I regret that yesterday the Phnom Penh Post misattributed its two letters to the editor, making it appear as if Ou Virak of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) had drafted a stinging criticism of me, and Ieng Sary defense lawyers Ang Udom and Michael Karnavas had drafted a well-argued plea for investigation of potential political interference in the work of the Khmer Rouge tribunal. Yet, the mistake ultimately demonstrates the cohesion of Cambodian civil society, as Ou and I were immediately in touch to discuss the humorous error.
The defense team’s reprimand was in response to my statements for the article “Ieng Sary team seeks ECCC judge’s ouster” (September 20). There were two points I had hoped to make clear in my comments, a selection of which appeared in the article. First, the public must prepare itself to accept that Ieng Sary may pass away before trial, as he is old and his health is fragile. I certainly do not wish him death as we approach the Pchum Benh ancestor holidays, when all spirits are fed so they will not go hungry or suffer from their bad deeds. It is imperative that the trial move forward without delay so that Ieng Sary may live to tell us why Khmer killed Khmer and be judged accordingly.
I seek the truth, and would thus be a fool to support corruption in Cambodia, including at the Extraordinary Chambers/Defense Unit. Constructive defense challenges at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal benefit Cambodia, which suffers from a lack of fair trial standards in its national courts, but it is easy for the Ieng Sary defense to attack everything and themselves politicize the proceedings. Ieng Sary deserves better than to die and have his lawyers declare “victory.” He deserves to be tried.
Youk Chhang
Documentation Center of Cambodia
Magazine: Searching for the Truth, September 23, 1020
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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.
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