Leaked cable shows US sought China refuge for Pol Pot

Sep 5, 2011
DPA

Phnom Penh - A US State Department cable published by WikiLeaks showed that in 1989 Washington wanted China to take in a number of 'unacceptable' senior Khmer Rouge leaders, including Pol Pot, as part of efforts to end the conflict in Cambodia.

It followed the failure of international talks to bring peace 10 years after Pol Pot's government had been driven from power by a combined force of Vietnamese troops and Khmer Rouge defectors.

'The continued presence in Cambodia of senior Khmer Rouge leaders like Pol Pot, (foreign minister) Ieng Sary and (military commander) Ta Mok is particularly troublesome,' the cable stated in a section of talking points for embassy staff to take up with China.

'It would be helpful to efforts to find a solution to this conflict if your government would strongly encourage these unacceptable Khmer Rouge leaders to relocate to China,' it said, adding that Beijing should also cut military aid to the Khmer Rouge.

What caused so many deaths in Khmer Rouge regime? - Op-Ed by James Sok

http://www.box.net/shared/7lai8byo4ludiqfqy2cy

Mistakes by the Khmer communist leaders, Sihanouk and Hun Xen - Op-Ed by Sar Serey

Click on the article in Khmer to zoom in

Court indicts four KRouge leaders for genocide, war crimes

PHNOM PENH, Thursday 16 September 2010 (AFP) - Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal on Thursday indicted four former Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the regime's most senior surviving member.

The court has decided to "send forward these four accused for trial", judge You Bunleng said at a press conference, before listing a long series of charges against the former top regime members, including torture, murder and rape.

Nuon Chea, 84, who was known as "Brother Number Two" and served as deputy to Khmer Rouge founder Pol Pot, will face trial in 2011 alongside former foreign minister Ieng Sary, his wife and ex-social affairs minister Ieng Thirith and former head of state Khieu Samphan.

International judge Marcel Lemonde said the investigation into the case, the tribunal's second after the July sentencing of former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch to 30 years in jail, had taken so long because it was much more complex.

Prosecutors at Cambodia tribunal seek genocide indictment

17 August 2010
Source: ECCC

Prosecutors at the UN-backed Cambodia tribunal on Monday requested the indictment of four ex-Khmer Rouge leaders on genocide and war crimes charges.

International prosecutors at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) formally requested the indictment of Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and violations of the 1956 Cambodian Penal Code.

In the nearly one thousand page document, the prosecution summarises the evidence collected during a two-year investigation and describe how it supports the allegations against the accused.

The prosecution alleges that the former Khmer Rouge leaders committed crimes through a joint criminal enterprise, which was aimed at igniting a political revolution in Cambodia and to destroy any opposition of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK).

Through this joint criminal enterprise, the accused allegedly enslaved the Cambodian population and deprived them of their fundamental human rights and freedoms.

They also organised mass killings of potential enemies of the CPK.

The judges in Phnom Penh must now either dismiss the charges, or indict the accused persons and send the case to trial. They may also choose to indict the four on different charges. This decision may in turn be appealed by the prosecution.

However, if the judges fail to file a formal indictment by September 19th, Nuon Chea, or brother number two, must be released, due to the expiry of his three-year pre-trial detention limit.

US Exhibition Broadens Tribunal Awareness

An Ohio University student looking at KR photo exhibition at Ohio University, Athens, OH. (Photo: Im Sothearith, VOA Khmer)

Im Sothearith, VOA Khmer
Ohio, USA Thursday, 06 May 2010

“I learned something that I didn’t know from books, and I got a much better perspective on how the tribunal came about, what the politics are, the composition of the court, and some other issues going forward.”

The UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal has put the atrocities of the regime at the forefront of much public discussion, but it has also created the space for reconciliation and education.

The Documentation Center of Cambodia has taken advantage of that space to hold a series of lectures and events in the US to explain the court, the Khmer Rouge and other facets of the process. The most recent was at Ohio University, in Athens, which included lectures and an exhibition of Khmer Rouge-era photographs.

The trials can bring about a sort of reconciliation that is “about personal healing and about spiritual, moral, emotional, psychological,” John Ciorciari, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, told a group during a recent lecture at the Ohio exhibition. “But it is the type of reconciliation that can only come at a deep, grass-roots, personal level.”

The tribunal is “a sort of watershed” that can “create space for education, for reconciliation activities,” he said.

The hybrid tribunal, which combines UN-appointed and Cambodian prosecutors and judges, has already tried Kaing Kek Iev, the Khmer Rouge torture chief better known as Duch, and it is now preparing to try four more senior leaders. Court proceedings have allowed thousands of victims come forward and contribute testimony.

As it continues, the court has spurred events like this one in cities across the US, where many Khmer Rouge survivors escaped or where Americans may be unaware trials are underway.

So Farina, a staff member for the Documentation Center of Cambodia and a graduate student at Ohio University, said she coordinated the exhibition and discussion here to broaden awareness of the tribunal and the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.

“The event is a way to prevent genocide from happening again because we can speak out, we participate, and we discuss the topic,” she told VOA Khmer at the exhibition. “We chose Ohio University because there are students from every part of the world, a lot of international students. In addition there is a Southeast Asian studies program, which is relevant.”

Drew McDaniel, a professor at the university’s School of Media Arts and Studies who is also an expert on Southeast Asia, said the tribunal is still not well understood. The court rules are complicated, and there was a long run up to the creation of the court.

Exhibitions and talks can help people understand it, and understand the plight Cambodians faced when the Khmer Rouge came to power, McDaniel said.

“So, it has value to enlighten the intellectual community, the scholars on our campus, and in general to raise our awareness of what’s going on there,” he said. “I think this is a way of calling American attention to an important period in history, and making [the public] understand how the international community is responding to this important event. Even though it’s years and years later, it’s still very important.”

For Jeffery Shane, a librarian at Ohio University’s Southeast Asian collection, the discussions engendered by the tribunal show the process is ongoing, but they can also touch on international relations, law and human rights.

“First of all, Athens, Ohio, in particular is a very isolated, very small town, and events like this make people more aware of problems well away from Athens, Ohio, opens their eyes to event in the world at large,” Shane said. “In fact, we have a Southeast Asian program here. I think it allows students who might not learn about this at this depth in the classrooms to get a broader perspective on Southeast Asia, especially contemporary history, contemporary politics.”

Joanie Kraynanski, at the university’s Center for International Studies, said such presentations help explain the sophisticated circumstances surrounding the court.

For example, Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith have all been charged with genocide, along with other atrocity crimes. But the genocide question is not that simple. Kraynanski said she did not consider the mass brutality of the Khmer Rouge genocide, but rather a severe atrocity.

Such discussions can also help researchers advance their studies. Cambodia has become an example of transitional justice, said Bruce Douglas, a graduate student at the university who is studying post-Khmer Rouge Cambodian history. Cases tried in Cambodia could help define future international law, he said.

“I learned something that I didn’t know from books, and I got a much better perspective on how the tribunal came about, what the politics are, the composition of the court, and some other issues going forward,” he said.

Three Tribunal Suspects Denied Release

The 3 amigos: Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 30 April 2010

“The Pre-Trial Chamber decided unanimously to maintain the co-investigating judges’ order to extend provisional detention.”

Khmer Rouge tribunal judges announced Friday they would not release three senior leaders currently in custody, but will hold them until their upcoming atrocity crimes trials.

The Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision maintained an order by investigating judges to hold in provisional detention former head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and social affairs minister Ieng Thirith.

Those three are being held, along with Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea, on charges of genocide and other atrocity crimes.

All four defendants are approaching the three-year limit on provisional detention, which will elapse in September for Nuon Chea and in November for the other three.

Friday’s decision follows separate hearings earlier this year over respective defense appeals against extended detention requests previously filed by investigating judges.

“The Pre-Trial Chamber decided unanimously to maintain the co-investigating judges’ order to extend provisional detention,” Prak Kim San, chief judge of the Pre-Trial Chamber, said in reading the unanimous decision for Ieng Sary, which was identical to the decisions for Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith.

Judges cited the seriousness of the crimes each defendant is charged with, along with risks of destroyed evidence and intimidated witnesses. Judges also said the defendants were a flight risk if released.

Ang Udom, a defense lawyer for Ieng Sary, called the decision “repetitive,” claiming judges had not weighed individual cases or circumstances. He has asked that Ieng Sary, who is in failing health, be allowed house arrest or undergo under hospital guard until the time of his trial.

Sundance Film Review: Enemies of the People

Nuon Chea (R) talking to Thet Sambath

01/23/10
By Dan Nailen
Salt Lake Magazine (Utah, USA)

Thet Sambath (pictured left) is a Cambodian newspaper journalist whose father was murdered by the Khmer Rouge in 1974, and whose mother was forced to marry a Khmer Rouge militiaman two years later.

For a decade, Sambath spent his free time journeying into the notorious "killing fields" of his home country to try and understand why so many of Cambodia's people were murdered. The result of that work is Enemies of the People, which Sambeth co-directed and produced with Rob Lemkin.

The film revolves around the relationship Sambath established with Nuon Chea, aka "Brother Number Two" (pictured below with Sambeth) and dictator Pol Pot's right-hand man. It took Sambeth years of gaining Chea's trust before he opened up and admitted that he and Pol Pot had plotted the killings as a means of defending their communist vision from "enemies of the people." Chea doesn't ever express remorse for the program he calls the "solution," but he does to Sambeth directly when the reporter tells the old man about his own family's relationship with the Khmer Rouge.

Sambath also tracks down several of the Khmer Rouge's foot soldiers, mostly peasants and farmers who were simply "following orders" when they slit the throats of their neighbors and buried them in mass graves. It's chilling to watch one of the men graphically illustrate how he would kill his victims, and it's intriguing to see how each of these murderers deals with what they've done all these years later.

Enemies of the People could prove to be an important historical document for decades to come. Sambeth kept his recorded conversations with Nuon Chea under lock and key for years, in fear they'd be confiscated and used as evidence in a trial. Indeed, the film ends with Nuon Chea's arrest by a joint force of the United Nations and Cambodia. He's charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as genocide, and his trial is slated, for now, for 2011.

Considering Sambeth has the first admittance by Brother Number Two of what he and Pol Pot instigated, it could be a quick trial.

Enemies of the People will screen:
Sunday, Jan. 24, at 9 p.m. at Park City's Holiday Village IV
Tuesday, Jan. 26 at 11:30 p.m. at Park City's Library Center Theatre
Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 9:45 p.m. at Salt Lake City's Broadway Cinemas
Friday, Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. at Park City's Egyptian Theatre

Visit the Sundance Film Festival Web site for a complete schedule and ticket information.

‘Enemies of the People’ To Show at Sundance

Photo: http://enemiesofthepeoplemovie.com

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
14 December 2009

“Enemies of the People,” a documentary that demonstrates the Khmer Rouge chain of command, will show at the Sundance Film Festival in the US in January.

The film was selected out of 782 film documentaries in the World Cinema Documentary category and will compete with 11 other films at the prestigious festival, held each year in various towns in the state of Utah, including Sundance.

The category includes films from Brazil, France, Ireland, the Palestinian territories and others.

Sundance organizers describe the story: “A young journalist whose family was killed by the Khmer Rouge befriends the perpetrators of the Killing Fields genocide, evoking shocking revelations.”

The film was produced by Thet Sambath, a journalist for the English-language Phnom Penh Post, and Rob Lemkin, an experienced producer who has worked with the BBC and The History Channel.

The film also demonstrates the chain of command of the Khmer Rouge, connecting the way in which cadre passed down orders, “from the top to the bottom,” Lemkin said in a recent interview.

“This documentary explains clearly [about the regime], so that once it is out, Cambodian victims will understand why there were killings, lack of food to eat, and why people died,” Thet Sambath said. “At least 98 percent of the truth will be revealed if not 100 percent.”

The film comes at a time when the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh is preparing a case against senior leaders of the regime, including its chief ideologue, Nuon Chea, who Thet Sambath interviewed at length.

It is unclear whether “Enemies of the People” will be used as evidence in the court.

“It is up to judges to decide on any documentary to use in the court’s legal procedures,” tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said. “But in general we praise those who have the goodwill to produce a documentary film or a movie for younger generations or Cambodian people to use to garner more knowledge about Democratic Kampuchea.”

Following Sundance, the producers say they will focus on Cambodia.

“We really hope that this film can be released in Cambodia and that it can be an agent of positive change in Cambodia,” Lemkin said. “It can give confidence to those people to speak openly about what they were involved with, so that future generations in Cambodia will not be at a loss to understand what happened.”

Tribunal Investigators Turn to Difficult Case

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
30 November 2009

With the trial of Duch closing, senior government officials have continued their refusal to appear as witnesses.

Summonses for six senior officials have gone unanswered. And investigating judges sent a second summons to Finance Minister Keat Chhon, who was the personal secretary to Pol Pot, in October, that has also not received a reply.

Case No. 2, where four senior leaders will be tried for atrocity crimes, will be more complicated than the Duch trial, the tribunal’s first, which ended last week after months of proceedings and years of preparation.

The tribunal is holding the regime’s chief ideologue, Nuon Chea, its former head of state, Khieu Samphan, foreign affairs minister Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, social affairs minister.

So far, French investigating judge Marcel Lemonde has been unable to compel six senior government officials to comply with summonses: Senate President Chea Sim, National Assembly President Heng Samrin, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Keat Chhon and senators Sim Ka and Ouk Bunchhoeun.

In December 2006, Keat Chhon declared he was ready to testify in the tribunal.

In his October letter, posted on the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s official Web site last Thursday, Lemonde wrote that the tribunal court clerk had undertaken various attempts to reach Keat Chhon, but these have received no reply. Lemonde still expects an audience with Keat Chhon to be organized, he wrote.

Lars Olsen, the UN’s legal officer for the tribunal, declined to speculate on what would happen if the senior leaders did not respond, but he said the UN-backed court is still waiting for an official explanation as to why they have not.

In September, Lemonde wrote the six officials without the support of his Cambodian counterpart, You Bunleng. Following the summonses, Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a public speech they would fail.

Were the figures to give testimony, he said, they would put unfair pressure on the defendants.

ECCC Watch

(Photo courtesy Philip Short, Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare)

Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Op-Ed by Chanda Chhay
Originally posted at http://cambodianchildren.blogspot.com

CAMBODIA MUST NOT MISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO PROVIDE TESTIMONY TO THE KHMER ROUGE TRIBUNAL

I am delighted to learn that lately the Khmer Rouge’s Tribunal (KRT) at the Extraordinary Chamber in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) has issued summons calling on 6 ranking members of the Cambodian government to provide testimonies as witnesses for the investigation of the Khmer Rouge’s crimes against Cambodian people in the late 1970s. What is so significant about these testimonies is that all of these 6 individuals namely: Cambodian National Assembly president, Mr. Heng Samrin, Senate president, Mr. Chea Sim, Senators Sim Ka and Ouk Bun Chhoeun, Finance Minister Keat Chhon, and Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong are both former members of the Khmer Rouge and victims of the Khmer Rouge regime. Together, these 6 individuals possess unique knowledge on how the Khmer Rouge perpetrated crimes against Cambodian people.

While some people expressed concerns that these 6 individuals’ past connection with the Khmer Rouge and their present involvement in formulating laws to bring those who committed crimes against Cambodian people during the Khmer Rouge’s era to trial would make them biased witnesses, I strongly believe that the appearance of these extraordinary and august individuals before the KRT gives Cambodia the greatest opportunity to tell the world the details of the Khmer Rouge crimes and how Cambodians were treated under their terrible, tyrannical regime.

Based on numerous publications and media reports, it is well known that Mr. Heng Samrin used to work as a military commander under the Khmer Rouge while Mr. Chea Sim, Sim Ka, and Ouk Bun Chhoeun worked as low level officials. As for Mr. Keat Chhon and Hor Nam Hong, they worked as cabinet member and diplomat, respectively. Besides working as Khmer Rouge officials, these 6 individuals were also victimized by the Khmer Rouge with either impending threats of death or outright persecuted with death warrant. For instance, Mr. Chea Sim and Heng Samrin were only able to save their lives by fleeing to Vietnam while Mr. Keat Chhon and Hor Nam Hong were living like death row inmates at Boeung Trobek Reeducation camp/prison.

Unlike most Cambodians who were forced to work as slave labors which, in effect, limited their experiences to that of a victim, these 6 witnesses have, I believe, better knowledge on the Khmer Rouge criminal enterprise than anyone else. As officials at different levels of the Khmer Rouge ruling apparatus, these witnesses, at least, knew, to varying degrees, how criminal policies were carried out. And as victims of the Khmer Rouge persecution, they also, certainly, knew how serious the Khmer Rouge crimes were. These two interconnected factors present the most balanced criteria for these 6 witnesses to be exceptionally credible.

Justice is about searching for the truth and exposing how particular events occurred. Based on their individual life’s experience, perhaps no one is more qualified or has a more balanced knowledge than these 6 witnesses. Hence, if we were to find most knowledgeable witnesses to tell the KRT about our ordeal, these 6 witnesses are the best because, through the twists and turns of their lives, they were able to see and experience both sides of the spectrum. As a Khmer Rouge victim, I wholeheartedly support their testimonies and hope that they will do their best to provide the KRT with credible and compelling accounts on our behalf so that justice is properly served in the context of holding criminals accountable for their crimes and bringing closure to the suffering their victims had endured during their ruthless rule.

Chanda Chhay

Khmer Rouge tribunal may widen investigations

Who's next?
Top row: Hun Xen, Chea Xim, Heng Xamrin
2nd row: Meas Muth, Hor 5 Hong, Keat Chhon
Bottom row: King-Father Norodom Sihanouk

September 4, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

Cambodia's war crimes tribunal has indicates it might investigate another five or six senior Khmer Rouge leaders for their part in the genocide of the 1970s. Five top officials are currently being prosecuted and the trial for the first, Duch, the chief of the torture prison Tuol Sleng, or S-21 is underway.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane
Speaker: Michelle Staggs Kelsall, who monitors the Khmer Rouge tribunal for the Asian International Justice Initiative.

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

KELSALL: I think the short answer is that it's at the start of a longer process, although the international prosecutor has said in the media that he will go ahead with forwarding two introductory missions to the co-investigating judges, which basically will kick-start an investigation. So I think at least there is going to be the start of an investigation by the co-investigating judges. Now whether there is further dispute at that level as to whether the investigation should go forward is yet to be seen.

COCHRANE: And do you know who those two submissions are - who the people possibly to be investigated are?

KELSALL: No, in order to protect the fair trial rights of any new suspects, as well as the integrity of the investigations process, the names of those identified have not been publicly disclosed. There is some media speculation as to who they might be or at least what positions they might hold, with most people speculating that they would be senior government and military people, potentially people who have held positions in those states as late as 2006.

COCHRANE: Has the testimony of Duch, the first person to be tried, has he named anyone outside of the five defendants already on the list?

KELSALL: Oh, during the course of the proceedings, Duch certainly mentioned a number of people predominantly who worked under his authority at S-21 or who he reported to particularly Son Sen. The majority of people however he has named are currently deceased.

COCHRANE: Now, once these, let me ask you, once the list has been, the extra names have been put forward, who makes the final decision on whether they are prosecuted?

KELSALL: Well, the closing order which is tantamount to indictment in the civil law system is issued by the co-investigating judges, so it's really their determination ultimately that will decide whether to go ahead to prosecution. There are a number of issues that can be appealed by the prosecutor of course after that order is issued and prior to that point, any disputes between the national and international side have to be settled by a pre-trial chamber. But the short answer is it will be the co-investigating judges that issue the indictment.

COCHRANE: Just on that tension between the national and international sides of the trial. Is this development something of a compromise between the two views, one wanting to expand and at least one wanting to keep it to those five already named?

KELSALL: Well, I am not sure whether we would characterise it as a compromise at this stage, given the judgement issued by the pre-trial chamber clearly shows an ongoing disagreement between the national and international sides of the judges as to how this issue should be handled. It was clear from the decision that the Cambodian judges did not believe that there was grounds to continue with additional investigations and that their international colleagues disagreed with them. However, under the court's internal rules and the law, the investigation has to go forward if there is a disagreement at this stage. However, at the stage of determining whether the accused persons at that point are guilty or innocent. If there is any dispute and no resolution is reached, it will then mean an acquittal, so...

COCHRANE: Just finally and very briefly, this is a politically sensitive issue I understand. Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has said that expanding the number of people on the list could destabilise Cambodia. Just how politically sensitive is it within the country?

KELSALL: It really depends on who you speak to on that issue. Obviously, Prime Minister Hun Sen has given statements to the media earlier this year saying that he believes it would cause further political unrest and possibly a return to conflict with former Khmer Rouge cadre. However, people I speak to on the ground say that they don't have any indication of this and they think that any real threat of that nature is completely unfounded.

K.Rouge court 'to investigate more suspects'

Wednesday, September 02, 2009
By Patrick Falby
AFP

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court announced Wednesday that it would investigate more suspects from the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, blamed for the deaths of up to two million people.

"The international prosecutor is authorised to make an introductory submission to co-investigating judges to open additional judicial investigations," court spokesman Lars Olsen told AFP.

Based on the investigations, the tribunal will have to decide whether to prosecute these suspects, a move that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has strongly opposed on the grounds that it would spark civil war.

The tribunal was created in 2006 to try leading members of the 1975-1979 regime and five former leaders are currently being held on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The court's long-awaited first trial, of Kaing Guek Eav, better known by the alias Duch, is under way and he has accepted responsibility for overseeing the execution of more than 15,000 people at the regime's main prison.

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

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.

Court sources say only five or six more suspects will be investigated -- lower-level members of the communist movement whose names have not yet been made public.

Cambodian prosecutors had opposed their international colleagues' wishes to pursue more indictments.

But as the pre-trial chamber could not decide on the disagreement, the court rules say that the action proposed by the international prosecutor should be executed, a statement from the tribunal said.

Analysts said the latest move showed the court was so far working properly despite Cambodia's reputation for a corrupt judiciary.

"This is a positive step and an obvious show of the mechanisms created under the law being effective," Michelle Staggs, a monitor of the tribunal for the Asian International Justice Initiative, told AFP.

The announcement was also hailed by acting international prosecutor William Smith.

"I am pleased the order has finally been issued so the court can continue to contribute in its goal of bringing justice to the victims of the Khmer Rouge," he said.

However, Richard Rogers, head of the court's defence office, pointed out that the court order was issued after Cambodian judges sided with Cambodian prosecutors and international judges sided with international prosecutors.

"We can only hope that doesn't indicate a lack of independence," Rogers said.

Premier Hun Sen, himself a former low-level commander for the communist movement, has publicly stated he would rather the court failed than pursue other former regime members, fearing civil war.

But critics have said there is no risk of renewed fighting after more than a decade of peace and accused the administration of trying to protect former regime members now in government.

Former lead international prosecutor Robert Petit resigned from the post in June, but denied his departure stemmed from a row with Cambodian counterpart Chea Leang over further prosecutions.

But he said the court must oppose government attempts at control.

"I think it is very disturbing that anyone other than judicial officials -- be they elected officials or anyone else -- think they can legitimately tell any court what to do," Petit told reporters at his farewell press conference.

The Khmer Rouge regime was ousted by Vietnamese-led forces in 1979 after nearly four years of iron-fisted rule, but continued to fight a civil war until 1998.

Khmer Rouge tribunal may collapse

13-04-2009
By Johan van Slooten
Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Click here to listen to the interview with Victor Koppe

Before its first verdict has even been reached some observers fear the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia may collapse because of interference by the Cambodian government.

Dutch lawyer Victor Koppe is defending Nuon Chea, one of the highest ranking officials of Cambodia's former Khmer Rouge regime which ruled - and ravaged - the country and its people with a hard hand in the 1970s.

Mr Koppe has just returned from Cambodia after witnessing the first two weeks of the trial against former Khmer Rouge leader Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch.

Confessions and corruption

Although the confessions which Duch has made might be seen as a promising sign for the remainder of the trials, Mr Koppe is not so optimistic. He is worried that the tribunal may collapse, especially after last week's statement by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in which he said he hopes "the funds for the tribunal will dry up fast". Victor Koppe on the background to this remark:

"The official reason is that the prosecution of former Khmer Rouge figures may lead to increased unrest in some regions. Mr Hu Sen wants to prevent that. There are also accusations that the tribunal is corrupt, which in my opinion is true."

Establishment

But there may be other reasons for Mr Hun Sen's objections to the tribunal, Mr Koppe suspects. Some former Khmer Rouge officers now occupy high positions in Cambodia's political establishment, including Mr Hun Sen's own party.

The government has allegedly tried to influence the tribunal's judges and prosecutors about who should be prosecuted and who should go untried. "Perhaps he doesn't want to upset the applecart too much", Mr Koppe says, adding that even the judges are losing their faith in the tribunal.

Reconciliation

Yet the long anticipated Khmer Rouge tribunal was supposed to provide a way for Cambodia to come to terms with its past. Justice and reconciliation are key factors here. Ending the trials prematurely would dent Cambodia's international reputation, Mr Koppe says:

"Bizarrely, it's Cambodia itself who asked the UN to set up the tribunal. It would be very upsetting if after one trial, the whole tribunal would be done with. It would also be very hard for the international community to swallow."

Some observers now say it would have been better for the tribunal to take place outside Cambodia. But Mr Koppe disagrees:

"I was there during the first hearing at the Duch trial and the public area was fully booked and overcrowded. You wouldn't have that if it was here in The Hague, for instance. So if the structure is solid and everyone is able and allowed to do their work properly, then Cambodia is the best place for this tribunal."

No advantage

If the tribunal were to collapse, those who are to stand trial before it - such as Victor Koppe's client Nuon Chea - would probably be worse off as a result. The Dutch lawyer explains what his client would likely face in that case:

"He would be tried by Cambodian judges rather than international ones, and we think the Cambodians are more biased ... It would lead to some kind of show trial".

Therefore, as Mr Koppe views the situation it's of key importance to both Cambodia and people such as his client that the tribunal continues its work. But it seems that this will require not only its surviving the opposition it is meeting within Cambodia but also, as the Dutch lawyer explains, its continued funding from international donors.

Kuor Deung - "What we should know about the KR Trial": A Poem in Khmer by Sam Vichea

Click on the poem to zoom in

Poem in Khmer by Sam Vichea (on the web at http://kamnapkumnou.blogspot.com)
Cartoon by Sacrava (on thw web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Point the finger

Click on the cartoon to zoom in

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Ben Kiernan Speaks on Cambodian Genocide [-Either the writer of this article misunderstood, or Ben Kiernan reinvented KR history]

March 4, 2009
Kayla Hutzler
The Quadrangle (Manhattan College)

When people attend a Cambodian Genocide symposium, most are expecting to hear story of heart-wrenching despair about the victims. However, at his lecture "Genocide in World History" on Feb. 24th Ben Kiernan introduced about 35 students to another side of genocide - the side of the leaders and their consequences.

Kiernan wrote six names on the board, one up higher and then next five a few inches lower in list form. Those were the names of six influential leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot was the infamous leader who is now dead. The other five however are currently awaiting trials in Cambodia before an international criminal tribunal. This is a government composed of UN and Cambodian judges, where neither group of judges can make a decision on their own.

Duch was the second name that appeared on the board. He controlled Tuol Sleng prison, a prison/death camp, where he was responsible for the murder of at least 14,000 people. Towards the end of Khmer Rouge command, Duch was told by Nuon Chea to destroy the documents and photos they had taken at Tuol Sleng. (Nuon Chea was a chief decision maker in the Khmer Rouge.)

However, Kiernan explained, Duch killed the last of the prisoners and never had time to destroy the documentation. This has resulted in about 4,000 photo negatives being found, a large part of evidence against them.

Duch; Khieu Samphan, who was head of state; Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister; and his wife Ieng Thirith, who was involved in the Khmer Rouge Central Committee, have all been imprisoned for the past ten years. Duch's trial began last week, and it is believed that he will release incrimination information about other Khmer Rouge leaders.

While some formal charges have been lodged against these leaders, it is not yet known what they will be charged with. The prosecutors seem to have enough evidence to ensure they receive charges of crimes against humanity, forced labor, crimes against political parties and war crimes.

Unfortunately, to charge them with genocide is an extremely large task explained Kiernan. The genocide convention act requires that the alleged group must prove to have deliberately attempted to destroy an entire group of people.

This appears to be the case, as they murdered almost every Vietnamese, Chinese, and Muslim person. However, Keirnan seemed skeptical as to whether or not there was enough evidence to charge the remaining five leaders with genocide.

A large concern of Kiernan and many of the Cambodian Genocide survivors is that the ECCC (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia) will run out of money before all the leaders are put on trial. The mixed tribunal and the ECCC do not receive nearly enough funds to continue working through the evidence and putting on the trials. A large concern is they will run out of money before all five can be rightfully charged.

Kiernan spent the rest of his time explaining history of the Khmer Rouge, something a few of the confused students found great relief in. While getting heavily into the current day issues of legality and punishing the leaders, many students still seemed to be wondering exactly what it is they had done, and how this had occurred in such a recent age.

The Q+A time proved to be the moment most students will remember and take with them. As students were asking questions, an older Cambodian raised his hand, and in a foreign language spoke with Kiernan, who then translated. He explained that he and two of the gentlemen with him were Cambodian Genocide survivors and that everything he said was entirely true, and he genuinely thanked him.

Khmer Rouge trial: Time for soul searching

February 25, 2009
By Lao Mong Hay
UPI Asia Online

Column: Rule by Fear

Hong Kong, China — In 1978, some Western countries and organizations took action at the U.N. Human Rights Commission to stop the Khmer Rouge’s violations of human rights in Cambodia, but got nowhere when communist countries blocked the attempt. In the same year U.S. President Jimmy Carter described the Khmer Rouge as “the world’s worst violators of human rights.”

In the 1990s, America wanted to bring Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader who continued an armed struggle against the elected government of Cambodia, to justice. In 1997 the Cambodian government asked the United Nations to create an international tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot then died.

Later, the Cambodian government wanted a Cambodian trial with U.N. assistance. In 2007, the U.N.-assisted tribunal was created and began work. Five surviving top Khmer Rouge leaders were subsequently arrested and charged with various crimes.

Last week, the Khmer Rouge tribunal began the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, head of the notorious S-21 prison of the Khmer regime, where over 12,000 people were tortured and killed. Duch is charged with crimes against humanity, homicide and torture.

The trials of Duch and other Khmer Rouge leaders will reveal at least some of the truth about this particular episode of Cambodia’s history, deliver some measure of justice for the victims and help Cambodia address its tragic past. They will also consolidate the “special measures” that were deemed necessary, according to the state signatories to the peace agreements concluded in 1991 to end the war in Cambodia, “to assure protection of human rights, and the non-return to the policies and practices of the past.”

However, those trials should not overlook the need for the Cambodian people themselves and others to do some soul searching.

Prior to the Khmer Rouge’s rise to power, the overwhelming majority of Cambodian people were Buddhist. Proportionally speaking, there must have been many Buddhist Khmer Rouge officials, from top leaders to the lowest-ranking cadres. After their defeat, many of them have willingly returned to Buddhism which, alongside other religions, they destroyed during their rise to power.

Cambodians should try to answer the question – which has been repeatedly heard in private but has not been raised in public – as to how these Buddhists among the Khmer Rouge could help kill some 1.7 million of their fellow countrymen in the short span of four years during their rule.

Recently, in a Buddhist temple, an elderly Cambodian who had been forced to abandon his monkhood when the Khmer Rouge came to power answered this question for a Buddhist foreign visitor: "The mighty communism simply swept Buddhism away.”

This answer begs further questions: Why was Buddhism unable to restrain those killers, temper their ruthlessness and the harshness of communism? Why, just a few years after embracing communism, did they abandon all notions of Buddhist ethics, when the overwhelming majority of the Khmer Rouge had been so nice to people during their struggle for power? Was Buddhism just skin deep, and were Buddhist ethical values – such as respect for life, loving-kindness and compassion – not the Cambodian people’s strong, deep-seated core values as these people might have thought?

Cambodians need to do some deep soul searching as to how Buddhist they were prior to the Khmer Rouge times, and even in current times, where crimes are no less ruthless. The Cambodian Buddhist clergy and the Cambodian government should inquire into the failure of Buddhism to restraint the Khmer Rouge’s extremism.

Other peoples may need to do a different kind of soul searching. When the Khmer Rouge was killing its own people many countries, mainly in Asia, did not utter a word. No Asian country was on record supporting the attempts by Western countries and organizations at the U.N. Human Rights Commission to end the Khmer Rouge’s violations of human rights.

China, for instance, which was supporting the Khmer Rouge and which could have influenced them, maintained “normal and friendly relations,” ignoring altogether the massacres that were going on and doing nothing to stop them.

Back then, the way a state treated its own people was of no concern to any other state. Rather, it was considered an internal affair of that state, which no other state could interfere in.

This particular norm of international relations cost dearly the powerless Cambodian people in the Khmer Rouge times and has continued to cost enormously other nations such as East Timor and Burma.

Based on the tragedy of the Cambodian people and others, this norm should be completely abandoned. How a state treats its own people should be the concern of other states too.
--
(Lao Mong Hay is a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)

Mysterious Khmer - Who were those perpetrators again?

February 19, 2009
By Mona Charen
National Review Online

You wouldn’t have thought it possible. But then, you underestimate the ingenuity of the New York Times.

The house organ of the liberal church in America, the Times covered the opening day of the trial of one of the worst killers in 20th-century history without mentioning the “C” word even once.

What technique! The 18-paragraph story certainly made clear that the reporter, Seth Mydans, was none too pleased with the defendant. That much was clear. Kaing Guek Eav (known as Duch) had been commandant of the Tuol Sleng prison camp in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Who were they? Well, according to the story, they presided over a “fanatical . . . government between 1975 and 1979.” That they certainly did. But they were Communist fanatics, and the Times managed to elide that detail. It’s odd, because in other contexts the Times is not shy about characterizing governments’ political tilt. The Times put the words “right-wing” together with the Pinochet regime in Chile so often you’d have thought it was part of the title: “The Right-Wing Regime of Augusto Pinochet.” It was the same with the “right-wing” government of El Salvador when the FMLN Communist movement was attempting to overthrow it. The Times has even used the term “conservative” to describe the mullahs in Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“In Tuol Sleng,” Mydans writes, “a prisoner was not only presumed guilty but also tortured until he offered whatever was demanded. . . . It was a prison where Duch’s word was final and an order like ‘kill them all’ was a death sentence.” Well, yes.

Mydans tells us that hundreds of “diplomats, journalists, human rights workers, and other victims of the Khmer Rouge” attended the trial and quotes one survivor about the horrors he suffered: “When I was in jail, I could get three spoons of porridge a day and both my legs were put in shackles.” The reporter also mentions that the Khmer Rouge are thought to have murdered as many as 1.7 million Cambodians during their short reign.

But this spare account hardly does justice to the story. One cannot understand the catastrophe that befell Cambodia without knowing that the people who engineered this gruesome slaughter were intellectuals who dreamed of a better world. Nearly all of the Khmer Rouge leaders had studied abroad, in Paris, where they became drunk on tales of the French Revolution and learned their craft from the French Communist party. “We are making a unique revolution,” boasted one official at the time. “Is there any other country that would dare abolish money and markets the way we have? We are much better than the Chinese, who look up to us. . . . We are a good model for the whole world.” Pol Pot himself said “only a few thousand Cambodians have died as a result of the application of our policy of bringing abundance to the people.”

Abundance to the people. A model for the world. The Khmer Rouge modeled themselves on Mao and Lenin and then shifted into overdrive. They emptied the cities of their inhabitants and force-marched everyone — the elderly, the sick, pregnant women, children — in the tropical heat to the countryside where there were no facilities, little drinking water, scarce food, no medicine, and no shelter except thatched huts. There they were starved and enslaved when they weren’t shot on the spot for some minor infraction. Anyone who had any connection to the West or to modernity itself was suspect. People who spoke other languages, or who owned a typewriter or eyeglasses or any forbidden book, could be shot. Failure to make sufficiently abject apologies for ideological errors was enough to merit a bullet between the eyes.

As The Black Book of Communism records, “Democratic Kampuchea . . . was a place with no values or stable points of reference. It really was a nightmare world on the other side of the mirror. . . . The first article of faith was a radical dismissal of the idea that human life had any value. ‘Losing you is not a loss, and keeping you is no specific gain’ went one terrifying official slogan that recurs time and again in statements by witnesses.” Khmer leaders talked of a radiant future, in which agricultural production, in obedience to Pol Pot’s Four-Year Plan, would double or quintuple. Instead, the starving, displaced, and thoroughly terrorized Cambodian people saw crop production cut in half in just two years. While they watched their children die in their arms they were herded off to “self-criticism” sessions where their every facial twitch was carefully monitored by gun-wielding Khmer Rouge. The Black Book also records that “everyone ran the risk of denunciation following a chance encounter with an old friend, colleague, or student.”

It may be that the evil done in the name of revolution exceeds all other manmade disasters. Certainly one cannot begin to confront Cambodia’s grisly history without acknowledging that Communists committed this atrocity.

— Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist.

"Even though Sam Rainsy has lost for now, that accusation [against Hor Nam Hong] is still going around": Chea Vannath

Hor Nam Hong (L) and Sam Rainsy (R)

In Cambodia, Sam Rainsy no worse for wear: legal officials

Friday, 30 January 2009
Written by Brendan Brady and Neth Pheaktra
The Phnom Penh Post

PPenh legal minds say defamation ruling against Sam Rainsy will not reverberate locally; Hor Namhong waits for Cambodian case to progress.

ALTHOUGH the local fallout of a French court ruling Tuesday against opposition leader Sam Rainsy for disinformation and defamation has yet to materialise, Phnom Penh legal officials doubt the verdict will hold sway in a Cambodian court.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, who sought to sue Sam Rainsy for defamation in both French and Cambodian courts, has yet to deliver any resounding words calling for further punishment of the opposition leader, but Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said his boss was waiting for local officials to "further their investigation".

"Even though Sam Rainsy has lost for now, that accusation is still going around. "

In his autobiography, Rooted in Stone, published in May last year, Sam Rainsy accused Hor Namhong of heading the Boeung Trabek "re-education" camp, where former diplomats and government officials from the Lon Nol and Sihanouk regimes were detained.

Hor Namhong had previously filed a lawsuit in Phnom Penh in April after the opposition leader alluded to the minister's involvement in the leadership of the Khmer Rouge in a speech at the Choeung Ek "killing fields". Hor Namhong shelved the case, however, awaiting the French verdict addressing the more explicit comment Sam Rainsy made in his book.

According to Phnom Penh Municipal Court President Chiv Keng, while the local case was ongoing, it would not be impacted by Tuesday's ruling, since that case "depended on facts from a different place".

For Sok Sam Ouen, director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, more charges against the opposition leader would, in his opinion, effectively amount to double jeopardy, as the claim Hor Namhong objects to is the same.

Sam Rainsy's lawyer, Kong Sam Onn, said any local legal action would require his client first be stripped of political immunity by order of the National Assembly.

He also denied tremors from the French verdict would register in Phnom Penh since, he said, "there is no law allowing a Cambodian court to use an international decision to rule on a case".

Sam Rainsy, for his part, remains unrepentant, telling the Post he "has no regrets and would not change a word."

Accusation not debunked
While legal minds may see the opposition leader's local legal standing as no worse off, Chea Vannath, a commentator on domestic social and political affairs, described the verdict as a political victory for the ruling Cambodian People's Party, whose membership has been publicly linked to leadership roles in the Khmer Rouge.

She said, however, the charge against Hor Namhong had not been laid to rest.

"Even though Sam Rainsy has lost for now, that accusation is still going around," she said.

She said she expected the ruling party would continue to address public remarks linking it to the brutality of the ultra-Maoist regime when expedient.