Life goes on for Nuon Chea's family

Former Khmer Rouge leader Noun Chea's wife shows her relatives portraits in her house at Phasar Phrum village in northwestern of Pailin near Cambodia-Thai border January 14, 2008. The co-investigating judges of the "Killing Fields" tribunal, You Bunleng and French Marcel Lemonde, to meet for the first time with the lower ranking of Khmer Rouge rebels in the northwestern province of Pailin on Tuesday. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Former Khmer Rouge leader Noun Chea's wife sweeps her house as her 18-month-old granddaughter Kher May stands in the doorway at Phasar Phrum village northwest of Pailin near the Cambodia-Thai border January 14, 2008. The co-investigating judges of the "Killing Fields" tribunal, You Bunleng and French Marcel Lemonde, to meet for the first time with the lower ranking Khmer Rouge rebels on Tuesday. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Former Khmer Rouge leader Noun Chea's wife is seen with her 18-month-old grand daughter Kher May inside their house at Phasar Phrum village in northwestern of Pailin near Cambodia-Thai border January 14, 2008. The co-investigating judges of the "Killing Fields" tribunal, You Bunleng and French Marcel Lemonde, to meet for the first time with the lower ranking of Khmer Rouge rebels in the northwestern province of Pailin on Tuesday. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Former Khmer Rouge leader Noun Chea's wife is seen with her 18-month-old granddaughter Kher May inside their house at Phasar Phrum village northwest of Pailin near the Cambodia-Thai border January 14, 2008. The co-investigating judges of the "Killing Fields" tribunal, You Bunleng and French Marcel Lemonde, to meet for the first time with the lower ranking Khmer Rouge rebels on Tuesday. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

Nuon Chea’s wife could be authorized to visit her husband

Monday, October 8, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The KR Tribunal could authorize Nuon Chea’s wife to visit her husband who is currently detained by this tribunal. Son Arun, Nuon Chea’s lawyer, told RFA that the tribunal could authorize Nuon Chea’s wife to visit her husband on Monday, for about ½ hour to an hour. Son Arun said that Nuon Chea’s wife has traveled from Pailin to Phnom Penh already, in order to visit her husband. Nuon Chea was arrested a few weeks back, he was charged by the ECCC prosecutors of war crimes and crime against humanity. Currently, Nuon Chea is seeking another foreign lawyer to defend him, and according to Son Arun, 10 lawyers sent their applications to him, these lawyers called from France, England, Pakistan, Australia, and the USA. However, it is not yet known whom Nuon Chea will select as his second lawyer.

Nuon Chea's Wife: 'I Miss Him' [Relatives of KR victims: We miss our loved ones killed by the KR also]

Win Thida, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
05 October 2007

Rigth: Ly Kimseng says she had not been separated at length from her husband, Nuon Chea, until his detention by the Khmer Rouge tribunal in September. (Photo by Win Thida)

The worried wife of the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologue arrived in Phnom Penh Friday, expecting next week to meet her husband, who is being held by the tribunal courts on atrocity crimes.

"I miss him," Ly Kimseng told VOA Khmer. "When we are apart for the first time like this, I am sad about him living this way, about his eating food, his sleep."

Under the policies of the Khmer Rouge, hundreds of thousands of families were separated into various agricultural work camps—children cut off from their parents, husbands kept from their wives, all made to work for the Angkar, the Organization. Nuon Chea faces charges that he helped design these policies.

Ly Kimseng said she had been given permission to visit her husband on Monday. She planned to bring him religious books and "some shirts." She was concerned over his reportedly high blood pressure and his overall health, a concern shared by tribunal observers, who fear the aging leaders of the regime will never see trial.

"He usually does not feel well," Ly Kimseng said. "He often chokes [on his food] and I am worried about this. When he is by himself, no one helps him, and if I could stay near him, I would see and would leap up and help him."

Nuon Chea has been receiving top medical care since his Sept. 19 detention. But the general health of the 82-year-old man is failing. His high blood pressure prevented a session of questioning by investigating judges in September.

"We have never been separated before, and I miss him because he is old, and he has difficulty walking," Ly Kimseng said. "I am concerned that when he has to go to the bathroom, he might fall down. I miss him. We lived in our house, just the two of us.... Since our marriage, this is the first time we have been apart."

Nuon Chea is still seeking a foreign lawyer, preferably one who speaks Thai, Ly Kimseng said, adding that she wanted to see a hearing for her husband as soon as possible.

"It all depends on his health," she said. "I would like for it to happen soon, so that it will be over soon too, to be over right away, to see black and white, so that it will be clear. At the hearing, he will speak the truth, and he will not say something just to get off the hook."

Seng Ly, Nuon Chea's wife: "Who encroached on Cambodian territory; who killed the Khmer people? I want justice for Democratic Kampuchea..."

Former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea, 82, poses for a Kyodo News photo with his wife, Seng Ly, at his home in Pailin Tuesday, the night before he was arrested on genocide charges and taken to tribunal courts in Phnom Penh. (Kyodo via AP)

Nonplussed Family of Nuon Chea Will Wait for 'Truth'

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Exclusive Interview from Phnom Penh
19 September 2007

As 82- year-old Nuon Chea was facing questioning in the Khmer Rouge tribunal courts Wednesday, his wife and family members remained in Pailin, unworried.

Seng Ly, the wife of Pol Pot's notorious deputy, said she was not shocked by the detention of Nuon Chea Wednesday morning, and she echoed statements the former Khmer Rouge architect had said himself, that he will face the courts and give his version of the truth.

That truth will be that the Khmer Rouge were defending Cambodia's sovereignty from aggressive Vietnamese and US interests, intent on the destruction of the Khmer people, Seng Ly said.

"I want him to go to the court and tell the truth, to make it clear," Seng Ly told VOA Khmer Wednesday.

She was unaware of the number of people killed during the reign of Democratic Kampuchea, the formal name of the insular communist movement that became known around the world as the Khmer Rouge, and would not talk "just to talk," she said.

"Who was the aggressor on whom?" she said. "Who encroached on Cambodian territory; who killed the Khmer people? I want justice for Democratic Kampuchea, and that the aggressor should not be free—those who dropped bombs and killed tens of thousands of people and went free and put all the blame on the Khmer Rouge."