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

Khmer Rouge Pretrial Ends After Clash Over Evidence

By VOA News
18 February 2009

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have clashed in Cambodia over evidence at a pretrial hearing for the man who once ran a notorious Khmer Rouge prison.

Defense lawyers for Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, argued Wednesday against using a film documenting torture as evidence before a genocide tribunal.

Prosecutors insisted on introducing the film shot by Vietnamese soldiers shortly after they drove the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979.

The pre-trial hearing has ended with an official trial date yet to be announced.

The United States on Wednesday expressed strong support for bringing to justice senior leaders responsible for the atrocities committed under the Khmer Rouge regime.

U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Gordon Duguid, in a statement, urged the court to conduct a fair and transparent judicial process and address allegations of corruption.

Many Cambodians have criticized the 30-year wait for the trial. Tribunal spokeswoman Helen Jarvis said many potential witnesses have died.

Duch is the the first of five ex-Khmer Rouge leaders to be tried under the joint United Nations-Cambodian genocide tribunal.

He is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and murder for his role in some 15,000 deaths that took place at the S-21 detention center in Phnom Penh between 1975 and 1979.

Duch has admitted to committing atrocities and expressed remorse for his actions.

At least 1.7 million Cambodians died during the four-year reign of the communist Khmer Rouge regime.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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 trial must help heal country's wounds, say defence lawyer and activist

A woman visits a stupa displaying the remains of the 9,000 victims who were exhumed from the Choeung Ek extermination camp (Photo: Reuters)

2009-02-18
Radio France International

Click here to download and listen to François Roux, Duch's defense lawyer

Click here to downland and listen to Theary Seng, CSD Director

The first hearing in the trial of Khmer Rouge torturer Kaing Guek Eav, better-known as Duch, ended Wednesday after an argument over the admissibility of a Vietnamese film as evidence. Defence lawyer François Roux said that his client accepts that the charges against him are true and called for the trial to help Cambodians "regain their humanity".

"The Khmer Rouge denied victims their humanity. And, by doing so, the Khmer rouge lost their own humanity," Roux told the court on Tuesday. "Our responsibility at this trial, and the purpose of this trial itself, is to allow people on both sides to regain their humanity."

But on Wednesday the defence argued that a film taken by Vietnamese soldiers who invaded Cambodia and toppled the Khmer Rouge in 1979 should not be accepted as evidence.

Roux's colleague Kar Savuth argued that the film, which showed horrific scenes at the prison which Duch ran in Phnom Penh, was "propaganda", designed to "disguise the truth of the nature of the event".

The seven minutes of black-and-white footage show bloated corpses strapped to iron bedframes where they appear to have been tortured and five children who survived by hiding in a pile of washing.

Prosecutors argued that the film is essential to the case, partly because it shows that children were held at the jail.

In the audience were 25 villagers who had travelled over eight hours by bus to visit Phnom Penh's genocide museum and watch the hearing.

They were taking part of the reconciliation process, which brings together former Khmer Rouge members and their victims, organised by the Centre for Social Development.

The trial will be "a very important and necessary first step in building a culture of dialogue", says the centre's Theary Seng.

"They’re very interested in the proceedings because within the last two years civil society has been doing a lot of outreach in terms of disseminating information to the population," she told RFI. "So they know that there’s a Khmer Rouge tribunal. It’s still a complicated concept in their minds because it’s very technical; it’s very legal."

During Wednesday's hearing lawyers presented lists of witnesses for the court to judge if they can be taken.

Chief judge Nil Nonn announced the end of the session without giving a date for the start of the trial itself. Court officials say that the hearings are likely to begin in late March.

Slow progress in Killing Fields torturer's trial

Feb 18 2009
EK MADRA | PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA
Reuters

Cambodia's "Killing Fields" tribunal on Wednesday ploughed through lists of witnesses set to testify in the first trial of a senior Khmer Rouge cadre 30 years after the end of a regime blamed for 1,7-million deaths. Duch, former chief of the notorious S-21 torture centre who went on trial for crimes against humanity on Tuesday, sat quietly in a white shirt as the tribunal laid the groundwork for a full-blown trial in March.

"The focus today is on preliminary objections, finalising witness lists and determining additional evidence," said Helen Jarvis, head of public affairs for the tribunal set up to prosecute those most responsible for Khmer Rouge atrocities.

On the streets of the capital Phnom Penh, newspapers with front page stories and photographs of Duch's first day in the dock sold out quickly.

"We cannot forgive them," 48-year-old Seng Hy said between drags on a cigarette. "If they are found guilty, they should get the death sentence."

There is no death penalty in Cambodia and the five Khmer Rouge cadres charged with various crimes against humanity could get life sentences if convicted by the joint Cambodian-United Nations court.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is the first of the five to face the panel of five Cambodian and international judges.

No trial dates have been set for the others, who include "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea and former president Khieu Samphan.

Survivors, former guards and Khmer Rouge experts are expected to testify against Duch, a born-again Christian who has asked forgiveness for the deaths of 14 000 "enemies of the revolution" at S-21. His lawyers argue he was only following orders and should not be made a scapegoat for the Khmer Rouge era.

"The Khmer Rouge denied victims their humanity and in doing so, the Khmer Rouge lost their own humanity," French defence lawyer Francois Roux told reporters after Tuesday's hearing.

"The purpose of this trial is to allow people on both sides to regain their humanity," he said.

But some Cambodians wonder if the trials, which come after a decade of wrangling over jurisdiction and funding, are worth it.

"You don't have to find proof of atrocities because you can see skulls everywhere in Cambodia and you can see the legacy of S-21," said 60-year-old Horn Oeurn.