Brother's quest for answers

HAUNTING JOURNEY: Rob Hamill in the notorious former Cambodian prison camp Tuo Sleng as he searches for answers to his brother's death.

01/05/2012
DELWYN DICKEY
Rodney Times (New Zealand)

Rowing legend Rob Hamill will talk and answer questions at a screening of the documentary Brother Number One at the Matakana Cinemas on Thursday at 5.30pm.

The documentary follows his quest to find out more about the last few weeks of his older brother Kerry's life. The young New Zealander, sailing with two friends, was captured off the Cambodian coast, tortured and murdered at a notorious Khmer Rouge prison camp in Cambodia in 1978.

Rob Hamill talked to survivors of the deadly regime and testified against Comrade Duch, who was commander of the notorious torture centre Tuol Sleng and who ordered his brother's death.

Personal journey an anecdote for greater loss

One of the last images of Kerry Hamill before he was captured by the Khmer Rouge in 1970s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnAQH02GHoA

March 12, 2012
Laura’s screening
with Laura Weaser
Sun Live (New Zealnad)

Brother Number One. Out now in selected cinemas. Directed by Annie Goldson.

Bookended by a brother’s journey, Brother Number One leads the viewer through Cambodian history as told by Whakatane born Rob Hamill’s own experiences. Tracing his brother Kerry’s last steps, ‘Brother’ follows Rob’s personal struggle with loss as well as the loss of thousands of Cambodians who have been affected by the Khmer Rouge.

Brother Number One explores one of the ‘forgotten’ genocides of the 20th century, examining how and why nearly two million Cambodians could be killed by an ultra-Maoist regime known as the Khmer Rouge. The documentary focuses on Rob’s trip to Cambodia in 2009 as he seeks justice and answers for his eldest brother Kerry who was murdered by the Khmer Rouge in 1978 along with two sailing companions.

UK Premiere of Brother Number One

UK PREMIERE:

BROTHER NUMBER ONE + Q&A
25-26 March | Curzon Soho and Ritzy Cinema

+View the full festival lineup on FF.HRW.ORG

Presented in association with International Alert

Through New Zealander Rob Hamill's story of his brother's death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, Brother Number One explores how the regime and its followers killed nearly 2 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. In 1978, Kerry Hamill and his friends Stuart Glass and John Dewhirst disappeared without a trace while sailing from Australia to Southeast Asia. Find out more

Discussion to follow with filmmaker and family of John Dewhirst

TICKETS:

Curzon Soho: Sunday 25 March, 16.00 + Q&A | Invite friends
Ritzy: Monday 26 March, 18.30 + Q&A | Invite friends


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Hamill given access to Khmer Rouge file

JUSTICE: Kerry Hamill, brother of rower Rob Hamill, was killed when the yacht he and friends were sailing strayed into Cambodian waters in August 1978. (DOMINION POST)

29/02/2012
Fairfax NZ News

Rob Hamill a decision granting him civil party status in the Cambodian war crimes trial of Khmer Rouge commanders he holds responsible for the death of his brother Kerry is a huge breakthrough.

That decision should have given him access to the case file, but that access is still being blocked.

Kerry Hamill was tortured and killed in Cambodia in 1978, after being abducted from his boat, which he was sailing with two friends.

He was one of about 1.7 million people who died during the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979.

Hamill to speak on his brother's torture, death

Rob Hamill

Saturday, November 26, 2011
Amie Hickland
Wairarapa Times-Age (New Zealand)

Marathon rowing champion Rob Hamill will visit Masterton next month to speak ahead of the film, Brother Number One.

Mr Hamill will give a personal account of his travels to Cambodia to discover the story behind the torture and death of his brother, Kerry Hamill, by the Khmer Rouge.

Masterton Safe and Healthy Community Council manager Sandy Ryan said Mr Hamill was visiting at the council's invitation.

Considerations of the Pre-Trial Chamber regarding the appeal against order on the admissibility of civil party application Robert Hamill

http://www.box.net/shared/d08not9011spkvqcab88

Rowing: Pioneering team ready to race across Tasman

Nigel Cherrie, Andrew McCowan, Martin Berka and James Blake will row from Sydney to Auckland. Photo / Christine Cornege

Tuesday Aug 16, 2011
By Natalie Akoorie
New Zealand Herald

Rowing legend Rob Hamill is back doing what he loves.

After a harrowing year of working to see his brother's killer brought to justice in Cambodia, Mr Hamill is launching a team to row from Sydney to Auckland.

The Atlantic Rowing Race winner from Te Pahu, outside Hamilton, has wanted for years to pit rowers against each other in a race across the Tasman Sea.

And last week he launched Team Gallagher a four-man team who will race against themselves in a rowing adventure expected to take anywhere between three weeks and three months.

Champion Rower Seeks Justice in Brother's Khmer Rouge Killing

Kerry Hamill, sailing with his then-girlfriend, Gail Colley, in the 1970s. (Photo: Rob Hammil)

Rob Hamill, testifying in 2009 at the trial of the Khmer Rouge's "Duch." (Annie Goldson)

July 28, 2011
Sarah Williams | Washington, D.C.
Voice of America

Olympic rower Rob Hamill is on a quest. Not for gold, but for justice. Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge captured and killed his brother, Kerry, in 1978. And now, Hamill is fighting to bring the murderers to justice. That quest is the subject of a new documentary, “Brother Number One,” which premiered this week at the New Zealand International Film Festival.

The cameras followed Hamill as he retraced his brother’s path through Cambodia and testified at the first U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal of former Khmer Rouge leaders. The New Zealander said he realized he needed to pursue the case while competing in the first trans-Atlantic rowing race 1997.

Feeling the pain

“Whether it was the ocean, being on the sea, or whether it was just the exhaustion and on the edge sort of, I ended up grieving for Kerry at sea.” Hamill told VOA in an interview. “I realized at that time I was going to have to do something, at some point. I didn’t know when that would be or how that would look, but it was certainly going to be at least a trip to Cambodia, along the path that Kerry took.”

Brother Number One: Annie Goldson interview

Annie Goldson (right) with DOP Peter Gilbert

Rob Hamill

Kerry Hamill

July 8, 2011
By David Larsen
New Zealand Listener

David Larsen discusses the extraordinary new documentary Brother Number One with director Annie Goldson.

This would be a banner year for New Zealand documentary film making if the only film released were Errol Wright and Abi King-Jones’s Operation 8. I did not expect to discover a second documentary just as strong only a few months after that one’s release, but here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnAQH02GHoA

I emailed Annie Goldson some questions about Brother Number One, which premieres at the New Zealand International Film Festival on July 24.

How did you come to make this film? That’s a very broad question I realise; I’m interested in every single stage of the process. When did you first become aware of the story, when did you first think of it as a potential feature film … an origin story, is what I’m looking for. I was approached about directing the documentary. Rob had been working with James Bellamy developing the project, but neither of them had had much experience in producing long form documentary or track records with funding agencies, and given I had had more experience raising money and managing film, I ended up becoming one of the producers as well. I had been aware of the Cambodia trials – in part because I remember seeing the Tuol Sleng photos in the early 1980s in New York, which had made a deep and lasting impression – and I was aware too that Silvia Cartwright was one of the international judges on the tribunal. But I didn’t know about the Hamill connection – that was a revelation, and the more I found out about Rob, and got to know him, the more my sense that there was a major film to be made grew. We did receive a commission from TV3, which allowed us to access funding from New Zealand on Air, which was great, and I applied to pitch the project at a documentary marketplace in Toronto called Hotdocs: which seemed to go down well, although it didn’t generate much income for the film. While I was on that side of the globe, I hooked up with Peter Gilbert, a friend and DOP from Chicago, and filmed interviews with three historians in the US and with Hilary Holland, the sister of John Dewhirst, another of the murdered Westerners, plus a couple of Englishmen who had been charter passengers in the late 1970s shortly before the Foxy Lady was snatched. So we felt well on our way into production: however, I felt that the film would work also on the big screen so I wrote a pretty long script, 65 pages or so, which was really shaped like a drama, and submitted it the New Zealand Film Commission, and received some further funding, which was great. The University of Auckland, where I teach in the department of film, television and media studies, has also been really generous, with various research committees contributing. We travelled to Hamilton and Whakatane, Rob’s home town, and to Australia, shooting in Darwin, where Kerry left for his last Asia sail, and filmed several interviews there too, most significantly with Gail, Kerry’s girlfriend of the time. Then there was Cambodia. We filmed twice, first when Rob gave his Victim’s Statement during the trial process and again, when Comrade Duch was sentenced. During those two trips we managed to pack in many side-trips, interviews, scenes and so on.

Hamill 'scallywag' claims rejected

23/07/2011
LOUISE RISK
Waikato Times

On the eve of a film premiere about his fight for justice over the death of his brother, Hamilton man Rob Hamill has dismissed suggestions Kerry Hamill was running drugs before being killed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Brother Number One is a documentary film that follows Mr Hamill's tireless campaign on behalf of his brother Kerry, who was one of three international sailors slain in 1978, after being captured by Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.

The film will premiere in Auckland tomorrow.

But a recently released book explores the possibility Kerry Hamill and his two sailing partners were off Cambodia to carry out some sort of drug smuggling mission.

Untold Story Of Kiwi Kerry Hamill's Murder

Kerry Hamill

Untold Story of the Murder of New Zealander Kerry Hamill New Book Reveals Details

© David Kattenburg

Imagine your handsome son, venturing off on the yachting voyage of a lifetime, dashing off postcards from exotic spots across Southeast Asia, and then vanishing. In response to frantic queries, the New Zealand government investigates, discovers the young man was tortured and killed by soldiers of a genocidal regime, and then drops the case. News outlets briefly report, and then abandon the story. History forgets.

This is the story of Whakatane native Kerry Hamill, seized in August 1978 while sailing a 28-foot, Malaysian bedar named Foxy Lady off the coast of Democratic Kampuchea, as Cambodia was called under the murderous Khmer Rouge. On the eve of the New Zealand release of a film about Kerry’s awful fate, a new book uncovers fresh details.

Foxy Lady – Truth, Memory and the Death of Western Yachtsmen in Democratic Kampuchea is an investigative journalist’s account of one of history’s most intriguing footnotes: the murder of four Americans, two Australians, an Englishman, a Canadian, and New Zealander Kerry Hamill by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.

Rob Hamill film to debut at festival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfWaD_FXTqo&feature=player_embedded

06/07/2011
BRIDGET JONES
Stuff.co.nz (New Zealand)

The story of a Kiwi Olympian's search for justice for his lost brother will have its world premiere at this year's New Zealand International Film Festival.

Brother Number One, directed by Annie Goldson, follows Olympian and transatlantic rowing champion Rob Hamill's search for justice for his brother Kerry who disappeared while sailing in 1978.

Two years later the family learnt Kerry had been identified as a victim in a Cambodian death camp.

Goldson accompanies Hamill to Cambodia as he testifies before a War Crimes Tribunal and follows him in his journey for closure.

The Olympic rower seeking justice for his brother, killed by the Khmer Rouge

Kerry Hamill

Rob Hamill

Mon, 6 Jun 11
BBC

The Olympic rower, Rob Hamill, talks to Lucy Ash about seeking justice for his brother Kerry who was murdered by the Khmer Rouge. Rob went to the war crimes tribunal in Cambodia with a film crew who recorded the trial and Rob's personal journey of discovery into how and where his brother died.

Click on the control below to listen to the BBC Outlook audio program:

Rob Hamill’s Civil Party Application to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Cases 003 and 004 rejected by Co-Investigating Judges Siegfried BLUNK and YOU Bunleng

Rob Hamill

KR victim Kerry Hamill

PRESS RELEASE - HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND, 16 MAY 2011:

On 12 May 2011, I received a letter rejecting my civil party claims in cases 003/004.

I am very disappointed in the reasons given for the rejection of my civil party claims.

In light of the Co-Prosecutor’s Press Release informing the public about the scope of investigations in Case 003, it is clear that crimes against my brother are under judicial investigations, namely, the "Capture of foreign nationals off the coast of Cambodia and their unlawful imprisonment, transfer to S-21 or murder".

Despite this, the Co-Investigating Judges (CIJs) have, in essence, determined that I am not a "victim", contrary to the recognition and acknowledgment of my personal, direct and psychological harm in Cases 001 and 002 where the Trial Chamber and the CIJs, respectively admitted my civil party claims.

In a bizarre twist, one of the two Co-Investigating Judges, Cambodian Judge YOU Bunleng, ruled in my favour and accepted me as a civil party for Case 002. Yet for some reason he has done a u-turn for case 003 even though the criteria for admissibility under the Internal Rules in Cases 001, 002 and 003 are essentially the same and should be consistently applied. The other CIJ for Case 003 is German Judge Siegfried BLUNK.

It is an incomprehensible schizophrenic decision and the reasons given are completely nonsensical. In both cases 001 and 002, the court had found that I had established direct and personal harm, within the scope of investigations. Given the “confidential” classification of the decision – which in itself is baffling – I can only say that it appears the decision is based on political convenience rather than a proper application of the law.

The conduct of Cases 003 and 004 appear to be politically influenced and the actions of the CIJs are an affront to the principles behind the establishment of this Tribunal. They are an affront to victims who have suffered from mass and serious crimes in Cambodia.

Given the outrageous and unfounded grounds for a rejection, this decision will be appealed.

For further information please contact Rob Hamill +64 (0)274 936677 or rob@wave.co.nz

Olympian rower Rob Hamill's Civil Party applicatio​n to ECCC Case 003/004

Olympian rower Rob Hamill's Civil Party applicatio​n to ECCC Case 003/004
http://www.scribd.com/full/52637419?access_key=key-1bfdrnvwqwh45kfovxf6

Rob Hamill files CP applicatio​n to ECCC in Case 003/004 - PRESS RELEASE

Rob HAMILL files Civil Party application in Case 003/004

8 April 2011

at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)

_______________________ 

PRESS RELEASE

_______________________

It is my wish that family members of victims murdered by the Khmer Rouge regime will recognise that they are not alone in their grief and suffering.  I am not a Cambodian national but I am a victim of its politics.  I hope this application provides the motivation for others to stand up and say out loud what needs to be said.  All those who are being investigated because they held a leadership position during the rule of Democratic Kampuchea must surely stand trial and be exposed for the part they played in the death of 1,700,000 people.


NB I do not support any form of capital punishment.

__________________________________________________________________________

Between April 17 1975 and 6 January 1979 more than 1,700,000 people were murdered, starved or worked to death during the rule of the Khmer Rouge regime, yet to date only one person has stood trial for the atrocities. 

On 26 July 2010, Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch) was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role as commandant of S-21 (aka Tuol Sleng), the Phnom Penh based prison where approximately 14,000 people were tortured and murdered.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) close to beginning Case 002, the trial of the four highest ranking surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime: Mr. NUON Chea, Mr. IENG Sary, Mr. KHIEU Samphan and Mrs. IENG Thirith.

However, investigations into Case 003/004 of five unnamed individuals who operated in the high echelons of the Khmer Rouge regime are sitting in limbo largely due to overt political interference and UN lethargy.

HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND, Friday 8 April 2011: 

On Friday, 8 April 2011, Mr Rob HAMILL, in his private capacity, lodged an application to become a Civil Party in Case 003/004 against Khmer Rouge commanders Mr MEAS Muth and Mr SOU Met, two of the five individuals believed to be under investigation by the United Nations personnel at the Office of Co-Investigating Judges of the ECCC.

Mr HAMILL’S Civil Party application is the second to be submitted to the ECCC for Case 003/004, the first being from Cambodian human rights activist and Khmer Rouge survivor Ms Theary SENG (www.thearyseng.com) on Monday 4 April 2011.

“I am doing this to remind the UN and its member countries that justice for the 1,700,000 people who were murdered, starved or worked to death has not yet been served,” says Hamill.  “Just what is the magic number that deems it appropriate to cease further proceedings?  Among the hundreds, if not thousands of killers, trying five is not enough, and pushing for the additional five prosecutions in Case 003/004 is not unreasonable – if there is no magic number. 

“The current situation is akin to halting post World War II proceedings at Nuremburg when only a few Nazi’s had been tried,” says Hamill.  “The world simply would not have accepted that outcome yet now, when society is apparently more sophisticated and advanced in all facets of life, the victims of these heinous and incomprehensible atrocities are expected to sit back and accept one conviction (that of Duch), a trial pending for four others, but knowing that at least five more culpable cadres remain un-charged.”

Mr HAMILL said he is also submitting his application to reinforce civil rights activist Theary Seng’s application made on Monday 4 April, 2011.  “She is a very brave woman who deserves to be heard above the deafening silence that pervades domestically and internationally in Case 003/004.” 

Mr HAMILL holds Mr MEAS Muth and Mr SOU Met personally, individually, criminally responsible for the death of his brother Kerry Hamill, inter alia, for their roles as military commanders who contributed to the common purpose and design in the arrests and executions specifically in their respective divisions and generally for the whole of Cambodia and who also controlled the Navy and Air Force of Democratic Kampuchea, respectively.

Particular emphasis is given to MEAS Muth, who, in his role as commander of the Khmer Rouge navy played a pivotal role in the capture of Rob Hamill’s brother, Kerry Hamill who, on 13 August 1978, was moored off Koh Tang Island when attacked by a Khmer Rouge gunboat and taken prisoner at Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh.  Kerry Hamill was tortured, forced to sign a confession that he was a CIA operative, then executed.  Both Meas Muth and SOU Met knew of and contributed countless victims to Tuol Sleng prison. 

“One of my concerns lays in the fact that Case 003 and 004 appears to be dormant.  In fact, there is growing information suggesting the imminent dropping of the case,” says Mr Hamill.

“For me and my family this is not good enough.  It harks back to the post Khmer Rouge cold war politics of the time.  In the late 1970’s through to the mid 1980’s many countries still recognised the Khmer Rouge leadership at the UN.  This included the National Party lead Government of the time here in New Zealand that still acknowledged Pol Pot’s regime at the UN.” 

“At the time my father, Miles Hamill, wrote many letters to our government.  In one letter to the Prime Minister he wrote ‘Mr Muldoon Sir, if you can faintly understand the shock and grief I and my family are suffering over this ghastly affair, then you will surely do all in your power as the Head of New Zealand’s governing body to investigate my son’s death.’  He went onto ask ‘Why has New Zealand ever recognised the Pol Pot regime in Kampuchea?  To recognise must surely mean to condone their actions as a Government?’”

“The recognition of the Pol Pot regime at that time was politically driven and was totally unacceptable to my father,” says Rob Hamill.  “If the ECCC drop Case 003/004 this would be equally unacceptable.”

Immediately after the lodging of his application, he will be available for comment to discuss the matters with interested media:  

For further information, please feel free to contact Rob HAMILL at rob@wave.co.nz +64 (0)7 825 9921 or +64 (0)274 936677 or 

Ms Lyma NGUYEN lyma.nguyen@gmail.com +61 (0)404 111 579 or

SAM Sokong samsokong@yahoo.com +855 (0)1260 6101

. . . . .

Power of Attorney

Ms Lyma NGUYEN lymanguyen@gmail.com +61 (0)404 111 579 (international lawyer)

Mr SAM Sokong samsokong@yahoo.com +855 (0)1260 6101 (national Cambodian lawyer)

.........

Other reading material available:

ECCC Internal Rules, 23 Feb. 2011 (Rev. 7)

. . . . .

Seven Candidates for Prosecution:

http://www.wcl.american.edu/warcrimes/khmerrouge.html

Accountability for Crimes of the Khmer Rouge

By Prof. Stephen Heder and Brian D. Tittemore

American University, War Crimes Research Office (June 2001)

. . . . .

Judgement of ECCC Case 001

http://www.eccc.gov.kh/documents/court/judgement-case-001

.....

Closing Order of ECCC Case 002

Sept. 2010

. . . . . .

Open Society Justice Initiative Reports

Rob Hamill

www.brothernumberone.co.nz – the film

www.thegreatrace.co.nz

T  +64 (0)7 825 9921 (try first)

M +64 (0)274 936677

F  +64 (0)7 8259961

www.robhamill.com

New Zealander files KR complaint

Rob Hamill

April 8, 2011
James O'Toole
The Phnom Penh Post

FORMER Olympic rower Rob Hamill has announced plans to file a civil party application at the Khmer Rouge tribunal in relation to the court's controversial third and fourth cases.

The New Zealander's application targets former Khmer Rouge navy commander Meas Muth and air force commander Sou Met, and follows a similar application lodged by local activist Theary Seng on Monday, the first in relation to Cases 003 and 004.

These cases, still in the preliminary investigation stage, feature five suspects who have not yet been arrested or charged and whose identities remain confidential. Theary Seng said this week, however, that she was confident Meas Muth and Sou Met were among those being investigated based on public documents and her own research.

Hamill's brother Kerry was captured by the Khmer Rouge in 1978 while sailing with friends in the Gulf of Thailand before being taken to S-21 prison in Phnom Penh and executed. Rob Hamill appeared to testify about the ordeal in 2009 during the tribunal's first trial, that of former S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch.

New court battle over NZer's killing in Cambodia

Thursday, April 07, 2011
Radio New Zealand News

A New Zealand man whose brother was killed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia is preparing to enter a court battle against two former senior members of the regime.

Rob Hamill's brother Kerry was tortured and killed at a prison in Phnom Penh in 1978, after the yacht he was on strayed into Cambodian waters.

Mr Hamill went to Cambodia last year to watch the United Nations-backed Extraordinary Chamber of the Courts convict the prison chief.

Hamill continues quest for justice for slain brother

Rob Hamill lost his brother to the Khmer Rouge death camps. Photo / Rhys Palmer

Thursday Apr 7, 2011
NZPA

"If the ECCC drop Case 003/004 this would be equally unacceptable."

Former Olympic rower Rob Hamill takes a step closer in his quest for justice for his murdered brother Kerry tomorrow.

Kerry Hamill ended up in a Cambodian prison when the yacht he and friends were sailing strayed into Cambodian waters on August 13, 1978.

One crewman, Canadian Stuart Glass, was shot while Mr Hamill and Briton John Dewhirst were taken for interrogation and torture for two months before being killed by the Khmer Rouge regime.

Tomorrow Hamill plans to lodge an application to become a civil party in Case 003/004 against Khmer Rouge commanders Meas Muth and Sou Met, two of the five individuals believed to be under investigation by the United Nations personnel at the Office of Co-Investigating Judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

His Civil Party application will be only the second to be submitted to the ECCC for the case, the first being from Cambodian human rights activist and Khmer Rouge survivor Ms Theary Seng on Monday.

Appeal for killer of Hamill's brother 'a circus'

Rob Hamill says that an appeal hearing for a Khmer Rouge leader was farcical. (Photo: Waikato Times)

07/04/2011
BELINDA FEEK
WAIKATO TIMES (New Zealand)

A recently completed appeal hearing for a Khmer Rouge leader was farcical, Rob Hamill says.

Mr Hamill's brother Kerry was one of those tortured and executed at the notorious S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital in 1978.

Mr Hamill has just returned from Cambodia where he attended an appeal hearing for

Kaing Guek Eav, 67, more commonly known as Duch, who received a 35-year sentence last year after pleading guilty to crimes against humanity, war crimes, premeditated murder and torture.

Mr Hamill hoped to meet with his brother's killer face-to-face at the appeal which began on March 28.