Soldier Defends Tuol Sleng Film

Former Vietnamese Army photographer, Ho Van Tay, right, and reporter Dinh Phong, left, gather with Cambodian Norng Chanphal, 39, along with his daughters Chen Amara, 6, and Chen Kimty, 13, at Toul Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, Feb 15, 2009. Chanphal was one of five children discovered by the former Vietnamese Army journalists when the infamous S21 prison was liberated in January of 1979. A U.N.-backed genocide tribunal is set to begin on Feb. 17, 2009, to try five Khmer Rouge leaders accused of crimes against humanity. Kaing Guek Eav, the commander of Toul Sleng under the Khmer rouge, also known 'Duch' will be the first leader tried. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
20 February 2009

A Vietnamese soldier and cameraman defended as “true” a film he shot of Tuol Sleng prison during the ouster of the Khmer Rouge, which could be used as evidence in tribunal proceedings.

Ding Phong, now 71, shot footage of Tuol Sleng prison as Vietnamese forces liberated Phnom Penh in Januray 1979, but the film has come under criticism from defense lawyers for former Khmer Rouge leaders facing atrocity crimes trials.

“The documentary shot in Tuol Sleng is true,” Dinh Phong said Thursday, before returning to Vietnam after a six-day visit to Cambodia to deliver his film to researchers. “What we shot 30 years ago is the truth.”

Lawyers for Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, who is the first to face trial under the tribunal, said the films were not unbiased.

“This is a documentary which has a political character,” said Kar Savuth, an attorney for Duch, or Kaing Kek Iev, who saw his initial trial hearing this week. “It cannot be used [as evidence] in the trial.”

“What he mentioned is an accusation,” Dinh Phong said, denying the political assertion.

Tribunal prosecutor Chea Leang has requested that two Vietnamese filmmakers, who have donated their films to the Documentation Center of Cambodia, be brought before the Trial Chamber of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, to defend their work.

Dinh Phong said Thursday he would only answer questions outside the court.

CACJE questions authenticity of the Vietnamese films on S-21 immediately following the Vietnamese aggression of Cambodia

Cambodian Action Committee for Justice & Equity (CACJE)
No: 3 Fountain Ave. Cranston RI, 02920 Web: www.cacje.net, Email: cacjepress9@gmail.com
“CACJE is an Alliance for People Power, Promote Social Justice and Support Human Equity”

Official Translation in English
No: 0044/CACJE

Immediate Press Release

Februay 19, 2009

Press Statement

Cambodian Action Committee for Justice & Equity (CACJE) expressed strong supports the position of Mr. KA SAVUTH, the co-defense attorney of Mr. KAING GUEK EAV alias Duch, ex-Director of TUOL SLENG Prison and the position of Co-Prosecutor against the use of a film documenting torture shot by Vietnamese soldiers shortly after they drove the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979 as evidence before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The document film served Hanoi political purpose. The orphan witness claiming living inside TUOL SLENG Prison raised more questions than answers.

Moreover, CACJE expressed displeasure relative to the declaration of CHHANG YOUK, Director of Cambodia Documentation Centre (DC-CAM) which is an organization financed by the American tax- payers. CHHANG YOUK had shown his no-professionalism, not independent, lack of deep understanding of the documentation, not be able to produce trustful documents and witnesses for the ECCC. Instead DC-CAM produces falsified, manipulated and fictive documents to serve political purpose in order to bury the truth about the Khmer Rouge. Therefore, DC-CAM induced in error the scholar studies of Khmer Rouge Era because of her published fabricated documents

To have a fair and transparent trial, and for the truth, the ECCC must reject all the documents and witnesses provided by Vietnam and China.

CACJE urges the international judges and Co-prosecutors to investigate more people, widening their scope to reach all the Khmer Rouge rulers from the top Chief of State to the region (DAMBAN) chief security forces. International judges and co-prosecutors must focus notably on the documents and witnesses. The polygraph machine might be used to sort out the witnesses.

Signed:
SEREYRATHA SOURN

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: S21

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

Film row at Khmer Rouge trial

Thursday, February 19, 2009
Al Jazeera

Lawyers in the war crimes trial of the man described as the Khmer Rouge's former chief torturer have clashed over the admissibility of film footage showing conditions at the prison and interrogation centre he ran.

The row came at the end of the opening session of the trial of Kaing Guek Eav – better known as Duch – the first former Khmer Rouge official to face the UN-backed tribunal.

The footage was shot by Vietnamese troops in January 1979 and shows gruesome scenes at the prison two days after a Vietnamese invasion toppled the Khmer Rouge from power.

On Wednesday Duch's lawyers objected to prosecution efforts to include the film as evidence, saying it was effectively a Vietnamese propaganda film.

"We the defence regard this video footage as having political motivation in nature to disguise the truth of the nature of the event," Kar Savuth, the co-defence lawyer, said.

Prosecutors, however, argued that seeing the film was essential, partly because it confirmed that children were held at the jail as well as men and women.

"It is an absolute must for this trial chamber to have all available evidence,"Robert Petit, the co-prosecutor, told the tribunal, adding that he wanted to call the Vietnamese cameraman and other witnesses related to the video.

More than 14,000 people, including many children, are thought to have passed through the S-21 interrogation centre during the four years the Khmer Rouge were in power.

Only a handful survived – most having been taken for execution at sites that later became known as the 'killing fields'.

Duch, who ran the centre, admits atrocities were carried out, but has said he was only acting on the orders of more senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

The seven-minute, black-and-white film shows horrific scenes inside the abandoned prison, a former high school, including several bloated corpses strapped to iron bed frames where they had apparently been tortured.

It also shows five children who survived the retreat of the Khmer Rouge.

War crimes

Duch, a former maths teacher who converted to Christianity before his arrest, is the first of five former Khmer Rouge leaders to face the much-delayed joint Cambodian-UN tribunal.

He is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder, and faces life in jail if convicted. Cambodia does not have the death penalty.

Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge's leader and so-called 'Brother Number One', died in a jungle hideout in 1998.

An estimated 1.7 million people – about a fifth of Cambodia's then population – died during the Khmer Rouge's rule over Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.

Most were executed or died of starvation and overwork.

During the opening session of Duch's trial, lawyers for both sides presented lists of witnesses whose admissibility is now being considered by the court.

Full hearings with testimony from witnesses are not expected to begin until late March at the earliest.

Source: Agencies

First stage of historic Khmer Rouge trial ends

Wed, 18 Feb 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The long-awaited first hearing before Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal ended Wednesday after a heated debate between lawyers over the admissibility of new evidence in the trial of the genocidal regime's former chief torturer. Presiding judge Nil Nonn said a date for the next hearing in the trial of former Tuol Sleng torture facility chief Kaing Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary name Duch, would be announced "in due course."

"I cannot speculate as to when the date will be announced, but hopefully, the substantive hearing will begin sometime in March," tribunal spokeswoman Helen Jarvis said.

Duch faces charges of crimes against humanity, premeditated murder and breeches of the Geneva Conventions.

He has previously admitted guilt for his crimes and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Prosecution and defence lawyers argued over the admissibility of film footage taken by Vietnamese soldiers inside the torture prison in Phnom Penh after the Khmer Rouge was toppled from power in January 1979.

The film was taken inside the torture facility and showed dead prisoners chained to iron beds, torture implements and five children who escaped harm by hiding under a pile of clothing.

Cambodian co-defence attorney Kar Savuth said the evidence was inadmissible because the investigating judges did not approve it during the pre-trial phase.

He questioned the film's authenticity and said its submission might have been "politically motivated."

International co-defence lawyer Francois Roux said the admission of new evidence would also "unnecessarily prolong" court proceedings.

But international co-prosecutor Robert Petit said the footage was crucial for establishing Duch's guilt.

"You can profess guilt until you are out of breath, but the tribunal still has to prove guilt," he told the court. "The court cannot do this unless all the available evidence is before it."

The investigating judges' decisions on the footage and the number of witnesses to be called were likely to be announced along with the date for the trial's next stage, tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said.

Duch is the first of five detained former Khmer Rouge leaders to face trial before the hybrid court, which is made up of Cambodian and international judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers.

Up to 2 million people died through execution, starvation or overwork during the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign when the group sought to transform Cambodian society into an agrarian socialist utopia, erase history and start at "year zero."

Duch was not called on to testify during the hearing, which began Tuesday, and sat quietly through Wednesday's session, occasionally chatting with members of the defence team.

More than 1,000 members of the public and about 200 journalists attended the hearing, held at the tribunal's chambers on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Tuol Sleng survivor Vann Nath, whose famous paintings depict the horrors conducted at the former high school, said he found it difficult to understand the legal terminology used during the hearing but believed justice was "finally in sight."

"I have been watching this trial for two days, and I do not understand the procedures," he said. "But we have been waiting so long for this trial to come, so we can watch and wait for justice to be brought."

Jarvis said the initial hearing was "necessarily technical" and added the tribunal had no plans to provide a simplified "how-to guide" for the court proceedings.

"We have worked to ensure the public understands the procedures of this very important tribunal, and we are setting up radio and television programmes so people can discuss aspects of the court," she said.

"The media also has a role to play in helping people to understand how the court operates," she said.

The Khmer Rouge tribunal was established in 2006 after a decade of negotiations between the United Nations and the Cambodian government.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998, but "Brother Numer Two" Noun Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister Ieang Sary and wife Ieang Thirith have been detained.

All four remaining defendants claim innocence of any wrongdoing.

Khmer Rouge tribunal ends pretrial proceedings

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
By SOPHENG CHEANG and SUSAN POSTLEWAITE

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A long-delayed Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal wrapped up its opening session Wednesday with judges saying they still need to finalize a list of witnesses before announcing when a full trial of the former head of the regime's notorious torture center will begin.

Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch — is charged with crimes against humanity. He is the first of five defendants from the close-knit, ultra-communist regime that ruled Cambodia in the 1970s and turned it into a vast slave labor camp in which an estimated 1.7 million people perished.

Three decades after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, the U.N.-assisted tribunal began a procedural session Tuesday to lay the groundwork for a full trial expected in March. The precise date has not been set and details still need to be ironed out, including who will testify.

Judge Silvia Cartwright, a former New Zealand High Court judge, told the court that the tribunal's five judges met Wednesday in private to pare down the lists of proposed witnesses to "consider whether the testimony would be redundant or repetitious."

She said judges had agreed on about 30 of the witnesses proposed by lawyers for the prosecution, defense and civil parties. They dropped a handful of witnesses and postponed a decision on about 20 others. She did not say when a decision would be made.

Among those who are to be summoned to testify are British journalist Nic Dunlop, who discovered Duch in northwestern Cambodia in 1999. An American scholar, David Chandler, the author of several books on Cambodia, will also be asked to testify, the court said.

Duch oversaw the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh — previously a school, now the Tuol Sleng genocide museum — where some 16,000 men, women and children were detained and tortured. Only a handful survived.

Duch, 66, is the only defendant who has expressed remorse for his actions. He is accused of committing or abetting a range of crimes including murder, torture and rape. He did not address the court Tuesday but through his lawyer he again voiced regret.

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Duch disappeared for two decades, living under two other names and converting to Christianity before he was located by Dunlop, the British journalist.

Judges also still need to decide whether to admit as evidence a short film shot by Vietnamese soldiers when they entered Tuol Sleng prison in January 1979 after toppling the Khmer Rouge.

The film, which shows decapitated bodies and previously unknown child survivors, was only released by Vietnam in December.

Co-prosecutor Chea Leang said the film provided "crucial" new facts and urged judges to admit it as evidence.

One of Duch's defense lawyers, Car Savuth, argued that the film was manufactured by the Vietnamese. He said orders had been given to kill all prisoners so there could not have been child survivors when the Vietnamese arrived.

"There were no children at S-21 — they were all executed," Duch's lawyer said, arguing that the film was "politically motivated to disguise the truth."

Duch's trial began 13 years after the tribunal was first proposed and nearly three years after the court was inaugurated.

The tribunal, which incorporates mixed teams of foreign and Cambodian judges, prosecutors and defenders, has drawn sharp criticism. Its snail-paced proceedings have been plagued by political interference from the Cambodian government as well as allegations of bias and corruption.

Others facing trial are Khieu Samphan, the group's former head of state; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs; and Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue.

All four have denied committing crimes.

Cambodia's KRouge trial debates atrocity film

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
By Suy Se

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Lawyers at the trial of the Khmer Rouge's chief torturer argued Wednesday over the use of a film showing the liberation of the prison where he allegedly oversaw the deaths of 15,000 Cambodians.

Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal launched an initial hearing in the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, better known by the alias Duch, on Tuesday. It wrapped up on Wednesday and full hearings are expected to start next month.

Prosecutors told the court they wanted to introduce as evidence a film shot by Vietnamese forces showing conditions at the prison two days after they helped to drive the Khmer Rouge regime out of Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979.

"It is an absolute must for this trial chamber to have all available evidence," said co-prosecutor Robert Petit, adding that they wanted to call the cameraman and other witnesses related to the video.

However co-defence lawyer Kar Savuth questioned the authenticity of the evidence, and argued it should be considered a Vietnamese propaganda film.

"We the defence regard this video footage as having political motivation in nature to disguise the truth of the nature of the event," he said.

The video shows scenes of horror inside the abandoned prison, which was a former high school, including several bloated corpses strapped to iron bedframes where they were apparently tortured.

It also shows five children who survived the retreat of the Khmer Rouge from the jail by hiding in a pile of washing.

Duch, a former maths teacher now aged 66, could be seen listening impassively to the arguments through headphones on the second day of the tribunal's initial hearing, which is dealing with procedural and legal matters.

Lawyers also presented lists of witnesses, before the chief judge Nil Nonn announced the end of the initial hearing after just a day and a half.

He did not say when the trial would reopen, but court spokeswoman Helen Jarvis said substantive hearings with witness testimony would likely begin in "late March".

"There's greater understanding of how the trial will unfold and what the objectives of various parties are," Jarvis told reporters at the court.

Duch is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder, and faces a life sentence. The tribunal cannot impose the death penalty.

He has taken responsibility for his iron-fisted rule at Tuol Sleng prison which was used as a mass torture centre to extract confessions from alleged traitors that they were spies for the CIA, KGB and other foreign powers.

Only a handful of the estimated 15,000 men, women and children sent to the prison are known to have survived. Most were executed and buried in mass graves at the so-called "Killing Fields" in Choeung Ek near the capital.

He has previously expressed regret for his crimes but has said that he was acting under orders from leaders of the 1975-1979 communist Khmer Rouge.

Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge rose to power as a tragic spinoff from the US conflict in Vietnam, emptying Cambodia's cities to take society back to a rural "Year Zero."

Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation and overwork under the movement. The Khmer Rouge were ousted by Vietnamese-backed forces in January 1979. Pol Pot died in 1998.

The Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal was established in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between Cambodia and the United Nations, and has been further delayed by legal arguments and bail hearings.

The government of Cambodian premier Hun Sen, himself a former Khmer Rouge fighter, has been accused of trying to protect the regime's ex-cadres from justice.

[Vietnamese] Films Submitted as Potential Duch Evidence

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
30 January 2009

Two films of Tuol Sleng prison provided to researchers by the Vietnamese government could become evidence in Khmer Rouge tribunal proceedings against the prison’s former chief.

Two deputy prosecutors for the Khmer Rouge tribunal made a motion to the Trial Chamber to allow two films to be entered as new evidence in the atrocity trial of prison chief Duch.

The Trial Chamber must decide by Feb. 17 whether to add the films, which include footage of Tuol Sleng prison shot by Vietnamese soldiers as they entered Phnom Penh in January 1979 as they pushed the Khmer Rouge from power.

The films depict the bodies of prisoners, some of them decapitated, as well as different types of cells, torture devices, shackles and other restraints. One film shows a Vietnamese soldier carrying a weak child out of the prison in his arms and two more child survivors.

The films are two among 20, totaling 480 minutes of footage, that have so far been submitted to the Documentation Center of Cambodia by the Vietnamese.

Duch, 66, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, will be tried in March on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder for his role as chief of the prison, known to the Khmer Rouge by it’s alphanumeric code S-21.

“The films provided by the Vietnamese government through DC-Cam are related to the indictment against Duch,” the deputy prosecutors, Yeth Chakrya and William Smith, said in their motion to the Trial Chamber. “Those documents are very interesting for finding out the truth about S-21.”

Judge Nil Nonn, head of the Trial Chamber, confirmed he had received the motion, which was filed Jan. 28 and published on the tribunal’s Web site Friday.

The motion will be decided on during the initial trial hearing on Feb. 17, Nil Nonn said.