Thursday, January 19, 2012

Let History Judge


Hillary Clinton guided through the Genocide Museum of Tuol Sleng by Youk Chhang - Cambodia Tribunal Monitor.

 
by School of Vice

Whatever one may think of former KR ‘Brother Number 2’ Nuon Chea’s dark and calamitous past involvement in Democratic Kampuchea’s murderous rule in the seventies, or the farcical theatre being staged by the ECCC over this KR trial, it is hard for one not to notice one salvaging, positive aspect emerging out of this whole cynical episode, which is that at least his defence team is doing a job as independently and courageously in the interest of their client as indeed any good lawyer is expected to. Under circumstances veered by political manipulations and interferences, the team refuses to buckle under by conforming to approved norms and half-veiled threats. Not even the most powerful man in the country appears to be exempt from their legal probing and – in such unsavoury climate – risqué scrutiny.

Thus, the lawyers questioned the propriety of Hun Sen’s recent public statement that the KRT and its unravelling constitute an apology and provide an incontestable justification for Vietnam’s intervention some 30 years ago in putting to an end one of its main sister movements which it came to regard at the time as an unacceptable aberration. So it is to their considerable credit that the lawyers now bring under public spot light the instrumental role of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia and its dubious, colourful director Youk Chhang by calling for him to appear on the stand to corroborate the not inconsiderable body of documentary evidence his US- funded organisation has gathered over the years for the sole aim of facilitating the prosecution process and thus lending credence or legitimacy to what many see as “the Trial of the Century”. But whist the enormity and nature of the crime committed against the Khmer people merits such acclaim, and whilst DCC and its director has prospered financially by making a business and a drama out of painful memories, how much substance or support – if any – has the Centre been able to deliver towards fulfilling the Trial’s professed mission to heal a nation’s wounds?



The task of unearthing ‘evidence’ and documents relating to the Democratic Kampuchea period was always going to be complicated anyway. Firstly, the collapse of the DK regime did not mark any conclusive end to that regime’s influence in either personnel or political-military terms, unlike the fall of the Nazi regime in Europe at the end of World War ll. Secondly, this legacy has meant that any surviving historical documents pertaining to the DK period would have been placed firmly in the possession of those who overthrew that regime and replaced it, and subsequently because so many individuals and actors who now man this latter regime themselves had once been cadres and administrative personnel of DK, in addition to the historical, controlling presence of the Vietnamese who had re-installed them in power and given them a second lease of life, it would be logical to conclude that the release of DK period documents for any public related study would have been at the selective discretion of those who held them.

It was in this context that Youk Chhang’s predecessors – one Ben Kiernan, an Australian and his associates whom many in America would call “a bunch of Commies” - were hired by the US State Department to do the same work in the belief that their ideological inclinations would endear them to the power that be and hopefully easing their sought access into the regime’s dark alleys! Kiernan was later rumoured to have run off with the programme’s funding . . . and his replacement by Chhang - a survivor of the KR regime - may have been made with a view to restoring or repairing some of the damage done to the Department’s image through its Cambodia research programme.

So in this sense, it is entirely reasonable of Nuon Chea’s defence team to demand that Youk Chhang or DCC’s appointed representative appear before the KRT, if only to shed light upon the documentary evidence DCC has collated and made available before the Tribunal. And while the team is at it, I suggest it queries what – if any – DK related documents have been collected that might implicate or exonerate known former KR cadres and affiliates who are presently at large in the country or embedded within the ranks of the RGC, including Hun Sen, Chea Sim, Heng Samrin et al as well as any documents relating to Vietnam’s concerned policies and practices in the same period? After all, being a pig means one should have no fear of boiling water? Just a thought, that’s all.

Let the boiling water judge the pig[s]!

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hahaha 7 Makara!
Sihanouk&Vetcong killed 2 945 879 innocent peoples khmers.
Make come back the 10 international Judges.

Anonymous said...

Chhang Youk or Chhang Kouk,

You should behave as Khmer by saying the truth, the real story behind the killing.

Stop making yourself as a tool for the puppet government to use you.

When you die, leave a good legacy behind by denouncing the expansionist Vietnam's plan to annex Cambodia.

Open your blind eyes and look at the Vietnamese presence inside Cambodia. Will it make you reminisce of Ho Chi Minh's ambition?

Anonymous said...

Youk Chhang or Chhang Youk is a tool of US and Hanoi ( Hun Sen ) to cover up and twist real Khmer history as follow:

Genocide in Cambodia happened not only between 1975-1979 but also before 1975 and after 1979.

Khmer were killed and continued to be killed so far ( since 1970 ) not less than 4 million .

Genocide,War crimes and Crimes against Humanity committed by Hanoi and US known as US carpet B 52 and Indochina Federation by yuon Hanoi.

So obviously Youk Chhang try has tried to twist real Khmer histroy and cover up other genocide , wars crime, and other mass atrocities commited by US and yuon Hanoi.

Anonymous said...

répéte encore et une fois ,si le viétnam et le gouvernement hun sen sont honnetes ou sont transparences pourquoi ils sont si craintifs du tribunal khmer rouge? alors quelle hypocrisie? et quel prétexte? encore et encore incessament? soyez courrageux s v p .

Anonymous said...

I have nothing to gain or lose from saying the following:

I have notice Youk Chhang activity for quite sometime and I can say as follow:

Yuok Chhang openly and intentionlly twisting Khmer history and covering up other real genocide and mass killing Cambodian by yuon communist Hanoi and mass atrocity of US B 52 bombing in Cambodia between 1960s-1973 which caused nearlly one million Camobian lives and caused mass atrocity to Cambodian.

So Youk Chhang is not serving or doing any good Khmer history and Khmer has been falling deeper and deeper into the cave of death known as Indochina Federation ( Lao and Cambodia under yuon annex ).

Anonymous said...

All Khmer dead bodies need equal justice.

All Khmer blood need to be written rightly into real Khmer histroy .


Since 1970s and up to present days at least 4 million Cambodian killed by US B 52 bombing and by yuon Communist Hanoi know as Indochina Fedreation.

Why Youk Chhang has tried to cover up all of these genocide?

So You Chhang covering up other genocide under the name finding justice from genocide between 1975-1979 .

Likf father like son.

Anonymous said...

Shame on you Youk Chhang.

Youk Chhang has been doing personel bussiness on Khmer dead skulls.

Go to hell Youk Chhang.

Anonymous said...

Chhang Youk sold his principle for his living in Cambodia.
So does some Khmers from oversea.
You all will pay a high price of their crimes against Cambodia and its people.
Their timing are sometime in 2012.

Anonymous said...

Genocide museum of Tuol Sleng is just a propaganda of the expansionist to occupy Cambodia.

The ECCC and ICC need to ascertain who mastermind the Cambodian Killing Fields.

Anonymous said...

The winner had made and is rewriting history over again and again as we speak, you jack ass SOV!

Leaving it to the mercy of history (to judge) simply means the end of Khmer civilization as Khmer once knew it.

What exactly do you mean to say, SOV?

Anonymous said...

ពួកអាឆ្កែកញ្ជះ ២ តង់...

នៅឯប្រទេសខ្មែរសព្វថ្ងៃមានពួកអាក្បត់ជាតិលក់
ក្បាលធ្វើឆ្កែកញ្ជះ ២ តង់ មានដូចជា ៖
អាសយ សុភាព, អាជុំ កុសល, អាទិត សុធា, អាផៃ ស៊ីផាន,
អា កុយ គួង, អាស៊ុត ឌឺណា, អាអេង ឆៃអៀង, អាកែវ រ៉េមី,
ឆាំង សុង, ឆាំង យុ , ទេព នីថា, ហង្ស ពុទ្ធា ជាដើម ។ល។ និង ។ល។

ពួកអាកញ្ជះអស់នេះគង់មានថ្ងៃយួនឱ្យអា ហ៊ុន សែន ចាប់ស្ងោរមិនដាក់ទឹកទេ...!

Anonymous said...

Dear all Khmer above,

As a Khmer I sincere thank you all for all comments both in Khmer and English for standing up to protect Khmer history from rewriting and twisting and helping one another to find the real mastermind behind killing at least 4 million Cambodian since 1970s and continue to kill Khmer and put Cambodian under yuon annex.

Khmer love Khmer.

Anonymous said...

Khmer must understand that S-21 is a youn trick to tell the world that KHMER KILLED KHMER. This shows that Youn try to wash out its atrocity behind the Khmer Rouge.

Anonymous said...

While acknowledging the mass atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge regime, we should never forget the level of atrocities committed during the US secretive bombing of Cambodia from 1968-1973. A declassified telephone discussion between Henry Kissinger and General Alexander Haig, Nixon's deputy assistant for national security affairs, recorded that Nixon had ordered a “massive bombing campaign in Cambodia [to use] anything that flys [sic] on anything that moves”.

The map of US bombing targets released by Yale University’s Cambodian Genocide Program shows that more than half of the country was affected by the indiscriminate bombings. Professor Ben Kierman, director of the program, puts the casualties figure from the bombing at 150,000 deaths, while Edward Herman, a professor of Wharton School, and Noam Chomsky put the toll at 600,000 using figures provided by a Finnish Commission of Inquiry.

Based on this, we can never naively claim that US bombing led to the mass executions by the Khmer Rouge or refuted the regime's mass atrocities. But, to certain extent, the blanket bombing, which directly led to the destruction of livestock and agricultural land, could have definitely played a role in the mass starvation.

From new data released during the Clinton administration, Taylor Owen, a doctoral student at Oxford University, and Professor Kierman noted that 2,756,941 tons of bombs were dropped on Cambodia.

To put the figure into perspective, just over 2 million tons of bombs were dropped by the allies during all of World War II. The bombs dropped in Cambodia represented about 184 Hiroshima atomic bombs combined, making Cambodia the most bombed nation in the world. Based on the new data, Professor Kierman also stressed that the casualties might be much higher than his earlier predicted 150,000.

Anonymous said...

Chhang Youk is a liar.

Whatever he said is just to please his big boss Vietnam.

You keep chewing the bone that Vietnam gave you. Is it good enough for your life Chhang Youk?

People were so sick with the comments that you made recently.
You are simply a Yuon's slave.

Anonymous said...

Let's bring this Chhang Youk to the court. All his document is written to accuse the KR leaders, but they scare to accuse the KR leaders who are in power now. If he has that brave, his DCC would not survive for one day in Cambodia. The answer is very simple, the document that DCC found is just a one side story.

When the YOUN Hanoi brough a false documentary film about KR, he is the one said that the documentary is very helpful and later people found that it was a fake by the Hanoi. He just shut up.

He is Khmer, but this guy is bought so cheap. Wherever he goes, he always use the word "Reconciliation" to pretend to be a nice guy. Lots of westerners who have no jobs in their country joining him to get some funding to do one side story research. When we ask them to do the real issue, they said that it is a sensitive issue. That is all Bullshit they have done at DCC.

The Khmer history cannot be written by this type of one way story. All the western researchers like David Chandler, Ben Kiernan, wrote just one side story of Cambodian history. All their research coming from Hanoi's libraries or Thailand's library and those countries have intention to swallow Cambodia, so they will never write the truth history of Cambodia.

This is why the ECCC goes nowhere because the truth behind killing field is not revealed yet.

Anonymous said...

2:46 PM,

As a Khmer I agree and support your comment not 100 % but 1000 % regarding to Youk Chhang behavour and his documents for serving yuon benifit ih this ECCC .

Anonymous said...

"whilst DCC and its director has prospered financially by making a business and a drama out of painful memories, how much substance or support – if any – has the Centre been able to deliver towards fulfilling the Trial’s professed mission to heal a nation’s wounds?"

Theary Seng and her useless operations have prospered without any benefit for anyone except Theary Seng herself.

Anonymous said...

Ben Kiernan was once a Khmer Rouge agency who've been distributed KR's propaganda magazine & recruited khmer students in Australia back to Cambodia after 1975.
His ex wife Chathou Kiernan was in her KR black pyjama was standing in the stage during April 1975,at Standmore, Sydney during the celebration of Khmer New Year 1975.
And later Ben Kiernan had turned his direction to Vietnam whom he was opposed .

Anonymous said...

Youk Chhang cannot ecape from Cambodian People Power. For now, yes, but not in the future. He is a parasite. His braion is completely up side down.

Anonymous said...

Youk Chhang cannot escape from Cambodian People Power of justice. For now, yes, but not in the future. He is a parasite. His brain is completely up side down.
He makes so much money for himself by doing this business. He deserves to be punished by people power in the future.

Anonymous said...

in order for cambodia to become a true, emerging democracy society, we need to have the rule of law. everyone in cambodia must respect, use, obey and be educated on the importance of the rule of law. if people break the law, they must be held responsible, period.

please help to strengthen the rule of law society in cambodia. god bless cambodia.

Anonymous said...

Samdach Decho Hun Sen say" You see motherfuckers America goverment and the America Human Right groups are know about you people situation very well but Where are they when you people in need the most? because They are on my side I have more benefit to America. If you think about your Lotus and Jasmine revolutions think again about the reality of Cambodian people as you people see on Bories Keika and Bank Kok lake. I order to do that because I want to see how you people Lotus and Jasmine revolution are going to do about that? as I mention Cambodian people today unlike before they are sick of revolution and they like to live their life as animal as you people see"

Who is the smart one now Lotus/Jasime revolution or I am Hun Sen?

Anonymous said...

4:25 AM

Ok Viet/or Viet dog motherfucker.
According to you, your Samdach Decho Hun Sen does not care
about any revolution, why should you?
That makes you either a dumb or stupid motherfucker,
because your opinion contradicts your uneasy feeling.

Anonymous said...

Mam Sonando,

If the Hun Sen government allows the Vietnamese to come in Cambodia at will, Khmer people should have the right or the morale obligation to protest of the Vietnamese mass influx into Cambodia.

It is so wrong when you adviced Khmer people not to say anything about the Vietnamese inside Cambodia. The government is the puppet of Vietnam. And Khmer people are not the puppet of Vietnam. They should say something to protect Khmer's interest and Khmer's survival.