Cambodia Genocide Tribunal Declassifies Over 1,700 Confidential Documents

9/6/2012

(RTTNews) - The United Nations-backed genocide tribunal in Cambodia trying cases of mass murder and other crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge regime on Thursday ordered that more than 1,700 confidential documents, including victims' 'confessions' and witness statements, be made public.

The decision comes after the Supreme Court Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) reviewed more than 12,000 confidential and strictly confidential documents in the case file of Case 0001, in which the former head of a notorious detention camp, Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, was the defendant.

The ECCC is a hybrid court set up after a 2003 agreement between the UN and the Cambodian Government with the aim of trying those accused of the worst crimes during the Khmer Rouge regime. As many as two million people are thought to have died during the rule of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979, which was then followed by a protracted period of civil war in the South-East Asian country.

Cambodian media publish K. Rouge jailer's apology

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, sits in the courtroom at the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia in Phnom Penh on February 3. Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court said Tuesday that media in the kingdom were publishing an apology by Duch in a bid to provide "reparation" to genocide victims.

21/02/2012
AFP

Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court said Tuesday that media in the kingdom were publishing an apology by a Khmer Rouge jailer imprisoned for life in a bid to provide "reparation" to genocide victims.

Kaing Guek Eav, who oversaw the deaths of some 15,000 people at S-21 prison in the late 1970s, earlier this month had his punishment for war crimes and crimes against humanity increased on appeal.

The court said that statements of apology and acknowledgements of responsibility made by the defendant -- better known as Duch -- during his trial were being published in newspapers, websites as well as radio and television stations starting on Tuesday.

ECCC's reparation that the majority of Cambodians will never get to see due to lack of Internet access?

Former Khmer Rouge S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch (C) greets the court during his appeal hearing at the Court Room of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on the outskirts of Phnom Penh February 3, 2012. The United Nations backed tribunal on Friday rejected Duch's appeal and increased his sentence to life imprisonment, according to international media. (Photo: Reuters)

Court Begins Reparations Campaign

Monday, 20 February 2012
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“I acknowledge the responsibility, especially, torture and the killing.”

The Khmer Rouge tribunal has launched a campaign to raise public awareness of reparations it brings to victims of the infamous S-21 prison in central Phnom Penh.

The court has put together a document collecting a series of confessions and apologies made by the prison’s director, Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, during the UN-assisted court’s legal proceedings

“It is crucial to show Duch’s confession and responsibility to the victims,” said Neth Pheaktra, a spokesman for the court.

Compilation of statements of apology made by KAING Guek Eav alias Duch during the proceedings

http://www.box.com/s/ak25byyx88kbffetu8md


http://www.box.com/s/6exijdll359vxljx0n3m

Life Sentence for Duch a Demonstration of Justice: Researcher

Kimsroy Sokvisal is a researcher for the Documentation Center of Cambodia. (Photo: Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer)

Friday, 10 February 2012
Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer | Washington, D.C

"We are compiling documents on civil party representatives in Case 001 who have filed through the Documentation Center of Cambodia."

The life sentence for Khmer Rouge torture chief Duch is a “good example” to society, a researcher said this week.

“It demonstrates that though 30 years have passed, those who committed such crimes cannot escape justice,” Kimsroy Sokvisal, a researcher for the Documentation Center of Cambodia, told “Hello VOA” on Monday.

“This promotes the rule of law in our country.”

The End of Duch

Duch (Photo: ECCC)

Adapting Orwell's 'Big Brother' into the 'three Big Brothers.'?

Could the tribunal spur a Cambodia renaissance?

Friday, 10 February 2012
Written by James Pringle
Asia Sentinel

When I saw Comrade Duch sentenced to life in prison at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal here, it was like the end of a very weary story, that began in April, 1979, when I was one of a group of six foreign journalists permitted to fly into Phnom Penh for a day after its liberation by the Vietnamese army on Jan. 7 of that year.

I seem to have been living with Duch, the 'revolutionary' name for former mathematics teacher Kaing Guek Eav, since the time 33 years ago when I found his picture on the floor of the former Tuol Sleng school, which had become S.21, the most notorious torture and interrogation center in the country, with congealed blood on the concrete, and a feeling as if the last desperate scream still hung in the air.

The whole awful place stank of death, fear and neglect, and when I went back some months later, I heard how in one terrible day 160 babies and children - the offspring of prisoners being tortured - had been flung from the third storey to their deaths on the concrete ground, because 'they were a nuisance.'

It was a picture of the then bat-eared Duch, with his wife and two children with other grinning torturers at Tuol Sleng, standing for a group portrait. I learned then that his family had come from the town of Stoung, north of the great Tonle Sap Lake. I also saw documents signed by Duch, including one giving the names and ages of a group of nine Khmer Rouge soldiers who arrived at S.21 - the youngest was nine. "Eliminate every last one," Duch had scrawled in Khmer script.

The Khmer Rouge's Perfect Villain

February 8, 2012
By THIERRY CRUVELLIER
Op-Ed Contributor
The New York Times

For years, the Cambodian government has bluntly shown that it wants the judicial system to operate under its tight control. The regime has protected at least two suspects who were ranked higher than Duch in the Khmer Rouge hierarchy. But in Duch, the perfect soldier of the revolution, the government and the judiciary found the perfect villain to make into a symbol of justice.

International criminal courts usually begin their work with a mid-ranking defendant and impose a heavy sentence after their first conviction. The war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia were the first to do so.

On Friday, the appeals chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia — a mixed tribunal based in Phnom Penh and tasked with trying the worst offenders of the Pol Pot regime — followed in their footsteps: it imposed a life sentence on Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, the 69-year-old former commander of the Khmer Rouge’s infamous S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, where between 1975 and 1979 more than 12,000 people were detained, tortured and sent for execution. This decision brought the appeals process to a close after Duch’s 2010 conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentencing to 30 years in prison.

What was unusual about Duch’s trial were his confessions and reflections about how he once embraced an ideology that led to the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians.

War crimes court extends Khmer Rouge detention center head's sentence to life

In this handout released by Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), Kaing Guek Eav, also known as 'Duch,' stands in the courtroom on February 3, 2012 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Eav who appealed his 35 year sentence handed down by the UN-backed Khmer Rouge trial had his appeal rejected and his sentence increased to life imprisonment. (Photo by Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia via Getty Images)

02/07/2012
By Greg Mellen Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

The former head of a notorious Khmer Rouge detention and interrogation center in Cambodia will now spend life in prison after a war crimes tribunal appeals court in Phnom Penh extended an earlier sentence to the maximum allowed under Cambodian law.

Though delayed by more than a year, it is a decision that should bring some sense of solace and justice to Cambodian refugees in Long Beach.

When Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was first sentenced to as little as 19 years in prison after his 2010 conviction, many Cambodian elders were outraged.

Former Khmer Rouge jailer's sentence increased, will spend life in prison

03 Feb 2012
By Miranda Leitsinger
msnbc.com

[Theary Seng] also noted that the life term, while appeasing the emotional sentiments of victims in handing out the most extreme sentence, had aligned with the Cambodian government's efforts to make Duch, "a small fish" in the regime, the "sole scapegoat."

A math teacher turned prison chief who oversaw a torture center where at least 12,000 people died under Cambodia’s genocidal Khmer Rouge regime will spend the rest of his life behind bars, after a war crimes court rejected his appeal to overturn his conviction and instead increased his sentence.

Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, was deputy and then chairman of S-21, a school converted into a prison where thousands of Cambodians were brought for execution during the regime’s 1975-1979 rule. He is the only former cadre to accept responsibility and express remorse for his role in what has become known as “the killing fields.”

Duch, the first former Khmer Rouge cadre to stand trial before a United Nations-backed tribunal, was sentenced to 35 years in prison in July 2010 on charges that included crimes against humanity and numerous grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. After reductions for 11 years he had already served in custody and another five years for his illegal detention by the Cambodian military, he received a 19-year term, angering survivors and activists.

Cambodian Victims' Reactions On Duch's Life Sentence

Cambodian Victims' Reactions On Duch's Life Sentence from Cambodia Tribunal Monitor on Vimeo.

Summary of the Appeal Verdict in Case 001 Against Duch

http://www.box.com/s/u09gcdhv1na6gf7k8pyz

Khmer Rouge jailer's life term bad example

Tue Feb 7 2012
9News (Australia)

"It feeds into my fear that this was really a political decision to make Duch the scapegoat for the whole regime" - Theary Seng

A life term handed to a feared Khmer Rouge jailer has elated Cambodians, but observers say the historic verdict violates the torture chief's human rights and serves public opinion rather than justice.

Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch, who oversaw the deaths of some 15,000 people at S-21 prison in the late 1970s, had his punishment increased on appeal by Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal from 30 years to a full life term for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The long-awaited ruling last Friday, which dismissed Duch's appeal against his conviction, was hailed by survivors of the brutal regime, with Bou Meng, 71, one of the few to walk out of S-21 alive, calling it "perfect justice".

Legal experts and human rights campaigners however voiced dismay at the judges' decision not to give Duch a reduction for the time he spent in illegal detention before the court was established.

"I think there could be a perception that public opinion has trumped human rights," said Rupert Abbott, Cambodia researcher for Amnesty International.

A Bitter-Sweet Duch Ruling

February 7, 2012
By Peter Tan Keo
The Diplomat

On 3 February, the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Supreme Court overturned a 2010 verdict by a lower court. The initial verdict sentenced Kaing Guek Eav, otherwise known as Duch – head of the notorious S-21 slayings – to 35 years in prison, a sentence that has been extended to life. An estimated 16,000 people died in Tuol Sleng, a former high school turned secret prison in Phnom Penh. Roughly 1.7 million Cambodians died during the 1975 to 1979 genocide, which included torture, executions, starvation, and malnutrition.

Duch’s ruling is a bitter-sweet moment in history.

Those largely unscathed by the brutality of the Khmer Rouge will perhaps cheer the loudest. A monstrous victory has been achieved! Or has it? Cold War diplomats, military strategists and academics (ignorantly romanticizing the fallacy of communism and the Cambodian genocide) may be celebrating even louder, if not to justify an illogical truth that contributed to the madness. And by most accounts there’s something to celebrate.

A Life Sentence for 14,000 Deaths

Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, was the chief warden at S-21, the main prison in the Cambodian capital during the Khmer Rouge regime. Duch had appealed his 19-year sentence before a United Nations-backed court, saying it was too harsh. Prosecutors also appealed, saying the sentence was too lenient. Now Duch’s sentence has been extended to life in prison. (Nhet Sokheng/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

February 6, 2012
By MARK MCDONALD
International Herald Tribune

Now, consider for a moment the language the man is using, if only because he is the chief judge at an international court, a man chosen for his calm, his restraint, his judicial temperament: He called the defendant in the dock before him “a shocking and heinous character’’ who as a prison warden had overseen “a factory of death,’’ perpetrating crimes that were “undoubtedly among the worst in human history.’’

The judge, Kong Srim, a Cambodian, was speaking at the recent sentencing of Kaing Guek Eav, a prison warden during the Khmer Rouge regime who orchestrated the torture and killing of some 14,000 Cambodians, some for the “crimes’’ of wearing eyeglasses, speaking French, owning books or playing the piano.

The warden, better known as Duch (pronounced doik), was the first person to be judged by a United Nations-backed tribunal in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Duch had appealed his previous sentence of 19 years, saying it was much too harsh. His prosecutors also appealed, saying the sentence was far too lenient, and they asked for a term of 45 years.

In the end, Duch got life. Which was more than his victims got.

Cambodia Khmer Rouge jailer gets life sentence

Theary Seng

February 6, 2012
Radio Australia

Cambodia's UN backed genocide court has not only overturned an appeal by Khmer Rouge jailer Duch but has also increased his sentence to life in prison.

In 2010, Duch born as Kaing Guek Eav was sentenced to 35 years in jail for his role as commander of the Tuol Sleng prison.

At least 15,000 Cambodians were tortured there before being executed in the killing fields outside the capital Phnom Penh.

The revised sentence has been welcomed by many of the victims including Theary Seng, President of the Association of Victims of the Khmer Rouge.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speaker: Theary Seng, President of the Association of Victims of the Khmer Rouge

Click the control below to listen to the audio program

Click here to download the audio program in MP3

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Chief of Tuol Sleng Convicted to Life in Prison

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO747asztfA

Tribunal helps Cambodia confront its history

The high level of public participation in the trials is healthy for social healing, analysts say [EPA]

Activists use attention around Khmer Rouge tribunal to further a national debate seen as crucial to social healing.

03 Feb 2012

Mujib Mashal

Al Jazeera

"Writing about this bleak period of history for a new generation may run the risk of re-opening old wounds for the survivors (sic!)" - DC-Cam KR history book

Despite questions and controversy surrounding the United Nations-backed tribunal, the recent trials of Khmer Rouge leaders have launched a robust public debate about the atrocities of the 1970s that analysts deem crucial to Cambodia’s reconciliation.

The Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on Friday imposed a life sentence on Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, the prison chief who oversaw the deaths of an estimated 15,000 people at Phenom Penh's notorious S-21 prison, the centre of the Khmer Rouge security apparatus, in the late 1970s.

The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot who died in 1998, were responsible for the deaths of nearly one quarter of Cambodia's population through starvation, overwork, torture and execution.

Cambodia still reeling from Khmer Rouge

LIFE SENTENCE: Former Khmer Rouge S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, attends his appeal hearing at the Court Room of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

BODY PITS: Dozens of pits are evident at the Killing Fields site in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh. It is just one of 300 sites where people were killed and buried together in mass graves. MICHELLE COOKE/Fairfax NZ

KHMER ROUGE KILLINGS: Kethana Dunnet, pictured with husband Bruce, believes her eight siblings and parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge. She hasn't heard from them since 1974. MICHELLE COOKE/Fairfax NZ

04/02/2012
MICHELLE COOKE
Fairfax NZ News (New Zealand)

Their photos line the walls of the genocide museum, once a notorious prison where Cambodians were tortured and killed by the brutal Khmer Rouge.

They give a face to victims of the atrocities that occurred in Cambodia in the 1970s, but their pictures were taken for a different reason.

The images of the soon-to-be dead were taken so that their families could be identified and also put to death. It was a Khmer Rouge mantra - that to dig up the grass, one must also dig up the roots.

Just over three decades have passed since a quarter of Cambodia's population was wiped out by the Khmer Rouge. Grandparents, adults and children were tortured, starved, or worked so hard, with such little food, that they dropped dead. Even babies were held by their legs, bashed against trees and flung into a mass grave.

Jesmond backpacker's killer is jailed for life

Feb 4 2012
by Sara Nichol
Evening Chronicle (UK)

TYRANNICAL Cambodian leader Pol Pot’s chief executioner will spend the rest of his life in jail after killing a Tyneside backpacker more than 30 years ago.

John Dewhirst, 26, of Jesmond, Newcastle, was sailing with a group of men in 1978 when their yacht was intercepted by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime.

Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, was commander of the top secret Tuol Sleng prison – code-named S-21 – at the time. He admitted to overseeing the torture of his prisoners before sending them for execution at the “killing fields”.

Xan Ok's remarks on Duch's judgment

http://www.box.com/s/m0lgihaofv8y4l2qes4h