whose names are being withheld for their protection, comes in the wake of growing indications that the United Nations-backed court will close down after its upcoming trial slated to begin in late June.
While two cases are pending with five unnamed defendants, progress has stalled in the face of Cambodian government opposition.
But that hasn't stopped the U.S. women from insisting on being heard.
"These women embodied the quest for justice," Nou said. "They know the court may reject them but they wanted to to fight the fight, not only for a symbolic purpose but for future generations."
Nou said several of the women, who are in their 60 s and 70 s, told her they were willing to continue to the ends of their lives.
To date they have gathered 763 signatures of supporters urging the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia to continue investigating leaders in the genocide that left about 2 million dead between 1975 and 1979.
The attempt to prosecute senior leaders believed to be most responsible for the deaths has been a process that has consistently been hampered by allegations of corruption, government interference, lack of funds and bickering through the years.
Many leaders of the Khmer Rouge, including its leader Pol Pot, have died. More are in failing health.
In the ECCCcourt's first case, Kaing Geuk Eav, or Duch, was found guilty of a number of crimes.
In the second case, which is about to get under way, four defendants face charges.
Court observers were stunned recently when judges abruptly closed investigation of the third case, despite what one prosecutor said was sufficient information.
Worse for survivors and victims, who had been allowed to petition to be plaintiffs in the first two cases, the abrupt halt left them with little time to apply to be part of the case.
Nou, whose Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia has been the foremost organization in registering plaintiffs from the refugee community, and her associates were able to get five plaintiff applications in before the deadline.
Judges have not responded to requests to extend the deadline for complainants to file.
Despite the seeming indifference by the court, Nou says interest in the diaspora is strong and there remains a thirst for justice against believed perpetrators.
"I would say 99.9 percent of the people we approached signed," Nou said of the petitions she and the women circulated.
Nou said the process of going into the Cambodian community and rallying the people seems to have changed the women.
"They were energized by the fight for justice," Nou said. "They said it was among the happiest days of their lives."
Those who want to petition the ECCC to continue investigate can do so online at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cambodiansurvivorsseekjustice/
greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291
2 comments:
EVIDENCE OF POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS AND KILLINGS OF FUNCINPEC LOYALISTS.
LIST OF INSTANCES OF EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS during 1997 coup by PM Hun Sen. These people with their name list below were murdered by PM Hun Sen.
• Ho Sok, 45, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior and second ranking FUNCINPEC official in the Ministry of Interior.
• 2-3. Gen Chao Sambath, alias Ngov, Deputy-Chief of the Intelligence and Espionage Department, RCAF Supreme Command since 1993
• 4 and 5. Maj. Gen. Ly Seng Hong, Deputy-Chief of Staff, RCAF General Staff (second highest-ranking FUNCINPEC official in the RCAF General
• 6. Colonel Sok Vireak, Chief, Transmission Bureau, Army General Staff. A former KPNLF General Staff officer in charge of military training who joined Nhek Bun Chhay after the Paris Agreements. Status
• 7. Colonel Thlang Chang Sovannarith, Deputy Chief-of-Staff of the Fifth Military Region, RCAF General Staff
• 8. Colonel Hov Sambath, Deputy-chief of Military Training Bureau, RCAF General Staff
• 9. Lietenant Colonel Sao Sophal, 42, an officer of the First Bureau of the RCAF General Staff.
• 10. Navy First Lt. Thach Soeung, aged about 30, an ethnic Khmer from southern Vietnam, stationed at Dang Kaum Navy base on the eastern bank of the Tonle Sap.
• 11 to 14. Seng Phally, Lt. Col. Chao Keang, Chao Tea and Thong Vickika - security officers working under Gen. Chao Sambath.
• Seng Phally, alias Huot Phally, aged 25, single, a gendarme who worked as chief of the security team at the Pipoplok 2 Hotel/Casino
• Lt. Col. Chao Keang, aged about 25. He was an officer in the Research and Intelligence Bureau of Chao Sambath
• Chao Tea, 29, brother of Chao Keang, a security guard at the Regal Hotel/Casino. His body bore a bullet hole in the left side of the chest and in the right side of the stomach. He was also handcuffed and blindfolded
• Thong Vicchika, aged about 27-28, a body-guard of Chao Sambath and a security staff at the Regal Hotel/Casino.
• Dr. Seng Kim Ly, a military medical doctor
• Major Lak Ki, Head of Operations, Research and Intelligence, RCAF High Command
• Four unnamed body-guards of Nhek Bun Chhay were summarily executed after his office-cum-house in Somnang
• Major Lak Ki, Head of Operations, Research and Intelligence, RCAF High Command
• Pheap, a body-guard of Major Lak Ki, in his late twenties
• Dok Rany, 27, an officer and body-guard of Gen. Chao Sambath who worked at the Research and Intelligence Bureau
• Ros Huon, aged 23, Sopheap, aged 25, two alleged members of the Gendarmerie
• Dok Sokhun, alias Michael Senior, a Khmer-Canadian journalist who taught English at ACE Language School in Phnom Penh
• Major Aek Eng (CPP), Head of Administration of Phnom Penh Thmei police station
• At least four, and possibly up to 22 persons described as FUNCINPEC soldiers executed and cremated in Pich Nil on 9, 10 and 11 July 1997 by Military Region 3 soldiers. Status: Confirmed executions in at least 4 cases
• 34 to 36 (and possibly 45). On 17 July, at about noon time, the body of a soldier was witnessed floating near the bank of the Tone Bassac near the Watt Chum Leap, in the village of the same name, Rokakpong commune, Saang district, Kandal province. The body was headless and both hands were tied up behind the back with a kramma. It was dressed in dark olive military uniform
• 37 and 38. Two unidentified men, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind the back. Status: Confirmed executions
• Pheap, aged 33, a bodyguard of the First Prime Minister. Status: Confirmed execution.
• Sok Vanthorn, 21 and Sou Sal, two villagers from Ampeov village, Kompong Speu province. Status: Confirmed execution.
• Brig. Gen. Chea Rittichutt, a founding member of the Moulinaka movement and the Governor of Kep-Bokor
• Navy officer Meas Sarou, Deputy-director, First Bureau, Navy, based in Chrouy Changvar, and one of his body-guards, and a third person, a woman named Luch.
• Ung Sim, Second Deputy Governor, Kompong Speu province - missing since his arrest, reportedly near Pich Nil by CPP soldiers on 7 or 8 July 1997.
• Col. Sam Sarath, Deputy Chief-of-Staff, Third Military Region
• Put Som Ang, male, aged 42, a KNP activisit in Siem Reap province, and Sam Sophan, 38, an activist in Takeo province
• Major So Lay Sak and Major Chin Vannak, officers working in the Logisitics department of the RCAF General Staff
• Som Taing, Deputy Chief, Inspection Office, Provincial Governor's Office, Kompong Speu
• Chum Sarith, Chief, Criminal Bureau, Provincial Police, Sihanoukville
Forty-six bodies were brought in and dumped at the crematorium of a Phnom Penh pagoda between 5 and 9 July
In the case of Ho Sok (executed on 7 July, brought to Watt Lanka on 8 July); of Seng Phally, Chao Keang, Chao Tea and Thong Viccheka (executed on 5-6 July and brought by the police to Wat Unalom on the morning of 7 July - see cases number 13-16 above) and in the case of a fifth corpse which was brought to the same pagoda on the same morning, but which could not be identified, the police ordered that cremation of the bodies be conducted without question and without proper cremation permit.
Between 9 and 11 July, according to a variety of reliable corroborating accounts, the bodies of 4 and probably up to 22 soldiers were alleged to have been executed in Pich Nil and burned
Plus many and many more names with lose count that order and executed by Hun Sen and CPP.
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