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
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
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.
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-------------
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."
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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
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.
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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."
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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
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
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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.