Click on the cartoon to zoom inCartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)
Showing posts with label Nayan Chanda's testimony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nayan Chanda's testimony. Show all posts
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Expert Witness Nayan Chanda
Click on the cartoon to zoom inCartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)
Expert Witness: Hun Sen was a member of the Khmer Rouge regime
Source: Deum Ampil newspaper
Reported in English by Khmerization
Originally posted at: http://khmerization.blogspot.com
A key witness in the Khmer Rouge trial has accused Prime Minister Hun Sen of being a key member of the Khmer Rouge regime that killed more than 1.7 million people in the 1970s, reports Deum Ampil newspaper.
Mr. Nayan Chanda (pictured), an expert on the Khmer Rouge regime who wrote a book titled "Brother Enemy", claimed on Monday that "Prime Minister Hun Sen used to be a member of the Khmer Rouge regime."
Nayan Chanda, an Indian academic of politics and history of South Eas Asia, was called as an expert witness in the trial of Duch. He claimed that Mr. Hun Sen used to be a member of the Khmer Rouge leadership based in the Eastern Zone who had actively led the fight to expel the Vietnamese settlers out of Cambodia in 1977.
Responding to Mr. Chanda's allegations, Mr. Khieu Kanharith, the government spokesman, said that the charge that the head of a government was a member of the Khmer Rouge regime is the duty of the prosecutor and the trial judges and not the duty of a witness. He said that the prosecutor and the judges have the duty to investigate how true is the accusations that have been made by the witness. He added that any witnesses who wrongly told untrue information will lead the court to make a wrong conclusion. He also claimed that Mr. Chanda's testimonies had further added confusions to the court, which has already been confused.
This is the first time that Prime Minister Hun Sen, who held powers for more than 30 years, had been mentioned in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as a key player in the Khmer Rouge regime which was responsible for the deaths of more than 1.7 million people.
However, experts believe that Prime Minister Hun Sen will never be brought to trial because the Khmer Rouge Tribunal has jurisdiction to try only 5 key members of the Khmer Rouge leadership.
Attempts by the Tribunal to widen its scope of jurisdiction on several occasions have failed.
Reported in English by Khmerization
Originally posted at: http://khmerization.blogspot.com
A key witness in the Khmer Rouge trial has accused Prime Minister Hun Sen of being a key member of the Khmer Rouge regime that killed more than 1.7 million people in the 1970s, reports Deum Ampil newspaper.
Mr. Nayan Chanda (pictured), an expert on the Khmer Rouge regime who wrote a book titled "Brother Enemy", claimed on Monday that "Prime Minister Hun Sen used to be a member of the Khmer Rouge regime."
Nayan Chanda, an Indian academic of politics and history of South Eas Asia, was called as an expert witness in the trial of Duch. He claimed that Mr. Hun Sen used to be a member of the Khmer Rouge leadership based in the Eastern Zone who had actively led the fight to expel the Vietnamese settlers out of Cambodia in 1977.
Responding to Mr. Chanda's allegations, Mr. Khieu Kanharith, the government spokesman, said that the charge that the head of a government was a member of the Khmer Rouge regime is the duty of the prosecutor and the trial judges and not the duty of a witness. He said that the prosecutor and the judges have the duty to investigate how true is the accusations that have been made by the witness. He added that any witnesses who wrongly told untrue information will lead the court to make a wrong conclusion. He also claimed that Mr. Chanda's testimonies had further added confusions to the court, which has already been confused.
This is the first time that Prime Minister Hun Sen, who held powers for more than 30 years, had been mentioned in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as a key player in the Khmer Rouge regime which was responsible for the deaths of more than 1.7 million people.
However, experts believe that Prime Minister Hun Sen will never be brought to trial because the Khmer Rouge Tribunal has jurisdiction to try only 5 key members of the Khmer Rouge leadership.
Attempts by the Tribunal to widen its scope of jurisdiction on several occasions have failed.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Row erupts over new KR expert
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Written by Georgia Wilkins
The Phnom Penh Post
Written by Georgia Wilkins
The Phnom Penh Post
Defence attorneys say court is wasting time.
LAWYERS for former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav threatened to walk out of a hearing at Cambodia's war crimes court Monday after accusing prosecutors of again wasting the court's time with irrelevant questions.
Former war correspondent Nayan Chanda was called on by judges to provide a historical account of armed conflict between Cambodia and Vietnam at the time of the Khmer Rouge regime.
But lawyers accused prosecutors of asking questions that had little to do with their client's trial.
"We are here because Duch is charged with crimes pertaining to S-21. I have not heard S-21 mentioned today," co-lawyer Francois Roux said, referring to his client by his revolutionary name.
"If we are to continue at this rate we will be here until next year. If that's what you want, then say so and we'll leave," Roux added.
Judges, however, rejected the claim, saying it was groundless.
Chanda tells of massacres
Chanda, the former Indochina correspondent for the Far East Economic Review, earlier described to judges the carnage he had witnessed in small Vietnamese border villages that had been the work of the Khmer Rouge.
"I had never seen in my reporting career as many bodies of civilians killed most brutality and just left there.... I wondered what these people had done to deserve such a fate," Chanda said. "I saw a sign in Khmer which was translated for me. It said, ‘This is our land'. ... This was the only explanation I could get," he added.
LAWYERS for former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav threatened to walk out of a hearing at Cambodia's war crimes court Monday after accusing prosecutors of again wasting the court's time with irrelevant questions.
Former war correspondent Nayan Chanda was called on by judges to provide a historical account of armed conflict between Cambodia and Vietnam at the time of the Khmer Rouge regime.
But lawyers accused prosecutors of asking questions that had little to do with their client's trial.
"We are here because Duch is charged with crimes pertaining to S-21. I have not heard S-21 mentioned today," co-lawyer Francois Roux said, referring to his client by his revolutionary name.
"If we are to continue at this rate we will be here until next year. If that's what you want, then say so and we'll leave," Roux added.
Judges, however, rejected the claim, saying it was groundless.
Chanda tells of massacres
Chanda, the former Indochina correspondent for the Far East Economic Review, earlier described to judges the carnage he had witnessed in small Vietnamese border villages that had been the work of the Khmer Rouge.
"I had never seen in my reporting career as many bodies of civilians killed most brutality and just left there.... I wondered what these people had done to deserve such a fate," Chanda said. "I saw a sign in Khmer which was translated for me. It said, ‘This is our land'. ... This was the only explanation I could get," he added.
Duch's trial looks at the armed conflict between enemy brothers Cambodia and Vietnam
Kambol (Phnom Penh, Cambodia). 25/05/2009: Judge Silvia Cartwright and Nayan Chanda, journalist and author of “Brother Enemy”, and witness, on day 20 of Duch's trial(Photo: John Vink/ Magnum) (composite picture)
25-05-2009
By Stéphanie Gée
Ka-set
Nayan Chanda, author of Brother Enemy: The War After the War (1986) and long-time Indochina correspondent for the prestigious Far Eastern Economic Review, started his testimony on Monday May 25th at Duch's trial to discuss the armed conflict pitting Democratic Kampuchea against Vietnam. The journalist, currently director of publications at a research institute of U.S. university Yale, had access to officials of the Indochina peninsula, although he was unable to go to Democratic Kampuchea, and was able to understand the political, diplomatic and military issues for the enemy brothers. His testimony, based upon his book Brother Enemy, shed new light on the argument often used by former Khmer Rouge officials to justify their past actions, that is the existence of real expansionist intentions from the Vietnamese neighbour.
Click to Read More...
Ex-newsman [Nayan Chanda] unveils war crimes in Cambodia
Ex-newsman unveils war crimes in Cambodia
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
AFP
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
AFP
Phnom Penh— Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes court Monday heard from a former journalist about how Southeast Asia’s communist revolution descended into a bloody territorial conflict with Vietnam. Nayan Chanda, a former editor of the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review, said a border dispute with Vietnam was “the biggest concern” for Khmer Rouge leaders after they took power in 1975.
Current Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was a Khmer Rouge soldier at the time, was ordered to lead troops in an attack on Vietnam, said Chanda, the author of “Brother Enemy: The War After the War.”
“In May 1977, the (Khmer Rouge) eastern zone planned to attack Vietnam and Mr Hun Sen who was then a member of the Khmer Rouge was put in charge of the plan, but he told (a historian) that he would not do it and he took refuge in the jungle,” Chanda said. Hun Sen eventually returned to Cambodia as part of the Vietnam-backed invasion force that toppled the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979, and became premier in 1985.
Chanda told the court that Vietnam began major attacks on Cambodia in 1977 after the Khmer Rouge severed diplomatic relations.
“They wanted to give the message to the Khmer Rouge that there is a price to pay if they continue to carry out attacks on Vietnamese border,” Chanda said.
Chanda was testifying at the trial of former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, who is accused of overseeing the torture and extermination of some 15,000 people who passed through the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in the late 1970s.
Current Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was a Khmer Rouge soldier at the time, was ordered to lead troops in an attack on Vietnam, said Chanda, the author of “Brother Enemy: The War After the War.”
“In May 1977, the (Khmer Rouge) eastern zone planned to attack Vietnam and Mr Hun Sen who was then a member of the Khmer Rouge was put in charge of the plan, but he told (a historian) that he would not do it and he took refuge in the jungle,” Chanda said. Hun Sen eventually returned to Cambodia as part of the Vietnam-backed invasion force that toppled the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979, and became premier in 1985.
Chanda told the court that Vietnam began major attacks on Cambodia in 1977 after the Khmer Rouge severed diplomatic relations.
“They wanted to give the message to the Khmer Rouge that there is a price to pay if they continue to carry out attacks on Vietnamese border,” Chanda said.
Chanda was testifying at the trial of former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, who is accused of overseeing the torture and extermination of some 15,000 people who passed through the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in the late 1970s.
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