By Robert Carmichael
Oman Daily Observer
THE mass grave lies just a few kilometres off national road 5, which connects Phnom Penh to Battambang town in western Cambodia. Villagers tell you this was a Khmer Rouge prison and that many thousands died here.
There is little to indicate that today. This place, the former Chong Chrouy Prison, is a five-minute walk off a narrow dirt road and is overgrown with bushes. Crumbling concrete fragments are all that remain of its buildings; shallow depressions in the earth mark the burial pits.
Villager Puon Kosal, 23, says that when he was a boy, there were too many holes to count and the ground was littered with bones.
“Now there aren’t many left,” he says, pointing out a scrap of clothing sticking out of the ground at a place the villagers call “the prison of ghosts.” “The old people say many died,” he says.
The Documentation Center of Cambodia, a genocide research organisation, estimated in a 1998 survey that 70,000 to 100,000 people are buried here in hundreds of mass graves.
It is impossible to know the true figure because Chong Chrouy Prison was not excavated, but villagers say large numbers of people died here during the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge rule. There are similar sites across Cambodia.
On Monday, the trial of the four surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, who stand accused of responsibility for the deaths of up to 2.2 million people, is to begin in Phnom Penh before a UN-backed tribunal.
The four are party ideologue Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two; then-head of state Khieu Samphan; foreign minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, social affairs minister Ieng Thirith. They are accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and an array of other charges. The four deny all the charges.
It has taken three decades to try them. Although Monday’s hearing is to be procedural rather than evidential, it is a landmark, says the Documentation Centre’s director, Youk Chhang, whose organisation has provided documents to the court.
He says this trial, the second held by the court, was the “most important for me and I think for most Cambodians,” he says. “We all know these four (defendants). They do not accept, they put all the blame to their subordinates, and they blame others.”
3 comments:
these KR leaders were insane, arrogant, evil, and perhaps ignorant in their own way, i think when i listen to the way they speak or talk, it sounded so arrogant, i mean the blaming game, the finger fingers pointing, etc, etc; they act like they are not responsible for what happened or what went on under their watch during those dark years of the stupid, backward, communist KR regime, really! this trail could bring to light that all leaders are to be responsible for taking that privilege of being a leader of that time, etc, really! i mean, if they weren't responsible for what went wrong or what went on, then why did they decide to be the leader, for what purpose, etc, etc, really! by definition, a leader should know better and distinctive from the population e.g. vip treatment, special privileges, immunity, etc, etc, catering to them, so, they must be held accountable and responsible because it doesn't matter others under their watch were doing it or whatever! because at the end of the day, the reports came to these leaders, and they knew what was going on, etc! hey, people aren't stupid, you know! i say, do not let these evil lunatic get away from the law of justice, really! there is no justice until justice is served; there were too many KR victims otherwise, you know!
this trail is very important because it called for leadership to know their position and responsibility as a leader, not just during the KR era, but for future leadership as well! if you are the leader, you must be held responsible under your watch, regardless who did it or what have you and so on! it brings in a new concept of leadership and what they can and cannot do, etc. otherwise, the tradition of irresponsible leadership in cambodia go on, if none of them were to be held responsible, not to mention these so-called leaders political ambition. you don't fight for leadership, you must earn it and be one. what is the meaning of leadership, if you keep on abusing that position, really! people should be educated about this so they can question their leader(s), etc, ok!
it maybe the culture thing, here; most khmer people are afraid of ghost or believe in ghost, thus that belief caused them to try to bury the past or not interested in such grave site, etc... so, i think it is up to the educated people who direct or set up the museum to try to preserve this kind of sites for tourists to see or people to learn, etc, i think! nothing wrong with people's cultural belief, though; they are just different from yours, that's all! only education will make them aware or understand the importance of such preservation, conservation, etc, etc, really! that's all!
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