Justice at last?

Stuart Glass at home in Richmond, B.C., circa 1969. (Courtesy of Roy Delong)

UNDER INVESTIGATION: Khmer Rouge navy chief Meas Mut (L) enjoys a relaxed moment at his village pagoda in Samlaut, Cambodia. Mut, the former top commander of the navy platoon that captured the Western yachtsmen, is widely believed to be among those under (Courtesy of Dave Kattenburg)

Trial for Canadian murdered 30 years ago convenes in Cambodia

Jun 22, 2011
By David Kattenburg
The Epoch Times

"It makes me wonder how much political influence is being wielded in Cambodia and what do the court’s funders think of the situation." —Rob Hamill

The family of a Canadian gunned down by a genocidal regime may finally see justice as the trial of the regime’s senior leaders convenes next week on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

Richmond, B.C., native Stuart Robert Glass was shot and killed in August 1978 while sailing a little yacht, “Foxy Lady,” off the coast of Democratic Kampuchea, as Cambodia was called under the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge.

Glass’s two mates, a New Zealander and an Englishman, were trucked off to a Khmer Rouge death house in Phnom Penh codenamed S-21, tortured into confessing they were CIA agents, and finally killed. Six other yachtsmen, four Americans and two Australians, suffered the same fate. One of them may have been burned alive.

In July 2010, the UN-backed Khmer Rouge Tribunal, formally known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), handed down a 30-year prison sentence to S-21 chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, for crimes against humanity and genocide. Fourteen thousand Cambodians and almost 1,000 foreigners perished under Duch’s watch.

On June 27, Democratic Kampuchea’s most senior leaders will face the tribunal for an initial hearing in its second case. One of these is a man named Ieng Sary. As the regime’s Foreign Minister, Ieng Sary helped guide a xenophobic and bloody struggle against neighbouring communist Vietnam. In the war-ravaged Gulf of Thailand, hundreds of Vietnamese refugees and fishers were arrested or killed, and Glass’s bullet-riddled body was abandoned.

Duch testified at his 2009 trial that Nuon Chea, Democratic Kampuchea’s security chief and premier ideologue—second in power to Pol Pot—was the one who ordered Glass’s mates and the other Western yachtsmen imprisoned at S-21 killed and their bodies burned to ashes.

Case 003

The family and friends of the murdered yachtsmen are glad to see Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary face justice after so many years, but dismayed by the possible dismissal of a third ECCC case involving unnamed Khmer Rouge chieftains.

Meas Mut, the former top commander of the navy platoon that machine-gunned Glass and arrested the other yachtsmen, is widely believed to be among those under investigation in ECCC Case 003.

Mut, a self-professed Buddhist, denies any knowledge of or involvement in the yachtsmen’s murders. However, Mut “lies about virtually everything, as far as I can determine,” an informed tribunal observer quips.

At the end of April, a pair of tribunal judges announced, without comment, that their two-year investigation of Case 003’s 48,000-page dossier is now complete, leading observers to conclude that the judges consider the case closed.

In early May, the tribunal’s Cambodian co-prosecutor declared that the acts of “murder, extermination, torture, unlawful imprisonment, enslavement, persecution and other inhumane acts” outlined in the file are beyond the tribunal’s jurisdiction, since their alleged perpetrator was neither a senior leader nor the most responsible for the genocide as a whole.

The tribunal’s English co-prosecutor, Andrew Cayley, disagrees. In a May 9 media release, Cayley countered that the crimes alleged in the Case 003 file have not been fully investigated, and called upon the judges to interview alleged wrongdoers—something they have yet to do.

The judges in turn have reprimanded Cayley for revealing too much about the case, including one of the alleged charges: the “capture of foreign nationals off the coast of Cambodia and their unlawful imprisonment, transfer to S-21, or murder.” The judges now say that they will release “all relevant facts and assessments in a reasoned Closing Order.”

Political influence

The possible dismissal of Case 003 has outraged tribunal watchers, among them New Zealander Rob Hamill, the younger brother of Glass’ yacht mate Kerry Hamill, who perished at S-21. Rob Hamill testified as a civil party at Duch’s trial, but has been denied the same status in Case 003.

“It seems the co-investigating judges’ response to our applications is to cease any further enquiries into the heinous crimes these people committed,” Hamill complained in a press release. “It makes me wonder how much political influence is being wielded in Cambodia and what do the court’s funders think of the situation.”

What the Canadian government thinks of the situation is unclear. Since 2006, Canada has contributed C$2.4 million to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Japan, Australia, and Norway are the ECCC’s most generous benefactors, with contributions of US $55, $11, and $4 million respectively.

“We have no comment on this case at this time,” an Foreign Affairs spokesman said. “As the full details of the investigation remain confidential, we cannot comment on whether a Canadian citizen has been identified as a victim in Case 003.”

As Case 002 draws near and Case 003 totters on the edge of dismissal, Glass’ family and friends have mixed feelings about seeking justice in the long-forgotten case. Glass knew the risks he was taking, some of them say. And surviving Khmer Rouge octogenarians will soon be gone. “They’re going to die and face their maker,” says one of Glass’s cousins.

Roy Delong, who chummed with Glass in the early 1970s in Richmond B.C., London, and France, is less philosophical about the justice process unfolding thousands of miles away.

“[Meas Mut] isn’t someone we’d pursue to Pakistan and kill,” says Delong. “If you don’t pursue him, we might as well shut up. We sit here and talk high and mighty, preaching to others about human rights. Hey, one of our own citizens was killed. Let’s put the guy on trial.”

David Kattenburg is the author of “Foxy Lady: Truth, Memory and the Death of Western Yachtsmen in Democratic Kampuchea.”