By Michael Saliba, J.D., and Tyler Nims, J.D., Center for International
Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law
Villagers watch Judge Nil Nonn read Duch Judgment
As news of the judgment against Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch) began to sink
into the minds of the Cambodian people, villagers in the Kandal province who
were unable to watch the verdict live gathered at the local pagoda to for a
replay of the judgment. The screening was hosted by the Documentation Center
of Cambodia (DC-Cam) as part of an extensive outreach program that included
live screenings and replays of the reading of the judgment in pagodas, local
schools, and cafes in seven Cambodian provinces. These screenings are only
the latest in a long series of outreach efforts organized by DC-Cam to
increase awareness of the history and atrocities of the Democratic Kampuchea
regime across the country.
Local boys observe the BBC with curiosity
The replay screening attended by CTM at Koh Veng Keo Andret in the Koh Thom
district drew a large crowd of mostly older Cambodians, including the
village chief and Him Huy, a resident of the local commune and former Khmer
Rouge guard at the Toul Sleng prison (S-21). Also in attendance was a camera
crew from the BBC. Yet the key teenage demographic was unfortunately unable
to watch the judgment live on TV or at DC-Cam screening due to a
three-day-long high school exam. Many consider the overlap a serious
oversight on the part of the ECCC.
After DC-Cam representatives explained the workings of the tribunal, the
villagers sat quietly in front of a large screen in the middle of the pagoda
and watched intently as the president of the trial chamber, Judge Nil Nonn,
summarized Duch's crimes and pronounced his fate. In the background, candles
burned at an altar. After the viewing, a villager arose from the crowd and
announced that his father was one of the many victims who perished at S-21.
He expressed his dissatisfaction with the verdict, which he thought should
have been the maximum sentence of life in prison, stressing that even the
maximum sentence could not bring his father back and take away the pain that
he still endures today. Other villagers echoed his sentiments.
Next, Him Huy rose to address his former neighbors. As one-time chief of the
guards at Tuol Sleng, Huy bears a measure of responsibility for the deaths
of some S-21 and Choeung Ek victims. He told the villagers the story of his
involvement with the Khmer Rouge and interactions with Duch. Huy, who
testified against Duch at the ECCC, agreed that Duch should have received a
longer sentence.
Former S-21 guard Him Huy (left) addresses his community
In the early afternoon, after most of the villagers had filed out of the
pagoda, one elderly man stayed behind to recount for DC-Cam and CTM the
story of his forced labor at a nearby Khmer Rouge work camp. In an animated
and poignant interview, he spoke of the hardship he suffered and the deaths
of several siblings from starvation and overwork.
Northwestern University School of Law Center for International Human
Rights and Documentation Center of Cambodia
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Duch Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison; Will Serve Only 19
By Michael Saliba, J.D., and Tyler Nims, J.D., Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law
Today—35 years, three months, and nine days after the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh and 31 years, six months, and nineteen days after they were driven out by Vietnamese forces—Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch), the infamous chief of Tuol Sleng prison (S-21), became the first Khmer Rouge held accountable for his crimes in a court of law meeting international fair trial standards. This morning, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) sentenced Duch to 35 years in prison. Over one thousand Cambodians of all ages and backgrounds arrived early in the morning to the gates of the ECCC to witness the pronouncement of the judgment. Some gathered in the courtyard of the ECCC to watch screens delivering a live feed of the judgment, while others who had received prior access proceeded directly to the courtroom. Visitors filing into the courtyard of the tribunal were met by a host of reporters from international and national media outlets, marking the great significance of this moment for Cambodia and for the international cause of accountability for atrocity crimes.
The public viewing gallery of the courtroom was filled with a diverse crowd: civil parties like the few survivors of Tuol Sleng and relatives of those tortured and sentenced to death at the prison, their families, villagers from across Cambodia, orange-robed monks, foreign dignitaries, and national and international members of the press and human rights non-governmental organizations. A group of about fifteen civil parties—several of whom had attended nearly all of the proceedings—sat behind their lawyers in the courtroom, facing Duch and his lawyer. Noticeably absent from the courtroom was Francois Roux, Duch’s international defense counsel, who had been swiftly and suddenly relieved of his position two weeks ago after Duch informed the Defense Support Section that he had lost confidence in Roux’s ability to provide adequate representation.
The crowd rose at 10:00 sharp as the judges entered the courtroom to read a summary of the long-anticipated judgment. The president of the Trial Chamber, Judge Nil Nonn, speaking for the court, called Duch to the stand to listen to the judgment as it was read out in open court. Duch, wearing eyeglasses and a light blue button-down shirt, glanced quickly into the public gallery as he approached the stand, but otherwise sat expressionless throughout the remainder of the proceedings.
The court emphasized the historic nature of the verdict, the first such judgment against a high-ranking member of the Khmer Rouge. The court explained that Duch faced charges of crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva conventions (commonly referred to as war crimes), and violations of the 1956 Cambodian penal code. But because the judges did not achieve a four-member consensus on the issue of whether the statute of limitations had run on the crimes under the Cambodian penal code, they concluded that they lacked jurisdiction to consider these crimes.
The court made some important findings as it provided the historical and political context of Democratic Kampuchea, including that a state of international armed conflict existed between Vietnam and Cambodia during the entirety of the Democratic Kampuchea regime—meaning that Khmer Rouge defendants could be convicted of war crimes—and that the standing executive committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea directed the Democratic Kampuchea state. The court also stressed the fact that Nuon Chea was Duch’s direct supervisor in the hierarchy of the CPK, a finding which will likely have consequences for case 002.
Next, the court read out the crimes with which Duch was charged. Despite the fact that Duch confessed to many of the crimes during the trial, no provision is in place at the ECCC to accept a guilty plea and therefore the court reviewed the all of the evidence and pronounced Duch guilty on all counts except those domestic crimes over which the court had earlier found that it lacked jurisdiction.
In sum, Duch was convicted of the crimes against humanity of persecution on political grounds, extermination, enslavement, imprisonment, torture, one instance of rape, and other inhumane acts. He was convicted of the war crimes of willful killing, torture, willfully causing great suffering and injury, depriving civilians and prisoners of war of the right to a fair trial, and the unlawful confinement of civilians.
Though the court concluded that there was insufficient evidence to indicate that Duch personally tortured victims and committed other inhumane acts, it held that he had participated in the crimes as part of a joint criminal enterprise. Duch had zealously worked within and presided over a system of terror with the intent to further the criminal purpose of the enterprise. For purposes of sentencing, the court also noted that Duch had planned, ordered, and aided and abetted many of these crimes and would also have been liable for the crimes committed at S-21 under a theory of superior liability.
The court rejected the defense of superior orders proffered by Duch’s defense because it is not recognized as a defense for Duch’s international crimes. The court also rejected Duch’s claim that he committed the crimes under duress because the evidence showed that he not only consciously partook in the criminal enterprise but also planned it.
Before announcing Duch’s sentence, the court addressed the civil parties. Stressing the importance of establishing both a direct injury and a causal connection to the charged person, the court recognized 70 of the civil parties and read out their names and their connection to the crimes committed at S-21 and Choeung Ek. Yet in what must have come as a great shock to some of the civil parties, the court rejected several applications. Those rejected learned of the court’s decision only after it finished reading the list of recognized parties. The court then turned its attention to the moral and collective reparations they were permitted to award under the ECCC law. It announced that all of the names of the civil parties would be written into the judgment with a description of their relation to S-21 and any relatives that perished there. The court also promised to post a compilation of statements of apology and remorse that Duch has made during the trial on the ECCC website. The court did not award any other reparations, stressing that it had no jurisdiction to enforce any government implementation of awards. This was a conclusion that caused much grief among the civil parties, although it was not unexpected.
Finally, Judge Nil Nonn asked Duch to stand as his sentence was pronounced. The court explained that it had considered mitigating factors—like cooperation with the court, limited expressions of remorse and guilt, and the coercive nature of Democratic Kampuchea—and aggravating factors—such as the heinous nature of the crimes and the long period over which they occurred. The gallery then let out a collective gasp, and several people wept quietly, as the court announced that Duch had been sentenced to serve 35 years in prison for the crimes he oversaw at S-21.
However, Duch’s sentence was reduced by five years because of his illegal detention from 1999-2007 at the hands of the military. He was also credited with the eleven years of time served since his initial arrest. In sum, Duch is now left with 19 years in prison. This means that Duch, now at age 67, may well walk again as a free man. The court ordered Duch back to his detention cell. He left as expressionless as he had arrived, and victims and court observers were left to react to the historic judgment.
As everybody gathered outside, opinions were mixed. Some wept loudly and openly. Others, while somber, expressed their satisfaction with the verdict. The Cambodia Tribunal Monitor spoke with several individuals with differing opinions. Teary Seng, a civil party in case 002 and civil society activist, castigated the sentence as far too light and stressed the fact that with 19 more years in prison, Duch would serve less than 11 hours for every life he took. Robert Hamill, a civil party from New Zealand whose brother was captured by Khmer Rouge and then tortured and killed at S-21 after his sailboat strayed too close to the Cambodian coast, expressed some satisfaction with the judgment because it was close to the prosecution request of 40 years. However, he questioned why prosecutors requested what he considered a relatively light sentence, and expressed his disgust at the idea of Duch possibly walking around as a free man again.
Despite differing opinions with regard to the verdict, however, everybody agreed that this was an important day in Cambodia’s history and was perhaps one small step toward achieving some sort of accountability and reconciliation for a country that has waited too long for justice.
1 comments:
Anonymous said...
Thank you for posting information on the ECCC proceedings. Re: Duch's sentencing, anything less than life imprisonment is a miscarriage of justice. As noted by my Khmer friends: "I'm madder at the courts than I am at Duch." A more lenient sentence for time served and improper imprisonment (1999-2007)?? This is laughable.
Clearly, a hybrid UN/Cambodian court is an international experiment at justice, and quite possibly imperfect. Indeed, the verdict resembles that of a kangaroo court. Recognizing that Prof. Scheffer is encouraged by the court actually bringing a verdict and championing this process, one wonders why there has been so much attention to ensuring Comrade Duch's civil rights since he chose to violate the human rights of so many thousands. We do not seek the biblical "eye for an eye; merely, we seek justice for the Khmer people and a powerful message to those who will wantonly commit genocide.
Northwestern University School of Law Center for International Human Rights and Documentation Center of Cambodia
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Today—35 years, three months, and nine days after the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh and 31 years, six months, and nineteen days after they were driven out by Vietnamese forces—Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch), the infamous chief of Tuol Sleng prison (S-21), became the first Khmer Rouge held accountable for his crimes in a court of law meeting international fair trial standards. This morning, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) sentenced Duch to 35 years in prison. Over one thousand Cambodians of all ages and backgrounds arrived early in the morning to the gates of the ECCC to witness the pronouncement of the judgment. Some gathered in the courtyard of the ECCC to watch screens delivering a live feed of the judgment, while others who had received prior access proceeded directly to the courtroom. Visitors filing into the courtyard of the tribunal were met by a host of reporters from international and national media outlets, marking the great significance of this moment for Cambodia and for the international cause of accountability for atrocity crimes.
The public viewing gallery of the courtroom was filled with a diverse crowd: civil parties like the few survivors of Tuol Sleng and relatives of those tortured and sentenced to death at the prison, their families, villagers from across Cambodia, orange-robed monks, foreign dignitaries, and national and international members of the press and human rights non-governmental organizations. A group of about fifteen civil parties—several of whom had attended nearly all of the proceedings—sat behind their lawyers in the courtroom, facing Duch and his lawyer. Noticeably absent from the courtroom was Francois Roux, Duch’s international defense counsel, who had been swiftly and suddenly relieved of his position two weeks ago after Duch informed the Defense Support Section that he had lost confidence in Roux’s ability to provide adequate representation.
The crowd rose at 10:00 sharp as the judges entered the courtroom to read a summary of the long-anticipated judgment. The president of the Trial Chamber, Judge Nil Nonn, speaking for the court, called Duch to the stand to listen to the judgment as it was read out in open court. Duch, wearing eyeglasses and a light blue button-down shirt, glanced quickly into the public gallery as he approached the stand, but otherwise sat expressionless throughout the remainder of the proceedings.
The court emphasized the historic nature of the verdict, the first such judgment against a high-ranking member of the Khmer Rouge. The court explained that Duch faced charges of crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva conventions (commonly referred to as war crimes), and violations of the 1956 Cambodian penal code. But because the judges did not achieve a four-member consensus on the issue of whether the statute of limitations had run on the crimes under the Cambodian penal code, they concluded that they lacked jurisdiction to consider these crimes.
The court made some important findings as it provided the historical and political context of Democratic Kampuchea, including that a state of international armed conflict existed between Vietnam and Cambodia during the entirety of the Democratic Kampuchea regime—meaning that Khmer Rouge defendants could be convicted of war crimes—and that the standing executive committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea directed the Democratic Kampuchea state. The court also stressed the fact that Nuon Chea was Duch’s direct supervisor in the hierarchy of the CPK, a finding which will likely have consequences for case 002.
Next, the court read out the crimes with which Duch was charged. Despite the fact that Duch confessed to many of the crimes during the trial, no provision is in place at the ECCC to accept a guilty plea and therefore the court reviewed the all of the evidence and pronounced Duch guilty on all counts except those domestic crimes over which the court had earlier found that it lacked jurisdiction.
In sum, Duch was convicted of the crimes against humanity of persecution on political grounds, extermination, enslavement, imprisonment, torture, one instance of rape, and other inhumane acts. He was convicted of the war crimes of willful killing, torture, willfully causing great suffering and injury, depriving civilians and prisoners of war of the right to a fair trial, and the unlawful confinement of civilians.
Though the court concluded that there was insufficient evidence to indicate that Duch personally tortured victims and committed other inhumane acts, it held that he had participated in the crimes as part of a joint criminal enterprise. Duch had zealously worked within and presided over a system of terror with the intent to further the criminal purpose of the enterprise. For purposes of sentencing, the court also noted that Duch had planned, ordered, and aided and abetted many of these crimes and would also have been liable for the crimes committed at S-21 under a theory of superior liability.
The court rejected the defense of superior orders proffered by Duch’s defense because it is not recognized as a defense for Duch’s international crimes. The court also rejected Duch’s claim that he committed the crimes under duress because the evidence showed that he not only consciously partook in the criminal enterprise but also planned it.
Before announcing Duch’s sentence, the court addressed the civil parties. Stressing the importance of establishing both a direct injury and a causal connection to the charged person, the court recognized 70 of the civil parties and read out their names and their connection to the crimes committed at S-21 and Choeung Ek. Yet in what must have come as a great shock to some of the civil parties, the court rejected several applications. Those rejected learned of the court’s decision only after it finished reading the list of recognized parties. The court then turned its attention to the moral and collective reparations they were permitted to award under the ECCC law. It announced that all of the names of the civil parties would be written into the judgment with a description of their relation to S-21 and any relatives that perished there. The court also promised to post a compilation of statements of apology and remorse that Duch has made during the trial on the ECCC website. The court did not award any other reparations, stressing that it had no jurisdiction to enforce any government implementation of awards. This was a conclusion that caused much grief among the civil parties, although it was not unexpected.
Finally, Judge Nil Nonn asked Duch to stand as his sentence was pronounced. The court explained that it had considered mitigating factors—like cooperation with the court, limited expressions of remorse and guilt, and the coercive nature of Democratic Kampuchea—and aggravating factors—such as the heinous nature of the crimes and the long period over which they occurred. The gallery then let out a collective gasp, and several people wept quietly, as the court announced that Duch had been sentenced to serve 35 years in prison for the crimes he oversaw at S-21.
However, Duch’s sentence was reduced by five years because of his illegal detention from 1999-2007 at the hands of the military. He was also credited with the eleven years of time served since his initial arrest. In sum, Duch is now left with 19 years in prison. This means that Duch, now at age 67, may well walk again as a free man. The court ordered Duch back to his detention cell. He left as expressionless as he had arrived, and victims and court observers were left to react to the historic judgment.
As everybody gathered outside, opinions were mixed. Some wept loudly and openly. Others, while somber, expressed their satisfaction with the verdict. The Cambodia Tribunal Monitor spoke with several individuals with differing opinions. Teary Seng, a civil party in case 002 and civil society activist, castigated the sentence as far too light and stressed the fact that with 19 more years in prison, Duch would serve less than 11 hours for every life he took. Robert Hamill, a civil party from New Zealand whose brother was captured by Khmer Rouge and then tortured and killed at S-21 after his sailboat strayed too close to the Cambodian coast, expressed some satisfaction with the judgment because it was close to the prosecution request of 40 years. However, he questioned why prosecutors requested what he considered a relatively light sentence, and expressed his disgust at the idea of Duch possibly walking around as a free man again.
Despite differing opinions with regard to the verdict, however, everybody agreed that this was an important day in Cambodia’s history and was perhaps one small step toward achieving some sort of accountability and reconciliation for a country that has waited too long for justice.
1 comments:
Anonymous said...
Thank you for posting information on the ECCC proceedings. Re: Duch's sentencing, anything less than life imprisonment is a miscarriage of justice. As noted by my Khmer friends: "I'm madder at the courts than I am at Duch." A more lenient sentence for time served and improper imprisonment (1999-2007)?? This is laughable.
Clearly, a hybrid UN/Cambodian court is an international experiment at justice, and quite possibly imperfect. Indeed, the verdict resembles that of a kangaroo court. Recognizing that Prof. Scheffer is encouraged by the court actually bringing a verdict and championing this process, one wonders why there has been so much attention to ensuring Comrade Duch's civil rights since he chose to violate the human rights of so many thousands. We do not seek the biblical "eye for an eye; merely, we seek justice for the Khmer people and a powerful message to those who will wantonly commit genocide.
Northwestern University School of Law Center for International Human Rights and Documentation Center of Cambodia
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Sentence reduced for former Khmer Rouge prison chief
The figure known as Duch, convicted of crimes against humanity, will serve
little more than half of his 35-year sentence. Victims and their families
are dismayed.
Hong Savath, 47, weeps after learning that the 35-year sentence was reduced.
(Heng Sinith, Associated Press / July 26, 2010)
By Brendan Brady, Los Angeles Times
July 26, 2010 | 2:43 p.m.
Reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia - A former Khmer Rouge prison chief
convicted of crimes against humanity will serve little more than half of his
35-year sentence, a penalty that many victims said Monday was unthinkably
lenient.
Kang Kek Ieu - known in tribunal filings as Kaing Guek Eav but best known by
his revolutionary name, Comrade Duch - had his sentence reduced to 19 years
by the U.N.-backed tribunal that convicted him, in part because he has
already been behind bars for 11 years.
Duch, 67, who presided over the grisly torture and execution of more than
14,000 Cambodians, could have received a life sentence. The math
teacher-turned-revolutionary betrayed little emotion as a judge read a
statement saying that the coercive climate in which he followed orders,
matched by his expression of remorse, albeit limited, and cooperation with
the tribunal, warranted a lesser sentence than life in prison.
The verdict was broadcast by every network in this country, ensuring that
millions of Cambodians watched the results of a trial that had begun in
relative obscurity a few years ago.
Tang Bun Chheoung, who watched in a dusty cantina on the outskirts of Phnom
Penh, the capital, was dismayed by the result. "This is the punishment you
would expect for killing just one person," said the 48-year-old, who lost
both her parents under the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime. "Today's
sentence makes it seem trivial."
Frustration with the sentence was bound to run high, said Youk Chhang,
director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has amassed much of
the evidence used in the trial. "With whatever amount of years announced by
the court, there wasn't going to be satisfaction," he said. "You could
sentence him to more than 14,000 years, for each life, and even that
wouldn't make it fair. But, finally, there's official accountability."
Indeed, it was the first time a Khmer Rouge official has been held to
account by the tribunal for having a role in the revolution to forge an
agrarian utopia by forcing the population onto collective farms and
abolishing religion, money and schools. From 1975 to 1979, nearly a quarter
of the Cambodian population - an estimated 1.7 million people - died from
execution, starvation and exhaustion. The nightmare ended only after a
Vietnamese-supported dissident force toppled the Khmer Rouge.
During hearings last year, Duch admitted responsibility for the lives lost
at his prison and expressed "deep regret and heartfelt sorrow." But he also
insisted he carried out orders under threat of death.
His remorse was interrupted by glimmers of pride in having managed the
facility with such unerring efficiency. At one point, Duch even expressed
his indignation with now-deceased former regime leader Pol Pot's claim that
Duch's prison, S-21, didn't exist.
"He spoke gently in court to trick people," said former S-21 guard Him Huy,
who is not facing trial because the tribunal is aimed only at former senior
leaders and those deemed "most responsible." Testimony from former prison
staff and some of the few prisoners to have survived included details of
whippings, electrocutions, live blood-draining and babies smashed against
trees. It remains uncertain how many more former cadres will face trial.
Four higher-ranking leaders wait in custody but they are in their 70s and
80s and infirm.
Brady is a special correspondent.
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/world/asia/27cambodia.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
http://www.france24.com/en/20100726-cambodia-khmer-rouge-prison-chief-jailed-30-years
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/archive-23/?emc=eta1
http://www.headlinerwatch.com/9355/kaing-guek-eav-sentenced-35-years-imprisonment.htm
http://tmdcelebritynews.com/khmer-rouge-torturer-found-guilty-but-cambodians-say-punishment-is-too-light/01298
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cambodia-khmer-rouge-20100727,0,4747344.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cambodia-khmer-rouge-20100727,0,4747344.story
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
little more than half of his 35-year sentence. Victims and their families
are dismayed.
Hong Savath, 47, weeps after learning that the 35-year sentence was reduced.
(Heng Sinith, Associated Press / July 26, 2010)
By Brendan Brady, Los Angeles Times
July 26, 2010 | 2:43 p.m.
Reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia - A former Khmer Rouge prison chief
convicted of crimes against humanity will serve little more than half of his
35-year sentence, a penalty that many victims said Monday was unthinkably
lenient.
Kang Kek Ieu - known in tribunal filings as Kaing Guek Eav but best known by
his revolutionary name, Comrade Duch - had his sentence reduced to 19 years
by the U.N.-backed tribunal that convicted him, in part because he has
already been behind bars for 11 years.
Duch, 67, who presided over the grisly torture and execution of more than
14,000 Cambodians, could have received a life sentence. The math
teacher-turned-revolutionary betrayed little emotion as a judge read a
statement saying that the coercive climate in which he followed orders,
matched by his expression of remorse, albeit limited, and cooperation with
the tribunal, warranted a lesser sentence than life in prison.
The verdict was broadcast by every network in this country, ensuring that
millions of Cambodians watched the results of a trial that had begun in
relative obscurity a few years ago.
Tang Bun Chheoung, who watched in a dusty cantina on the outskirts of Phnom
Penh, the capital, was dismayed by the result. "This is the punishment you
would expect for killing just one person," said the 48-year-old, who lost
both her parents under the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime. "Today's
sentence makes it seem trivial."
Frustration with the sentence was bound to run high, said Youk Chhang,
director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has amassed much of
the evidence used in the trial. "With whatever amount of years announced by
the court, there wasn't going to be satisfaction," he said. "You could
sentence him to more than 14,000 years, for each life, and even that
wouldn't make it fair. But, finally, there's official accountability."
Indeed, it was the first time a Khmer Rouge official has been held to
account by the tribunal for having a role in the revolution to forge an
agrarian utopia by forcing the population onto collective farms and
abolishing religion, money and schools. From 1975 to 1979, nearly a quarter
of the Cambodian population - an estimated 1.7 million people - died from
execution, starvation and exhaustion. The nightmare ended only after a
Vietnamese-supported dissident force toppled the Khmer Rouge.
During hearings last year, Duch admitted responsibility for the lives lost
at his prison and expressed "deep regret and heartfelt sorrow." But he also
insisted he carried out orders under threat of death.
His remorse was interrupted by glimmers of pride in having managed the
facility with such unerring efficiency. At one point, Duch even expressed
his indignation with now-deceased former regime leader Pol Pot's claim that
Duch's prison, S-21, didn't exist.
"He spoke gently in court to trick people," said former S-21 guard Him Huy,
who is not facing trial because the tribunal is aimed only at former senior
leaders and those deemed "most responsible." Testimony from former prison
staff and some of the few prisoners to have survived included details of
whippings, electrocutions, live blood-draining and babies smashed against
trees. It remains uncertain how many more former cadres will face trial.
Four higher-ranking leaders wait in custody but they are in their 70s and
80s and infirm.
Brady is a special correspondent.
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/world/asia/27cambodia.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
http://www.france24.com/en/20100726-cambodia-khmer-rouge-prison-chief-jailed-30-years
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/archive-23/?emc=eta1
http://www.headlinerwatch.com/9355/kaing-guek-eav-sentenced-35-years-imprisonment.htm
http://tmdcelebritynews.com/khmer-rouge-torturer-found-guilty-but-cambodians-say-punishment-is-too-light/01298
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cambodia-khmer-rouge-20100727,0,4747344.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cambodia-khmer-rouge-20100727,0,4747344.story
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Verdict Due in Khmer Rouge Trial
By SETH MYDANS
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - A United Nations-backed tribunal was preparing to
announce its verdict Monday in the first trial of a major figure in the
murderous Khmer Rouge regime since it was toppled 30 years ago.
The defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known as Duch, admitted in an
eight-month trial last year to overseeing the torture and killing of more
than 14,000 people in a prison from which only a handful of people emerged
alive.
He is accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes as well as
premeditated murder and torture as chief of an efficient killing machine
that has come to symbolize a regime responsible for the deaths of 1.7
million people from 1975 to 1979.
"This is truly the day we have all been waiting for," said Youk Chhang,
director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, the leading archive of
Khmer Rouge records.
"It doesn't matter how long the sentence is," he said. "No sentence will be
enough in the eyes of the victims of the Khmer Rouge. But we can move on
now. I will no longer consider myself a victim."
The tribunal, which began work in 2006, now moves to "Case Two," for which
four high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials are in custody awaiting trial
sometime next year. The Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.
Prosecutors demanded a 40-year sentence for Duch, who is now 67.
Experts said the sentence was likely to be reduced by 11 years for time
already served and could be further reduced by mitigating circumstances.
There is no death penalty in Cambodia.
Duch's own plea was unclear. On the final day of the trial, in November, he
unexpectedly asked to be set free, seeming to contradict a carefully
constructed defense in which his lawyers sought to minimize his sentence
through admissions of guilt mixed with assertions that he was just one link
in a hierarchy of killing.
"I am accountable to the entire Cambodian population for the souls that
perished," he said at one point. "I am deeply remorseful and regret such a
mind-boggling scale of death."
But he added: "I ended up serving a criminal organization. I could not
withdraw from it. I was like a cog in a machine. I regret and humbly
apologize to the dead souls."
Many of his victims, along with outside observers, questioned the sincerity
of his remorse, particularly as it was coupled with a sometimes aggressive
and arrogant demeanor in the courtroom and evasiveness regarding many
specific allegations.
Despite those doubts, David Chandler, a historian of Cambodia, noted that
Duch was the only one of the five defendants to have admitted guilt.
"He's a guy who's thought about it, faced up to some stuff," said Mr.
Chandler, the author of "Voices From S-21," a book about the prison, known
as S-21 or Tuol Sleng. "Duch is the only human on trial. The others are
monsters."
A former schoolteacher, Duch took obvious pride in the efficiency of his
operation, where confessions - some of them running to hundreds of typed
pages - were extracted by torture before the prisoners were sent in trucks
to the killing fields.
He disappeared after the Khmer Rouge was driven from power by a Vietnamese
invasion and was discovered in 1999 by an Irish journalist, Nic Dunlop,
living quietly in a small Cambodian town, where he said he had converted to
Christianity.
At one point in his testimony, in an extravagant display of contrition, Duch
appeared to compare himself with Christ.
"The tears that run from my eyes are the tears of those innocent people," he
said. "It matters little if they condemn me, even to the heaviest sentence.
As for Christ's death, Cambodians can inflict that fate on me. I will accept
it."
It is more common among Cambodians - most of whom are Buddhists - to believe
in spirits. Tuol Sleng is now a museum, and when part of its roof collapsed
last week during a storm, some people said the ghosts of the dead were
crying out for justice.
Running parallel with courtroom testimony, the tribunal has faced criticism
as it tries to apply international standards of justice within a flawed
Cambodian court system.
"The court has struggled to deal with allegations of kickbacks involving
national staff, heavy-handed political interference from the Cambodian
government, bureaucratic inefficiency and incompetence, and disturbing
levels of conflict between international and national staff," said John A.
Hall, a professor at the Chapman University School of Law in Orange, Calif.,
who has been monitoring the trials.
"Indeed, perhaps one of the most surprising things so far is that the
tribunal has not collapsed."
In an innovation, the trial made room for about 90 "civil parties," who
registered to apply for reparations and were represented in court by lawyers
who acted as additional prosecutors.
"For 30 years, the victims of the Khmer Rouge waited while a civil war
raged, international actors bickered and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge
walked free," said Alex Hinton, director of the Center for the Study of
Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at Rutgers University in New
Jersey. "Now, for the first time, one of them has been held accountable. The
importance of this moment can't be underestimated."
But over the years, Cambodia has moved on, with new generations, new
concerns and new horizons. Many young people know little about the Khmer
Rouge era, and many older people have chosen to forget.
"I go around the country and not a lot of people ask about the trial," said
Ou Virak, president of the independent Cambodian Center for Human Rights,
which holds forums on issues of concern to the public. "Not even my mom -
and my dad was killed by the Khmer Rouge."
Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company Privacy Terms of Service Search
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - A United Nations-backed tribunal was preparing to
announce its verdict Monday in the first trial of a major figure in the
murderous Khmer Rouge regime since it was toppled 30 years ago.
The defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known as Duch, admitted in an
eight-month trial last year to overseeing the torture and killing of more
than 14,000 people in a prison from which only a handful of people emerged
alive.
He is accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes as well as
premeditated murder and torture as chief of an efficient killing machine
that has come to symbolize a regime responsible for the deaths of 1.7
million people from 1975 to 1979.
"This is truly the day we have all been waiting for," said Youk Chhang,
director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, the leading archive of
Khmer Rouge records.
"It doesn't matter how long the sentence is," he said. "No sentence will be
enough in the eyes of the victims of the Khmer Rouge. But we can move on
now. I will no longer consider myself a victim."
The tribunal, which began work in 2006, now moves to "Case Two," for which
four high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials are in custody awaiting trial
sometime next year. The Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.
Prosecutors demanded a 40-year sentence for Duch, who is now 67.
Experts said the sentence was likely to be reduced by 11 years for time
already served and could be further reduced by mitigating circumstances.
There is no death penalty in Cambodia.
Duch's own plea was unclear. On the final day of the trial, in November, he
unexpectedly asked to be set free, seeming to contradict a carefully
constructed defense in which his lawyers sought to minimize his sentence
through admissions of guilt mixed with assertions that he was just one link
in a hierarchy of killing.
"I am accountable to the entire Cambodian population for the souls that
perished," he said at one point. "I am deeply remorseful and regret such a
mind-boggling scale of death."
But he added: "I ended up serving a criminal organization. I could not
withdraw from it. I was like a cog in a machine. I regret and humbly
apologize to the dead souls."
Many of his victims, along with outside observers, questioned the sincerity
of his remorse, particularly as it was coupled with a sometimes aggressive
and arrogant demeanor in the courtroom and evasiveness regarding many
specific allegations.
Despite those doubts, David Chandler, a historian of Cambodia, noted that
Duch was the only one of the five defendants to have admitted guilt.
"He's a guy who's thought about it, faced up to some stuff," said Mr.
Chandler, the author of "Voices From S-21," a book about the prison, known
as S-21 or Tuol Sleng. "Duch is the only human on trial. The others are
monsters."
A former schoolteacher, Duch took obvious pride in the efficiency of his
operation, where confessions - some of them running to hundreds of typed
pages - were extracted by torture before the prisoners were sent in trucks
to the killing fields.
He disappeared after the Khmer Rouge was driven from power by a Vietnamese
invasion and was discovered in 1999 by an Irish journalist, Nic Dunlop,
living quietly in a small Cambodian town, where he said he had converted to
Christianity.
At one point in his testimony, in an extravagant display of contrition, Duch
appeared to compare himself with Christ.
"The tears that run from my eyes are the tears of those innocent people," he
said. "It matters little if they condemn me, even to the heaviest sentence.
As for Christ's death, Cambodians can inflict that fate on me. I will accept
it."
It is more common among Cambodians - most of whom are Buddhists - to believe
in spirits. Tuol Sleng is now a museum, and when part of its roof collapsed
last week during a storm, some people said the ghosts of the dead were
crying out for justice.
Running parallel with courtroom testimony, the tribunal has faced criticism
as it tries to apply international standards of justice within a flawed
Cambodian court system.
"The court has struggled to deal with allegations of kickbacks involving
national staff, heavy-handed political interference from the Cambodian
government, bureaucratic inefficiency and incompetence, and disturbing
levels of conflict between international and national staff," said John A.
Hall, a professor at the Chapman University School of Law in Orange, Calif.,
who has been monitoring the trials.
"Indeed, perhaps one of the most surprising things so far is that the
tribunal has not collapsed."
In an innovation, the trial made room for about 90 "civil parties," who
registered to apply for reparations and were represented in court by lawyers
who acted as additional prosecutors.
"For 30 years, the victims of the Khmer Rouge waited while a civil war
raged, international actors bickered and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge
walked free," said Alex Hinton, director of the Center for the Study of
Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights at Rutgers University in New
Jersey. "Now, for the first time, one of them has been held accountable. The
importance of this moment can't be underestimated."
But over the years, Cambodia has moved on, with new generations, new
concerns and new horizons. Many young people know little about the Khmer
Rouge era, and many older people have chosen to forget.
"I go around the country and not a lot of people ask about the trial," said
Ou Virak, president of the independent Cambodian Center for Human Rights,
which holds forums on issues of concern to the public. "Not even my mom -
and my dad was killed by the Khmer Rouge."
Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company Privacy Terms of Service Search
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Cambodia prepares for historic verdict from genocide tribunal
By Miranda Leitsinger, CNN
July 25, 2010 -- Updated 1546 GMT (2346 HKT)
Verdict in the case of Kaing Guek Eave, alias Duch, expected Monday
Duch was member of the Khmer Rouge regime who ran S-21 torture prison
Cambodians on Sunday observed the deaths of 14,000 in a memorial
Phnom Penh, Cambodia (CNN) -- Carrying burning incense sticks and pink lotuses and wearing scarves of mourning, dozens of people marked the deaths of 14,000 victims of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime at the S-21 torture prison in the Cambodian capital Sunday, one day before a genocide tribunal renders the verdict in its first case, against the man who ran S-21.
Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, was the head of S-21 and is standing trial on various charges including crimes against humanity. Few people brought to the prison made it out alive -- only about a dozen were found by the Vietnamese who invaded Cambodia in 1979.
"We call on the souls of ... those brothers and sisters who have died in Tuol Sleng (S-21) and (the killing fields of) Choeung Ek after enduring unspeakable atrocities and who are now in the afterworld to please come back and to listen to the verdict," said Chum Sirath of the victims association of the Khmer Rouge regime. "When you have heard the verdict, we ardently pray for your souls to enjoy peace and happiness with words denied to you during your time on this earth."
Parents, siblings, friends and loved ones gathered before monks in a courtyard of the prison site -- now a museum -- to participate in a ceremony to honor the dead. Among them were survivors of S-21, such as Bou Meng, who wept at times during the memorial.
He said he was happy about the tribunal but concerned since he didn't yet know what the verdict would be in Duch's case.
"I have been waiting for justice for 30 years," he said. "If the verdict does not please me, I will be disappointed forever."
At least 1.7 million people -- nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population -- died under the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime from execution, disease, starvation and overwork, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia.
Another four of the ultra-Maoist regime's former leaders are waiting to see if they will stand trial before a U.N.-backed tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The tribunal began its work in 2007 after a decade of on-and-off negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia over the structure and the functioning of the court.
Youk Chhang, director of the documentation center, said people were awaiting the outcome of Monday's decision in which Duch could receive a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of life.
His organization was holding verdict watch gatherings in seven provinces so that rural Cambodians could observe.
"I believe that justice will be brought by the tribunal court," Eng Chanthy, 47, who lost her father, six brothers and grandfather to the Khmer Rouge due to starvation, said. "I heard Duch was apologizing to the Cambodian people and asking the people to pardon to him, and I don't agree with him asking for freedom."
"I feel that Duch should die in prison. I don't want to see him live in freedom," said Chanthy, who brought her two children to see S-21 and ended up coming to the memorial service.
Chhang said the verdict may not suit everyone, but he thinks Cambodians will be able to turn over a new leaf once the verdict is announced.
"This is what we have, and then we must move (on). We have our own identity now, our own family, our own society now. We have to build it, make it strong, to prevent (the past) from happening" again," he said.
"Tomorrow I am no longer a victim."
CNN TV | HLN | Transcripts© 2010 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MORE STORIES:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10739518
http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010/07/25/khmer-rouge-killer-sheds-crocodile-tears-in-court/
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/20107258859208486.html
http://kosu.org/2010/07/cambodians-await-justice-in-khmer-rouge-trial/
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
July 25, 2010 -- Updated 1546 GMT (2346 HKT)
Verdict in the case of Kaing Guek Eave, alias Duch, expected Monday
Duch was member of the Khmer Rouge regime who ran S-21 torture prison
Cambodians on Sunday observed the deaths of 14,000 in a memorial
Phnom Penh, Cambodia (CNN) -- Carrying burning incense sticks and pink lotuses and wearing scarves of mourning, dozens of people marked the deaths of 14,000 victims of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime at the S-21 torture prison in the Cambodian capital Sunday, one day before a genocide tribunal renders the verdict in its first case, against the man who ran S-21.
Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, was the head of S-21 and is standing trial on various charges including crimes against humanity. Few people brought to the prison made it out alive -- only about a dozen were found by the Vietnamese who invaded Cambodia in 1979.
"We call on the souls of ... those brothers and sisters who have died in Tuol Sleng (S-21) and (the killing fields of) Choeung Ek after enduring unspeakable atrocities and who are now in the afterworld to please come back and to listen to the verdict," said Chum Sirath of the victims association of the Khmer Rouge regime. "When you have heard the verdict, we ardently pray for your souls to enjoy peace and happiness with words denied to you during your time on this earth."
Parents, siblings, friends and loved ones gathered before monks in a courtyard of the prison site -- now a museum -- to participate in a ceremony to honor the dead. Among them were survivors of S-21, such as Bou Meng, who wept at times during the memorial.
He said he was happy about the tribunal but concerned since he didn't yet know what the verdict would be in Duch's case.
"I have been waiting for justice for 30 years," he said. "If the verdict does not please me, I will be disappointed forever."
At least 1.7 million people -- nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population -- died under the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime from execution, disease, starvation and overwork, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia.
Another four of the ultra-Maoist regime's former leaders are waiting to see if they will stand trial before a U.N.-backed tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The tribunal began its work in 2007 after a decade of on-and-off negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia over the structure and the functioning of the court.
Youk Chhang, director of the documentation center, said people were awaiting the outcome of Monday's decision in which Duch could receive a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of life.
His organization was holding verdict watch gatherings in seven provinces so that rural Cambodians could observe.
"I believe that justice will be brought by the tribunal court," Eng Chanthy, 47, who lost her father, six brothers and grandfather to the Khmer Rouge due to starvation, said. "I heard Duch was apologizing to the Cambodian people and asking the people to pardon to him, and I don't agree with him asking for freedom."
"I feel that Duch should die in prison. I don't want to see him live in freedom," said Chanthy, who brought her two children to see S-21 and ended up coming to the memorial service.
Chhang said the verdict may not suit everyone, but he thinks Cambodians will be able to turn over a new leaf once the verdict is announced.
"This is what we have, and then we must move (on). We have our own identity now, our own family, our own society now. We have to build it, make it strong, to prevent (the past) from happening" again," he said.
"Tomorrow I am no longer a victim."
CNN TV | HLN | Transcripts© 2010 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MORE STORIES:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10739518
http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010/07/25/khmer-rouge-killer-sheds-crocodile-tears-in-court/
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/20107258859208486.html
http://kosu.org/2010/07/cambodians-await-justice-in-khmer-rouge-trial/
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Filmmaker tracks Khmer Rouge killers to learn the truth
By Miranda Leitsinger, CNN
July 25, 2010 -- Updated 0610 GMT (1410 HKT)
Phnom Penh, Cambodia (CNN) -- "I come back here to where I killed people. And I feel terrible. My mind, my soul, my body is spinning inside. All the things I did are flashing through my mind."
So declares a man sitting alongside a field named Suon, identified as a former Khmer Rouge militia commander who shows how he slit people's throats and talks about drinking gall bladder bile in the documentary, "Enemies of the People."
The film had its premiere in Asia just ahead of the first verdict to be handed down by the Cambodian genocide tribunal on Monday.
At least 1.7 million people -- nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population -- died under the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge from execution, disease, starvation and overwork, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia.
Four of the ultra-Maoist regime's former leaders are waiting to see if they will stand trial before a U.N.-backed tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Timeline: Rise of Khmer Rouge and its aftermath
Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, the head of the infamous torture prison in the country's capital of Phnom Penh, has stood trial on charges including crimes against humanity. The verdict will be announced in his case on Monday, more than 30 years after the fall of the regime.
In the film, directed and produced by Cambodian Teth Sambath and Briton Rob Lemkin, Teth tracks down about 100 former Khmer Rouge fighters who were responsible for the killing to learn why they participated.
How many holes in hell must I go through before I can be reborn as a human being again? ... I will never again see sunlight as a human being in this world.
--former Khmer Rouge militia commander Suon
"We don't have the answers from the Khmer Rouge leaders and from other Khmer Rouge cadre about why there [was] starvation, why they [were] killing the people," he said. "I am very worried that if we [cannot] find out the real history, the Khmer Rouge history would be hidden ... the new generation they would not understand."
Powerful moments in the film, which opens Friday in the United States, include a woman who said she cried in secret so the Khmer Rouge would not kill her, and Soun's description of killing a pretty woman he had asked to stay with him but was ordered to get rid of.
"When they talk [about] how they kill[ed] people, it made me feel very frightened, but I kept it in my heart," said Teth, 42, who lost his brother, mother and father to the Khmer Rouge.
"I wanted to get the truth, so I had to ask -- even if there are bad things, because it's for history. We had to ask everything, even bad or good. We need to get everything out."
Teth's odyssey began in 1996. His family's earnings went to his search for the fighters, leading him crisscrossing the southeast Asian nation looking for scarred men and women. But he never told his family or close friends about his mission since he did not want to bring up the hard and sad memories of the past.
A journalist for the English-language Phnom Penh Post, Teth eventually met Nuon Chea, the second in charge under Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot who is now waiting for the genocide tribunal to decide if he will stand trial for crimes against humanity.
He befriended Nuon Chea. At first, Teth did not tell him how his family died because he wanted to get to the truth.
But after years of visits, Nuon Chea told Teth about the orders to kill -- especially those expelled from the party and labeled criminals.
"They were killed and destroyed. If we had let them live, the party line would have been hijacked. They were enemies of the people," Nuon Chea told him.
Teth said Nuon Chea and him are friends, but "it doesn't mean I support him."
"There is a difference between friendship and the law," he said. "If the law judges him and sends him to jail, okay, yes."
Teth has rejected a request from the genocide court reviewing Nuon Chea's case for a copy of the film.
"I told all these people [the killers], I do not work for the court. I do not work for anyone but all the people ... to know about the real history. If I give this kind of stuff to the court, it means that I betray Nuon Chea and I betray the killers," he said.
In the film, which this year won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize at the Sundance film festival, Teth brings Nuon Chea together with Suon and another former fighter Khoun.
The two men listen to Nuon Chea, who counsels them that since they had no intention to kill and were following orders, they had committed no sin -- and under Buddhism, need not fear punishment.
"You can start life again," he tells them.
But Suon, in the next scene, is unconvinced.
"How many holes in hell must I go through before I can be reborn as a human being again? I feel desperate, but I don't know what to do. I will never again see sunlight as a human being in this world," he says. Teth and Lemkin said they have had positive feedback to the film, with Cambodians telling them they had never seen such confessions.
"This film can tell the people the truth, can tell the victims the truth. It can tell the new generation how to avoid -- not to repeat -- the mistakes from the past," Teth said. "One more thing, it can encourage other Khmer Rouge perpetrators to come out, to confess and to join together to make a real story [of their experience]."
Teth noted that the killers had felt better after confessing what they had done, and Lemkin noted that the process had in turn helped his co-director and producer.
"Another aspect of what this film is really about is that he is trying to lay to rest the ghosts of his dead family in the hope that perhaps he and his new young family, living family, can find a way to go forward," he said. "He wanted to find that there was some kind of rationality, and I think in discovering the humanity of the killers ... he discovers something that is very much healing and a kind of cathartic resolution to this very, very terrible loss that he had to live through."
CNN TV | HLN | Transcripts© 2010 Cable News Network.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
July 25, 2010 -- Updated 0610 GMT (1410 HKT)
Phnom Penh, Cambodia (CNN) -- "I come back here to where I killed people. And I feel terrible. My mind, my soul, my body is spinning inside. All the things I did are flashing through my mind."
So declares a man sitting alongside a field named Suon, identified as a former Khmer Rouge militia commander who shows how he slit people's throats and talks about drinking gall bladder bile in the documentary, "Enemies of the People."
The film had its premiere in Asia just ahead of the first verdict to be handed down by the Cambodian genocide tribunal on Monday.
At least 1.7 million people -- nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population -- died under the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge from execution, disease, starvation and overwork, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia.
Four of the ultra-Maoist regime's former leaders are waiting to see if they will stand trial before a U.N.-backed tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Timeline: Rise of Khmer Rouge and its aftermath
Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, the head of the infamous torture prison in the country's capital of Phnom Penh, has stood trial on charges including crimes against humanity. The verdict will be announced in his case on Monday, more than 30 years after the fall of the regime.
In the film, directed and produced by Cambodian Teth Sambath and Briton Rob Lemkin, Teth tracks down about 100 former Khmer Rouge fighters who were responsible for the killing to learn why they participated.
How many holes in hell must I go through before I can be reborn as a human being again? ... I will never again see sunlight as a human being in this world.
--former Khmer Rouge militia commander Suon
"We don't have the answers from the Khmer Rouge leaders and from other Khmer Rouge cadre about why there [was] starvation, why they [were] killing the people," he said. "I am very worried that if we [cannot] find out the real history, the Khmer Rouge history would be hidden ... the new generation they would not understand."
Powerful moments in the film, which opens Friday in the United States, include a woman who said she cried in secret so the Khmer Rouge would not kill her, and Soun's description of killing a pretty woman he had asked to stay with him but was ordered to get rid of.
"When they talk [about] how they kill[ed] people, it made me feel very frightened, but I kept it in my heart," said Teth, 42, who lost his brother, mother and father to the Khmer Rouge.
"I wanted to get the truth, so I had to ask -- even if there are bad things, because it's for history. We had to ask everything, even bad or good. We need to get everything out."
Teth's odyssey began in 1996. His family's earnings went to his search for the fighters, leading him crisscrossing the southeast Asian nation looking for scarred men and women. But he never told his family or close friends about his mission since he did not want to bring up the hard and sad memories of the past.
A journalist for the English-language Phnom Penh Post, Teth eventually met Nuon Chea, the second in charge under Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot who is now waiting for the genocide tribunal to decide if he will stand trial for crimes against humanity.
He befriended Nuon Chea. At first, Teth did not tell him how his family died because he wanted to get to the truth.
But after years of visits, Nuon Chea told Teth about the orders to kill -- especially those expelled from the party and labeled criminals.
"They were killed and destroyed. If we had let them live, the party line would have been hijacked. They were enemies of the people," Nuon Chea told him.
Teth said Nuon Chea and him are friends, but "it doesn't mean I support him."
"There is a difference between friendship and the law," he said. "If the law judges him and sends him to jail, okay, yes."
Teth has rejected a request from the genocide court reviewing Nuon Chea's case for a copy of the film.
"I told all these people [the killers], I do not work for the court. I do not work for anyone but all the people ... to know about the real history. If I give this kind of stuff to the court, it means that I betray Nuon Chea and I betray the killers," he said.
In the film, which this year won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize at the Sundance film festival, Teth brings Nuon Chea together with Suon and another former fighter Khoun.
The two men listen to Nuon Chea, who counsels them that since they had no intention to kill and were following orders, they had committed no sin -- and under Buddhism, need not fear punishment.
"You can start life again," he tells them.
But Suon, in the next scene, is unconvinced.
"How many holes in hell must I go through before I can be reborn as a human being again? I feel desperate, but I don't know what to do. I will never again see sunlight as a human being in this world," he says. Teth and Lemkin said they have had positive feedback to the film, with Cambodians telling them they had never seen such confessions.
"This film can tell the people the truth, can tell the victims the truth. It can tell the new generation how to avoid -- not to repeat -- the mistakes from the past," Teth said. "One more thing, it can encourage other Khmer Rouge perpetrators to come out, to confess and to join together to make a real story [of their experience]."
Teth noted that the killers had felt better after confessing what they had done, and Lemkin noted that the process had in turn helped his co-director and producer.
"Another aspect of what this film is really about is that he is trying to lay to rest the ghosts of his dead family in the hope that perhaps he and his new young family, living family, can find a way to go forward," he said. "He wanted to find that there was some kind of rationality, and I think in discovering the humanity of the killers ... he discovers something that is very much healing and a kind of cathartic resolution to this very, very terrible loss that he had to live through."
CNN TV | HLN | Transcripts© 2010 Cable News Network.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Flag this message First Khmer Rouge Tribunal Verdict -- Screening in 7 Provinces
Documentation Center of Cambodia Preparation for Provincial Screenings of the
First Khmer Rouge Tribunal Verdict -- Screening in 7 Provinces
The first verdict of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) will be announced on July 26, 2010. The seven-month trial of Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch for crimes committed in connection with the infamous S-21/Tuol Sleng prison, although limited to one detention site, provided the first opportunity for Cambodians to hear public discussion and debate on policies of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) period that resulted in the deaths of nearly two million people in only three years, eight months, and twenty days. Thousands of survivors personally attended the hearings and nearly a hundred directly participated in the trial as civil parties. Duch’s confession of his crimes and the Court’s judgment of his actions is meaningful even for survivors unconnected to S-21, as they speak to the responsibility of the many other prison chiefs still living who will never be held accountable for similar acts.
The second trial, or Case 002, although more significant because it will judge the four living senior leaders (Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, and Ieng Thirith) and the responsibility of the DK leadership, is not expected to begin until 2011 and no verdict will be issued before 2012, by which time the four accused will all be in their early to mid 80s. Due to the long delay before the Case 002 trial and verdict, and the uncertainty if all accused will live to see judgment, the verdict in the Duch case will not only be the first legal reckoning for DK crimes, but also may be the only formal accounting of the abuses of that period.
In recognition of the historic significance of this event for all Cambodians, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) will host live and also replayed screenings of the verdict and other films over two days at each of seven provincial locations. Although the ECCC courtroom is the largest of all international/hybrid courts, its capacity is limited to 500 persons, not nearly enough to accommodate all those with an interest in hearing the Court’s judgment. Already the Office of Public Affairs is planning to provide video links on the Court’s grounds to accommodate the overflow. For less expense than bringing 500 people to Phnom Penh, DC-Cam plans to bring the verdict to 300 or more people in each screening location. These screenings will take place either at a pagoda or at a local school. There will also be live playing of the verdict broadcast at two café shops in each province. These small-scale café screenings will allow more people to watch the live broadcast including regular café goers and those unable to attend the large screenings.
Four DC-Cam staff members will facilitate the event at each location and document participants’ reactions through interviews, photographs, and video recordings. Staff will distribute to all attendees free copies of DC-Cam’s monthly Khmer language magazine, Searching for the Truth, and a new illustrated booklet entitled, “Genocide: The Importance of Case 002,” describing the biographies and alleged responsibility of the Case 002 accused.
Due to limited resources the Center has selected only seven provincial locations, chosen because they are the home districts of commune and village chiefs and victims and former perpetrators who have been actively engaging their communities in the ECCC proceedings. The sites are also historically significant.
The seven screening locations by province are:
1. Pursat province: Bralay Rumdeng village, Rumlech sub-district, Bakan district
2. Banteay Meanchey province: Choeung Wat village, Preah Net Preah sub-district, Preah Net Preah district
3. Kampong Thom province: Prek Sbov village, Khum O Kunthor sub-district, Krong Stung Sen district
4. Kampong Cham province: Svay Khleang village/Bram village, Svay Khleang sub-district, Kroch Cham district
5. Svay Rieng province: Thmey village, Svay Chek sub-district, Rumduol district
6. Takeo province: Cha village, Cha sub-district, Prey Kabass district
7. Kandal province: Anlong Pann village, Prek Kdey sub-district, Koh Thom district
The program at all sites will be lead by former KR victims, with the exception of the screening in Kandal, which will be managed by a former S-21 prison guard. The location at Svay Khleang is home to a primarily Cham Muslim population and the screening there will be overseen by a Cham village chief.
Although the Center believes that seeing with one’s own eyes and hearing with one’s own ears is itself a form of justice and therefore plans to bring a small group of 50 to see the verdict in person, it strongly encourages other NGOs to provide similar screening opportunities around the country as a more cost effective way of sharing this event with large numbers of people than bringing them to the ECCC where only limited courtroom seating will be available. NGOs, donors and Ambassadors will be able to assess more accurately the Cambodian public’s response to the verdict if they participate in such local events.
For more information, please contact DC-Cam Outreach Team:
· Overall Project: Savina Sirik, 012-688 046
* Pursat province: Savina Sirik, 012-688 046
* Banteay Meanchey province: Sovanndany Kim, 012-711 123
* Kampong Thom province: Farina So, 012-586 293
* Kampong Cham province: Sayana Ser, 092-763 272
* Svay Rieng province: Bunthorn Som, 012-996 750
* Takeo province: Socheat Nhean, 016-876 692
* Kandal province: Khamboly Dy, 017-883 967
The screenings will be held in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and funded by U.S. Department of States', Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) with the core support from USAID and Sweden. Denmark and Norway provided the screening materials.
THE LIVING DOCUMENTS PROJECT http://www.dccam.org/Projects/Living_Doc/Living_Documents.htm
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
First Khmer Rouge Tribunal Verdict -- Screening in 7 Provinces
The first verdict of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) will be announced on July 26, 2010. The seven-month trial of Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch for crimes committed in connection with the infamous S-21/Tuol Sleng prison, although limited to one detention site, provided the first opportunity for Cambodians to hear public discussion and debate on policies of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) period that resulted in the deaths of nearly two million people in only three years, eight months, and twenty days. Thousands of survivors personally attended the hearings and nearly a hundred directly participated in the trial as civil parties. Duch’s confession of his crimes and the Court’s judgment of his actions is meaningful even for survivors unconnected to S-21, as they speak to the responsibility of the many other prison chiefs still living who will never be held accountable for similar acts.
The second trial, or Case 002, although more significant because it will judge the four living senior leaders (Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, and Ieng Thirith) and the responsibility of the DK leadership, is not expected to begin until 2011 and no verdict will be issued before 2012, by which time the four accused will all be in their early to mid 80s. Due to the long delay before the Case 002 trial and verdict, and the uncertainty if all accused will live to see judgment, the verdict in the Duch case will not only be the first legal reckoning for DK crimes, but also may be the only formal accounting of the abuses of that period.
In recognition of the historic significance of this event for all Cambodians, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) will host live and also replayed screenings of the verdict and other films over two days at each of seven provincial locations. Although the ECCC courtroom is the largest of all international/hybrid courts, its capacity is limited to 500 persons, not nearly enough to accommodate all those with an interest in hearing the Court’s judgment. Already the Office of Public Affairs is planning to provide video links on the Court’s grounds to accommodate the overflow. For less expense than bringing 500 people to Phnom Penh, DC-Cam plans to bring the verdict to 300 or more people in each screening location. These screenings will take place either at a pagoda or at a local school. There will also be live playing of the verdict broadcast at two café shops in each province. These small-scale café screenings will allow more people to watch the live broadcast including regular café goers and those unable to attend the large screenings.
Four DC-Cam staff members will facilitate the event at each location and document participants’ reactions through interviews, photographs, and video recordings. Staff will distribute to all attendees free copies of DC-Cam’s monthly Khmer language magazine, Searching for the Truth, and a new illustrated booklet entitled, “Genocide: The Importance of Case 002,” describing the biographies and alleged responsibility of the Case 002 accused.
Due to limited resources the Center has selected only seven provincial locations, chosen because they are the home districts of commune and village chiefs and victims and former perpetrators who have been actively engaging their communities in the ECCC proceedings. The sites are also historically significant.
The seven screening locations by province are:
1. Pursat province: Bralay Rumdeng village, Rumlech sub-district, Bakan district
2. Banteay Meanchey province: Choeung Wat village, Preah Net Preah sub-district, Preah Net Preah district
3. Kampong Thom province: Prek Sbov village, Khum O Kunthor sub-district, Krong Stung Sen district
4. Kampong Cham province: Svay Khleang village/Bram village, Svay Khleang sub-district, Kroch Cham district
5. Svay Rieng province: Thmey village, Svay Chek sub-district, Rumduol district
6. Takeo province: Cha village, Cha sub-district, Prey Kabass district
7. Kandal province: Anlong Pann village, Prek Kdey sub-district, Koh Thom district
The program at all sites will be lead by former KR victims, with the exception of the screening in Kandal, which will be managed by a former S-21 prison guard. The location at Svay Khleang is home to a primarily Cham Muslim population and the screening there will be overseen by a Cham village chief.
Although the Center believes that seeing with one’s own eyes and hearing with one’s own ears is itself a form of justice and therefore plans to bring a small group of 50 to see the verdict in person, it strongly encourages other NGOs to provide similar screening opportunities around the country as a more cost effective way of sharing this event with large numbers of people than bringing them to the ECCC where only limited courtroom seating will be available. NGOs, donors and Ambassadors will be able to assess more accurately the Cambodian public’s response to the verdict if they participate in such local events.
For more information, please contact DC-Cam Outreach Team:
· Overall Project: Savina Sirik, 012-688 046
* Pursat province: Savina Sirik, 012-688 046
* Banteay Meanchey province: Sovanndany Kim, 012-711 123
* Kampong Thom province: Farina So, 012-586 293
* Kampong Cham province: Sayana Ser, 092-763 272
* Svay Rieng province: Bunthorn Som, 012-996 750
* Takeo province: Socheat Nhean, 016-876 692
* Kandal province: Khamboly Dy, 017-883 967
The screenings will be held in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and funded by U.S. Department of States', Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) with the core support from USAID and Sweden. Denmark and Norway provided the screening materials.
THE LIVING DOCUMENTS PROJECT http://www.dccam.org/Projects/Living_Doc/Living_Documents.htm
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Decades After Cambodia Genocide, a Verdict
By PATRICK BARTA
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—A United Nations-backed tribunal will issue its first verdict here Monday after years of investigating the Khmer Rouge genocide and arguing the case for justice in Cambodia.
But while the initial verdict, in the case of former prison commander Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, will mark a major achievement for Cambodia, a series of more complicated and potentially divisive cases lies ahead.
Those cases involve former senior officials of the Khmer Rouge regime; legal experts say they must be prosecuted before Cambodia can bury its past and complete its re-emergence as one of Asia's most promising frontier economies, which analysts say has been held back by worries over the lack of legal accountability for wrongdoers.
The prosecution of these still-untried senior officials "is essentially the Nuremberg trial of Cambodia," says David Scheffer, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law and former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war-crimes issues. "While Duch is a very significant figure in the Pol Pot atrocities, he wasn't at the top of the leadership pyramid."
An estimated 1.7 million people—or a fifth of Cambodia's population at the time—died of starvation, illness or were killed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, a radical Communist rebel group that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 under the leadership of the late Pol Pot.
The regime was toppled by Vietnamese forces in 1979, and after more than a decade of civil war, Cambodia is peaceful again. It has begun to attract interest from foreign investors who see Cambodia as an important new emerging market, with cheaper labor than China and fertile land for agricultural projects.
But the country is still struggling to escape its reputation as a dangerous and unpredictable place. Many investors are watching the tribunal carefully for a final confirmation that rule of law has returned.
The process has struggled from the start. Before launching the tribunal in 2006, Cambodian leaders and international donors argued for years over its powers and composition, with Cambodia seeking more control over the proceedings.
The government still has some former Khmer Rouge cadres in its ranks, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, who served in the Khmer Rouge but later defected. He isn't under suspicion of involvement in the atrocities, legal analysts say, but other officials or politicians could be. Attempts to reach a government spokesman were unsuccessful.
Mr. Hun Sen has argued that aggressive investigations could destabilize Cambodia and possibly trigger civil war—an outcome political analysts describe as unlikely.
"If you prosecute [more leaders] without thinking beforehand about national reconciliation and peace, and if war breaks out again and kills 20,000 or 30,000 people, who will be responsible?" he said in September. Advocacy groups have repeatedly complained of interference from Cambodian officials. Mr. Hun Sen has denied interfering with the tribunal process.
Such disputes have made it harder for the tribunal to raise money from foreign countries to fund its operations. In April, it suspended salary payments to Cambodian staff when money ran out, though staff got their back pay after Japanese donors provided $2.2 million in early July. The tribunal remains about $50 million short of its projected $87 million budget for 2010-11.
Despite those problems, legal experts say the Duch case went smoothly after its start in March 2009, and should greatly bolster the tribunal's credibility as an independent and viable institution.
Monday's verdict "is an important milestone and shows that this court can function," says Alex Hinton, a professor and expert on the Khmer Rouge genocide at Rutgers University.
Mr. Duch, 67 years old, has been charged with committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as torture and homicide, in his role as chief jailer at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, where some 14,000 Cambodians were detained before being killed.
Ex-prison chief Duch attends his trial in Phnom Penh in November.
Mr. Duch has denied killing or torturing anyone. He has, however, acknowledged an oversight role at the jail, and has repeatedly expressed remorse. He has sought leniency on the basis that he was following orders, and has cooperated with the tribunal.
Mr. Duch faces a sentence of five years to life in prison if convicted.
The next case is more important, legal experts say, and also likely more difficult. It is expected to involve four members of the Khmer Rouge's inner circle: Nuon Chea, a former acting prime minister who is considered one of the group's main ideologues; Ieng Sary, a former deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs; his wife Ieng Thirith, a Shakespeare scholar who was also a government minister; and Khieu Samphan, a former head of state.
All four were arrested in 2007 and are accused of crimes against humanity; all have denied the charges. The tribunal is aiming to make a decision by September on whether to take them to trial, which is widely expected, with the trial expected to begin next year.
Some advocates fear the trial won't be completed. All four of the accused are in their late 70s or mid-80s and in declining health. Any further delays could test donors' willingness to keep spending, particularly after the tribunal has yielded a verdict in its first case.
"The problem of donor fatigue and the desire of the donors to take their winnings and move on—that remains a significant problem," says James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, a global group that promotes legal reform.
There are also questions about whether additional trials will—or should—occur. Rights advocates have argued at least another 10 or so Khmer Rouge leaders must be taken to trial before the full truth is known. Prosecutors have submitted the names of five more possible defendants. Those names haven't been released and Cambodian authorities have said they don't want to pursue the cases.
Who's Next on Trial?
Read about the four accused Khmer Rouge leaders expected to go on trial next year.
Copyright ©2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
-------------
THE WASHINGTON POST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/24/AR2010072401337.html
KHMER ROUGE PRISON CHIEF AWAITS VERDICT
By SOPHENG CHEANG
The Associated Press
Saturday, July 24, 2010; 12:20 PM
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- A U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal was expected to issue a decision Monday in the trial of the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer and torturer - the first verdict involving a leader of the genocidal regime that created Cambodia's killing fields.
Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, ran Toul Sleng - the secret detention center reserved for "enemies" of the state. He admitted overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 men, women and children who passed through its gates and asked for forgiveness during his 77-day trial.
Though widely expected to be found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, many in this still-traumatized nation are anxiously awaiting the sentence. Anything short of the maximum life behind bars could trigger public outrage.
"All I want before I die is to see justice served," said Bo Meng, 69, one of the few people sent to Toul Sleng who survived. "He admitted everything," he said. "If he gets anything less than life, it will only add to my suffering."
The U.N.-assisted tribunal represents the first serious attempt to hold Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution. The group's top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.
Duch is the first of five surviving senior figures of the regime to go on trial. Unlike the four other defendants, Duch was not among the ruling clique. He insisted during the trial that he was only following orders from the top, and on the final day he asked to be acquitted and freed - angering many of the victims.
A former math teacher, Duch joined Pol Pot's movement in 1967. Ten years later, he was the trusted head of its ultimate killing machine, S-21, which became the code name for Toul Sleng.
Only 14 prisoners are thought to have survived ordeals at the prison that included medieval-like tortures to extract "confessions" from supposed enemies of the regime, followed by executions and burials in mass graves outside Phnom Penh. The gruesome litany of torture included pulling out prisoners' toenails, administering electric shocks, waterboarding - a form of simulated drowning - and medical experiments that ended in death.
Duch, who kept meticulous records, was often present during interrogations and signed off on all the executions. In one memo, a guard asked him what to do with six boys and three girls accused of being traitors. "Kill every last one," he wrote across the top.
After the Khmer Rouge were forced from power in 1979 after a bloody, four-year reign, Duch disappeared for almost two decades, living under various aliases in northwestern Cambodia, where he had converted to Christianity. His chance discovery by a British journalist led to his arrest in May 1999.
"This is a crime that, after 30 years, is now officially being recognized by a court of law, and that is what is most wanted by survivors," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has collected evidence of the atrocities.
Though the tribunal has been credited with helping Cambodians speak out publicly for the first time about Khmer Rouge atrocities, it has faced criticism.
In an awkward legal compromise, the government insisted Cambodians be included on the panel of judges, raising concerns about political interference. Possibly fearing a widening circle of defendants could reach into its own ranks, the government sought to limit the number of those being tried.
The costs have also exceeded expectations.
Initially, the $78 million earmarked for the proceedings was used up in 2009, without issuing a single ruling, drawing criticism that the process was moving too slowly. The international community has agreed to pump in an addition $92 million for the next two years.
Norng Chan Phal doesn't care about the cost - as long as Duch spends the rest of his life behind bars.
"This is the most important day of my life," said the Khmer Rouge survivor, who was just 8 when his father and mother were taken to Toul Sleng and killed. He will be among hundreds of victims at the court Monday for the verdict.
"I've been living without my parents for 30 years. I want to see him get what he deserves."
© Copyright 1996-2010 The Washington Post Company | User Agreement and Privacy Policy | Reprints and Permissions Help | Contact Us
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—A United Nations-backed tribunal will issue its first verdict here Monday after years of investigating the Khmer Rouge genocide and arguing the case for justice in Cambodia.
But while the initial verdict, in the case of former prison commander Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, will mark a major achievement for Cambodia, a series of more complicated and potentially divisive cases lies ahead.
Those cases involve former senior officials of the Khmer Rouge regime; legal experts say they must be prosecuted before Cambodia can bury its past and complete its re-emergence as one of Asia's most promising frontier economies, which analysts say has been held back by worries over the lack of legal accountability for wrongdoers.
The prosecution of these still-untried senior officials "is essentially the Nuremberg trial of Cambodia," says David Scheffer, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law and former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war-crimes issues. "While Duch is a very significant figure in the Pol Pot atrocities, he wasn't at the top of the leadership pyramid."
An estimated 1.7 million people—or a fifth of Cambodia's population at the time—died of starvation, illness or were killed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, a radical Communist rebel group that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 under the leadership of the late Pol Pot.
The regime was toppled by Vietnamese forces in 1979, and after more than a decade of civil war, Cambodia is peaceful again. It has begun to attract interest from foreign investors who see Cambodia as an important new emerging market, with cheaper labor than China and fertile land for agricultural projects.
But the country is still struggling to escape its reputation as a dangerous and unpredictable place. Many investors are watching the tribunal carefully for a final confirmation that rule of law has returned.
The process has struggled from the start. Before launching the tribunal in 2006, Cambodian leaders and international donors argued for years over its powers and composition, with Cambodia seeking more control over the proceedings.
The government still has some former Khmer Rouge cadres in its ranks, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, who served in the Khmer Rouge but later defected. He isn't under suspicion of involvement in the atrocities, legal analysts say, but other officials or politicians could be. Attempts to reach a government spokesman were unsuccessful.
Mr. Hun Sen has argued that aggressive investigations could destabilize Cambodia and possibly trigger civil war—an outcome political analysts describe as unlikely.
"If you prosecute [more leaders] without thinking beforehand about national reconciliation and peace, and if war breaks out again and kills 20,000 or 30,000 people, who will be responsible?" he said in September. Advocacy groups have repeatedly complained of interference from Cambodian officials. Mr. Hun Sen has denied interfering with the tribunal process.
Such disputes have made it harder for the tribunal to raise money from foreign countries to fund its operations. In April, it suspended salary payments to Cambodian staff when money ran out, though staff got their back pay after Japanese donors provided $2.2 million in early July. The tribunal remains about $50 million short of its projected $87 million budget for 2010-11.
Despite those problems, legal experts say the Duch case went smoothly after its start in March 2009, and should greatly bolster the tribunal's credibility as an independent and viable institution.
Monday's verdict "is an important milestone and shows that this court can function," says Alex Hinton, a professor and expert on the Khmer Rouge genocide at Rutgers University.
Mr. Duch, 67 years old, has been charged with committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as torture and homicide, in his role as chief jailer at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, where some 14,000 Cambodians were detained before being killed.
Ex-prison chief Duch attends his trial in Phnom Penh in November.
Mr. Duch has denied killing or torturing anyone. He has, however, acknowledged an oversight role at the jail, and has repeatedly expressed remorse. He has sought leniency on the basis that he was following orders, and has cooperated with the tribunal.
Mr. Duch faces a sentence of five years to life in prison if convicted.
The next case is more important, legal experts say, and also likely more difficult. It is expected to involve four members of the Khmer Rouge's inner circle: Nuon Chea, a former acting prime minister who is considered one of the group's main ideologues; Ieng Sary, a former deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs; his wife Ieng Thirith, a Shakespeare scholar who was also a government minister; and Khieu Samphan, a former head of state.
All four were arrested in 2007 and are accused of crimes against humanity; all have denied the charges. The tribunal is aiming to make a decision by September on whether to take them to trial, which is widely expected, with the trial expected to begin next year.
Some advocates fear the trial won't be completed. All four of the accused are in their late 70s or mid-80s and in declining health. Any further delays could test donors' willingness to keep spending, particularly after the tribunal has yielded a verdict in its first case.
"The problem of donor fatigue and the desire of the donors to take their winnings and move on—that remains a significant problem," says James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, a global group that promotes legal reform.
There are also questions about whether additional trials will—or should—occur. Rights advocates have argued at least another 10 or so Khmer Rouge leaders must be taken to trial before the full truth is known. Prosecutors have submitted the names of five more possible defendants. Those names haven't been released and Cambodian authorities have said they don't want to pursue the cases.
Who's Next on Trial?
Read about the four accused Khmer Rouge leaders expected to go on trial next year.
Copyright ©2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
-------------
THE WASHINGTON POST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/24/AR2010072401337.html
KHMER ROUGE PRISON CHIEF AWAITS VERDICT
By SOPHENG CHEANG
The Associated Press
Saturday, July 24, 2010; 12:20 PM
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- A U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal was expected to issue a decision Monday in the trial of the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer and torturer - the first verdict involving a leader of the genocidal regime that created Cambodia's killing fields.
Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, ran Toul Sleng - the secret detention center reserved for "enemies" of the state. He admitted overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 men, women and children who passed through its gates and asked for forgiveness during his 77-day trial.
Though widely expected to be found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, many in this still-traumatized nation are anxiously awaiting the sentence. Anything short of the maximum life behind bars could trigger public outrage.
"All I want before I die is to see justice served," said Bo Meng, 69, one of the few people sent to Toul Sleng who survived. "He admitted everything," he said. "If he gets anything less than life, it will only add to my suffering."
The U.N.-assisted tribunal represents the first serious attempt to hold Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution. The group's top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.
Duch is the first of five surviving senior figures of the regime to go on trial. Unlike the four other defendants, Duch was not among the ruling clique. He insisted during the trial that he was only following orders from the top, and on the final day he asked to be acquitted and freed - angering many of the victims.
A former math teacher, Duch joined Pol Pot's movement in 1967. Ten years later, he was the trusted head of its ultimate killing machine, S-21, which became the code name for Toul Sleng.
Only 14 prisoners are thought to have survived ordeals at the prison that included medieval-like tortures to extract "confessions" from supposed enemies of the regime, followed by executions and burials in mass graves outside Phnom Penh. The gruesome litany of torture included pulling out prisoners' toenails, administering electric shocks, waterboarding - a form of simulated drowning - and medical experiments that ended in death.
Duch, who kept meticulous records, was often present during interrogations and signed off on all the executions. In one memo, a guard asked him what to do with six boys and three girls accused of being traitors. "Kill every last one," he wrote across the top.
After the Khmer Rouge were forced from power in 1979 after a bloody, four-year reign, Duch disappeared for almost two decades, living under various aliases in northwestern Cambodia, where he had converted to Christianity. His chance discovery by a British journalist led to his arrest in May 1999.
"This is a crime that, after 30 years, is now officially being recognized by a court of law, and that is what is most wanted by survivors," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has collected evidence of the atrocities.
Though the tribunal has been credited with helping Cambodians speak out publicly for the first time about Khmer Rouge atrocities, it has faced criticism.
In an awkward legal compromise, the government insisted Cambodians be included on the panel of judges, raising concerns about political interference. Possibly fearing a widening circle of defendants could reach into its own ranks, the government sought to limit the number of those being tried.
The costs have also exceeded expectations.
Initially, the $78 million earmarked for the proceedings was used up in 2009, without issuing a single ruling, drawing criticism that the process was moving too slowly. The international community has agreed to pump in an addition $92 million for the next two years.
Norng Chan Phal doesn't care about the cost - as long as Duch spends the rest of his life behind bars.
"This is the most important day of my life," said the Khmer Rouge survivor, who was just 8 when his father and mother were taken to Toul Sleng and killed. He will be among hundreds of victims at the court Monday for the verdict.
"I've been living without my parents for 30 years. I want to see him get what he deserves."
© Copyright 1996-2010 The Washington Post Company | User Agreement and Privacy Policy | Reprints and Permissions Help | Contact Us
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Cambodia Plugs Khmer Rouge Stronghold as Tourism Spot
By BRENDAN BRADY / ANLONG VENG Brendan Brady / Anlong Veng
25 mins ago
"In those days we didn't have to worry about food or supplies - Ta Mok took care of that," says 56-year-old Sam Roeun, a former Khmer Rouge soldier with a prosthetic left leg who now sells entrance tickets to tourists in front of his former boss's home. Ta (grandfather) Mok, as his revolutionary alias went, was the ultra-Maoist regime's top military commander. In Anlong Veng, an isolated district of mostly wooden homes and crop fields north of Siem Reap, the name still conjures a mixture of worship and fear.
It's the latter sentiment that the Cambodian government is now trying to cultivate. Hoping to convince visitors to branch out from the more trodden Cambodian-tourism trails of ancient temples and backpacker bars, the government is trying to add a new stop on the foreign tourist's to-do list: a foray into the last stronghold of the mass-murdering Khmer Rouge. Anlong Veng, where the ultra-Maoist regime held out in its final years, may not be as enticing as the Cambodian hinterland's majestic Angkor temples nor as easygoing as its coastal hippie dens. But tourism officials are betting that travelers visiting for these two more common attractions can also be enticed by the dark history of this undeveloped pocket hugging the Thai border. (See pictures of the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge.)
More than a million foreign tourists each year pay homage to Angkor Wat. But while it is just an hour and a half drive away, Anlong Veng receives only a tiny fraction of this horde, and its visitors are a trickle compared to the modest flow who visit Phnom Penh's infamous killing fields and Tuol Sleng torture center for a glimpse of the Khmer Rouge's goriest operations. Tourism officials' plans, dating back to 2000, to transform Anlong Veng into a showcase of the regime's final days suggest that they believe a bit of polish could turn those numbers around. In March, the government approved a comprehensive plan to formalize the area's development in order to allow "national and international guests to visit to understand the last political leadership of the genocidal regime," but they have yet to begin any significant construction.
Anlong Veng today is mostly populated by former Khmer Rouge cadres, as well as those who had been their most die-hard supporters or those who were forced by threat of death to join them in retreat. The fanatical regime's surviving leaders, depleted militia and dwindling supporters decamped here in 1979, after Vietnam toppled the Khmer Rouge and installed a new government. When it fell in 1998, Anlong Veng was the last territory under the Khmer Rouge rule and, to this day, the regime remains a presence in the area - in local residents' memories, former leaders' homes and grave sites, and the facilities that served their deadly cause. (Read "A Brief History of the Khmer Rouge.")
For some Cambodians, bizarrely enough, nostalgia lingers for the final years of Khmer Rouge rule. From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge sought to turn Cambodia into an agrarian utopia and rid itself of traditional elites. In the process, an estimated 2 million people died from overwork, starvation and execution. Ta Mok, who earned the nickname "the Butcher," had accumulated a small fortune by pillaging this area's forests for timber he sold to Thailand, and he extended benefits to his followers to ensure their loyalty. Hence the former Khmer Rouge soldier Sam Rouen's admiration.
The remnants of these selective slices of Khmer Rouge history concerns Youk Chhang, the head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a nonprofit group that researches the regime's history. Chhang is skeptical that a "sufficient effort will be made to accurately explain the [tragic] historical context" behind the new attractions, and says the project is at risk of becoming more of a gimmick than sincere historical showcase. (Similar efforts have gone very wrong before, though it's hard to imagine anything stooping as low as Phnom Penh's Khmer Rouge Experience CafÉ, which offered dishes styled after Khmer Rouge–era rations served by waitresses dressed as cadres. The cafÉ closed shortly after it opened in 2005.)
Today, most of the 14 scattered sites in Anlong Veng that the Tourism Ministry have chosen for its new "genocide-tour" itinerary leave a meager impression. The best-preserved attraction, Ta Mok's hideout, nestled in a floodplain to limit access points, includes three rickety structures and a decaying Chinese-made radio car used to disseminate propaganda. Otherwise, Pol Pot's old home has degenerated into a small shell of a building, akin to a concrete hut; the old school house for indoctrination is now simply part of a larger school for today's state education; and the medical ward that used to serve wounded militia is, after renovations and additions, a hospital serving the area.
It is, rather, the life stories of local residents that offer the starkest insight into the area's dark history. The hospital's director, 50-year-old Bich Sokha, for one, has worked in the same building for two decades, though he now only treats victims of traffic accidents and domestic abuse instead of militia with blown-off limbs. As part of the reconciliation plan that allowed former Khmer Rouge to integrate into new state institutions, Bich was able to trade in his black threads for a lab coat. He recalls having treated Ta Mok himself. "He had lost part of his leg from fighting and didn't like the first cut so we cut it again, above the knee, and he liked that."
Ta Mok's daughter Preak Lin, a deadpan 56-year-old woman who owns a sizeable peanut farm in the area, says the elegant stupa housing her father's remains (also one of the itinerary stops) nourishes fond family memories. Ta Mok died in 2006, just months after he was placed in pretrial detention for the U.N.-backed war crimes court that is ongoing. "Many people came to his funeral to pay tribute to him," she says. "When they open the tourist project, the villagers will be happy because they can earn more money, but I won't be happy because it will make me think about my father more and miss him."
Grappling with the loss of the Butcher or not, Anlong Veng's residents, whose living conditions are no exception to the poverty afflicting most Cambodians, are excited at the prospect of a steadier stream of customers for their vending stalls, restaurants and guesthouses. At the moment, only about a dozen people visit the main sites each day. Perhaps none has his entrepreneurial ambitions set higher than Nhem En. The former portrait photographer of prisoners who passed through Tuol Sleng prison, - an anteroom to death where an estimated 15,000 people were viciously tortured, Nhem has for years tried to capitalize on his morbidly intimate connection with the regime and its inner workings. Now, he is uncasing his own attraction, a private museum located a half hour's commute outside of Anlong Veng, that will include, among other things, a walking stick, toilet seat and sandals he claims belonged to Pol Pot. (His offer to sell them last year for a million dollars didn't attract any suitors). Nhem says he wants to help illuminate Khmer Rouge history to foreigners and young Cambodians alike, but he's also happy to let someone else carry the torch: "I am offering my museum for 2 million dollars to anyone interested in buying it."
Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
25 mins ago
"In those days we didn't have to worry about food or supplies - Ta Mok took care of that," says 56-year-old Sam Roeun, a former Khmer Rouge soldier with a prosthetic left leg who now sells entrance tickets to tourists in front of his former boss's home. Ta (grandfather) Mok, as his revolutionary alias went, was the ultra-Maoist regime's top military commander. In Anlong Veng, an isolated district of mostly wooden homes and crop fields north of Siem Reap, the name still conjures a mixture of worship and fear.
It's the latter sentiment that the Cambodian government is now trying to cultivate. Hoping to convince visitors to branch out from the more trodden Cambodian-tourism trails of ancient temples and backpacker bars, the government is trying to add a new stop on the foreign tourist's to-do list: a foray into the last stronghold of the mass-murdering Khmer Rouge. Anlong Veng, where the ultra-Maoist regime held out in its final years, may not be as enticing as the Cambodian hinterland's majestic Angkor temples nor as easygoing as its coastal hippie dens. But tourism officials are betting that travelers visiting for these two more common attractions can also be enticed by the dark history of this undeveloped pocket hugging the Thai border. (See pictures of the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge.)
More than a million foreign tourists each year pay homage to Angkor Wat. But while it is just an hour and a half drive away, Anlong Veng receives only a tiny fraction of this horde, and its visitors are a trickle compared to the modest flow who visit Phnom Penh's infamous killing fields and Tuol Sleng torture center for a glimpse of the Khmer Rouge's goriest operations. Tourism officials' plans, dating back to 2000, to transform Anlong Veng into a showcase of the regime's final days suggest that they believe a bit of polish could turn those numbers around. In March, the government approved a comprehensive plan to formalize the area's development in order to allow "national and international guests to visit to understand the last political leadership of the genocidal regime," but they have yet to begin any significant construction.
Anlong Veng today is mostly populated by former Khmer Rouge cadres, as well as those who had been their most die-hard supporters or those who were forced by threat of death to join them in retreat. The fanatical regime's surviving leaders, depleted militia and dwindling supporters decamped here in 1979, after Vietnam toppled the Khmer Rouge and installed a new government. When it fell in 1998, Anlong Veng was the last territory under the Khmer Rouge rule and, to this day, the regime remains a presence in the area - in local residents' memories, former leaders' homes and grave sites, and the facilities that served their deadly cause. (Read "A Brief History of the Khmer Rouge.")
For some Cambodians, bizarrely enough, nostalgia lingers for the final years of Khmer Rouge rule. From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge sought to turn Cambodia into an agrarian utopia and rid itself of traditional elites. In the process, an estimated 2 million people died from overwork, starvation and execution. Ta Mok, who earned the nickname "the Butcher," had accumulated a small fortune by pillaging this area's forests for timber he sold to Thailand, and he extended benefits to his followers to ensure their loyalty. Hence the former Khmer Rouge soldier Sam Rouen's admiration.
The remnants of these selective slices of Khmer Rouge history concerns Youk Chhang, the head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a nonprofit group that researches the regime's history. Chhang is skeptical that a "sufficient effort will be made to accurately explain the [tragic] historical context" behind the new attractions, and says the project is at risk of becoming more of a gimmick than sincere historical showcase. (Similar efforts have gone very wrong before, though it's hard to imagine anything stooping as low as Phnom Penh's Khmer Rouge Experience CafÉ, which offered dishes styled after Khmer Rouge–era rations served by waitresses dressed as cadres. The cafÉ closed shortly after it opened in 2005.)
Today, most of the 14 scattered sites in Anlong Veng that the Tourism Ministry have chosen for its new "genocide-tour" itinerary leave a meager impression. The best-preserved attraction, Ta Mok's hideout, nestled in a floodplain to limit access points, includes three rickety structures and a decaying Chinese-made radio car used to disseminate propaganda. Otherwise, Pol Pot's old home has degenerated into a small shell of a building, akin to a concrete hut; the old school house for indoctrination is now simply part of a larger school for today's state education; and the medical ward that used to serve wounded militia is, after renovations and additions, a hospital serving the area.
It is, rather, the life stories of local residents that offer the starkest insight into the area's dark history. The hospital's director, 50-year-old Bich Sokha, for one, has worked in the same building for two decades, though he now only treats victims of traffic accidents and domestic abuse instead of militia with blown-off limbs. As part of the reconciliation plan that allowed former Khmer Rouge to integrate into new state institutions, Bich was able to trade in his black threads for a lab coat. He recalls having treated Ta Mok himself. "He had lost part of his leg from fighting and didn't like the first cut so we cut it again, above the knee, and he liked that."
Ta Mok's daughter Preak Lin, a deadpan 56-year-old woman who owns a sizeable peanut farm in the area, says the elegant stupa housing her father's remains (also one of the itinerary stops) nourishes fond family memories. Ta Mok died in 2006, just months after he was placed in pretrial detention for the U.N.-backed war crimes court that is ongoing. "Many people came to his funeral to pay tribute to him," she says. "When they open the tourist project, the villagers will be happy because they can earn more money, but I won't be happy because it will make me think about my father more and miss him."
Grappling with the loss of the Butcher or not, Anlong Veng's residents, whose living conditions are no exception to the poverty afflicting most Cambodians, are excited at the prospect of a steadier stream of customers for their vending stalls, restaurants and guesthouses. At the moment, only about a dozen people visit the main sites each day. Perhaps none has his entrepreneurial ambitions set higher than Nhem En. The former portrait photographer of prisoners who passed through Tuol Sleng prison, - an anteroom to death where an estimated 15,000 people were viciously tortured, Nhem has for years tried to capitalize on his morbidly intimate connection with the regime and its inner workings. Now, he is uncasing his own attraction, a private museum located a half hour's commute outside of Anlong Veng, that will include, among other things, a walking stick, toilet seat and sandals he claims belonged to Pol Pot. (His offer to sell them last year for a million dollars didn't attract any suitors). Nhem says he wants to help illuminate Khmer Rouge history to foreigners and young Cambodians alike, but he's also happy to let someone else carry the torch: "I am offering my museum for 2 million dollars to anyone interested in buying it."
Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
A Tribunal for the Victims
By: Documentation Center of Cambodia's Outreach Team
Keo Dacil, Kim Sovanndany, Sirik Savina, Ser Sayana, Sa Fatily
The Extraordinary Chambers’ (Khmer Rouge Tribunal) goal is to deliver justice to victims of the Khmer Rouge regime; as such this tribunal should be sensitive to the perspectives and the emotions of those it is suppose to serve. The tribunal should keep in mind that amidst all the legal, bureaucratic, procedural, and investigative details that it attends to, its ultimate purpose is to deliver justice to victims of one of the most horrific periods of the twentieth century.
During the trial hearings of Case 001 involving former S-21 leader Duch at the Extraordinary Chambers, an underlying but critical injustice persists noticeable to the observant eye. It is not an injustice of a legal or procedural nature as might be expected in a courtroom; rather, it an injustice of status and dignity. The tribunal, in its mission to deliver justice to victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, has sometimes forgotten to treat victims with dignity and respect.
A front profile inside the courtroom provides a simple illustration: a tall glass wall separates well-paid and well-dressed lawyers and judges, who sit above a raised platform, from victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, who predominantly are poor and dressed in simple clothing. In Cambodian culture, relative status and honor between individuals can be inferred simply by who sits higher than whom. This imposing glass wall extends the width and height of the wooden platform where tribunal officials sit, creating an absolute barrier between these stately officials and the thousands of ordinary Cambodian villagers that have attended Duch’s trial hearings from March 2009 to November 2009. The wall’s purpose, one guesses, is safety and organization. However, it can have the implied meaning that victims have the potential for violence and are likely to physically disrupt the trial proceedings. Villagers, whose horrific experiences defy human morality and conscience, are the real victims that need protection and respect, not court officials.
Further examples of insensitivity to victims include the busing in of villagers by the tribunal’s Public Affairs Office from far away provinces as early as 3 a.m. for a half a day program, the strict interpretation of the tribunal’s dress code, and chastising villagers for the way they sit in the courtroom. The middle of the night busing in of villagers fails to consider the mental and physical health and well-being of victims. Moreover, inadequate sleep and vehicle motion sickness makes it even harder for ordinary Cambodians to follow the already complex legal proceedings. In Cambodia, where almost a third of the population live below the national poverty line and nearly 70% earn less than $2 a day, villagers’ best attire might be a new t-shirt. While a dress code prohibiting clothing which shows partiality towards the prosecution or defense is understandable, prohibiting all t-shirts which say only “Case 002” seems unreasonably strict. In addition, after villagers pass through security checks in order to enter the courtroom, they are sometimes reprimanded during the trial hearings for sitting inappropriately.
Such barriers and reactions intimidate victims and further distinguish the backgrounds, knowledge, and privileges of the officials who sit comfortably inside the glass wall from the villagers who watch from the outside. Highly educated, scripted in legal terminology, and articulate in persuasive speech, the officials carry out their work in the language of criminal law that only an elite population of the world can fully comprehend. The villagers, many of whom lack a high school degree, find it difficult sometimes to follow the formal conversations between prosecutors, defense lawyers, and investigative judges.
The verdict of Duch (Kaing Guek Eav) will be delivered on July 26, 1010. This will be the first verdict of the Extraordinary Chambers and will be the first recognized verdict for crimes committed during Democratic Kampuchea. Survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime have waited for more than three decades for this moment. It is a moment that, given the poor health and old age of the defendants along with unyielding budgetary and temporal problems of the tribunal, could be survivors’ only chance at seeing a Khmer Rouge leader convicted. Case 002 involving the four highest-level living Khmer Rouge leaders is not expected to start until early 2012 and presumably the verdict for this case will be delivered no earlier than 2013.
Never has there been a more important time for the court to reach out and connect with the very people that it was created for. Therefore, the tribunal should give special attention and preparation to victims who attend the verdict reading. Such attention will demonstrate the tribunal’s respect and honor towards victims which has been lacking in the past. Such action will not only leave a good impression among survivors and all Cambodians alike, but it will also show the international community, which no doubt will also be watching the verdict delivery, that the tribunal cares about survivors and their dignity.
To give honor and respect to victims for their past sufferings, the Extraordinary Chambers can do a number of small but meaningful preparations. The tribunal can lay out a red carpet along the isles of the 500-seat courtroom. A red carpet in Cambodian culture represents respect and honor. The tribunal can also decorate the sections of the public seating area and entryways with flower bouquets and cloth ribbons. Special banners that focus on victim’s courage and strength can also be created to commemorate the historic moment. These and other preparations would only cost a tiny fraction of the court’s overall budget, but would have a tremendous and lasting impact on survivors. In the end, the tribunal will be remembered not only for how it handled the legal, procedural, and criminal aspects of the cases, but also for how it treated victims of the Khmer Rouge regime throughout its existence. After all, the court was created for the victims.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Keo Dacil, Kim Sovanndany, Sirik Savina, Ser Sayana, Sa Fatily
The Extraordinary Chambers’ (Khmer Rouge Tribunal) goal is to deliver justice to victims of the Khmer Rouge regime; as such this tribunal should be sensitive to the perspectives and the emotions of those it is suppose to serve. The tribunal should keep in mind that amidst all the legal, bureaucratic, procedural, and investigative details that it attends to, its ultimate purpose is to deliver justice to victims of one of the most horrific periods of the twentieth century.
During the trial hearings of Case 001 involving former S-21 leader Duch at the Extraordinary Chambers, an underlying but critical injustice persists noticeable to the observant eye. It is not an injustice of a legal or procedural nature as might be expected in a courtroom; rather, it an injustice of status and dignity. The tribunal, in its mission to deliver justice to victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, has sometimes forgotten to treat victims with dignity and respect.
A front profile inside the courtroom provides a simple illustration: a tall glass wall separates well-paid and well-dressed lawyers and judges, who sit above a raised platform, from victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, who predominantly are poor and dressed in simple clothing. In Cambodian culture, relative status and honor between individuals can be inferred simply by who sits higher than whom. This imposing glass wall extends the width and height of the wooden platform where tribunal officials sit, creating an absolute barrier between these stately officials and the thousands of ordinary Cambodian villagers that have attended Duch’s trial hearings from March 2009 to November 2009. The wall’s purpose, one guesses, is safety and organization. However, it can have the implied meaning that victims have the potential for violence and are likely to physically disrupt the trial proceedings. Villagers, whose horrific experiences defy human morality and conscience, are the real victims that need protection and respect, not court officials.
Further examples of insensitivity to victims include the busing in of villagers by the tribunal’s Public Affairs Office from far away provinces as early as 3 a.m. for a half a day program, the strict interpretation of the tribunal’s dress code, and chastising villagers for the way they sit in the courtroom. The middle of the night busing in of villagers fails to consider the mental and physical health and well-being of victims. Moreover, inadequate sleep and vehicle motion sickness makes it even harder for ordinary Cambodians to follow the already complex legal proceedings. In Cambodia, where almost a third of the population live below the national poverty line and nearly 70% earn less than $2 a day, villagers’ best attire might be a new t-shirt. While a dress code prohibiting clothing which shows partiality towards the prosecution or defense is understandable, prohibiting all t-shirts which say only “Case 002” seems unreasonably strict. In addition, after villagers pass through security checks in order to enter the courtroom, they are sometimes reprimanded during the trial hearings for sitting inappropriately.
Such barriers and reactions intimidate victims and further distinguish the backgrounds, knowledge, and privileges of the officials who sit comfortably inside the glass wall from the villagers who watch from the outside. Highly educated, scripted in legal terminology, and articulate in persuasive speech, the officials carry out their work in the language of criminal law that only an elite population of the world can fully comprehend. The villagers, many of whom lack a high school degree, find it difficult sometimes to follow the formal conversations between prosecutors, defense lawyers, and investigative judges.
The verdict of Duch (Kaing Guek Eav) will be delivered on July 26, 1010. This will be the first verdict of the Extraordinary Chambers and will be the first recognized verdict for crimes committed during Democratic Kampuchea. Survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime have waited for more than three decades for this moment. It is a moment that, given the poor health and old age of the defendants along with unyielding budgetary and temporal problems of the tribunal, could be survivors’ only chance at seeing a Khmer Rouge leader convicted. Case 002 involving the four highest-level living Khmer Rouge leaders is not expected to start until early 2012 and presumably the verdict for this case will be delivered no earlier than 2013.
Never has there been a more important time for the court to reach out and connect with the very people that it was created for. Therefore, the tribunal should give special attention and preparation to victims who attend the verdict reading. Such attention will demonstrate the tribunal’s respect and honor towards victims which has been lacking in the past. Such action will not only leave a good impression among survivors and all Cambodians alike, but it will also show the international community, which no doubt will also be watching the verdict delivery, that the tribunal cares about survivors and their dignity.
To give honor and respect to victims for their past sufferings, the Extraordinary Chambers can do a number of small but meaningful preparations. The tribunal can lay out a red carpet along the isles of the 500-seat courtroom. A red carpet in Cambodian culture represents respect and honor. The tribunal can also decorate the sections of the public seating area and entryways with flower bouquets and cloth ribbons. Special banners that focus on victim’s courage and strength can also be created to commemorate the historic moment. These and other preparations would only cost a tiny fraction of the court’s overall budget, but would have a tremendous and lasting impact on survivors. In the end, the tribunal will be remembered not only for how it handled the legal, procedural, and criminal aspects of the cases, but also for how it treated victims of the Khmer Rouge regime throughout its existence. After all, the court was created for the victims.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
DEMOCRATIC KAMPUCHEA: CHAIN OF COMMAND AND SOCIOPOLITICAL STRUCTURE OF THE SOUTHWEST ZONE
http://www.dccam.org/Tribunal/Analysis/pdf/Chain_of_Command.pdf
BY
SOCHEAT NHEAN
ABSTRACT
Patron-client relations created strong socio-political bonds in Democratic Kampuchea
(DK). These relations were even stronger and more stable when members of the networks were
related, as occurs in the Southwest Zone, where cadres were mostly related to Zone Secretary
Chhit Choeun aka Mok either directly or indirectly. Every citizen, both cadres and ordinary
people, were aware that life during DK was fragile, and was even more in the later stage of the
regime, and this caused people to have stronger ties to powerful persons. In the DK
administrative systems, the cadres from each hierarchically administrative unit were closely
interrelated and orders were strictly implemented by chain of administrative command in a topdown
hierarchical system. Orders were issued from the closest higher echelon and from higher to
lower-ranking cadres within each unit. For instance, districts issued orders to sub-districts and
within districts orders were issued from secretary to deputy. Orders were followed without fail.
Cadres of higher and lower echelons respected each other’s decisions.
In the beginning of the regime, when there were many former Lon Nol officials, soldiers and
other obvious “enemies,” and it was clear that there were orders from the top to eliminate them,
cadres at all levels of the structure made the decisions to kill these enemies. As the regime
proceeded, fears among the cadre increased and the number of obvious targets decreased;
therefore, cadres were more submissive to their patrons and orders were implemented more
strictly. Before late 1976 or early 1977, power was based in the village level where village
committees controlled everything in the villages. During this period, village committees played a
very important role in reporting suspected enemies up the chain of command. But then from
1977 until the regime collapsed in 1979, village committees were less powerful as power was
shifted to sub-district committees, who played important roles to oversee people and report
enemies’ activities up to district committees. Orders to kill people were then implemented by
sub-district militia units. Starting from 1977, accused persons were checked in order to look for
other strings of networks before they were executed. Therefore, low-ranking cadres were
reluctant to get rid of those accused and preferred reporting alleged enemies up the chain of
command. This thesis documents this change over time in the Southwest Zone, exploring the
process whereby people lived or died based upon their ties or “strings” to particular patrons. The
thesis elaborates on who were considered “insiders” and “outsiders” by the regime, and how trust
between patrons and loyal clients are keys to understanding the culture of terror inside the DK
regime.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
BY
SOCHEAT NHEAN
ABSTRACT
Patron-client relations created strong socio-political bonds in Democratic Kampuchea
(DK). These relations were even stronger and more stable when members of the networks were
related, as occurs in the Southwest Zone, where cadres were mostly related to Zone Secretary
Chhit Choeun aka Mok either directly or indirectly. Every citizen, both cadres and ordinary
people, were aware that life during DK was fragile, and was even more in the later stage of the
regime, and this caused people to have stronger ties to powerful persons. In the DK
administrative systems, the cadres from each hierarchically administrative unit were closely
interrelated and orders were strictly implemented by chain of administrative command in a topdown
hierarchical system. Orders were issued from the closest higher echelon and from higher to
lower-ranking cadres within each unit. For instance, districts issued orders to sub-districts and
within districts orders were issued from secretary to deputy. Orders were followed without fail.
Cadres of higher and lower echelons respected each other’s decisions.
In the beginning of the regime, when there were many former Lon Nol officials, soldiers and
other obvious “enemies,” and it was clear that there were orders from the top to eliminate them,
cadres at all levels of the structure made the decisions to kill these enemies. As the regime
proceeded, fears among the cadre increased and the number of obvious targets decreased;
therefore, cadres were more submissive to their patrons and orders were implemented more
strictly. Before late 1976 or early 1977, power was based in the village level where village
committees controlled everything in the villages. During this period, village committees played a
very important role in reporting suspected enemies up the chain of command. But then from
1977 until the regime collapsed in 1979, village committees were less powerful as power was
shifted to sub-district committees, who played important roles to oversee people and report
enemies’ activities up to district committees. Orders to kill people were then implemented by
sub-district militia units. Starting from 1977, accused persons were checked in order to look for
other strings of networks before they were executed. Therefore, low-ranking cadres were
reluctant to get rid of those accused and preferred reporting alleged enemies up the chain of
command. This thesis documents this change over time in the Southwest Zone, exploring the
process whereby people lived or died based upon their ties or “strings” to particular patrons. The
thesis elaborates on who were considered “insiders” and “outsiders” by the regime, and how trust
between patrons and loyal clients are keys to understanding the culture of terror inside the DK
regime.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
The Voices of the ECCC Complainants:
The Voices of the ECCC Complainants:
Ten Days with the Victim Participation Team
in the Provinces of Kampong Thom & Siem Reap
Yannek Smith
Rutgers University
On May 21-31 2010 I joined the eight members of the Victim Participation
Team[1] (VPA) of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) on their trip
north to the provinces of Kampong Thom and Siem Reap. The objective of the
field trip was to deliver notification letters from the Office of the
Co-Prosecutors of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
(ECCC) to the complainants in these areas. The complainants are survivors of
Democratic Kampuchea (DK) who filed applications against the Khmer Rouge
approximately two years ago. The ECCC letters confirm to the complainants
that the court has received their applications, thanks them for their
contribution, and tells them about the progress that court has made as a
result of their contribution. Throughout our ten day trip, the Victim
Participation Team conducted video and recorder interviews of the villagers
who wished to have their experiences and opinions documented.
My personal goal during our daily trips to the villages was to conduct
ethnographically inspired interviews of the complainants to learn more about
how they feel about the ECCC trials, their personal experiences during the
DK regime, and hear their views on justice, punishment and forgiveness. The
purpose was mainly to gain a better understanding of how (and to what
extent) the court is meaningful to the survivors , how much they know about
what is going on with the legal process, and to look at individual notions
of justice and social reconciliation.
VPA Preparation and Introduction
Kampong Thom province, around a three and a half hour drive north of Phnom
Penh, has the distinction of being the birthplace of both Kaing Guek Eav,
otherwise known as "Duch", and Saloth Sar, more commonly known as Pol Pot.
The province is known for its dams, which were constructed during the
Democratic Kampuchea period; they are products of forced labor, starvation,
and extreme human suffering under the Khmer Rouge regime. During our trip we
travelled around Kampong Thom and Siem Reap, going to different villages
every day. We would generally meet the groups of complainants at the houses
of the local village chiefs.
To the meetings we would bring the notifications from the ECCC, booklets
with information on case 002, letters from DC-Cam's director Youk Chhang,
video and camera equipment, and plenty of durian cookies and water bottles.
This would be our routine preparation for the next nine days; the VPA's way
of setting up the villagers up for serious discussion about the ECCC and the
Khmer Rouge.
Team leader Chy Terith is the main speaker at the meetings. After taking
attendance, he begins by asking the villagers if they remember DC-Cam and
filling out the complaints against the Khmer Rouge. Most of the complainants
that we visited remembered DC-Cam, but many people had forgotten about the
complaints that they had filed in 2008. On day three of our trip a woman
told us that her faded memory was largely due to the busy work schedule of
the villagers. "How can we keep up with what is going on, when we have to
spend our days looking after the water buffalo?" she asked the VPA team.
Indeed, many villagers we talked to emphasized their difficult and demanding
lifestyles to explain why they could not follow up with the trials. Although
most villagers do have at least some access to television and radio, the
more immediate need of providing for their families takes up the bulk of
their time. In this context DC-Cam plays a very important role, as the
connection between the legal system and the victims that it is intended to
be working for.
Telling the People about the ECCC and Case 002
After reminding the villagers of what DC-Cam is and explaining the purpose
of the meeting, Terith goes over the backgrounds of the four Khmer Rouge
leaders on trial in case 002. For many complainants, seeing the large images
of Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan marked the first
time that they put a face to the name of the infamous Khmer Rouge leaders.
For some, it was the first time that they had ever heard the names. Stung
district, where we spent our first few days, is the birthplace of Duch. The
VPA asked all of the complainant groups of this area if they knew Duch
personally or had seen him before. Although of them knew his name, few could
recall ever seeing the man. We did however come across a village chief who
said that he had known Duch and had seen him before.
Following the explanation of what the ECCC is doing and a brief overview of
case 002, the team hands out the letters from the Office of the
Co-Prosecutors to the complainants. After getting the letters, each
complainant is required to fill out a form, confirming that he or she has
received it. Most of the complainants cannot read or write, so the VPA reads
them the notification, and helps them fill out the confirmation form. This
generation, as a result of having lived through decades of war and
instability, received little or no formal education in their lives.
Findings from the Interviews:
The complainants from the provinces of Kampong Thom and Siem Reap were
generally receptive to doing interviews. The diverse opinions and
perspectives of the interviews were good indicators that the interviewees
were open about their feelings. It was very touching that the villagers
shared so much, many telling us about some of the most tragic and difficult
moments of their lives. Consistent with Chy Terith's findings[2], the
complainants were generally pleased to receive the ECCC confirmation
notifications and felt like they had a voice in trials.
From just fifteen interviews[3], it was clear that the complainants have
very different views when it comes to punishment. In many cases the
villagers said that they forgive the Khmer Rouge, seeing the emotion of
anger and the act of revenge as undesired and going against Buddhist
principles. This was the belief of Pot Som, a 56 year old woman from Phoeu
village in Siem Reap, whose father and brother were killed:
"There is no reason for revenge. Shortly after the collapse of the Khmer
Rouge I was still angry, but later on I practiced Buddhism to get rid of the
anger. I just want the Khmer Rouge to never come back."
Piousness did not always go hand in hand with forgiveness. Measkin Yon, a 60
year old woman from Kampong Kdy village in Kampong Thom, is a devout
follower of Buddhism who believes that "justice still needs to be served."
In her opinion the ECCC is too soft on the accused, making "their
participation optional." She told VPA that the accused former Khmer Rouge
members "do not answer all of the questions asked." Measkin, like Pot Som
and several other interviewees, does not consider anger to be an appropriate
response. But Measkin Yon, a woman who lost many relatives to the Khmer
Rouge, still suffers from trauma. Since Democratic Kampuchea, she tells us,
she has never stopped living in fear. "There is no particular reason why I
am still afraid, just that the fear is inside of me," she explained.
Yen Yat, the 65 year old village chief of Daun Laor village, says he is glad
that the ECCC will "help people find out who the real killers are", adding
afterwards that he "[hopes] that they find more top Khmer Rouge killers, so
that they can get what they deserve." For him, the long awaited prosecution
of top Khmer Rouge leaders will bring justice to the victims, not only
because it will punish the former leaders for the atrocities they committed,
but because it will spread awareness and official recognition of who these
people are and what they did.
There were a few people who did not give their opinion when asked questions
pertaining to the ECCC and the prosecution of the top Khmer Rouge leaders,
simply saying that "it is up to the court" to decide what to do. It was
unclear whether if this kind of response demonstrated trust in the court,
distrust, a sense of alienation from the legal process, or a way of avoiding
a strong emotional response[4].
An interesting finding of the interviews was that most of the survivors did
not like the idea of trying more Khmer Rouge members. While all of the
complaints felt good that the top Khmer Rouge leaders would finally be put
on trial, only three out of fifteen interviewees expressed a desire to see
more Khmer Rouge be put on trial. One man named Krouch Noeum (from Rokar
Thoun village, Srangae district, Siem Reap province) explained his
opposition to trying more Khmer Rouge in the following way:
"There are so many former Khmer Rouge living in this district. They all got
their orders from the top, so the court should not condemn them."
Another focus of the interviews was on the education of the genocide and the
Khmer Rouge. All of my interviewees were asked whether or not they play a
role in educating people about the Democratic Kampuchea period. Most of the
complainants said that their contribution is through the personal stories
that they tell to their families and relatives. Village chiefs Yen Yat and
But Ban both emphasized how important the education of what happened under
the Khmer Rouge is for their villages. Yen Yat of Daun La-or village told
the team how discussion about the Khmer Rouge is an important part of the
village meetings:
"I usually raise the issue of killing during every village meeting. During
the meetings I ask them about all the positive developments that have
happened since that time [Democratic Kampuchea]. We discuss how killing is
bad. Improvements are noticeable and there have been many developments in
the village."
The developments that Yen Yat is referring to are the roads, houses, and
schools of the area. But Ban, the village chief of Samprouch village, tells
us that "education in the schools is most important." Asked about the
education of the Khmer Rouge in his village's school, he told VPA, "There is
a teacher in school who talks about the DK regime, and this has been
effective." This is good news to hear, at a time when DC-Cam is launching
its national Genocide Education initiative.[5]
Despite this positive attitude and eagerness to teach young people about the
Khmer Rouge, there is continued doubt and disbelief among younger children
in both Kampong Thom and Siem Reap provinces. Not only are many young people
unaware of what happened under the Khmer Rouge, many do not even believe
that the stories that the older generation tell are true. Several of the
complainants said that children, sometimes even their own, did not believe
what had happened to them under the DK regime.
When asked why this is so, various explanations were offered. During one
meeting a woman said, that "it is hard for the young people to believe the
stories because the elderly people could be telling them anything." Saing
Sam Hor of Ampov Prey village, Stung district, Kampong Thom province says
that "it is because the young generation did not see these things for
themselves. Now they live comfortably, and cannot believe what it was like
under the Khmer Rouge." Perhaps it is because she is unable to convince
young people that her stories are true that she later says that "the role
[of educating the young] is best done by organizations outside of the
country and by the national government." There was a belief among many of
the survivors that the young generation cannot believe how the country was
during DK because they did not experience it themselves.
However there are numerous ways to convince the younger generation that the
Khmer Rouge did exist and did commit atrocities. Interviewee Pot Som touched
on the role of media in educating the younger generation, saying "[the
children] used to not believe me, but when they saw the things that I
started to talk about on television they started to believe." Village chief
But Ban has found other means to teach the children:
"The children do not fully believe what we say, so we give them examples
such as the dams that were built under the Khmer Rouge and the information
that is given out by DC-Cam. Once they see these things, they start to
believe as a result."
There are many channels that have the potential to teach young children
about the DK period: schools, family histories, commemorative ceremonies
(like the May 20th Day of Anger[6]), village meetings, television and radio,
and NGO initiatives. Hopefully, these sources will continue to progress and
spread knowledge of DK throughout the consciousness of the young Cambodian
population.
Conclusion
The DC-Cam Victim Participation Team has proved to be very adept at keeping
the process professional and organized, yet also connecting with the
villagers and creating a comfortable and productive atmosphere. With Duch's
verdict taking place on the 26th of July, the court confirmation notices are
reminders to the complainants that their stories are the reason that the
long awaited prosecution is possible. Over thirty years after the reign of
the Khmer Rouge, the villagers that I interviewed almost unanimously believe
that the trials have not lost their significance or importance. It has been
a very long road to get to this point in the legal process, but in their old
age many of the surviving complainants will finally see the results of their
testimony.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] The members of the Victim Participation team are Chy Terith, Seng
Kunthy, Sa Sengkea, Phat Piseth, Kimsroy Sokvisal, Sok Vannak, Ry Lakana and
Leng Ratanak.
[2] See Chy Terith's DC-Cam report on the VPA field trip to Kampong Thom and
Siem Reap: Khmer Rouge Survivors Still Resent Children of the Khmer Rouge.
2010.
[3] I conducted eleven interviews with VPA translators Seng Kunthy, Kimsroy
Sokvisal and Leng Ratanak, and obtained four live translations (by the
aforementioned members) of live video recordings conducted by Sok Vannak.
[4] For more on Cambodian cultural expressions of remorse and anger, see
Randel Defalco's Community Outreach Trip to Phnom Penh. Searching for the
Truth, February 2010
[5] See http://dccam.org/Projects/Genocide/Genocide_Education.htm
[6] Our field trip took place right after the national May 20th Day of
Anger, a ceremony which commemorates those who perished under the DK regime.
The ceremony includes a reenactment of the genocide and prayers for the
dead. As part of my interviews I asked the survivors if they celebrate this
day. The results were mixed: some know about it and participate in it, some
know about it but don't participate, and some have never heard about it. For
information on this day see Remembering May 20 - Day of Anger by Racheal
Huges.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Ten Days with the Victim Participation Team
in the Provinces of Kampong Thom & Siem Reap
Yannek Smith
Rutgers University
On May 21-31 2010 I joined the eight members of the Victim Participation
Team[1] (VPA) of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) on their trip
north to the provinces of Kampong Thom and Siem Reap. The objective of the
field trip was to deliver notification letters from the Office of the
Co-Prosecutors of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
(ECCC) to the complainants in these areas. The complainants are survivors of
Democratic Kampuchea (DK) who filed applications against the Khmer Rouge
approximately two years ago. The ECCC letters confirm to the complainants
that the court has received their applications, thanks them for their
contribution, and tells them about the progress that court has made as a
result of their contribution. Throughout our ten day trip, the Victim
Participation Team conducted video and recorder interviews of the villagers
who wished to have their experiences and opinions documented.
My personal goal during our daily trips to the villages was to conduct
ethnographically inspired interviews of the complainants to learn more about
how they feel about the ECCC trials, their personal experiences during the
DK regime, and hear their views on justice, punishment and forgiveness. The
purpose was mainly to gain a better understanding of how (and to what
extent) the court is meaningful to the survivors , how much they know about
what is going on with the legal process, and to look at individual notions
of justice and social reconciliation.
VPA Preparation and Introduction
Kampong Thom province, around a three and a half hour drive north of Phnom
Penh, has the distinction of being the birthplace of both Kaing Guek Eav,
otherwise known as "Duch", and Saloth Sar, more commonly known as Pol Pot.
The province is known for its dams, which were constructed during the
Democratic Kampuchea period; they are products of forced labor, starvation,
and extreme human suffering under the Khmer Rouge regime. During our trip we
travelled around Kampong Thom and Siem Reap, going to different villages
every day. We would generally meet the groups of complainants at the houses
of the local village chiefs.
To the meetings we would bring the notifications from the ECCC, booklets
with information on case 002, letters from DC-Cam's director Youk Chhang,
video and camera equipment, and plenty of durian cookies and water bottles.
This would be our routine preparation for the next nine days; the VPA's way
of setting up the villagers up for serious discussion about the ECCC and the
Khmer Rouge.
Team leader Chy Terith is the main speaker at the meetings. After taking
attendance, he begins by asking the villagers if they remember DC-Cam and
filling out the complaints against the Khmer Rouge. Most of the complainants
that we visited remembered DC-Cam, but many people had forgotten about the
complaints that they had filed in 2008. On day three of our trip a woman
told us that her faded memory was largely due to the busy work schedule of
the villagers. "How can we keep up with what is going on, when we have to
spend our days looking after the water buffalo?" she asked the VPA team.
Indeed, many villagers we talked to emphasized their difficult and demanding
lifestyles to explain why they could not follow up with the trials. Although
most villagers do have at least some access to television and radio, the
more immediate need of providing for their families takes up the bulk of
their time. In this context DC-Cam plays a very important role, as the
connection between the legal system and the victims that it is intended to
be working for.
Telling the People about the ECCC and Case 002
After reminding the villagers of what DC-Cam is and explaining the purpose
of the meeting, Terith goes over the backgrounds of the four Khmer Rouge
leaders on trial in case 002. For many complainants, seeing the large images
of Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan marked the first
time that they put a face to the name of the infamous Khmer Rouge leaders.
For some, it was the first time that they had ever heard the names. Stung
district, where we spent our first few days, is the birthplace of Duch. The
VPA asked all of the complainant groups of this area if they knew Duch
personally or had seen him before. Although of them knew his name, few could
recall ever seeing the man. We did however come across a village chief who
said that he had known Duch and had seen him before.
Following the explanation of what the ECCC is doing and a brief overview of
case 002, the team hands out the letters from the Office of the
Co-Prosecutors to the complainants. After getting the letters, each
complainant is required to fill out a form, confirming that he or she has
received it. Most of the complainants cannot read or write, so the VPA reads
them the notification, and helps them fill out the confirmation form. This
generation, as a result of having lived through decades of war and
instability, received little or no formal education in their lives.
Findings from the Interviews:
The complainants from the provinces of Kampong Thom and Siem Reap were
generally receptive to doing interviews. The diverse opinions and
perspectives of the interviews were good indicators that the interviewees
were open about their feelings. It was very touching that the villagers
shared so much, many telling us about some of the most tragic and difficult
moments of their lives. Consistent with Chy Terith's findings[2], the
complainants were generally pleased to receive the ECCC confirmation
notifications and felt like they had a voice in trials.
From just fifteen interviews[3], it was clear that the complainants have
very different views when it comes to punishment. In many cases the
villagers said that they forgive the Khmer Rouge, seeing the emotion of
anger and the act of revenge as undesired and going against Buddhist
principles. This was the belief of Pot Som, a 56 year old woman from Phoeu
village in Siem Reap, whose father and brother were killed:
"There is no reason for revenge. Shortly after the collapse of the Khmer
Rouge I was still angry, but later on I practiced Buddhism to get rid of the
anger. I just want the Khmer Rouge to never come back."
Piousness did not always go hand in hand with forgiveness. Measkin Yon, a 60
year old woman from Kampong Kdy village in Kampong Thom, is a devout
follower of Buddhism who believes that "justice still needs to be served."
In her opinion the ECCC is too soft on the accused, making "their
participation optional." She told VPA that the accused former Khmer Rouge
members "do not answer all of the questions asked." Measkin, like Pot Som
and several other interviewees, does not consider anger to be an appropriate
response. But Measkin Yon, a woman who lost many relatives to the Khmer
Rouge, still suffers from trauma. Since Democratic Kampuchea, she tells us,
she has never stopped living in fear. "There is no particular reason why I
am still afraid, just that the fear is inside of me," she explained.
Yen Yat, the 65 year old village chief of Daun Laor village, says he is glad
that the ECCC will "help people find out who the real killers are", adding
afterwards that he "[hopes] that they find more top Khmer Rouge killers, so
that they can get what they deserve." For him, the long awaited prosecution
of top Khmer Rouge leaders will bring justice to the victims, not only
because it will punish the former leaders for the atrocities they committed,
but because it will spread awareness and official recognition of who these
people are and what they did.
There were a few people who did not give their opinion when asked questions
pertaining to the ECCC and the prosecution of the top Khmer Rouge leaders,
simply saying that "it is up to the court" to decide what to do. It was
unclear whether if this kind of response demonstrated trust in the court,
distrust, a sense of alienation from the legal process, or a way of avoiding
a strong emotional response[4].
An interesting finding of the interviews was that most of the survivors did
not like the idea of trying more Khmer Rouge members. While all of the
complaints felt good that the top Khmer Rouge leaders would finally be put
on trial, only three out of fifteen interviewees expressed a desire to see
more Khmer Rouge be put on trial. One man named Krouch Noeum (from Rokar
Thoun village, Srangae district, Siem Reap province) explained his
opposition to trying more Khmer Rouge in the following way:
"There are so many former Khmer Rouge living in this district. They all got
their orders from the top, so the court should not condemn them."
Another focus of the interviews was on the education of the genocide and the
Khmer Rouge. All of my interviewees were asked whether or not they play a
role in educating people about the Democratic Kampuchea period. Most of the
complainants said that their contribution is through the personal stories
that they tell to their families and relatives. Village chiefs Yen Yat and
But Ban both emphasized how important the education of what happened under
the Khmer Rouge is for their villages. Yen Yat of Daun La-or village told
the team how discussion about the Khmer Rouge is an important part of the
village meetings:
"I usually raise the issue of killing during every village meeting. During
the meetings I ask them about all the positive developments that have
happened since that time [Democratic Kampuchea]. We discuss how killing is
bad. Improvements are noticeable and there have been many developments in
the village."
The developments that Yen Yat is referring to are the roads, houses, and
schools of the area. But Ban, the village chief of Samprouch village, tells
us that "education in the schools is most important." Asked about the
education of the Khmer Rouge in his village's school, he told VPA, "There is
a teacher in school who talks about the DK regime, and this has been
effective." This is good news to hear, at a time when DC-Cam is launching
its national Genocide Education initiative.[5]
Despite this positive attitude and eagerness to teach young people about the
Khmer Rouge, there is continued doubt and disbelief among younger children
in both Kampong Thom and Siem Reap provinces. Not only are many young people
unaware of what happened under the Khmer Rouge, many do not even believe
that the stories that the older generation tell are true. Several of the
complainants said that children, sometimes even their own, did not believe
what had happened to them under the DK regime.
When asked why this is so, various explanations were offered. During one
meeting a woman said, that "it is hard for the young people to believe the
stories because the elderly people could be telling them anything." Saing
Sam Hor of Ampov Prey village, Stung district, Kampong Thom province says
that "it is because the young generation did not see these things for
themselves. Now they live comfortably, and cannot believe what it was like
under the Khmer Rouge." Perhaps it is because she is unable to convince
young people that her stories are true that she later says that "the role
[of educating the young] is best done by organizations outside of the
country and by the national government." There was a belief among many of
the survivors that the young generation cannot believe how the country was
during DK because they did not experience it themselves.
However there are numerous ways to convince the younger generation that the
Khmer Rouge did exist and did commit atrocities. Interviewee Pot Som touched
on the role of media in educating the younger generation, saying "[the
children] used to not believe me, but when they saw the things that I
started to talk about on television they started to believe." Village chief
But Ban has found other means to teach the children:
"The children do not fully believe what we say, so we give them examples
such as the dams that were built under the Khmer Rouge and the information
that is given out by DC-Cam. Once they see these things, they start to
believe as a result."
There are many channels that have the potential to teach young children
about the DK period: schools, family histories, commemorative ceremonies
(like the May 20th Day of Anger[6]), village meetings, television and radio,
and NGO initiatives. Hopefully, these sources will continue to progress and
spread knowledge of DK throughout the consciousness of the young Cambodian
population.
Conclusion
The DC-Cam Victim Participation Team has proved to be very adept at keeping
the process professional and organized, yet also connecting with the
villagers and creating a comfortable and productive atmosphere. With Duch's
verdict taking place on the 26th of July, the court confirmation notices are
reminders to the complainants that their stories are the reason that the
long awaited prosecution is possible. Over thirty years after the reign of
the Khmer Rouge, the villagers that I interviewed almost unanimously believe
that the trials have not lost their significance or importance. It has been
a very long road to get to this point in the legal process, but in their old
age many of the surviving complainants will finally see the results of their
testimony.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] The members of the Victim Participation team are Chy Terith, Seng
Kunthy, Sa Sengkea, Phat Piseth, Kimsroy Sokvisal, Sok Vannak, Ry Lakana and
Leng Ratanak.
[2] See Chy Terith's DC-Cam report on the VPA field trip to Kampong Thom and
Siem Reap: Khmer Rouge Survivors Still Resent Children of the Khmer Rouge.
2010.
[3] I conducted eleven interviews with VPA translators Seng Kunthy, Kimsroy
Sokvisal and Leng Ratanak, and obtained four live translations (by the
aforementioned members) of live video recordings conducted by Sok Vannak.
[4] For more on Cambodian cultural expressions of remorse and anger, see
Randel Defalco's Community Outreach Trip to Phnom Penh. Searching for the
Truth, February 2010
[5] See http://dccam.org/Projects/Genocide/Genocide_Education.htm
[6] Our field trip took place right after the national May 20th Day of
Anger, a ceremony which commemorates those who perished under the DK regime.
The ceremony includes a reenactment of the genocide and prayers for the
dead. As part of my interviews I asked the survivors if they celebrate this
day. The results were mixed: some know about it and participate in it, some
know about it but don't participate, and some have never heard about it. For
information on this day see Remembering May 20 - Day of Anger by Racheal
Huges.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Judgment Day Nears for Khmer Rouge Torturer-in-chief
By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER Sunday, July 11, 2010
BANGKOK - The torturer-in-chief of a notorious prison during the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror in Cambodia will finally learn what price he has to pay for the almost mathematical precision with which he carried out his duty to torment and kill nearly 14,000 people, including babies.
The judgment on Jul. 26, in the first international trial of a surviving Khmer Rouge leader, will be a groundbreaking moment for the Southeast Asian nation, coming 31 years after the genocidal regime led by Pol Pot was driven out of power.
The 77-day trial of Kaing Khek Eav, better known as Comrade Duch, at the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, began on Mar. 30, 2009.
The prosecution in this hybrid war crimes tribunal, which includes international and local jurists and lawyers, has pushed for a 45-year sentence for the 67-year-old chief jailer of the Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Duch faces charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture.
Tuol Sleng, or S-21 as the extremist Maoist group called it, was a former high school where Duch and other jailers interrogated and tortured civilians, including children, who were considered enemies of the Khmer Rouge.
Only 11 people came out alive from the estimated 12,380 to 14,000 people imprisoned in Tuol Sleng. It was one of the nearly 200 detention centres that the Khmer Rouge maintained across the country during its rule from April 1975 to January 1979.
During this period, close to 1.7 million people, or nearly a quarter of that country's population at the time, were executed or died due to forced labour or from starvation, as the reclusive tyrant Pol Pot pushed to create an agrarian utopia.
Among those who survived Cambodia's 'Killing Fields' is Vann Nath, for whom the Duch trial has been a personal matter. He was among the 11 prisoners of Tuol Sleng who walked out alive. Duch was "the former butcher of Tuol Sleng," Vann Nath wrote in a book about the horrific period he spent in the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison.
It was his talent as a painter that kept him alive. Vann Nath was ordered to produce regular portraits of a man he hardly knew but was shown black-and white photographs of - Pol Pot. This order from Duch left him little room for error in making the initial black-and-white, and the subsequent colour portraits, of the Khmer Rouge leader.
"I will go to the court to hear the verdict if my health is good," the now 63- year-old Vann Nath said in a telephone interview from Phnom Penh, where he is recovering from surgery on his left arm. "I hope the court will be fair and provide justice in its verdict."
Other Cambodians like Youk Chhang are more demanding of the judgement for Duch. A long sentence for Duch-spending the rest of his years in a prison where "he will be fed daily" and "do nothing more"-may not "satisfy all the people who followed his trial and learnt of all the horror that took place," Youk told IPS.
"He should be made to read the confessions of what he did to the victims in Tuol Sleng every day in prison as a reminder of his actions," said Youk, director of the Phnom Penh-based Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC- Cam), which has recorded the accounts of nearly one million victims and identified the presence of 20,000 mass graves. "Some people want him to get a life sentence so that he could never be a free man."
Whatever the judgment, the significance of the Duch trial has not been lost on a country still struggling to recover from nearly two decades of conflict, including the Khmer Rouge brutality, from the early 1970s through the mid- 1990s.
After Duch, other more powerful surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge are headed for the tribunal. They include Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot's deputy, Khieu Samphan, the country's president during the Khmer Rouge years, and Ieng Sary, the foreign minister at the time.
Beyond the legal import of its work, the tribunal has also been helping fulfill the broader objective of helping Cambodians reach closure in a painful part of their history.
The national broadcasts of its proceedings serve as a court- sanctioned narrative of a dark period that had not been subject to official scrutiny.
"The court's outreach has had a measure of success in informing the public about what was going on at the Duch trial," says Rupert Abbot, a lawyer at the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. "The process has had a role in people understanding what happened and why things happened."
"The trial will help bring some closure," he said in an interview from Phnom Penh. "It will help draw a line about a period in Cambodian history, especially since you have a new generation."
More worrying, however, with the upcoming verdicts on the cases of ageing Khmer Rouge leaders, is how much support the tribunal will receive from the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who used to be a low-ranking Khmer Rouge member.
"The government has not been playing ball," says Abbot. "The Duch trial was easy, because he was willing to admit to what he did, and it was just at S-21. In the next cases, the crime scene is the entire country.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
BANGKOK - The torturer-in-chief of a notorious prison during the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror in Cambodia will finally learn what price he has to pay for the almost mathematical precision with which he carried out his duty to torment and kill nearly 14,000 people, including babies.
The judgment on Jul. 26, in the first international trial of a surviving Khmer Rouge leader, will be a groundbreaking moment for the Southeast Asian nation, coming 31 years after the genocidal regime led by Pol Pot was driven out of power.
The 77-day trial of Kaing Khek Eav, better known as Comrade Duch, at the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, began on Mar. 30, 2009.
The prosecution in this hybrid war crimes tribunal, which includes international and local jurists and lawyers, has pushed for a 45-year sentence for the 67-year-old chief jailer of the Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Duch faces charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture.
Tuol Sleng, or S-21 as the extremist Maoist group called it, was a former high school where Duch and other jailers interrogated and tortured civilians, including children, who were considered enemies of the Khmer Rouge.
Only 11 people came out alive from the estimated 12,380 to 14,000 people imprisoned in Tuol Sleng. It was one of the nearly 200 detention centres that the Khmer Rouge maintained across the country during its rule from April 1975 to January 1979.
During this period, close to 1.7 million people, or nearly a quarter of that country's population at the time, were executed or died due to forced labour or from starvation, as the reclusive tyrant Pol Pot pushed to create an agrarian utopia.
Among those who survived Cambodia's 'Killing Fields' is Vann Nath, for whom the Duch trial has been a personal matter. He was among the 11 prisoners of Tuol Sleng who walked out alive. Duch was "the former butcher of Tuol Sleng," Vann Nath wrote in a book about the horrific period he spent in the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison.
It was his talent as a painter that kept him alive. Vann Nath was ordered to produce regular portraits of a man he hardly knew but was shown black-and white photographs of - Pol Pot. This order from Duch left him little room for error in making the initial black-and-white, and the subsequent colour portraits, of the Khmer Rouge leader.
"I will go to the court to hear the verdict if my health is good," the now 63- year-old Vann Nath said in a telephone interview from Phnom Penh, where he is recovering from surgery on his left arm. "I hope the court will be fair and provide justice in its verdict."
Other Cambodians like Youk Chhang are more demanding of the judgement for Duch. A long sentence for Duch-spending the rest of his years in a prison where "he will be fed daily" and "do nothing more"-may not "satisfy all the people who followed his trial and learnt of all the horror that took place," Youk told IPS.
"He should be made to read the confessions of what he did to the victims in Tuol Sleng every day in prison as a reminder of his actions," said Youk, director of the Phnom Penh-based Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC- Cam), which has recorded the accounts of nearly one million victims and identified the presence of 20,000 mass graves. "Some people want him to get a life sentence so that he could never be a free man."
Whatever the judgment, the significance of the Duch trial has not been lost on a country still struggling to recover from nearly two decades of conflict, including the Khmer Rouge brutality, from the early 1970s through the mid- 1990s.
After Duch, other more powerful surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge are headed for the tribunal. They include Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot's deputy, Khieu Samphan, the country's president during the Khmer Rouge years, and Ieng Sary, the foreign minister at the time.
Beyond the legal import of its work, the tribunal has also been helping fulfill the broader objective of helping Cambodians reach closure in a painful part of their history.
The national broadcasts of its proceedings serve as a court- sanctioned narrative of a dark period that had not been subject to official scrutiny.
"The court's outreach has had a measure of success in informing the public about what was going on at the Duch trial," says Rupert Abbot, a lawyer at the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. "The process has had a role in people understanding what happened and why things happened."
"The trial will help bring some closure," he said in an interview from Phnom Penh. "It will help draw a line about a period in Cambodian history, especially since you have a new generation."
More worrying, however, with the upcoming verdicts on the cases of ageing Khmer Rouge leaders, is how much support the tribunal will receive from the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who used to be a low-ranking Khmer Rouge member.
"The government has not been playing ball," says Abbot. "The Duch trial was easy, because he was willing to admit to what he did, and it was just at S-21. In the next cases, the crime scene is the entire country.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Family Tracing and Reconciliation STORY FROM THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE SURVIVORS
Family Tracing and Reconciliation
The Book of Memory of Those Who Died under the Khmer Rouge
by Kok-Thay Eng
STORY FROM THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE SURVIVORS
CHUM SAM ATH
Chum Sam Ath has seven siblings. Their home village is Chong Prek village, Kandal province. In 1973 they moved to Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge captured the district. They lived in an area called O' Bek Ka-Am. In Phnom Penh, Chum Sam Ath worked as an airport police. Chum Sam Ol worked at the ministry of rural development. Chum Saray was a Lon Nol's paramilitary soldier. When the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 1975, they walked back to their home village. On that day, Yum Sam Ol was visiting his office at the ministry of rural development. Chum Saray left the family, which was temporarily staying at the house of their aunt near Olympic market, to visit their home at O' Bek Ka-am. The Khmer Rouge set up curfew soon afterward. Chum Saray and Chum Sam Ol were lost. As for the family of Chum Lim, they were evacuated from Kien Svay district, Kandal province in 1977 with four of their children. All disappeared. On the day of evacuation, the two remaining children were in mobile units. They survived. Chum Sam Ath is glad to be telling this story of his family to a formal institution for the first time. He wants his relatives to be recorded.
PERSONAL IMFORMATION:
Chum Sam Ath
Surviving Relative: Chum Sam Ath
Male, 58
Kien Svay, Kandal province
Relatives Died under the Khmer Rouge
Vann Van
Brother-in-Law
Born in around 1940
Died in 1977
Chum Lim
Older Sister
Born in year of rabbit
Died in 1977
Wife of Vann Van
Vann Van and Chum Lim had six children. Four died under the Khmer Rouge:
Vann Sokhom, Female
Vann Sokhorn, Female
Vann Vuthy, Male
Vann Vutha, Male
Chum Pich
Nephew
Died in 1977 at around 7 years old
Khut Sean
Elder cousin
Died in 1977 at age of 31
Chum Saray
Older Brother
Born year of pig
Separated since 1975
Still missing
Should be around 64 years old today
Chum Sam-Ol
Older Brother
Born year of rabbit
Separated since 1975
Still missing
Should be in his 60s today
End.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The Documentation Center of Cambodia is writing and compiling a book of records of names of those who died under the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979 and those who disappeared during the period, who are still not known by their relatives. It also includes a section for family tracing purposes. DC-Cam already has in its database up to a million names of those who may have died under the Khmer Rouge.
This book of memory and records also lists names of prisoners found at S-21 and 200 other security centers under the Khmer Rouge regime. Under the Khmer Rouge regime nearly two million people died of four main causes: execution by the Khmer Rouge, starvation, forced labors and malnutrition. The four causes are interconnected. People were executed in the villages, in the rice fields, in a nearby forest or simply around the compound of a security center. Some died along the border in the war between Cambodia and Vietnam. The other causes of death include that of starvation, forced labors and malnutrition. Although the Khmer Rouge put virtually all ordinary people to work in the fields to grow food or do field-supporting activities, they were given little food to eat in return. As a result starvation was a major cause of death under the Khmer Rouge. Many of these people were forced to work long hours, up to 12 or 14 hours a day, without rest seven days a week. With very little food and virtually no modern medical care, many people died as a result.
There are many ways in which people were separated from their families. The civil war between 1970 and 1975 effectively divided Cambodia between the “liberated area” controlled by the Khmer Rouge and areas controlled by the Khmer Republic led by General Lon Nol. Families and relatives were often separated. In some instances, brothers fought on either side of the war. They were unable to reconcile even when the war was over in 1975. In addition, as the Khmer Rouge was overthrown by the Vietnamese, a large portion of the population moved along with the retreating Khmer Rouge to the west and the Thai border, instead of returning home. Some were able to move to third countries. Others repatriated in the early 1990s.
In addition, families were torn apart when the Khmer Rouge finally took over Cambodia in April 1975. This time deliberate policies were set up to make sure that the family institution was destroyed. During the Khmer Rouge regime of three years, eight months and twenty days, almost two million Cambodian people of all creeds, political orientations and ethnicities perished due to summary execution, malnutrition, starvation and forced labor. Families were deliberately separated and put into labor units. Various work brigades were created to replace previous social units. Marriages were organized en masse by Angkar (the name for the shadowy Khmer Rouge leadership). Children were put in child units and taught that their parents were Angkar. At the end of the Khmer Rouge regime in January 1979, people walked back to their homes of 1975 hoping that they would meet their family members. However, only some families were rejoined with their lost relatives during that time. With a minimal death rate of up to one in seven, most people arrived home alone, and almost everyone found some of their family members missing as they tried to rebuild their lives. People made efforts both during the Khmer Rouge regime and after to locate their lost relatives, but their efforts have too often been futile. We are consistently told that the most important piece of information that survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime would like to know with certainty is the fate of their lost loved ones.
The book of records would also include basic information relating to the Khmer Rouge history, its security apparatus, its rise and its demise. It would also discuss concepts relating to disappearance and its impacts on psychological well-being of survivors today. This book would also include names of those DC-Cam has in its Biographical Database, which DC-Cam is not certain whether they were dead or alive. These names would help in family tracing efforts. The book would be distributed free of charge to commune offices in Cambodia, so that people can see the names of their lost relatives and search for those names that DC-Cam has on records. The book would then receive comments from villagers on accuracy of the information and family tracing requests.
By publishing names of those people who died under the Khmer Rouge and their stories, the book has many roles. It is an acknowledgement of the suffering of those who died under the Khmer Rouge. For thirty years after the Khmer Rouge regime ended in 1979, people have talked about the regime in formal and informal settings, 80 memorials were constructed around the country and a few genocide museums were built including Tuol Sleng. However, these places tend to be nameless and faceless. Many of them exhibit skulls and bones. They signify the gross violence of genocide, but they have very few individualistic characters. This is the gap that this book attempts to fill in. The book not only for the first time in thirty years record names of those people who died under the Khmer Rouge, it also includes a short story about of each individual, relating to the moment they were evacuated from cities or their early experience with the Khmer Rouge in the “liberated areas”, the work teams they were assigned to and ultimately the story relating to their death. These stories would be told through the memories of their surviving relatives. The book would also include any memories of the victims, including photographs, handwriting and pictures of their artifacts. For those victims who were prisoners of a security center, a summary of their confessions would be included to reveal their suffering under the torture center. By helping to locate lost family members or to determine whether they are dead or alive, the book would play important parts in process of closure for survivors.
If you would like to have your relatives’ names, who died under the Khmer Rouge or disappeared then, appearing in this book, please contact Kok-Thay ENG at tel: 012-955-858 or email: truthkokthay@dccam.org.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
The Book of Memory of Those Who Died under the Khmer Rouge
by Kok-Thay Eng
STORY FROM THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE SURVIVORS
CHUM SAM ATH
Chum Sam Ath has seven siblings. Their home village is Chong Prek village, Kandal province. In 1973 they moved to Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge captured the district. They lived in an area called O' Bek Ka-Am. In Phnom Penh, Chum Sam Ath worked as an airport police. Chum Sam Ol worked at the ministry of rural development. Chum Saray was a Lon Nol's paramilitary soldier. When the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 1975, they walked back to their home village. On that day, Yum Sam Ol was visiting his office at the ministry of rural development. Chum Saray left the family, which was temporarily staying at the house of their aunt near Olympic market, to visit their home at O' Bek Ka-am. The Khmer Rouge set up curfew soon afterward. Chum Saray and Chum Sam Ol were lost. As for the family of Chum Lim, they were evacuated from Kien Svay district, Kandal province in 1977 with four of their children. All disappeared. On the day of evacuation, the two remaining children were in mobile units. They survived. Chum Sam Ath is glad to be telling this story of his family to a formal institution for the first time. He wants his relatives to be recorded.
PERSONAL IMFORMATION:
Chum Sam Ath
Surviving Relative: Chum Sam Ath
Male, 58
Kien Svay, Kandal province
Relatives Died under the Khmer Rouge
Vann Van
Brother-in-Law
Born in around 1940
Died in 1977
Chum Lim
Older Sister
Born in year of rabbit
Died in 1977
Wife of Vann Van
Vann Van and Chum Lim had six children. Four died under the Khmer Rouge:
Vann Sokhom, Female
Vann Sokhorn, Female
Vann Vuthy, Male
Vann Vutha, Male
Chum Pich
Nephew
Died in 1977 at around 7 years old
Khut Sean
Elder cousin
Died in 1977 at age of 31
Chum Saray
Older Brother
Born year of pig
Separated since 1975
Still missing
Should be around 64 years old today
Chum Sam-Ol
Older Brother
Born year of rabbit
Separated since 1975
Still missing
Should be in his 60s today
End.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The Documentation Center of Cambodia is writing and compiling a book of records of names of those who died under the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979 and those who disappeared during the period, who are still not known by their relatives. It also includes a section for family tracing purposes. DC-Cam already has in its database up to a million names of those who may have died under the Khmer Rouge.
This book of memory and records also lists names of prisoners found at S-21 and 200 other security centers under the Khmer Rouge regime. Under the Khmer Rouge regime nearly two million people died of four main causes: execution by the Khmer Rouge, starvation, forced labors and malnutrition. The four causes are interconnected. People were executed in the villages, in the rice fields, in a nearby forest or simply around the compound of a security center. Some died along the border in the war between Cambodia and Vietnam. The other causes of death include that of starvation, forced labors and malnutrition. Although the Khmer Rouge put virtually all ordinary people to work in the fields to grow food or do field-supporting activities, they were given little food to eat in return. As a result starvation was a major cause of death under the Khmer Rouge. Many of these people were forced to work long hours, up to 12 or 14 hours a day, without rest seven days a week. With very little food and virtually no modern medical care, many people died as a result.
There are many ways in which people were separated from their families. The civil war between 1970 and 1975 effectively divided Cambodia between the “liberated area” controlled by the Khmer Rouge and areas controlled by the Khmer Republic led by General Lon Nol. Families and relatives were often separated. In some instances, brothers fought on either side of the war. They were unable to reconcile even when the war was over in 1975. In addition, as the Khmer Rouge was overthrown by the Vietnamese, a large portion of the population moved along with the retreating Khmer Rouge to the west and the Thai border, instead of returning home. Some were able to move to third countries. Others repatriated in the early 1990s.
In addition, families were torn apart when the Khmer Rouge finally took over Cambodia in April 1975. This time deliberate policies were set up to make sure that the family institution was destroyed. During the Khmer Rouge regime of three years, eight months and twenty days, almost two million Cambodian people of all creeds, political orientations and ethnicities perished due to summary execution, malnutrition, starvation and forced labor. Families were deliberately separated and put into labor units. Various work brigades were created to replace previous social units. Marriages were organized en masse by Angkar (the name for the shadowy Khmer Rouge leadership). Children were put in child units and taught that their parents were Angkar. At the end of the Khmer Rouge regime in January 1979, people walked back to their homes of 1975 hoping that they would meet their family members. However, only some families were rejoined with their lost relatives during that time. With a minimal death rate of up to one in seven, most people arrived home alone, and almost everyone found some of their family members missing as they tried to rebuild their lives. People made efforts both during the Khmer Rouge regime and after to locate their lost relatives, but their efforts have too often been futile. We are consistently told that the most important piece of information that survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime would like to know with certainty is the fate of their lost loved ones.
The book of records would also include basic information relating to the Khmer Rouge history, its security apparatus, its rise and its demise. It would also discuss concepts relating to disappearance and its impacts on psychological well-being of survivors today. This book would also include names of those DC-Cam has in its Biographical Database, which DC-Cam is not certain whether they were dead or alive. These names would help in family tracing efforts. The book would be distributed free of charge to commune offices in Cambodia, so that people can see the names of their lost relatives and search for those names that DC-Cam has on records. The book would then receive comments from villagers on accuracy of the information and family tracing requests.
By publishing names of those people who died under the Khmer Rouge and their stories, the book has many roles. It is an acknowledgement of the suffering of those who died under the Khmer Rouge. For thirty years after the Khmer Rouge regime ended in 1979, people have talked about the regime in formal and informal settings, 80 memorials were constructed around the country and a few genocide museums were built including Tuol Sleng. However, these places tend to be nameless and faceless. Many of them exhibit skulls and bones. They signify the gross violence of genocide, but they have very few individualistic characters. This is the gap that this book attempts to fill in. The book not only for the first time in thirty years record names of those people who died under the Khmer Rouge, it also includes a short story about of each individual, relating to the moment they were evacuated from cities or their early experience with the Khmer Rouge in the “liberated areas”, the work teams they were assigned to and ultimately the story relating to their death. These stories would be told through the memories of their surviving relatives. The book would also include any memories of the victims, including photographs, handwriting and pictures of their artifacts. For those victims who were prisoners of a security center, a summary of their confessions would be included to reveal their suffering under the torture center. By helping to locate lost family members or to determine whether they are dead or alive, the book would play important parts in process of closure for survivors.
If you would like to have your relatives’ names, who died under the Khmer Rouge or disappeared then, appearing in this book, please contact Kok-Thay ENG at tel: 012-955-858 or email: truthkokthay@dccam.org.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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About Me
- Duong Dara
- Dara Duong was born in 1971 in Battambang province, Cambodia. His life changed forever at age four, when the Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. During the regime that controlled Cambodia from 1975-1979, Dara’s father, grandparents, uncle and aunt were executed, along with almost 3 million other Cambodians. Dara’s mother managed to keep him and his brothers and sisters together and survive the years of the Khmer Rouge regime. However, when the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia, she did not want to live under Communist rule. She fled with her family to a refugee camp on the Cambodian-Thai border, where they lived for more than ten years. Since arriving in the United States, Dara’s goal has been to educate people about the rich Cambodian culture that the Khmer Rouge tried to destroy and about the genocide, so that the world will not stand by and allow such atrocities to occur again. Toward that end, he has created the Cambodian Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial, which began in his garage and is now in White Center, Washington. Dara’s story is one of survival against enormous odds, one of perseverance, one of courage and hope.