សមមិត្តយ៉ែម ប្រកែកញ័រ មាត់តតាត់ ដល់គេចុចចំ

សមមិត្តយ៉ែម

លោក​ហោ​ណាំហុង ក៏​ជា​អ្នកទោស​ម្នាក់ ក្នុង​ជំរំអប់រំ​បឹងត្របែក​

ថ្ងៃទី 3 សីហា 2012
ដោយ: លីនណា
Cambodia Express News

ភ្នំពេញ: ​លោក​ឧបនាយករដ្ឋមន្ត្រី ហោ ណាំហុង រដ្ឋមន្ត្រីការបរទេស និង​សហប្រតិបត្តិការ​អន្តរជាតិ កាលពី​ថ្ងៃទី​២ ខែសីហា ឆ្នាំ​២០១២ បានចេញ​លិខិត​យ៉ាងខ្លី​មួយ​ថា “​វា​ជា​រឿង​អកុសល​ណាស់​ថា អ្នក​ដែល​បន្ត​ការពារ​កេរដំណែល​របប​ខ្មែរក្រហម ខិតខំ​បង្វែរ​ការយកចិត្តទុកដាក់ ចេញពី​កេរ​មរតក​របស់​ខ្មែរក្រហម ក្នុង​ផលប្រយោជន៍​នៃ​ការការពារ​របស់គេ ដោយ​បង្វែរ​ទិស​ពី​ការយកចិត្តទុកដាក់​លើ​រឿង​របស់គេ ដោយ​បង្កហេតុ​ឲ្យ​មានការ​យល់ច្រឡំ​មកលើ​ឥស្សរជន​សាធារណៈ ដូចជា​រូបខ្ញុំ​”​។​

​លោក ហោ ណាំហុង បាន​បន្តថា “​ខ្ញុំ​ចង់​និយាយ​យ៉ាងខ្លី​ពី​ប្រវត្តិ​របស់ខ្ញុំ ដើម្បី​ជម្រះ​ឲ្យ​អស់​នូវ​ការខ្វែងគំនិត​ទាំងនេះ​។ របប​ខ្មែរក្រហម គឺជា​រឿង​សោកនាដកម្ម​មួយ ដែល​នៅតែ​ដក់​ជាប់​ក្នុង​អារម្មណ៍​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា​រហូតដល់​សព្វថ្ងៃ​”​។​

​លោក​ឧបនាយករដ្ឋមន្ត្រី​បាន​បញ្ជាក់ថា “​ក្នុងនាម​ជា​អ្នកទោស​នៅ​ជំរុំ​អប់រំ​បឹងត្របែក ដែល​នៅ​ទីនោះ ខ្ញុំ​បាន​បាត់បង់​ប្អូនស្រី​ពីរ​នាក់ ព្រមទាំង​ស្វាមី និង​កូន​របស់គេ និង​ក្មួយ​ស្រី​ម្នាក់ ក៏ដូចជា​សហសេវិក​ជាច្រើន ខ្ញុំ​គ្មានអ្វី​ក្រៅពី​ការ​សោកសៅ និង​ការរំលែក​ទុក្ខលំបាក​របស់​ជនរងគ្រោះ និង​ក្រុមគ្រួសារ​គេ​។ សូម្បីតែ​មកដល់​សព្វថ្ងៃ​នេះ​ក្ដី ក៏​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា​នៅតែ​បន្ត​រង​ទុក្ខ ដោយសារ​ឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្ម​របស់​របប​ខ្មែរក្រហម​”​។​

Hollyworld: Angie's legacy in Cambodia

Angelina Jolie

Yim Tith (aka Ta Tith) (L) and Ta An (R) are former KR cadres involved in Case 004

Did Angelina Jolie do business with a crimes-against-humanity suspect?

October 24, 2011

Douglas Gillison and Phann Ana

Global Post

Editor's note: "Hollyworld" is a semi-regular series covering Hollywood's impact on the world and celebrity culture around the globe.

BATTAMBANG, Cambodia — As the most famous champion of humanitarian causes in Cambodia, Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie has for a decade been on a mission of mercy for the Southeast Asian country that granted her citizenship in 2005.

The 36-year-old star has run a multi-million dollar foundation for environmental conservation, health, education and infrastructure in the remote and impoverished northwest of Cambodia for the last eight years.

But choosing to set up operations among the hilly fields and remote tropical forests along the Thai border in Battambang province has brought Jolie into close quarters with former members of the communist movement known since the late 1960s as the Khmer Rouge, some of the principal actors in one of the bloodiest dramas of the 20th century.

According to interviews and documents collected here, Jolie has, in connection with her charitable undertakings in Cambodia, purchased land from a reclusive man who today ranks with the very biggest of fish among the world’s suspected mass murderers.

“Sometimes the moral hazard is too great. Other donors feel that it's worth taking the risk ...” ~Melissa Berman, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors president and CEO

To all appearances, Jolie maintains a strong personal connection to Cambodia and her charitable endeavors there are addressing urgent social and environmental problems. Yet she would not be the first American celebrity to suffer the pitfalls of charitable work in the developing world.

Frail war crimes suspect ‘not afraid’ to face tribunal

Ta An, 78, former deputy secretary of the Central Zone under the Khmer Rouge, lies on a mat at his home in Battambang province. Ta An faces accusations in the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Case 004 including genocide and crimes against humanity for presiding over widespread executions and purges, according to leaked court documents cited in international media. (Photo by: Thomas Miller)

Ta An, former Khmer Rouge deputy secretary of the Central Zone, rests in his home in Kamrieng district, Battambang province. (Photo by: Thomas Miller)

A woman named Chin who saw killings at Wat Samdech.(Photo by: Thomas Miller)

An old building at Wat Samdech, located in Tapon commune in Battambang’s Sangke district, which served as a prison and has been named as a crime site by Khmer Rouge tribunal judges. (Photo by: Thomas Miller)

A woman who gave her name only as Sang, in Samdech village in Battambang’s Sangke district near Wat Samdech, where thousands were killed during the Khmer Rouge. (Photo by: Thomas Miller)

Monday, 22 August 2011May Titthara and Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post

If the court comes to take me... or the King of all devils [comes for me], I will not be afraid, because I am an honest person (sic!)

Battambang

In a modest wooden home near the Thai border in Battambang province’s Kamrieng district, former high-ranking Khmer Rouge cadre and war crimes suspect Ta An lies on a mat, an empty intravenous drip bag dangling from the thatched roof.

Now aged 78, Ta An faces accusations including genocide and crimes against humanity for presiding over widespread executions and purges in the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Case 004, according to leaked court documents cited in international media outlets.

Dressed in a heavy green army coat that covered a dusty yellow button-down shirt and blue athletic shorts, the now-frail figure evoked disquieting sympathy as he spoke while lying on his back, at times clutching a fleece blanket with cartoon characters on it, too feeble to sit upright.

When he vomited into a pot, his cousin rubbed his back. His wife, Prom Ra, served a bowl of plain steamed rice to ease his stomach.

“My father, he gets sick a lot. One time, he fainted at the farm, and if the villagers had not seen him, he would have passed away already,” his son Mao Phorb said.

“I’m very worried about him. He’s too old, and the court wants to take him away. I want to live with him during his old age.”

Khmer Rouge cadres confront their past

Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

About 300 Cambodian villagers filed into Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, lingering over photographs and searching for relatives lost to the Khmer Rouge.

They paid rapt attention as their tour guides led them through the facility and expressed shock at the variety of torture methods on display.

“I saw the images of torture and I didn’t think it would be like that,” said Sor Song, 52. “I saw it with my own eyes, and I felt shocked to see it.”

The reactions of Sor Song and his fellow tour members are not so different from thousands of others who have visited Tuol Sleng over the years, yet their frame of reference is decidedly different: the Pailin residents are former supporters – and in many cases members – of the movement that operated the infamous prison.

“Hopefully, it will help in understanding why it is important for so many victims to see the persons alleged to be most responsible for the crimes committed … being prosecuted in a court of law,” said Khmer Rouge tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen, one of the court officials who arranged the trip. “We believe it is easier for people to see things and understand when they see things with their own eyes.”

Nestled in the Cardomom Mountains along the border with Thailand, the tiny province of Pailin served as one of the last redoubts for the Khmer Rouge.

On Monday night, several hundred Pailin residents – many of whom were once KR soldiers – gathered outside the provincial hall, where they watched in silence as court officials screened a documentary on the tribunal and the trial of former Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch.

When court officials including international co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley came to Pailin in September for a community forum, the mood was lively, with questions ranging from why foreign governments will not be tried for their role in the Cambodian conflict to what sort of reparations will be available for victims.

On Monday, however, the mood was sombre as images of the Duch trial and the history of Democratic Kampuchea flashed by on screen.

“I was not aware at all that the Khmer Rouge killed so many people,” said former Khmer Rouge soldier Tok Keo.

The 55-year-old, who lost his left leg to a landmine in 1980, said he had joined the Khmer Rouge in Kratie province in 1975 before fleeing to Northwestern Cambodia with the overthrow of the regime in 1979.

During that time, he said, he had no idea about the thousands of Cambodians exterminated under Democratic Kampuchea.

“Our role was to fight against the Vietnamese troops because we were told that they had come to invade us and we had to protect our land,” Tok Keo said, adding that he and other low-level troops had no contact with KR leaders Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary.

The pair are now awaiting trial in what will be the tribunal’s second case, along with former Khmer Rouge social action minister Ieng Thirith and head of state Khieu Samphan; through the 1990s, Pailin served as their virtual fiefdom as they collected revenue from the then booming gem and timber trade in the area.

Pailin deputy governor Mey Meakk, a former secretary of KR leader Pol Pot, said at the screening that residents in his province supported the tribunal but were wary of pending investigations in the court’s third and fourth cases. Prime Minister Hun Sen has also expressed opposition to these cases due to concerns about national security, telling United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon last month that he would not allow them to go to trial.

“We completely agree with Samdech Hun Sen that we don’t want to see additional Khmer Rouge cadres be prosecuted,” Mey Meakk said. “If the court wants to make further arrests, it will cause fear.”

For the rank-and-file, the mood was less one of defiance than of regret.

“The crimes committed were so cruel, and we never believed it before,” Sor Song said.

Olsen said it was evident that many in the group were shocked as they walked the halls of Tuol Sleng during the visit.

“Although the people come from an area that is regarded as a Khmer Rouge area, several people said that they themselves had family members that were killed,” he said.

“Just because you were a Khmer Rouge soldier does not necessarily mean that you subscribed to all the ideology and all the policy implemented by the regime.”

Ex-Khmer Rouge defend the dark past

Click here to watch a video of former KR cadre Khin Pon on his part in Cambodia's violent past

Sam Soeurn, who is now a farmer, says he spent 15 years as a Khmer Rouge soldier
Local government and armed forces in Pailin are dominated by Khmer Rouge veterans

5 October 2010
BBC News

The BBC's Guy De Launey travels to Cambodia's north-western Pailin province, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold, to meet veterans of the brutal regime.

Sam Soeurn pushes aside the ears of corn that grow in the fields over the dirt track from his house.

He looks more than his 62 years - though the farmer's weather-beaten skin and missing front teeth could account for that.

But he also seems content, smiling broadly at some of his 29 grandchildren as they lay the bricks for a new hen house.

He is greeted with the respect befitting a village chief by the other members of the small community of Tuk Pos in Pailin province.

"Life is good," he says. "We are very happy."

But then he unbuttons his blue shirt to reveal an intricate, faded tattoo. This is what he believes protected him from enemy bullets during his 15 years as a Khmer Rouge soldier.

"In 1972 it didn't matter if you wanted to join the Khmer Rouge or not. There was no choice," he says.

Up to two million people died under Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979.

Policies included the evacuation of cities, forced labour in the rice fields and the summary execution of those considered enemies of the revolution.

Exasperated

Three decades of conflict finally came to an end in the late 1990s as the Khmer Rouge accepted a series of amnesties and in some cases even royal pardons.

In return many of the organisation's members took roles in the government and the military.

Even today, the local government and armed forces in Pailin are dominated by Khmer Rouge veterans.

Their assimilation into mainstream Cambodian society had seemed complete and uneventful.

But with the start of the United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge Tribunal in 2006, the former cadres have been feeling somewhat less accepted.

And the genocide charges against the four most senior surviving leaders of the organisation have left people like Sam Soeurn feeling exasperated.

"They're old and won't live much longer if they put them on trial. They should be given amnesty and allowed to live freely. That would bring peace to our country," he says.

Instead Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith are due to go on trial sometime in 2011.

As well as the genocide charges, they have been accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Officials from the special court are aware that there are misgivings about their work in former Khmer Rouge areas.

Pailin was their first stop for an outreach forum the week after the genocide charges were confirmed.

A packed hall greeted the foreign and Cambodian officials, with most of the front rows filled with stern faces in military uniforms.

If the international co-prosecutor, Andrew Cayley, had not been a former army man himself it might have made for an intimidating sight.

"It's easy for me to go somewhere we have support," he says. "It's more important to come to a place like this - where there are former Khmer Rouge members integrated in the government."

Indeed Mr Cayley found himself listening to a speech by Pailin's deputy governor in which he spoke warmly of the former Khmer Rouge leaders, and even described them as victims of Cambodia's long conflict.

But the prosecutor believes that when the trial starts, the former cadres will have to face up to the reality of what their leaders did.

"Reconciliation is about rebuilding trust in communities that have been in conflict with each other.

"In Yugoslavia, crimes were denied until they were tried by international criminal courts - and in trying those cases and revealing the truth both the victims and the perpetrators gained some relief and satisfaction that the story had been properly told. Ultimately that led to a healing - and I believe the same thing could happen here."

The former Khmer Rouge cadres at the forum were more sceptical.

Some described their former leaders as "heroes and patriots". Others wondered why only the Khmer Rouge was being singled out when many forces committed atrocities over three decades of conflict.

Sam Soeurn went back to his village, his corn and his two dozen-odd grandchildren.

"There won't be any problems here," he says. "We're normal people now."

Let’s Battle It Out: The Defamation Case of Hor Namhong vs. Sam Rainsy

Friday, April 18, 2008
Editorial by Khmerization
Originally posted at http://khmerization.blogspot.com

“The Khmer Rouge Tribunal is still in full operation. It is not too late to bring the perpetrators of the crimes, the likes of Hor Namhong and Keat Chhon, to answer what they knew about the Khmer Rouge atrocities and their involvements in those atrocities. So, let’s battle it out, Rainsy.”

Some people would just want to let the Khmer Rouge leaders live with their guilt and let bygones be bygones for the sake of national reconciliation, peace, prosperity and stability. But with over 1.7 million Khmers died in tragic circumstances and with many victims traumatised and national healing is at stake, it is unimaginable to let the Khmer Rouge crimes go unpunished and let bygones to be gone by. We Khmer must be reconciled to the fact that national reconciliation must come with justice, and to let the bygones to by gone by as in the case of the Khmer Rouge crimes, would be a betrayal of mankind and the 1.7 million who perished in the most inhuman ways. The truth must be revealed and that the perpetrators and their cohorts must be unmasked.

It is interesting to see that, while the Khmer Rouge Tribunal is making great efforts to bring former Khmer Rouge to justice, other former Khmer Rouge, the likes of Hor Namhong and Keat Chhon are trying to battle it out with their victims (Sam Rainsy and co.) in the Cambodian court, citing defamation (read this link).

While defamation is very hard to prove and prosecute in an independent judiciary, it is not in the Cambodian judiciary, especially when the court is at the disposal of the plaintiff, in this case Hor Namhong, who is a senior government minister and the defendant, Sam Rainsy, who happens to be an opposition leader. But this is a fight over principle and, win or lose, the one who has the most to lose will be Hor Namhong himself.

Let’s set the record straight here. In order for any defamation cases to prevail and be successfully prosecuted, the plaintiff must prove and satisfy three elements of the laws. Firstly, the plaintiff must prove that the person who defamed him had actually identified him by name. In this case, it’s disputable whether Rainsy did identify Hor Namhong in his speech, although Rainsy did mention the person by his job description as a foreign minister. Secondly, the allegation must have been published or being communicated to the public. Sam Rainsy made the comments and they have been communicated to his audience and the comments were published by local and international media. Thirdly, that the defendant must have known that his statements are false and that the plaintiff must have suffered damages as a result of those false statements. To satisfy this element of the laws, Hor Namhong must prove that he had suffered in the form of damages to his reputation or job loss, he was subject to public ridicule, hatred and contempt or degradation to his dignity.

By close examination, Hor Hamhong has no strong legal basis for a defamation suit. While Hor Namhong can satisfy the second element of the laws described above, it would be very difficult for him to satisfy the first and third element of the laws. In conclusion, his defamation law suit against Sam Rainsy has no merit and is therefore has a very low chance of victory, if the case is brought before an independent judiciary. But in Cambodia, where the judiciary is at Hor Namhong’s disposal, the chance of a legal success over Sam Rainsy is a sure thing.

All the legal challenges above notwithstanding, Sam Rainsy is not left without a defence. While the plaintiff must satisfy three elements of the laws to be able to successfully prosecute the defamation case, the defendant has also three elements of the laws to defend him/herself against the defamation suit. First is the truth. The truth is the ultimate defence against defamation suit. Sam Rainsy said that Hor Namhong was a director of the Boeng Trabek Prison, which was true. And, as a chief of the prison, he was responsible for the tortures, murders and disappearances of many Cambodian and foreign diplomats, the likes of Sarin Chhak, Chau Seng etc. who were imprisoned at Boeng Trabek and who have disappeared mysteriously without a trace.

Secondly, that Sam Rainsy’s statements were made in the public interests. With over 1.7 million deaths under the Khmer Rouge regime, with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal is seeking for the truth and uncountable executions at Boeng Trabek Prison, the public has the interests and the right to know the truth. Thirdly, is the freedom of speech and parliamentary immunity. Freedom of speech here is not a strong defence as freedom of speech has its limits. You can speak freely as long as you don’t defame someone. And parliamentary immunity is certainly not a defence here because Rainsy’s comments were made outside of parliament. It would be an ultimate defence if the comments were made inside of parliament.

In conclusion, Hor Namhong’s prosecution case is very weak, while Sam Rainsy’s case has a very strong defence - and that is the defence of the truth and the defence of public interests. Hor Namhong can only satisfy one element of the defamation laws - and that is the publications of Rainsy‘s comments, but he will not be able to prove that Rainsy’s statements were directed at him personally or that the statements were maliciously or vexatiously intended to ruin his reputation. It would be very hard to prove that he had suffered any damages as a result of Rainsy’s comments. Meanwhile, Sam Rainsy’s case can at least satisfy two elements of the defence in the defamation laws - and that is the truth and public interests. In an independent judiciary, Hor Namhong’s case has very little chance of success at all.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal is still in full operation. It is not too late to bring the perpetrators of the crimes, the likes of Hor Namhong and Keat Chhon, to answer what they knew about the Khmer Rouge atrocities and their involvements in those atrocities. So, let’s battle it out, Rainsy.