Khmer Rouge Ex-Head of State Has Stroke
By SOPHENG CHEANG
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Khieu Samphan, the former Khmer Rouge head of state whose arrest by a U.N.-backed genocide tribunal has been widely anticipated, suffered a stroke Tuesday, said his daughter and a neighbor.
Khieu Samphan's daughter in Phnom Penh, Khieu Rattana, said she learned about her father's stroke in a call from her sister in Pailin, the former Khmer Rouge guerrilla stronghold in northwestern Cambodia where her parents live.
He was stricken just a day after two of his colleagues in the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime were arrested by the tribunal.
"He has been aware all along that he will be arrested. He is not concerned about it and said he is ready to go to the tribunal," Khieu Rattana said.
Ieng Sary, the group's foreign minister, and his wife Ieng Thirith, the social affairs minister, were both charged with crimes against humanity. Ieng Sary was also charged with war crimes.
Khieu Rattana said family and local doctors were gathering at the house to tend to their father, who is believed to be 76 years old.
A neighbor, who asked not to be named in order to maintain good relations with the family, said Khieu Samphan spoke only with difficulty, making his words hard to understand.
The 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime was blamed for the deaths of some 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution. None of the group's leaders has yet faced trial.
The U.N.-assisted tribunal was created last year after seven years of contentious negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia.
The arrests of the Khmer Rouge suspects have come almost three decades after the group fell from power, with many fearing the aging suspects might die before they ever see a courtroom. Trials are expected to begin next year.
Four have been arrested so far, including Ieng Sary and his wife.
According to prosecutors' documents made available to The Associated Press, the fifth suspect they are seeking to charge is Khieu Samphan.
Ieng Sary and his wife said they do not have the means to pay for their legal fees, the tribunal's defense support section said in a statement Tuesday, adding that they were seeking financial aid for their legal defense. It also said they were in the process of assembling their defense team.
Rupert Skilbeck, the head of the section, said the U.N. will pay legal fees for all defendants until the end of this year. It is assessing the defendants' financial situations to decide whether or not to continue helping them.
Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith defected to the government in 1996 and have been living in relative comfort since then. A tribunal document released this week said he is 82 years old, and she is 75.
People familiar with their lifestyle say they are financially well-off. They pointed to the villa the couple own in Phnom Penh, their Toyota Land Cruiser and their ability to regularly travel by plane for medical treatment in neighboring Thailand.
That they are able to live comfortably in terms of their spending, travel and property makes their claims of destitution "laughable" and "ludicrous," said Theary Seng, director of the Cambodian nonprofit group Center for Social Development.
"Why don't they sell their villa" to finance their legal fees, Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, wondered out loud. His group researches Khmer Rouge atrocities.
Khieu Samphan's daughter in Phnom Penh, Khieu Rattana, said she learned about her father's stroke in a call from her sister in Pailin, the former Khmer Rouge guerrilla stronghold in northwestern Cambodia where her parents live.
He was stricken just a day after two of his colleagues in the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime were arrested by the tribunal.
"He has been aware all along that he will be arrested. He is not concerned about it and said he is ready to go to the tribunal," Khieu Rattana said.
Ieng Sary, the group's foreign minister, and his wife Ieng Thirith, the social affairs minister, were both charged with crimes against humanity. Ieng Sary was also charged with war crimes.
Khieu Rattana said family and local doctors were gathering at the house to tend to their father, who is believed to be 76 years old.
A neighbor, who asked not to be named in order to maintain good relations with the family, said Khieu Samphan spoke only with difficulty, making his words hard to understand.
The 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime was blamed for the deaths of some 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution. None of the group's leaders has yet faced trial.
The U.N.-assisted tribunal was created last year after seven years of contentious negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia.
The arrests of the Khmer Rouge suspects have come almost three decades after the group fell from power, with many fearing the aging suspects might die before they ever see a courtroom. Trials are expected to begin next year.
Four have been arrested so far, including Ieng Sary and his wife.
According to prosecutors' documents made available to The Associated Press, the fifth suspect they are seeking to charge is Khieu Samphan.
Ieng Sary and his wife said they do not have the means to pay for their legal fees, the tribunal's defense support section said in a statement Tuesday, adding that they were seeking financial aid for their legal defense. It also said they were in the process of assembling their defense team.
Rupert Skilbeck, the head of the section, said the U.N. will pay legal fees for all defendants until the end of this year. It is assessing the defendants' financial situations to decide whether or not to continue helping them.
Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith defected to the government in 1996 and have been living in relative comfort since then. A tribunal document released this week said he is 82 years old, and she is 75.
People familiar with their lifestyle say they are financially well-off. They pointed to the villa the couple own in Phnom Penh, their Toyota Land Cruiser and their ability to regularly travel by plane for medical treatment in neighboring Thailand.
That they are able to live comfortably in terms of their spending, travel and property makes their claims of destitution "laughable" and "ludicrous," said Theary Seng, director of the Cambodian nonprofit group Center for Social Development.
"Why don't they sell their villa" to finance their legal fees, Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, wondered out loud. His group researches Khmer Rouge atrocities.
18 comments:
hOW ABOUT THE MONEY FROM THEIR CHILDREN ( GOVERNOR AND DEPUTY GORVERNOR OF PAILIN?)
THOSE KIDS GOT POSSITION FROM THE BLOODY CRIMINAL OF THEIR PARENT!
WHERE SRE THE WEALTH FROM THE RUBIES SUCKER?????????????
YOU ARE LIER AND KILLER EANG SHIT!
To all Cambodians,
We should understand that The Khmer Rouge was composed of 4 main elements: the Pro-Vietnamese K-Rouge; the Pro-chinese K-Rouge; the moderate K-Rouge; the Pro-Sihanouk K-Rouge (the Sihanoukist).
To know clearly who REALLY massacred Khmers, we have to analize the 4 elements of Khmer Rouge. And this is a very simple thing to do.
Let me know what you have analized.
If you want to know cleary who really massacred Khmers,please read the recent book of Mr HOUR CHEA the title is FOUR YEARS WITH THE KHMERS ROUGES.
EDITION. PARIS FRANCE.
Why don't they simply tell the truth before their death?
Is it so hard to tell the truth when they are nearly dead?
It is their unique and last chance in their lives to do something for their country.
Who the hell is HOUR CHEA? is he Youn? Or Chine?
If all khmer wants to know the truth about who were killing khmer during the period of rigned 1975-1979.
Ask The Members of the United Nations AND THE SECURITY COUNSEL. about the Documents of the KHMER ROUGE "DES ACTES D'AGRESSION
ET D'ANNEXION DU VIETNAM CONTRE LE KAMPUCHEA". PUBLISHED IN 1978.
Mr HOUR CHEA WAS A KHMER KROHOM AND A KHMER INTELLECTUEL WHO RETURNED TO SROK KHMER FROM FRANCE IN THE YEARS 70.HE IS NOT YOUN OR CHINEESE.BECAUSE YOUN AND CHINEESE THEY HAVE SROK NEV. HE IS A KHMER HAS NO SROK LIKE ME AND YOU.
TO 3:52 AM
Hour chea lives in Switzerland .
http://www.swissinfo.org/fre/magazine/detail/Hour_Chea_Suisse_seduit_puis_victime_des_Khmers_rouges.html?siteSect=108&sid=7576904&cKey=1174393420000
Dear Bloody Khiev samphann !! You are one of the most stupit idiot criminal. Cambodian have sent you to study in france to help them and not to kill them. Your stupid pilicies have killed almost the entire people of the country. Your parents, your sibblings and your friends have all shamefull about you and your mental problem. you cannot make any excuse at all. A responsible man, you should commit suicide before the judge ask you question. Areak Prey
Just kill them all. No one is good for the country. All those who wears RED must put to dead.
Why can not we all, have the right to hear what those animaux have to say?
Do not hide the truth please! Let we people be the jude in our hearth!
Mr. Khieu Sampham, please don't commit suicide, you have to tell the world the truth about Cambodia and the accompliced of the terror regime. The regime's over now, but, Cambodia's still in the dark age yet. (Pouk Kaun yuon thom oss heuy).
Forhet about Enborai let us public hear the court hearing!
we Khmer have had enought of trusting any Anka, group, or organization!
Just let us hear direct from their mouth how smelly they were!
May their children surfer too!
It's only Khmer people who are always suffer from these criminal. The Khmer Rouge is controling our country from 1975 until today. They sold our country to Yuon. They protect each other. Ah Hun Sen, Ah Xi hanuk, Ah Ieng sary, Ah Kiev Samphan ... etc are Khmer Rouge. They live in comfortable life. How can Ah Hun Sen and Ah Xi hanuk said they killed people. All of them are killer.
Khmer people please look at them closely, they are the same group. they will protect themselves not us, Khmer people. They sold our country to Yuon for along time.
No, the Khmer people was exploited by the westerners trained morons since 1970. The Khmer people were served as a human shield against bullets and bayonets for the evils westerner trained evils, and then to be finished off in 1975 by yet another set of Westerner trained evils again.
Enough is enough. We (Khmers) want have our country back, and we don't want no more westerner trained fools to continue to screw us over and over, again and again for eternity. We need a break, for cry out loud.
Is it a tradition of Khmer Leaders that they know nothing about the act of their government ????
K Samphan, Ieng Sary, Duch and other current leaders as well...
Is this the Khmer Culture ????
Always blame foreigners... neighbors Siam Youn, China,Baraing ....and US
Please sue them... including Sihanouk ... as so-called Khmer Hero King,Nationalist.. (regardless Royal immunity) he should be voluntarily to face the Trial at least being Withness, because he and his wife know something about KR regime as he joint in 1970s especially the Term KR= Khmere Rouge (in French not in English=Red Khmer as he tradition to speak and use French Language..) was eatablished by Sihanouk himself.............
Excellency Bandit 7 diamond stars General , Oknha , Achar Knoy
Areak Prey all comments you made every time is sound like Youn puppet.
The only way out is to commit suicide!
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