Cambodians testify for war crimes tribunal

In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, Leakhena Nou, left, a Cambodian-American sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach, comforts Roth Prom, 63, during a workshop at the United Cambodian Community Center in Long Beach, Calif. Prom, is one of dozens of Cambodian refugees across the U.S. who are sharing their memories of Khmer Rouge atrocities with a legal team so they can be used as evidence in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, Cambodian-American Sam Oeun York ,71, whose husband was killed by the Khmer Rouge, tells participants at a Long Beach, Calif., workshop how she survived the atrocities in Cambodia. York is one of dozens of Cambodian refugees speaking publicly _ many for the first time _ about Khmer Rouge atrocities so a legal team can use their testimony in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, Cambodian-American Nhen Chheng, 70, who survived the rath of the Khmer Rouge, wipes tears away as she recalls her experiences to other survivors during a workshop in Long Beach, Calif. Prom is one of dozens of Cambodian refugees across the U.S. who are sharing their memories of Khmer Rouge atrocities with a legal team so they can be used as evidence in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, Cambodian-American Chorn Van wipes away tears as she listens to Khmer Rouge survivors document their stories of war crimes to others during a workshop in Long Beach, Calif. Van is one of the many Cambodian refugees across the U.S. who are sharing their memories of Khmer Rouge atrocities with a legal team so they can be used as evidence in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, Cambodian-Americans Rany Ork, left, and Chanthan Pich, foreground, who survived the wrath of the Khmer Rouge, wipe tears from their eyes during a workshop in Long Beach, Calif. The two survivors are some of the many Cambodian refugees across the U.S. who are sharing their memories of Khmer Rouge atrocities with a legal team so they can be used as evidence in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Saturday, September 26, 2009
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
AP

LONG BEACH, Calif. — The tiny Cambodian woman trembled slightly and stared blankly ahead as she told the story that has haunted her for half a lifetime: her parents and brother died in Khmer Rouge labor camps. Her baby perished in a refugee camp.

Roth Prom has wanted to die every day since and had never spoken those words so publicly until last week, when five minutes became the chance for justice she has longed for silently for so many years.

"I'm depressed in my head, I'm depressed in my stomach and in my heart. I have no hope in my body, I have nothing to live for," she said quietly. "All I have is just my bare hands."

As the tiny woman in the polka dot blouse slipped back to her seat, many of the nearly two dozen other Cambodian refugees in the room began to weep. They know Prom's pain. They were all there to tell stories just like hers.

Prom, 63, is one of dozens of Cambodian refugees speaking publicly — many for the first time — about Khmer Rouge atrocities so a legal team can use their testimony in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital.

From Virginia to California, refugees have spent the past few months pouring out long-suppressed memories to volunteers who fill notebooks with reports of gang rapes, execution, starvation, forced labor and brutal beatings. They attach names of dead relatives, sometimes a half-dozen per person, and scrawl out names of labor camps and far-flung villages where they lived for years on the edge of starvation.

The Khmer Rouge is implicated in wiping out an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians, nearly a quarter of the population, during their rule from 1975-79 under Pol Pot. People died from disease, overwork, starvation and execution in the notorious "killing fields."

Cambodians who fled their homeland decades ago relish the chance to participate in the war crimes trials unfolding thousands of miles away. The tribunal, a joint court created by the Cambodian government and the United Nations, allows Khmer Rouge victims to participate as witnesses, complainants and civil parties.

Depending on the stories, the accuracy of their memories and their own willingness to participate, survivors could be called to testify for the prosecution or defense and those filing as civil parties could be entitled to reparations. At a minimum, all filings will be archived and reviewed by those collecting testimony from survivors.

Leakhena Nou, the Cambodian-American sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach organizing the U.S. workshops, said submitting evidence forms is cathartic for victims who have often kept their trauma secret from spouses and American-born children. Many suffer from post-traumatic stress and have symptoms of severe depression, including memory loss, flashbacks and suicidal thoughts.

"They have a sense of powerlessness, but they have a lot more power than they realize," said Nou, founder of the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia. "Most of them have not even talked about it for 30 years. They've been silent for so long."

Last week, testimony in Phnom Penh concluded in the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, who commanded the S-21 prison where up to 16,000 people were tortured and killed. Eav, also known as Duch, was the first to go before the tribunal and is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture. More than 23,000 visitors attended his trial, which continues in November with closing arguments.

Four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders are in custody awaiting trial set for January. Any testimony submitted by the end of the year can be used by prosecutors to bolster those cases.

The U.N. and Cambodian branches of the tribunal did not respond to e-mailed requests for comment.

Grassroots organizers with backing from the Asian Pacific American Institute at New York University have been building trust within the Cambodian-American communities for nearly two years but still expected many to shun the process out of fear and suspicion. Some victims believe the tribunal is run by the Khmer Rouge, while others fear if they speak out they could endanger relatives still living in Cambodia.

But Nou said turnout has been high, with some people even traveling from Arizona to share stories at the Southern California workshops held at a Cambodian community center.

"Before, they assumed that no one wanted to listen to them," she said. "They'll say, 'We thought that no one cared, that no one wanted to listen. But now that I know people want to listen, I have nothing else to lose. I've lost everything else already.'"

So far, the team has collected more than 100 statements from Cambodian expatriates at workshops in Virginia, Maryland, Orange County and Long Beach — home to the largest Cambodian ex-pat population. Future sessions are planned this fall in Oregon, Northern California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

They've uncovered chilling stories along the way.

One woman in Long Beach told of being gang-raped from dawn to dusk by Khmer Rouge cadres while 6 1/2 months pregnant. She never told her husband and only came forward last week because he had passed away.

Another recalled being held at gunpoint with her brother and being forced to watch as her father was executed and then disemboweled, his heart, liver and stomach ripped out by soldiers. The woman, now in her 50s, told the story to a volunteer in three distinct "spirit voices," as if to detach herself from the painful memories.

For Prom, the recent workshop in Little Cambodia was a chance to honor the memory of her loved ones — and to get justice for the brutal crimes that ruined her life and so many others. The Khmer Rouge split up her family, she was forced to pull a plow through rice paddies like an ox and her child died later in a refugee camp.

Prom harbors thoughts of killing herself and suffers from memory loss. She's terrified of the night — the time when Khmer Rouge soldiers would take neighbors away without explanation, never to be seen again.

"I try to forget, but it's hard to forget," Prom told a translator who dictated it to a volunteer law student. Prom had already penciled her story on paper in the rolling script of her native Khmer.

"I want to find justice for myself and for the Cambodian people," she said. "I'm here to teach history to the next generation, so this horrific crime will never happen again."

On the Net:
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: http://www.eccc.gov.kh/english
Asian Pacific American Institute at New York University: http://nyu-apastudies.org/new/index.php

Justice finally catches up with Comrade Duch of the Khmer Rouge

Comrade Duch, or Kang Kek Iew, could be the last of the Khmer Rouge to face justice for the genocide of the late 1970s

SEPTEMBER 23, 2009
By Sean Thomas
The First Post (UK)

The large auditorium looks pleasant enough: almost sterile, like a modernist concert hall in a small Nordic country. You half expect a jazz trio to come onstage and take a bow before the 500 spectators.

But the bullet-proof glass, which shields the stage, gives the lie to that. This is no ordinary auditorium. All eyes in the audience are focused on one elderly Cambodian man, as he murmurs into his microphone.

"I am particularly sorry for the many children we smashed against trees, and so forth."

The man speaking these searing words is Comrade Duch, otherwise known as Kang Kek Iew. This former teacher was a senior apparatchik in the Khmer Rouge regime, from 1975-1979, when they slaughtered maybe 1.7m Cambodians, through execution, beating, torture and starvation, in their insane pursuit of an agrarian communist paradise.

Today's hearings have been a long time coming. Following the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime to a Vietnamese invasion, Duch fled ­ like many Khmer Rouge cadres ­ to rural Cambodia. For 20 years he criss-crossed the country, adopting a bogus identity. He was finally tracked down in 1999 by British photographer Nic Dunlop, who recognised the gaunt figure teaching maths in Samlaut as the notorious Duch, who once ran the Khmer Rouge torture garden at Tuol Sleng, and the killing fields of Cheong Ek.

Even then Duch nearly evaded justice. For 10 years Cambodian politicians, foreign governments and UN agencies have haggled over the precise terms of this tribunal. Some thought it would never happen. And yet here we are, in the Extraordinary Chambers of the Court of Cambodia, in a packed and specially modified courtroom on the far outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Unlike the other four Khmer Rouge leaders who are still awaiting arraignment, Duch has cooperated with the courts. He has pleaded guilty to the principal charge, that he organised the torment and murder of 15,000 people. He merely denies he did any of the killing himself.

Why has he confessed? Some say it is yet another ruse by the wily old communist, aimed at lessening an inevitably heavy sentence; others believe his remorse is genuine: ­ Duch became a fervent Christian years ago.

Certainly he looks sorrowful and drawn on this hot sunny morning in Phnom Penh. And he is not alone. I can hear stifled sobs across the auditorium. No doubt there are parents here, parents of those children who were "smashed to death against trees" by Duch's underlings.

Today's hearings are the last of the trial: a final chance for Duch to explain himself - if such a thing is possible. It is also a final chance for Cambodians to witness the Khmer Rouge being brought to justice: the other four members of the regime, still facing trial, are so old they might die before they reach court.

The summing-up in Duch's case is expected to take place in late November with sentencing early next year.

In the meantime, the defending lawyer asks Duch if he has anything to say. Duch quietly apologises to his victims. Then he claims that he had little choice in doing what he did. If he had refused to work at Tuol Sleng he would have been killed himself. The Khmer Rouge would not have allowed him to walk away.

He leans and whispers into the microphone. "The only exit was survival."

A few minutes later the court rises, and the prisoner is escorted below. As he steps down from the dock, I realise, with a shock, just how small he is. Duch is just a little old man, with a haggard face, who embodies the agony, grief and despair of an entire nation.

Testimony Finishes At Cambodian Khmer Rouge Trial

Testimony Concludes At UN-backed Tribunal In Cambodia For Khmer Rouge Prison Chief

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Sep. 23, 2009 (AP) - Testimony concluded Thursday in the first U.N.-backed trial of a high-ranking member of Cambodia's former Khmer Rouge regime.

The tribunal is trying Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who commanded S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, where up to 16,000 people were tortured and then taken away to be killed. He is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture.

Four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders are in custody awaiting trial.

The tribunal is seeking justice for an estimated 1.7 million people who died from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition as a result of the ultra-communist group's policies while in power in 1975-79.

Pending rulings on the final submissions to the court, more courtroom questioning might be conducted, the tribunal said in a statement. Otherwise, closing arguments are set to start on Nov. 23.

Duch, pronounced DOIK, is the only one of the accused Khmer Rouge leaders to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. He faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Cambodia has no death penalty.

The tribunal said the trial had been in session for 72 working days since opening on March 30. It said nine expert witnesses, 17 witnesses on facts, seven character witnesses and 22 "civil parties" _ representing victims _ had testified.

It said more than 23,000 people had observed the trial from the public gallery in the courtroom.

On Wednesday, in his final testimony, Duch accepted responsibility for his role in overseeing the prison and asked for forgiveness from the families of the victims, gestures he has made several times during the trial. He also told the court that he was ready to accept heavy punishment for his actions.

He has denied personally killing or torturing the S-21 prisoners, and said he felt compelled by fear for his own life to follow the orders of senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

Khmer Rouge Tribunal Ends Testimony at First Int’l Trial

By Robert Carmichael

PHNOM PENH, Sep 23 (IPS) - After 72 days of hearings, the first international trial of a Khmer Rouge regime member has wrapped up its often horrific testimony in the Cambodian capital.

Comrade Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, has sat placidly in the dock since proceedings began in late March, as the court unravelled his meticulous supervision of at least 15,000 murders while he headed the main Khmer Rouge torture centre, known as S-21, in the 1970s.

Although Duch has repeatedly apologised to victims, many Cambodians do not believe his expressions of remorse are genuine. Despite that he did so again on the penultimate day of testimony.

"I would like to apologise," he told the court. "I would like to seek forgiveness from the families of the victims."

But while Duch admits to the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, he has also continually pleaded that he was a mere functionary in a much bigger system. He said he had no choice but to follow the orders handed down from his superiors to execute S-21’s inmates by sending them to the Killing Fields at Chhoeung Ek outside Phnom Penh.

"The only way to survive was to fulfil the duties assigned to us … so I tried to survive on a daily basis," Duch told the court during the final week of testimony.

Duch has repeatedly insisted he did not personally arrest, torture or kill anyone, and told the court that suspected "enemies" of the revolution simply had to be killed. Anyone who was arrested was by default guilty, and the function of prisons like S-21 was to extract a confession before killing them.

Many people have expressed hope that the trial will offer some relief and answers to the events that consumed Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. Two million people are thought to have died from execution, starvation and overwork in the brutal four years of Khmer Rouge rule.

Prosecutors used the proceedings to accuse him of operating S-21, one of nearly 200 detention centres around the country, with uncommonly ruthless efficiency.

Powerful testimony from witnesses, recounting their harrowing experiences, has echoed those of the many more who were enslaved around the country.

Bou Meng, 68, told the court how he became one of the handful of prisoners who survived S-21. Duch had heard Bou Meng was an artist, so he put him to work painting huge propaganda portraits of Pol Pot and other senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

The former prisoner’s wife, who was arrested with him, disappeared and was killed at S-21. His emotional testimony described how he was beaten with sticks by S-21 interrogators, who accused him of spying for America and the Soviet Union, common charges under an increasingly paranoid regime.

"Every time they beat me, they asked me questions: ‘Who introduced you into the CIA (the U.S.’s Central Intelligence Agency)? What was their name?’" Bou Meng told the court in July, breaking down in tears. "I responded that I did not know – I gave the same response."

"I could not think of any mistakes I had made," he said. "I did not know of any KGB (Russia’s former national security agency) or CIA network. They just kept beating me up."

Duch admitted to the tribunal that most confessions, which were extracted from each prisoner through beatings, electrocution and even the removal of toenails, were untrue. He told the court a number of times that in ordering the executions, he was simply following orders.

"The decision of the Party was overwhelming," he told the court on the penultimate day of testimony on Sep. 16 as he described how he had his brother-in-law arrested, tortured and then executed. "Nobody could stand in its way. . . . I was an ordinary party member. I had no right to protest."

The damage wrought by the Khmer Rouge was felt mainly in Cambodia, but the trial also showed how the effects of the regime’s murders rippled around the world to terrible effect.

The court heard from a French woman whose Cambodian diplomat husband returned to the country in 1977 and was murdered at S-21, and a New Zealand sportsman whose brother was taken from his yacht, which had strayed into Cambodian waters, and eventually killed.

Duch’s guilt is not in question – the key unknown is what sentence will be levied on him. (Cambodia does not have the death penalty.)

Final arguments in the trial will take place at the end of November, and judges are expected to hand down their verdict in 2010.

Duch’s defence has indicated its belief that judges should take into account his numerous apologies and admissions of guilt, as well as the fact that he spent a decade in detention before his trial.

But whether Duch’s remorse is genuine — which many Cambodians doubt — the fact that he has apologised is important to some, such as former S-21 survivor Chum Mey, 79.

Chum Mey told the court during his testimony in June that five of his children died under the Khmer Rouge. When he finally returned to his village, just two relatives were still alive there. Despite being tortured at S-21, Chum Mey said – in a video recorded before the trial began and shown by the defence on the penultimate day of the trial – that he bears no grudge against Duch.

"Before I was not free to speak out as I am doing now," he said in the video, which was filmed at S-21 in February 2008 when Duch, who broke down in tears at the prison, returned there and apologised to the nation. "I thank Duch for coming to give testimony. . . . I would ask him to speak the truth before the court."

Duch claims to have done that despite some significant inconsistencies in his statements such as refuting the testimony of some parties who said they saw him torture or kill people. But even he admits that saving himself by carrying out the killings of so many thousands of others was fundamentally dishonourable.

"Yes, you can say I am a coward," Duch told the court in the final week of testimony.

Ex-reporter helps Cambodia face up to past

Sep. 21, 2009
Norimasa Tahara
Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent (Japan)

PHNOM PENH--Thirty years after the end of the Khmer Rouge regime that killed nearly 2 million people, a former Japanese news reporter has been appointed as a public relations officer at Cambodia's special war tribunal.

Yuko Maeda assumed the post at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, which was jointly set up by the United Nations and the Cambodian government to try former senior members of the regime led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998.

Since taking up the post, Maeda has been up to her ears dealing with media interviews.

"I believe that after these trials end, Cambodia at long last can become a normal country again," Maeda, 45, said.

After working as a reporter for The Kobe Shimbun, Maeda studied journalism at Michigan State University.

She first became interested in Cambodia in 1996, when she came across The Cambodia Daily, an English-language newspaper, while studying war and media coverage in Michigan. After graduating in 1997, Maeda became a reporter for the daily newspaper in 1998.

Maeda worked day in and day out reporting on how the country was rebuilding itself.

During this time, "I started feeling that I wanted to play a role in reconstructing a country," she recalled. This ambition inspired Maeda to go to Liberia in 2005 and work as a public relations officer for the U.N. mission in the African country.

When she returned to Phnom Penh, the skyline showed more high-rise buildings than before as the city showed definite signs of growth.

However, Maeda strongly believes the psychological scars of the Cambodian people have yet to heal.

"That's precisely why the special tribunal's role in helping to settle the past is so significant," Maeda said. "When I have time, I'd love to sit with a group of Cambodian people and listen to their stories about the Pol Pot era."

Maeda's spirit as a passionate reporter remains undimmed.

Sister of Khmer Rouge murder victim John Dewhirst hopes for UN trial

Sep 20 2009
By Coreena Ford
Sunday Sun (UK)

KHMER Rouge murder victim John Dewhirst’s sister has revealed how she hopes good can come from his killer’s trial.

John was the only Briton among 17,000 to die after being captured during the communist Khmer Rouge’s rule over Cambodia in the 1970s.

Now, 31 years after his death, his murderer, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, is being tried by a UN-backed tribunal on genocide charges.

He has already confessed to John’s murder and invited victims of the regime to visit him.

But John’s sister Hilary Holland, 53, a solicitor from Brampton, Cumbria, has refused to attend and says she has not even been able to bring herself to utter John’s name in more than 30 years.

An aspiring novelist, John left home after finishing his A-levels to explore and bought a one-way ticket to Tokyo, where he got a teaching post and a part-time job on a newspaper.

He quit in 1978, aged 26, after deciding to join pals on travels around the Gulf of Thailand in their boat The Foxy Lady.

But when they drifted into Cambodian waters, a Khmer Rouge military launch swooped.

Stuart Glass was shot dead instantly and the other two were taken to the S21 torture centre – a former school – where, after enduring a catalogue of horrors, they were forced to sign confessions they were CIA agents.

Cambodians hope KRouge trial can heal past wounds

Sunday, Sep 20,2009
AFP

Cambodia's first war crimes trial has unearthed painful ghosts from the brutal Khmer Rouge era, but as testimony ends in the case there is growing hope that it will put past traumas to rest.

Moeurn Sarath, whose father and husband were among the two million people who died under the 1975-1979 communist regime, said it was too painful for her to watch the trial of Duch, the movement's main jailer.

Yet while she said that the proceedings made "all those feelings come back to me again," she believes that the UN-backed tribunal is good for victims and their families.

"It is good to try those leaders because they have killed a lot of people," she said. "I pray that those people who died are at rest because now justice is being found for them."

The six-month evidence phase of the trial at the UN-backed court ended on Thursday, with the prosecution and defence due to present their final arguments to the judges on November 23. A verdict is not expected until early 2010.

The trial has heard Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, repeatedly accept responsibility and beg forgiveness for his role overseeing the torture and killing of over 15,000 as chief of Tuol Sleng prison.

Proceedings have been shown on a weekly television show in Cambodia and the court said that an average of around 300 people a day came to the tribunal to watch from behind bullet-proof glass.

Few Cambodians told AFP they regularly watched proceedings, but all held some hope it would heal the mental wounds in a country that remains strewn with mass graves and bone-filled memorials.

"Every day I have to work and spend less time with the news on TV or newspaper," said motorcycle taxi driver Sok Rorn, 45, whose mother was killed under the Khmer Rouge.

"But of course, I am aware of the trial. For certain, those people responsible for the death of my parent and many other Cambodians must be held accountable," he added, with tears in his eyes.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia.

This year the Cambodian government has agreed for the first time to include a text on the Khmer Rouge in its high school curriculum, a key move in a country where more than 70 percent of the population was born after 1979.

"I have heard and learnt very little about the regime and all those stories. Maybe because I've not experienced it, I am not interested to find out more about it," said Dav Sam Ath, an 18-year-old high school student.

"I'm sure the trial will help heal (victims') pain because if nobody can give them the answers of the past, how can they go on?"

Michelle Staggs, deputy director of the East-West Centre's Asian International Justice Initiative, said Duch's trial has offered important opportunities for witnesses.

"Some powerful symbolic moments have emerged at the trial," Staggs said.

One powerful moment occurred last week when Duch invited victims to visit him in prison, opening the door for ongoing discussion about the past, Staggs said.

Those watching Duch's trial have seen his defence team argue he is filled with remorse, and oversaw mass killing out of fear leaders would kill him and his family.

"I tried to survive on a daily basis, and that's what happened. Yes, you could say I'm a cowardly person," the 66-year-old said in court last week.

Of the five former Khmer Rouge leaders currently being held in the purpose-built jail at the war crimes court, Duch is the only one who has admitted guilt for atrocities committed by the regime.

The trial, his defence team says, is an important step in the reconstruction of Cambodia after decades of civil war. His lawyers have also argued judges ought to be lenient after their client's public displays of contrition.

But prosecutors accuse the former maths teacher of minimising his leadership role, and he has also denied several allegations he personally tortured and killed prisoners.

After Duch, the court plans to try former Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea, head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, minister of social affairs Ieng Thirith.

But the troubled tribunal has been hit by accusations local staff were forced to pay kickbacks for their jobs and allegations of political interference as premier Hun Sen has warned he wants no more ex-cadres arrested.

Cheng Chansok, a 53-year-old housewife, says she will wait to see the results from the court.

"It's important to me... I've lost my family members in the regime.

Theary Seng's Press Conference with Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Development, Berlin, 19 August 2009

Press Conference of 10th Anniversary of Civil Peace Service, Berlin, 19 August 2009
Mrs. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (2nd from left), Germany's Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, listens to Theary Seng's Press Conference
Mrs. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul talking to Theary Seng
Theary Seng speaking with Dr. Jürgen Wilhelm, Director General of German Development Service

The following is a transcript of Ms. Theary Seng's Press Conference:

10th Year Anniversary of Civil Peace Service
PRESS CONFERENCE
St. Elizabeth Church, Berlin. 19 August 2009
Statement of Theary C. SENG, CPS local partner

Introduction

Good afternoon. I am deeply honored to be here this afternoon with Minister Heidemarie (1) and other peace-builders on the panel in the celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Civil Peace Service.

I come from a country when a boy steals a piece of bread, he is sent to jail; when a man kills 2 million of his countrymen, he is invited to Paris for a peace conference.

I come from a country where to be an orphan is to be common; where post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) pervades the population.

I come from Cambodia. Where as a child of 4 years old, the Khmer Rouge killed my father, then 3 years later my mother while we were in prison, along with 2 million other Cambodians.

We, Cambodians, yearn for peace. Peace that is more than just the absence of war. We want peace with the presence of justice. We want peace to subside the internal turmoil and purge the demons from within.

Thirty years on, there is now the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (or, formally known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia) to start us on this journey of ‘peace with justice’ in trying 5 former KR leaders for these heinous crimes against humanity.

KRT is both ‘court of law’ and ‘court of public opinion’

The KRT is both a court of law and a court of public opinion. As a court of law, the KRT is limited. But any court of law has limitations, even here in developed Germany. A court has a very narrow mandate to weigh available evidence to convict or to let go.

In Cambodia, evidence is 30 years old, compromised, lost; witnesses long dead or are fearful to come forward. Additionally, there are charges of corruption, political interference, lack of judicial independence, budgetary constraints, etc.

The Center for Social Development monitors the national courts as well as the KRT for fair trial rights.

However, because the KRT is limited in what it can do as a court of law, we see the values of the KRT in the court of public opinion, and thus use the KRT as a catalyst, as an illustration to jumpstart conversations—long overdue—on issues of history, accountability, responsibility (personal, collective), truth, reconciliation, trauma, healing, confession, forgiveness—all issues larger than the complex legal construct and legalese limited to the understanding of a few.

Civil Peace Service (DED)’s Partnership with Center for Social Development, now with Center for Justice & Reconciliation

How does the Civil Peace Service and Germany fit into all of this? Three years ago, I, as director of the Center for Social Development, approached Mr. Wolfgang Mollers, country representative of the German Development Service, to inquire whether we could work together in peace building in light of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and discussed having a civil peace officer with expertise in psycho-therapy be based with us.

To our joy, Mr. Mollers said ‘Yes’ and since, the partnership with DED and the Civil Peace Service (through first, Matthias WITZEL and now Stefan KIESEL) has brought on unprecedented and deeply expansive achievements in the whole of Cambodian society:

• 20 public forums and national conferences on “Justice & Reconciliation” in all of Cambodia’s 24 provinces—town hall-like meetings with victims and perpetrators, with KRT judges and prosecutors, donors and other civil society leaders, students representing the younger generation. Many view these public forums as “informal truth and reconciliation commissions”. We want these invited provincial participants in the thousands to be ambassadors to their family and neighbors back in their villages.
• These public forums were preceded with many small group meetings in each province during ground preparation trips.
• 15 seminars on how to involve victims as “Civil Party” in the KRT criminal proceeding.
• 15 tour visits of provincial participants to Phnom Penh sites of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Choeung Ek Killing Fields and the KRT.
• Emotional Support Team – headed by the Civil Peace Service – accompanies and counsels the participants at each and every event.
• Emotional Support Team has created Understanding Trauma in Cambodia Handbook – lovingly and creatively put together. Now, the Royal University’s Department of Psychology is using this Handbook as THE textbook in its program. It is the first book of its kind !
• Now, we are working on a Child Soldier Handbook… we want to give serious meaning to our “reconciliation” work. Who were the KR but children recruited to take up arms and turn against their own family members and neighbors. Now these individuals are adults with children of their own, living with the weight of their dark past of blood and confusion. Stefan KIESEL has experiences working with child soldiers in Sierre Leone.
• We multiply our impact by broadcasting these public forums and seminars all over the country on our Voice of Justice Radio Program with millions of listeners to make it truly a national dialogue.
• The most special impact for me is the standardizing of trauma language and conversations in Cambodian society. What was taboo 3 years ago are now talked about with less shame and reluctance. Three years ago, my staff accused me of thinking every Cambodian “crazy” by broaching these topics of trauma. Now, they are counseling others using the Trauma Handbook and posters taken from this Trauma Handbook.

Words cannot adequately capture the importance of the work of the Civil Peace Service in a place like Cambodia… caring individuals with expertise in peace-building passing on their skills by weaving their lives intricately with those of the local partners. Without DED and Civil Peace Service, we would not have achieved the above mentioned happenings.

Having witnessed firsthand the immeasurable contribution of the Civil Peace Service in Cambodia, I hope this work will continue for at least another 10 years, and then another 10, and another 10… until peace with justice, peace in the heart has been achieved in our broken world of suffering.

Thank you, Germany, for your humanity and generosity of spirit and attention.
______________
About Theary C. SENG:

• Founder & Board President, Center for Justice & Reconciliation
• Fmr. Executive Director, Center for Social Development www.csdcambodia.org “Public Forum: Emotional Support” (where you can find Trauma Handbook).
• Executive Director, Parliamentary Center of Cambodia
• Author, Daughter of the Killing Fields (London, 2005) www.thearyseng.com

______________
(1) Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development. I am the only non-German on the panel, assisted by an excellent private interpreter Alison Clark sitting next to me. In 2001, the Minister had visited and was greatly moved by theTuol Sleng Genocide Museum. For a federal minister, she was greatly informed of tiny Cambodia and its affairs, genocidal history and the KRT. I gave her a copy of my memoir. After the press conference, she invited me to join a semi-confidential meeting with all the 8 heads of the state and non-state institutions of the Civil Peace Service, assisted again by the private interpreter. Marc Eberle, the German filmmaker who is doing a film on the Khmer Rouge Tribunal using my life to tell the larger story had his colleague from ARTE filmed the event. About 15-20 reporters covered the event.

Questions Linger Over More Tribunal Indictments

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
18 September 2009

The investigation of five more suspects under the Khmer Rouge tribunal continues to be controversial, and the question of whether more suspects will be indicted in a heavily politicized environment remains.

The government promised amnesty for ex-Khmer Rouge in 1996, a move that led to peace and stability in subsequent years. But the government and the UN also established a law between 1999 and 2003 to try Khmer Rouge leaders involved in crimes.

UN prosecutors have moved to investigate five more suspects, but it is now up to the investigating judges to determine if the cases warrant arrests. Prime Minister Hun Sen and other Cambodian officials have warned that widened indictments beyond five Khmer Rouge leaders already in custody could lead to national instability.

James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, which monitors the UN-backed tribunal, told VOA Khmer the court must be free of influence from politicians and other outside actors, to allow the investigating judges to do their work.

“Tribunal staff is legally obligated to arrest and investigate the additional suspects if the evidence justifies it,” he said. “It is not an optional exercise.”

“Investigators and police must do their jobs and enforce the law regardless of the personal preferences of one or more government officials,” he said. “This is about the rule of law.”

At least two former Khmer Rouge leaders who could face indictments have echoed Hun Sen’s remarks. One, Meas Muth, now an adviser to the Ministry of Defense, has said he will go to court if it is the government’s wish. Another, Im Chaem, currently a deputy commune chief in Anlong Veng district, Oddar Meanchey province, has said she will not go if summoned.

John Hall, an associate professor at California’s Chapman University of Law, said there is less chance war will erupt in Cambodia over the indictments. Rather, observers say the objection of Hun Sen to bring more members of the regime to trial could implicate current members of the government and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

“The apparent willingness of the tribunal to move forward with additional prosecutions suggests that the international judges, at least, are unwilling to allow Hun Sen to influence the legal proceedings with alarmist threats of impending civil war,” he said, adding that Hun Sen’s position was not based on a legal argument.

“So while Hun Sen has thankfully been unable at this point to hijack the tribunal’s legal decisions, the independence and integrity of the proceedings seem to hang by a thread, thanks to the firm stand of the international prosecutor and international judges,” he said.

Knut Rosandhaug, the UN’s tribunal coordinator, said the court has so far complied with international standards and made independent decisions.

“It’s a clearly established international standard that courts do not seek approval or advice on their work from the executive branch,” he said.

Lao Monghay, a senior researcher for the Asian Human Rights Commission, said politicians “should develop a culture of utmost restraint regarding the functioning of any court of law and uphold its independence and impartiality.”

If the Cambodian investigating judge does not cooperate with his international counterpart, Lao Monghay said, he “would show his political bias and would fail in his job.”

More questions arise as to who will actually make arrests if more indictments are handed down.

Latt Ky, a tribunal monitor for the rights group Adhoc, said peace has so far been adequately maintained. “So I do not see anything impacting the seeking of justice for the victims of the regime of Democratic Kampuchea.”

Caitlin Reiger, head of the prosecutions program for the International Center for Transitional Justice, said the Khmer Rouge no longer exist as a fighting force.

“However, Cambodia is not the first or last country to raise these tensions,” she said. “Where a conflict is ongoing and peace is the immediate priority, there may be legitimate concerns about whether pursuing justice may be an obstacle to securing peace.”

Such concerns emerged with former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic and former Liberian president Charles Taylor, she said. “Yet with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that their indictments actually contributed to peace by moving those ‘spoilers’ from the negotiations.”

Time Magazine Calls Weekly Program on Khmer Rouge Trial a 'Sleeper Hit' in Cambodia

September 17, 2009
East-West Center

The goal is to help make the trial proceedings accessible to everyone in the interest of furthering the process of international justice.

With up to 3 million viewers each week, "Duch on Trial" program provides many with primary source of information on the international tribunal.

Honolulu, HI (Vocus/PRWEB ) September 17, 2009 -- A current article in Time magazine calls a Cambodian television program that summarizes proceedings in the U.N.-assisted trial of a notorious Khmer Rouge figure "a sleeper hit" that is the main way many Cambodians find out about the trial. According to the article, the "Duch on Trial" program - a collaborative production of the East-West Center, the UC Berkeley War Crimes Study Center and Khmer Mekong Films - garners up to 3 million viewers each week, or 20 percent of Cambodia's population.

"With one in five Cambodians watching the show every week," writes Time correspondent Christopher Shay, "'Duch on Trial' has become the main way many young Cambodians, who were not taught about the Khmer Rouge in school, learn about the historic Khmer Rouge tribunal unfolding in Phnom Penh -- and, in a lot of cases, hear about this dark chapter of their country's history for the first time."

The program, with English subtitles added, can be viewed online by audiences worldwide at forum.eastwestcenter.org/Khmer-Rouge-Trials.

Hosted by veteran Cambodian journalists Neth Pheaktra and Ung Chan Sophea, the weekly half-hour show endeavors to explain the complex legal proceedings in the case against Kaing Guek Eav, alias "Duch," in an accessible and informative manner through the use of trial footage, expert commentary and interviews. Duch has admitted that he ran the Khmer Rouge's dreaded S-21 torture center.

"We consider these films to be a vital tool in helping the Cambodian public and the world at large better understand the complex issues involved in these groundbreaking trials," said David J. Cohen, Director of the Asian International Justice Initiative, or AIJI, which initiated and oversees production of the "Duch on Trial" programs. "The goal is to help make the trial proceedings accessible to everyone in the interest of furthering the process of international justice."

Gregory Stanton, president of the Washington-based NGO Genocide Watch, told Time that the program, with its millions of viewers, has been uniquely effective in bringing the trial into people's lives. "You'll go out to (a) local little village … and there will be almost nothing there," Stanton said. "Yet there will be a TV set hooked up to set of car batteries, and people watching."

The AIJI engaged Cambodia's premier television production company, Khmer Mekong Films, to produce the "Duch on Trial" programs. The programs are shown on Cambodia's most-watched television network, CTN, as well as being available online for easy viewing worldwide.

The AIJI is a collaboration between the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the War Crimes Study Center at UC Berkeley in California. Prior to the start of the trial, the AIJI conducted extensive legal trainings for the officers of the court, as well as a public education campaign that included several informational films that were shown on Cambodian television and at screenings throughout the country. Major funding for the project has come from the British Embassy in Phnom Penh.

Now that the tribunal's first trial is underway, the AIJI has drawn upon five years of experience by the War Crimes Studies Center in conducting human-rights trial monitoring in Sierra Leone, East Timor, Rwanda, and Indonesia to establish a regionally based trial monitoring and film outreach program. The goal of the project is to raise awareness about fair trial rights in Cambodia, as well as document ways in which the trial's proceedings can have a positive impact on Cambodia's domestic criminal trials through the court's interpretation of human rights and domestic criminal procedures.

In addition to a permanent AIJI monitor, the monitoring team includes young lawyers and legal researchers from Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Japan, the Philippines, Switzerland, Germany and the U.S. The monitors write reports on the proceedings as well as assist the film-maker on a weekly basis to choose the highlights from proceedings to be included in 'Duch on Trial'. Additionally, they provide a daily update on the trial which is also utilized by the Court's press and public affairs section. Weekly reports are issued in English, Khmer, Bahasa Indonesia and Mandarin. The team also produces periodic analytical assessments of the trials.

The EAST-WEST CENTER is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. The Center contributes to a peaceful, prosperous and just Asia Pacific community by serving as a vigorous hub for cooperative research, education and dialogue on critical issues of common concern to the Asia Pacific region and the United States. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, with additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations and the governments of the region.

Click here for links to all East-West Center media programs, fellowships and services.

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Media Contact:
Derek Ferrar,
Media Relations Specialist
+1 808-944-7204

Testimony ends at KRouge jail chief trial

Thursday, September 17, 2009

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal Thursday wrapped up the presentation of evidence in the trial of the man accused of running the regime's most notorious prison.

Closing arguments in the trial of Duch, the first to be held at the special war crimes court, are scheduled to take place in November and the verdict is expected early next year.

The court has been hearing evidence since late March about Duch's role in overseeing the torture and execution of over 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng detention centre in the late 1970s.

"I would like to declare the adjournment to this morning's proceedings now," chief judge Nil Nonn told the court, officially ending testimony.

Duch, whose actual name is Kaing Guek Eav, has during the trial repeatedly accepted responsibility for his role in governing the jail and begged for forgiveness from the families of the victims.

In his final testimony on Wednesday, he invited victims of the regime to visit him in detention. He is being held on the premises of the purpose-built court on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

But the 66-year-old denies several allegations that he personally tortured or killed inmates and denies being a key figure in the hardline communist movement, in government from 1975 to 1979.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia, resulting in the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and torture.

Four senior Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in detention awaiting the next trial at the court, and judges recently ruled five more cadres should be investigated for possible prosecution.

Former chief of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge prison apologises

Wednesday, September 16, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

The chief of the Khmer Rouge's main jail has ended his testimony to Cambodia's war crimes tribunal with a surprise invitation to victims of the former Pol Pot regime to visit him in prison.

Duch has told the United Nations-backed court that he would like to personally apologise to victims.

"Any victim who wishes to see me, I would be very happy to do so. You are all welcome," said Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav.

"I open the door to them emotionally and most importantly, I would like to express my inner emotions, or my guilt admission, so they could see my true self."

Duch has also admitted to overseeing the torture and execution of over 15,000 people at the so-called S-21 detention centre.

Admits guilt, denies torturing

He has told the court he admits his guilt and accepts responsibility.

However he denies several allegations he personally tortured and killed inmates.

Closing arguments in Duch's trial, the first at the court, are scheduled to take place in November and the verdict is expected early next year.

Khmer Rouge crimes too big to hide, former torture centre boss says

Wed, 16 Sep 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - Comrade Duch, the feared former head of the Khmer Rouge's main execution centre, told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court Wednesday that the numerous crimes committed under the regime were too big to hide. "The elephant cannot be covered by a rice basket," Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, said on the final day of testimony.

Around 2 million people are thought to have died from execution, overwork and starvation under the Khmer Rouge regime, known as Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia during 1975-79.

Duch, the former head of the Khmer Rouge's execution centre S-21, is being tried for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention. At least 15,000 people were tortured and executed at S-21 in the 1970s. Just a handful survived the prison.

The final day of testimony saw Duch answer character questions from the prosecution and his defence lawyers. His defence has sought to portray him as a man following orders, yet willing to take responsibility for those actions.

William Smith, the interim international co-prosecutor, suggested to Duch that he had remained with the Khmer Rouge movement after 1979 because he still believed in it. He said psychologists who had assessed Duch had felt he was still committed to the revolution.

"The experts' analysis took me by surprise, and I don't agree with it," said Duch, who was arrested in 1999.

Duch told the court the Cambodian Communist party was responsible for the ruin of the nation in the 1970s. As a member of that party, he said, he took full responsibility and sought forgiveness.

"The only way to survive was to fulfil the duties assigned to us ... so I tried to survive on a daily basis," he told the court of his actions as S-21 chief when he passed confessions up to his superiors before awaiting their orders to "smash," or kill, those who had confessed. "Yes, you can say I am a coward."

Duch again stressed that he did not personally arrest anyone, and said the ideology of the time meant that people arrested and sent to S-21 "must be seen as enemies and smashed because they were enemies of the party."

The 72 days of proceedings in Duch's trial have heard horrific testimony from victims and former staff of S-21, as well as harrowing stories from surviving family members of people who were executed under Duch's command.

In a question framed deliberately to echo the prosecution's outline made earlier this year, Duch's foreign defence lawyer, Francois Roux, asked him: "So, do you admit that in reality you were the man who, enjoying the trust of his superiors, implemented in a devoted and merciless way, the persecution of the Cambodian people?"

"Yes, I completely admit [that]," Duch replied.

Responding to a question from Roux, Duch later said that any of the victims - some of whom are not convinced his expressed remorse is genuine - were welcome to visit him in jail.

"I open the door to them emotionally, and most importantly I would like to express my inner emotion of my guilty admission so they can see my true self," Duch replied.

Duch told the court that by late 1978, shortly before the Vietnamese-backed invasion that overthrew the regime, he was sure the revolution to which he had dedicated his life would fail.

"I joined the revolution to liberate my people and show gratitude to my parents and nation," he said. "By the end the country had fallen into complete tragedy, and more than 1.7 million perished."

In a final flourish, Roux showed the court a video of Duch on a judicial visit to S-21 in February last year. Roux said it was the first time in the history of international criminal justice that an accused person had returned to the scene of their crimes.

In the video Duch can be seen fighting back tears and apologizing to two of the survivors of S-21 as he read out a prepared statement.

Duch, who converted to Christianity in 1996, said: "I was determined to go in order to kneel down and seek forgiveness of those dead souls - as a Christian I had to do it."

Sentencing is expected to be handed down next year. Cambodia does not have the death penalty, so Duch, 67, faces a maximum term of life in prison.

Four former Khmer Rouge leaders are in detention awaiting trial once Duch's trial concludes. Judges are investigating a further two.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal: A Failed Experiment in Hybrid Justice?

Colloquium with Dr. John Hall, Associate Professor, Chapman University School of Law

Wednesday, September 16, 2009
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Room 1327
UCLA School of Law
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles,

Professor Hall has written widely on human rights and international law and has carried out extensive human rights fieldwork in Cambodia (where his research centers on factory conditions, the bringing to justice of the Khmer Rouge, and human trafficking) and the Philippines (where he is currently involved working on behalf of 10,000 farmers facing forced relocation by land developers).

Sponsored by the UCLA Law International Human Rights Program.

Special Instructions
RSVP to humanrights@law.ucla.edu

For more information please contact
Barbara Gaerlan
Tel: 310-206-9163
cseas@international.ucla.edu
www.law.ucla.edu/home/index.asp?page=2935

KRouge jail chief says had brother-in-law tortured

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
By Patrick Falby
AFP

PHNOM PENH — The chief of the Khmer Rouge's main prison told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes trial Tuesday that he had his own sister's husband jailed and tortured after the man was accused of espionage.

Duch said he had his brother-in-law locked up at the notorious Tuol Sleng detention centre to protect himself and his family, adding that the man was later killed by the hardline communist movement.

"I vouched for my younger sister and I vouched to educate her, but I could not do that for my brother-in-law," said Duch, who acknowledges overseeing the extermination of some 15,000 people at the jail.

"As a principle, when the husband was arrested the wife was arrested as well. But my younger sister was not arrested and she is still alive today," he added.

The 66-year-old Duch said the brutal regime initially arrested his brother-in-law on spying charges but then released him and allowed to stay at Duch's house.

But Duch later had the man arrested again and sent to Tuol Sleng, a former high school in the capital Phnom Penh that was turned into a genocide museum after Vietnamese-backed forces toppled the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

Duch said that the man later confessed, apparently under interrogation, to being "a member of the enemy network" since before the Khmer Rouge had come to power and of marrying Duch's sister to spy on him.

He said that after his arrest, his brother-in-law tried to protect the rest of the family from the Khmer Rouge's spiralling paranoia, which involved witchhunts for suspected agents for the CIA, KGB and Vietnam and other groups.

"What he was afraid of was that when he was arrested and handcuffed, he wanted to know whether I would be arrested. Because if I was arrested, then the whole family would be gone," Duch said.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is the first Khmer Rouge cadre to face trial at the court but denies personally torturing or killing inmates and he insists that he was not a leading figure in the 1975-1979 regime.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia, resulting in the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and torture.

Evangelical minister Christopher LaPel told the tribunal Tuesday that Duch was completely changed after the pastor baptised him in 1996 in a river in western Cambodia.

"After he got baptised I can see him as a completely different person... I can see that he (had been) a person that lived in darkness, sadness, with no joy, no love," said Cambodian-American LaPel.

LaPel told the court that although Duch was hiding his identity at the time, the conversion seemed genuine and the pair have prayed and held Bible study together in prison several times since the former cadre's 1999 arrest.

Former maths teacher Duch has regularly expressed remorse to victims and those who worked under him.

One-time Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea, head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, minister of social affairs Ieng Thirith, are also in detention awaiting trial at the court.

Minister who baptized Khmer Rouge defendant says conversion genuine

Sep 15, 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The Christian minister who baptized Comrade Duch, not knowing he was the former head of the Khmer Rouge's S-21 execution centre, told a war crimes tribunal Tuesday that Duch's conversion from Buddhism was sincere rather than a pragmatic decision to gain forgiveness in this life.

'I am proud of him for his willingness to accept his crime and punishment,' Christopher LaPel told the court in Phnom Penh.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is on trial for crimes against humanity and breaches of the Geneva Convention before the UN-Cambodian tribunal. At least 15,000 people were tortured and executed at S-21 in the 1970s. Just a handful survived the prison.

LaPel, a Cambodian-American, said he met Duch in Cambodia in 1995 and baptized him into his Protestant church two weeks later.

At the time, Duch was using the name Hang Pin and hiding from his Khmer Rouge past. LaPel said he had no idea of Duch's history but recalled him saying that what he had done in his life 'couldn't be forgiven.'

LaPel said baptism had changed Duch from a man with 'no joy, no peace, no purpose in life.'

'After he got baptized, he was a completely different person,' LaPel testified. 'His heart wanted to share the word of God to his friends and family.'

It was not until 1999 that LaPel learned his convert had been the Khmer Rouge's chief torturer.

LaPel told the court that several of his own friends had been killed at S-21 and his parents and two siblings also died during the Khmer Rouge regime.

But he said he had forgiven Duch for his actions as head of S-21.

'I hate the sin, but I love the sinner,' LaPel said.

The prosecution asked LaPel whether he felt Duch was sincere about his conversion, pointing out that psychologists who assessed him felt the defendant, who was once a mathematics teacher, had converted because of pragmatism and logical deduction.

The prosecutor explained that while Christianity brings the possibility of instant forgiveness, Buddhism - the predominant religion in Cambodia - would require numerous cycles of rebirth to undo Duch's crimes.

LaPel, who has been allowed to visit Duch in detention and pray with him, agreed that true converts are entitled to forgiveness but said he is convinced Duch's conversion is genuine.

'On one occasion [in 2008], Mr Kaing Guek Eav told me he was sorry for the crimes that he did in the past and that he did not rejoice for what he had done,' LaPel said. 'And that he felt sorry for me and for the Cambodian people.'

Duch's trial was expected to end this month with sentencing due to be handed down in 2010. Cambodia does not have the death penalty, so Duch, 67, faces a maximum term of life in prison.

He has admitted guilt and apologized for his crimes, but his attorneys have sought to prove his role in the torture and executions was minimal because, they said, he was only acting on orders.

Four other former Khmer Rouge are in detention awaiting trial, and judges are investigating a further two.

Around 2 million people are thought to have died from execution, overwork and starvation under the Khmer Rouge regime, known as Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia during 1975-79.

Survivors' stories sought for trials

CAMBODIA: The testimony could be used against alleged perpetrators of Khmer Rouge.

09/14/2009
Greg Mellen
Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

Where and when:

• Thursday at McBride Park, 1550 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., from 10:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.
• Friday at United Cambodian Community, 2201 E. Anaheim St., from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday in Santa Ana at Cambodian Family Inc., 111 E. Wakeham Ave.

LONG BEACH - There are still a few chances for local Cambodian residents who were victimized by the Khmer Rouge to have their stories heard.

The Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, in partnership with several organizations, is talking to survivors and families of victims of the 1970s genocide at several events this week.

Participants have the opportunity to provide testimony that may be used in proceedings against alleged perpetrators in the ongoing war crimes tribunals in Cambodia.

For decades, a debilitating fallout for survivors of the genocide has been feelings of helplessness and powerlessness.

Dr. Leakhena Nou, a professor at Cal State Long Beach, has led the effort to get victims' testimony from the Cambodian Diaspora in the U.S.

Nou says by speaking out, victims are able to regain a sense of power and justice.

"It's a matter of human rights," Nou told the Press-Telegram in March. "They have a right to be part of truth and reconciliation for their suffering and for their own healing."

Kaing Geuk Eav, also known as Duch, is the first alleged war criminal appearing before the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, which is conducting the tribunal.

Duch is charged with overseeing the mass torture and execution in prison camps, including Cambodia's notorious Tuol Sleng, or S-21.

Between 1975 and 1979, an estimated 2 million Cambodians died from executions, starvation, illness and deprivation under the Khmer Rouge.

A second trial is slated for alleged Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith.

More trials and defendants are possible.

Victims and families affected between April 17, 1975, and Jan. 6, 1979, have the right to file complaints that will be brought to the ECCC.

Law students from UCLA's International Justice Clinic and translators will help victims fill out official information forms.

The sessions to provide possible testimony are:

Thursday at McBride Park, 1550 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., from 10:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Friday at United Cambodian Community, 2201 E. Anaheim St., from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday in Santa Ana at Cambodian Family Inc., 111 E. Wakeham Ave.

Similar efforts are being organized in Northern California, Lowell, Mass., Portland, Ore., Virginia/Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. Other sites are possible.

People interested in testifying are asked to RSVP by Wednesday by e-mail to apa.asric-khmer.justice@nyu.edu.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291

Duch a 'scapegoat'

Sep 14, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA'S war crimes court is using Khmer Rouge prison boss Duch as a scapegoat, as the chiefs of other jails where thousands of people died have escaped justice, a defence witness said on Monday.

Belgian academic Raoul Marc Jennar was called to testify at the UN-backed tribunal by lawyers for Duch, who acknowledges overseeing the extermination of some 15,000 people at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is the first Khmer Rouge cadre to face trial at the court but denies personally torturing or killing inmates. And he insists that he was not a leading figure in the 1975-1979 communist regime.

'There were nine centres where there were more victims than (Tuol Sleng). And from those centres, no one is before the court,' Mr Jennar, an expert on Khmer studies who has advised the current Cambodian government, told the court.

'My concept of justice is not to have scapegoats. It's to treat everyone the same way... There are a number of directors from those centres that are still alive - I want to emphasise that,' he added, refusing to name the suspects.

He cited researchers from the Documentation Centre of Cambodia to support the claim.

The Khmer Rouge ran a network of prisons across Cambodia as it sought to destroy all real and imagined enemies in a bid to create an agrarian utopia.

Jennar, who interviewed Duch in custody, said there was no hierarchy among the 196 Khmer Rouge detention centres around Cambodia, refuting prosecution claims that Tuol Sleng served as the regime's main jail.

His testimony, which was used to support defence claims that Duch feared for his own life as he worked under the movement, said Khmer Rouge leaders subscribed to Soviet writings advocating a purge of any suspicious members.

Former maths teacher Duch is one of the few Cambodians who have accepted responsibility for crimes during the regime. At the start of the trial he begged forgiveness from victims. But he has not admitted to several allegations that he personally tortured and killed Tuol Sleng inmates and maintains he did not have a leading role in the regime.

Cambodia KRouge court leaves victims disappointed

Sunday, September 13, 2009
By Patrick Falby
AFP

PHNOM PENH — Hav Sophea hoped for a sense of closure after telling Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal how her father was killed in the late 1970s at the Khmer Rouge's Tuol Sleng prison.

But after testifying at the ongoing trial of former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, she is worried she was not allowed to properly put her father's memory to rest.

"The court does not treat civil parties like me, who are victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, well enough. They don't give us enough privileges to speak up about our pain," the 33-year-old told AFP.

Hav Sophea is one of 93 regime victims known as civil parties participating in the unique initiative at Duch's trial in which they have brought parallel civil cases against him.

The process has allowed them the right to be represented by lawyers, be part of investigations, call witnesses and ask questions during trial proceedings.

Most observers, however, conclude the well-intentioned experiment in victim participation, once touted as a possible model for future international criminal proceedings, has gone very badly.

Duch began his trial in March by accepting responsibility and apologising for overseeing the torture and execution of more than than 15,000 people at the regime's main prison, Tuol Sleng.

But civil party lawyers have often bogged down the process, taking individual turns posing often repetitive and irrelevant questions.

Furthermore, the defence has sought to dismiss 24 out of the 93 civil parties from the case against Duch after a number of them were gave dubious testimony in court.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which gathers details of Khmer Rouge crimes, said many victim applications had not been properly vetted because the initiative was understaffed and lacked funds.

"The affected civil parties have no doubt been traumatised to some extent by these events," he said.

A number of court observers have also raised concerns about the June appointment of the head of the victims unit, Helen Jarvis, for her lack of experience and for her membership of Australia's Leninist Party Faction (LPF).

Jarvis signed a 2006 LPF statement which proclaimed: "Against the bourgeoisie and their state agencies we don't respect their laws and their fake moral principles."

The court recognised many shortcomings in the process when it announced earlier this month it would streamline victim participation for its next case against four more senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

Former Khmer Rouge "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, ex-head of state Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister of social affairs, are also awaiting trial at the war crimes court.

Analysts say the victims unit will require an overhaul so it is not overwhelmed by applications in a country that lost a quarter of its population to overwork, starvation, execution and torture under the Khmer Rouge.

Yet while future proceedings could be smoother, judges' efforts to rein in the role of civil parties has stoked the emotions of many who were worst affected by Cambodia's tragedy.

Chum Mey, one of the handful who survived imprisonment at Tuol Sleng, boycotted with some two dozen other victims after civil party lawyers were not allowed to ask Duch questions about his character and personality.

"I am very disappointed and that's why I had boycotted the court. The court the decision was very unjust," the 79-year-old said.

"Since the very beginning, the court has allowed us to participate in every proceeding but as the trial nears its end the court banned us."

Many of the victims are also frustrated that they have not been granted financial compensation for their suffering, as civil claimants would be in a normal trial.

"For the accused person, he can now live well enough...(but) what about us victims? We have been left traumatised. Who should look after us?," said Neth Phally, 52, who testified that his brother was killed at Tuol Sleng.

Peter Maguire, historian of international justice and author of "Facing Death in Cambodia", says the civil parties have been a distracting social agenda when the court's main purpose ought to be weighing criminal evidence.

"Some new details have been revealed, but the salient facts remain the same," Maguire said. "There's nothing earth-shattering. We know who Duch is. We know what he did."

Cambodia's Trial of the Century, Televised

Kaing Guek Eav, former chief of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, is seen on a screen during his trial in Phnom Penh on July 13, 2009 (Heng Sinith / AP)

Friday, Sep. 11, 2009
By Christopher Shay
Time Magazine (USA)

Like any pair of good TV news hosts, Neth Pheaktra and Ung Chan Sophea deftly play off each other, finishing each other's thoughts and building on each other's ideas. But unlike the playful banter of most local news shows, neither host ever cracks a joke, or even smiles. Instead, the two veteran Cambodian journalists look directly into the camera and talk to viewers every Monday at 1 p.m. about torture, murder and the law.

Neth Pheaktra and Ung Chan Sophea's 24-minute weekly show summarizing and analyzing the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, better known as 'Duch,' the chief of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 interrogation facility also known as Tuol Sleng, has become a sleeper hit in Cambodia. With one in five Cambodians watching the show every week, Duch on Trial has become the main way many young Cambodians, who were not taught about the Khmer Rouge in school, learn about the historic Khmer Rouge tribunal unfolding in Phnom Penh — and, in a lot of cases, hear about this dark chapter of their country's history for the first time.

From 1975 to 1979, the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities, abolished money and turned its upper classes into de facto slave laborers in an attempt to form a radical agrarian utopia. More than 30 years later, Cambodia is still rebuilding — both economically and socially. For overseeing the execution of more than 15,000 people during that era, Duch has been charged by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), a hybrid Cambodian-international court backed by the U.N., with war crimes, crimes against humanity, homicide and torture. S-21, the facility that he headed from 1976 until 1979, was a local Phnom Penh high school that the KR transformed into what one scholar later called "the anteroom to death."

(See pictures of the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge.)

Not surprisingly, testimonies at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) have been grim since the trial started in February of this year. Duch, a mathematics teacher before joining the Khmer Rouge, admitted that his guards smashed babies against trees. One guard on the stand outlined the process of live blood-letting, and a rare survivor described the pain of having his toenails ripped out.

Despite the gruesome tales, Duch on Trial has attracted up to three million viewers a week in recent months — a whopping 20% of the country's population. The success of the show, which premiered in April, rests on its ability to decode the trial's complex proceedings to a mass audience — no small task in this largely rural, poorly educated country where only about 30% of students who enter school graduate from grade 9. The ECCC was established as a hybrid court after years of negotiation between the U.N. and the Cambodian government, and the result is a complex hodgepodge of international and domestic law.

Matthew Robinson, the British producer of Duch on Trial and executive director of Khmer Mekong Films, took the show's predecessor — a pretrial miniseries about the ECCC — to focus groups around the country, fine tuning the show's language to ensure it could be understood. But while the show may keep it simple, it is still able to highlight complex themes raised in the trial — like mental health and forgiveness — that are relevant to people's daily lives in a nation still suffering from collective post-traumatic stress.

The endeavor was something of a gamble. With the Khmer Rouge only being introduced into the school curriculum this fall, many born after 1979 know little about Cambodia's darkest period. And for those who did, before the Duch trial, over two-thirds of people born after the Khmer Rouge rule said they rarely or never talked about the era. Robinson said before he produced the first episode, he went to his local eatery and asked the staff if they would be interested in a half-hour show about the Duch trial. "They said, 'No, no, no.' But I was there on the Monday [when the show first launched], and all of them were watching. At the end, they gave me a big thumbs up." Now the restaurant shows Duch on Trial every Monday at lunch.

The show, largely funded by the British government, is played on the Cambodian Television Network (CTN), Cambodia's most watched channel. Controlled by Cambodia's richest businessman, Kith Meng, CTN is not playing the show in a prime-time slot as a public service, but because it glues so many Cambodians to the TV screen.

Nonetheless, Duch on Trial is helping fulfill one of the Court's central mandates, according to ECCC chief spokesperson Reach Sambath: to educate Cambodians about the Khmer Rouge. In the last seven months, some 23,000 Cambodians have come to the courts to watch the trial, and the Documentation Center of Cambodia has discussed the trials with nearly 100,000 villagers throughout the country. The trial "is an education. It's equal to a professor of history," says Reach Sambath.

But with its millions of viewers in Cambodia, television has proven to be better positioned to bring the trial into people's homes. "You'll go out to the local little village in the middle of Kampong Speu [a province in Cambodia], and there will be almost nothing there," says Gregory Stanton, the president of the Washington-based NGO Genocide Watch. "Yet there will be a TV set hooked up to set of car batteries, and people watching."

Though the government has not publicly commented on the show, Robinson says he's heard that high-ranking government officials also watch it to keep tabs on the trial. The current government contains many former members of the Khmer Rouge, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was a low-level cadre and even lost his eye fighting for the Khmer Rouge during the invasion of Phnom Penh. It was Hun Sen who initially asked the U.N. for help in establishing a tribunal in 1997, but he has since been accused by critics like Human Rights Watch for trying to limit the trial's scope in order to protect members of his own Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

But for Reach Sambath and many other Cambodians, this trial is not just about teaching the public or finding justice but about accelerating a long-overdue healing process. "The witnesses cry. The accused cries. The audience that comes to the court or watches on television cries," Reach Sambath says. "But they cry not to be more painful, but to release their pain that they have been holding for 30 years."

Duch is only the first Khmer Rouge member to sit behind the bulletproof glass at the ECCC. A joint trial of four other defendants will start within the next two years, and on Sept. 8 despite objections from Hun Sen, prosecutors submitted a list of five additional former high-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge who may one day end up at the tribunal. No matter how open Duch is about the horrific details of S-21, he cannot supply all the answers about the Khmer Rouge, as he played no policy role. "The people we've interviewed say, 'We want to know why these educated people did this to our country?'" Robinson said. "And they won't really get this answer through the Duch trial."

The next hearings, however, expected begin in 2010, will include several people who did derive the Khmer Rouge philosophy, like Pol Pot's second-in-command Nuon Chea and the Khmer Rouge's former head of state Khieu Samphan. Robinson is hoping Khmer Mekong Films will be there too, helping give millions of Cambodians the answers they've been waiting three decades to hear.