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| Nuon Chea (left), aka ‘Brother Number Two’, attends a hearing at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia on the outskirts of Phnom Penh yesterday. ECCC/Pool |
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Mary Kozlovski with additional reporting by Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post
Defence lawyers for former Khmer Rouge Brother Number Two Nuon Chea yesterday criticised remarks allegedly made by Prime Minister Hun Sen about their client, during the first day of evidence hearings this year at the United Nations-backed tribunal.
Co-defence counsel for Nuon Chea Michiel Pestman said in court that the alleged remarks by Hun Sen, quoted by a journalist at a press conference in Vietnam last week, referred to Nuon Chea as a “killer” and described his statement in court last month as “deceitful”.
“This is a very clear statement about the guilt of Nuon Chea by a high government official,” Pestman said in court. During testimony at the tribunal last year, 85-year-old Nuon Chea claimed that Vietnam had made repeated attempts to invade Cambodia.
Pestman said in court that the journalist had quoted Hun Sen as allegedly calling their client “a killer and a perpetrator of genocide”.
He told the court that the comments were a violation of his client’s right to a fair trial and that it was “not up to the Prime Minister to decide whether my client is guilty”.
Ek Tha, spokesman at the Press and Quick Reaction Unit at the Council of Ministers, declined to comment on the premier’s alleged comments and said that “legally speaking” Nuon Chea was innocent until proven guilty.
Nuon Chea is facing trial for genocide, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The first “mini-trial” of the court’s second case focuses on the forced movement of the population from urban centres.
Nuon Chea yesterday responded to questioning from the prosecution about the party’s activities during the pre-1975 period, during which he questioned the authenticity of certain documents presented to him in court.
Civil parties Romam Yun, 70, and Klan Fit also continued their testimony yesterday. Under questioning from Trial Chamber Judge Jean-Marc Lavergne, Romam Yun said that those who worked “at the commune level” reported to “Angkar” and that he was reprimanded because his community was not able to produce more crops.
Romam Yun said that people did not have enough food and “some people were hanging themselves because they could not really stand the situation”.
Klan Fit, who previously testified to joining the revolutionary movement in the 1960s, testified yesterday that he had twice met co-accused Ieng Sary at meetings during the pre-1975 period.
He said that he had never heard party leaders discuss the evacuation, but was told that people were evacuated because they were in danger of being attacked by Vietnam.
7 comments:
I believ every single word Nuon Chea has said about yuon involment in the mass killing between 1975-1979 and yuon Hanoi ambition to swallow and put Lao and Cambodia under yuon annex.
I agree with Nuon Chea saying that the Communist Party of Kampuchea was under the influence of yuon Hanoi base on the profile and events happening since the creation of the Communist Party of Kampuchea or CPK in 1960 as follow:
CPK or the Communist Party of Kampuchea was created in 1960 under the name of the Workers' Party of Kampuchea to be remained alliance with Hanoi but not under order of Hanoi anymore by :
1. Tou Samouth.
2. Noun Chea.
3. Pol Pot.
4. Ieng Sary.
5. So Phim .
6. And many more of former senior Khmer Viet Minh commander.
Note: Tou Samouth and So Phim played very immportant role in joining former Khmer Viet Minh fighters int the CPK and other played an immportant rol in joining Tamouk and Ke Pok ect.... .
The worker's party was renaming to CPK in 1966 after Tou Samouth was arrested and killed in 1962.
So from the beginning most members and the members of central committee of CPK were former Khmer Viet Minh like Tou Samouth, So Phim , Rhos Nhim.
KHMERS ROUGE, ARE VIETNAM PLAN TO KILL ALL KHMERS PEOPLE.
la déclaration de mr noun chéa est vrai et exacte. occulairement en 1969 -1970 les viéts aident les khmers rouges et comme vous voyez maintenant il y a des youns partout dans le territoire cambodgien au moins 6 ou 7millions des viéts envahisseurs .ceci est un preuve réel. c'est bien normal que hun sen jappe peut n'importe quoi car, hun sen est vendu au viétnam et tout le monde est au courrant.
si le gouvernement hun sen et le viétnam sont honnettes ou transparences pourqoi ils ont si craintifs au tribunal C E T C=TRIBUNAL POUR LES KHMERS ROUGES? .( PAS BESOIN DE DISCUTER TROP )
The international communities should understand Vietnam's true intention of trying to mold Cambodia into a part of Vietnam.
To make this idea materialize, Vietnam must create trouble in Cambodia so that it could take advantage of the situation.
For instance, Vietnam created Khmer Vietminh and brainwashed them to kill Khmers during the Pol Pot's era.
Just curious:
Does international law allow one country to kidnap the children of its neighbors and brainwash them and later use them to attack their own Country and commit the mass killing of their own people?
Vietnam did exactly like that to Cambodia. That's why approximately 3 million Cambodians have perished from 1975 to 1979 because of Vietnam's bad intention toward Cambodia.
In addition, hundred of thousands of Khmer people dies in the 80s due to Vietnam’s deployment of the K5 project.
If the killings during the Pol Pot era’s were not clear that mostly were committed by the Khmer Vietminh, the K5 project on the other hand explicitly reflected Vietnam’s vicious intention toward Cambodia because Cambodia at the time was fully controlled by Vietnam, which was the chief architect of the K5 project.
The United Nations should look into this unique case of Vietnam’s interference in Cambodia. It should also examine at present Vietnam’s dominance in Cambodia as well.
During my young life, I have heard my people lamented that why Khmer people always suffer?
Because Vietnam has its own plan of making Cambodian people suffer and exploit it. Vietnam has always found some dumb Khmers such as Hun Sen to carry out strictly its orders – no matter what the costs to Khmer people and Cambodia.
For instance, why did Hun Sen implement those bilateral treaties and defy the 1991 Paris peace accord?
At FCCC, there are full of Youn.
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