On 26 July 2010, at 10AM, Radio Free Asia will webcast live from the KR Tribunal regarding the verdict for Duch.
Click here for the RFA link
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Saturday, 24 July 2010
Comrade Duch, the Khmer Rouge executioner who killed thousands for Pol Pot, faces his day of justice
Chum Mey points to a photograph of a victim of the Khmer Rouge at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty ImagesChum Mey, one of the dozen survivors who walked out of Tuol Sleng death centre in Phnom Penh, counts on the international court imposing a sentence of life imprisonment
Sunday 25 July 2010
Ben Doherty, Phnom Penh
The Observer (UK)
Chum Mey walks slowly through the corridors of Tuol Sleng – once a school, then a prison, now a museum – past thousands of black-and-white photographs, the unsmiling portraits of the Khmer Rouge's victims in this place. He stops at faces he recognises, pointing out friends, colleagues, a relative he saw for the final time through barbed wire.
Over four years in the late 1970s, it is reckoned, more than 12,000 men, women and children passed through Tuol Sleng prison in central Phnom Penh, and were murdered by the Khmer Rouge. Most were tortured into confessing crimes they couldn't possibly have committed before being loaded on to trucks and driven to the notorious killing fields of Choeung Ek, where they were bludgeoned to death with ox-cart axles.
Tomorrow, more than 30 years since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, the man who ran Tuol Sleng prison, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, will be sentenced for the crimes committed here. As Pol Pot's executioner-in-chief, he will be the first Khmer Rouge figure to be held accountable by a court for the crimes of the ultra-communist regime which killed an estimated 1.7 million people, a quarter of Cambodia's population, between 1975 and 1979.
Duch, 67, has confessed to his crimes, telling the court last year: "I am solely and individually responsible for the loss of at least 12,380 lives." There seems little doubt in Cambodia that he will be sentenced to life in prison, the heaviest penalty the court can impose.
His sentencing is of enormous interest across the country. More than 30,000 Cambodians attended the purpose-built international court over the course of Duch's nine-month trial. His sentence will be broadcast on live television.
"I want the court to give Duch a life in prison," Mey, a former mechanic, says through an interpreter. "He must never be allowed out, so that the younger generation cannot follow suit. It cannot happen again." He stops now at the tiny cell, barely 3ft by 5ft, which was his for nearly a year. He was shackled by his ankles, taken out only to be interrogated, tortured or put to work. Mey is one of only 12 people known to have walked out of Tuol Sleng.
He was saved by his ability to repair sewing machines; it kept him alive long enough for Vietnamese troops to storm the Cambodian capital, ending four years of bloodstained Khmer Rouge rule. "I was not going to be saved, I was only lucky. I was waiting for my day. I knew that I would have to do my work, and then I would be killed."
The Khmer Rouge tried to turn Cambodia into a classless society by forcing the urban population to work the land in agrarian communes. It targeted "subversives" who included professionals and intellectuals, the educated, ethnic minorities and town dwellers. Thousands died of starvation and disease.
Mey recounts the tortures used to extract false confessions from prisoners and force them into implicating others as CIA spies. He was beaten with bamboo rods, forced to eat faeces, given electric shocks to his ears, and had his toenails ripped out with pliers. Others were waterboarded, hung upside down, and had their hands crushed in clamps. Children were thrown from third-storey balconies to their deaths. Prisoners were presumed guilty, effectively already dead, Duch has said.
Despite Duch's courtroom confessions and his pleas that he be allowed to apologise in person to his victims' families, Mey cannot forgive him. He is angered by Duch's lack of remorse. "When he went into the dock, he only paid respect to the judges, he did not pay respect to the victims, [he did] not acknowledge [us]. It shows his cruelty still exists."
In court, Duch, now an old man, has been calm and polite, but his evidence has been littered with casual references to smashing people considered enemies of the state. The former high-school maths teacher said he was ordered to kill prisoners at Tuol Sleng against his wishes, and obeyed out of fear that he would be killed if he refused. But he did not directly implicate those who will follow him in court. "I cannot forgive him, because what he testified was not true," Mey, who gave evidence in court against his former jailer, says. "He only blamed those who already died, he did not testify against those still alive."
Beyond Duch's sentence, the future of the internationally sponsored Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia – the Khmer Rouge tribunal – and, in particular, who comes next before it, is a sensitive issue for the country.
The next case will try, simultaneously, the four most senior Khmer Rouge cadres still alive. Nuon Chea, Brother Number Two, was the Khmer Rouge's second-in-command and chief ideologue. Ieng Sary was foreign minister and his wife, Ieng Thirith, minister for social affairs. Khieu Samphan was the titular head of state.
But the defendants are old – the youngest is 78 – and some are seriously ill. It will be the middle of next year before their trial can start, and it is unlikely to end until 2014 or 2015, says the UN. "There is a high likelihood that one or more of the charged persons will be unfit to plead or will die before the conclusion of their trial," the court's international co-prosecutor, William Smith, has said. The prime minister, Hun Sen, himself a former low-level Khmer Rouge cadre, is critical of the court. He has said further investigations could lead to a civil war. "If war breaks out again and kills 20,000 or 30,000 people, who will be responsible?"
Standing at Tuol Sleng's barbed-wire gates, Mey remembers the Khmer Rouge's final cruelty, inflicted during the regime's last days. Marched from the prison by his jailers, Mey, by sheer chance, came across his wife and the young son he had never met, born just weeks after he was sent to prison.
His family was marched north at gunpoint for two days. Then, without warning, they were woken at midnight and ordered to run into a rice field. "They kill. As we ran we were sprayed with bullets. My wife fell, she screamed to me, 'you have to escape'.
I looked back to see another friend shot and fall to the ground. My wife was already dead. My son was crying for a moment, then he was shot too. I escaped into the forest."
Thirty years on, Mey is still haunted by that night. "When I sleep I still see their faces. Every day I think of them. What was their crime? My wife and son were innocent."
Sunday 25 July 2010
Ben Doherty, Phnom Penh
The Observer (UK)
Chum Mey walks slowly through the corridors of Tuol Sleng – once a school, then a prison, now a museum – past thousands of black-and-white photographs, the unsmiling portraits of the Khmer Rouge's victims in this place. He stops at faces he recognises, pointing out friends, colleagues, a relative he saw for the final time through barbed wire.
Over four years in the late 1970s, it is reckoned, more than 12,000 men, women and children passed through Tuol Sleng prison in central Phnom Penh, and were murdered by the Khmer Rouge. Most were tortured into confessing crimes they couldn't possibly have committed before being loaded on to trucks and driven to the notorious killing fields of Choeung Ek, where they were bludgeoned to death with ox-cart axles.
Tomorrow, more than 30 years since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, the man who ran Tuol Sleng prison, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, will be sentenced for the crimes committed here. As Pol Pot's executioner-in-chief, he will be the first Khmer Rouge figure to be held accountable by a court for the crimes of the ultra-communist regime which killed an estimated 1.7 million people, a quarter of Cambodia's population, between 1975 and 1979.
Duch, 67, has confessed to his crimes, telling the court last year: "I am solely and individually responsible for the loss of at least 12,380 lives." There seems little doubt in Cambodia that he will be sentenced to life in prison, the heaviest penalty the court can impose.
His sentencing is of enormous interest across the country. More than 30,000 Cambodians attended the purpose-built international court over the course of Duch's nine-month trial. His sentence will be broadcast on live television.
"I want the court to give Duch a life in prison," Mey, a former mechanic, says through an interpreter. "He must never be allowed out, so that the younger generation cannot follow suit. It cannot happen again." He stops now at the tiny cell, barely 3ft by 5ft, which was his for nearly a year. He was shackled by his ankles, taken out only to be interrogated, tortured or put to work. Mey is one of only 12 people known to have walked out of Tuol Sleng.
He was saved by his ability to repair sewing machines; it kept him alive long enough for Vietnamese troops to storm the Cambodian capital, ending four years of bloodstained Khmer Rouge rule. "I was not going to be saved, I was only lucky. I was waiting for my day. I knew that I would have to do my work, and then I would be killed."
The Khmer Rouge tried to turn Cambodia into a classless society by forcing the urban population to work the land in agrarian communes. It targeted "subversives" who included professionals and intellectuals, the educated, ethnic minorities and town dwellers. Thousands died of starvation and disease.
Mey recounts the tortures used to extract false confessions from prisoners and force them into implicating others as CIA spies. He was beaten with bamboo rods, forced to eat faeces, given electric shocks to his ears, and had his toenails ripped out with pliers. Others were waterboarded, hung upside down, and had their hands crushed in clamps. Children were thrown from third-storey balconies to their deaths. Prisoners were presumed guilty, effectively already dead, Duch has said.
Despite Duch's courtroom confessions and his pleas that he be allowed to apologise in person to his victims' families, Mey cannot forgive him. He is angered by Duch's lack of remorse. "When he went into the dock, he only paid respect to the judges, he did not pay respect to the victims, [he did] not acknowledge [us]. It shows his cruelty still exists."
In court, Duch, now an old man, has been calm and polite, but his evidence has been littered with casual references to smashing people considered enemies of the state. The former high-school maths teacher said he was ordered to kill prisoners at Tuol Sleng against his wishes, and obeyed out of fear that he would be killed if he refused. But he did not directly implicate those who will follow him in court. "I cannot forgive him, because what he testified was not true," Mey, who gave evidence in court against his former jailer, says. "He only blamed those who already died, he did not testify against those still alive."
Beyond Duch's sentence, the future of the internationally sponsored Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia – the Khmer Rouge tribunal – and, in particular, who comes next before it, is a sensitive issue for the country.
The next case will try, simultaneously, the four most senior Khmer Rouge cadres still alive. Nuon Chea, Brother Number Two, was the Khmer Rouge's second-in-command and chief ideologue. Ieng Sary was foreign minister and his wife, Ieng Thirith, minister for social affairs. Khieu Samphan was the titular head of state.
But the defendants are old – the youngest is 78 – and some are seriously ill. It will be the middle of next year before their trial can start, and it is unlikely to end until 2014 or 2015, says the UN. "There is a high likelihood that one or more of the charged persons will be unfit to plead or will die before the conclusion of their trial," the court's international co-prosecutor, William Smith, has said. The prime minister, Hun Sen, himself a former low-level Khmer Rouge cadre, is critical of the court. He has said further investigations could lead to a civil war. "If war breaks out again and kills 20,000 or 30,000 people, who will be responsible?"
Standing at Tuol Sleng's barbed-wire gates, Mey remembers the Khmer Rouge's final cruelty, inflicted during the regime's last days. Marched from the prison by his jailers, Mey, by sheer chance, came across his wife and the young son he had never met, born just weeks after he was sent to prison.
His family was marched north at gunpoint for two days. Then, without warning, they were woken at midnight and ordered to run into a rice field. "They kill. As we ran we were sprayed with bullets. My wife fell, she screamed to me, 'you have to escape'.
I looked back to see another friend shot and fall to the ground. My wife was already dead. My son was crying for a moment, then he was shot too. I escaped into the forest."
Thirty years on, Mey is still haunted by that night. "When I sleep I still see their faces. Every day I think of them. What was their crime? My wife and son were innocent."
Child sex tourist [in Cambodia] was a 'customer' (sic!), defence argues
Kenneth Klassen tries to hide his face as he arrives at B.C. Supreme Court for the second day of a sentencing hearing related to child-sex tourism in Vancouver, B.C., on Friday, July 23, 2010. (Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)Friday Jul. 23, 2010
The Canadian Press
A Canadian man who admitted having sex with young girls in Colombia and Cambodia was a "customer" of willing participants and not an abuser, says his defence lawyer.
Kenneth Klassen pleaded guilty earlier this year to 14 counts of having sex with underage girls and one count of importing child pornography.
At his sentencing hearing Friday, the 59-year-old Burnaby man's lawyers said the crimes were "consensual" and his prison time should reflect that.
Lawyer Len Doust suggested a five- to six-year term. Prosecutor Brendan McCabe previously asked the court for a 12-year term.
"It would be an error in principle ... to find that (Klassen) is somehow deserving of a more severe sentence because of what is characterized as the abject poverty in some other country or the failure of some other location to provide for its citizens," his other lawyer, Ian Donaldson, told a B.C. Supreme Court judge.
It was wrong for Klassen to have sex with girls the Crown says were as young as eight, Donaldson said, but that shouldn't be a factor in his "moral blame-worthiness."
"If (the girls) had ever said 'No,' he would have stopped," Donaldson said.
Court has heard witness statements from several children saying they were given gifts and cash to buy things like new clothes or soap for their family.
McCabe said Friday that while he can't prove the girls were not sex workers, he believes they were just "inexperienced" children. Video footage shown only to the judge make it "abundantly clear" some of the girls were much younger than age 14, he said.
Klassen's lawyers said he concedes the girls were under age 14, but not that they were as young as eight.
Donaldson told the judge his client will get a "substantial sentence ... no doubt," but he shouldn't get a longer sentence because of the aggravating factors raised by the Crown.
In asking for a more lenient sentence, he said Klassen is willing to attend all rehabilitation programs offered in prison and had no prior criminal record. Klassen hasn't offended in the nearly six years he's been in Canada on bail, either, Donaldson said.
Doust said the offences didn't occur in Canada but in a country where Klassen lived for two decades -- Columbia -- and where sex laws aren't as rigorously enforced, making the acts "quasi-acceptable" in his mind.
"By entering the plea of guilty, this man has publicly acknowledged that he did what he's accused of doing, that he's responsible for it, that he understands and he accepts that his conduct was criminal and that it was morally wrong," Doust said.
And while Donaldson raised no issue with Klassen providing a mandatory DNA sample or having a weapons prohibition, he asked the judge not to impose a lifetime ban on him attending playgrounds or community centres. Donaldson said Klassen has children himself and may eventually have grandchildren.
"He sees what he did was wrong, he sees how to avoid doing that," Donaldson said.
Klassen was arrested in 2004 after he was caught trying to ship homemade DVDs back to Canada with images showing him having sex with prepubescent girls.
The father of three pleaded guilty to the 15 charges in May after a failed constitutional challenge to Canada's child-sex tourism law.
A judge is expected to sentence Klassen on Wednesday.
Kenneth Klassen pleaded guilty earlier this year to 14 counts of having sex with underage girls and one count of importing child pornography.
At his sentencing hearing Friday, the 59-year-old Burnaby man's lawyers said the crimes were "consensual" and his prison time should reflect that.
Lawyer Len Doust suggested a five- to six-year term. Prosecutor Brendan McCabe previously asked the court for a 12-year term.
"It would be an error in principle ... to find that (Klassen) is somehow deserving of a more severe sentence because of what is characterized as the abject poverty in some other country or the failure of some other location to provide for its citizens," his other lawyer, Ian Donaldson, told a B.C. Supreme Court judge.
It was wrong for Klassen to have sex with girls the Crown says were as young as eight, Donaldson said, but that shouldn't be a factor in his "moral blame-worthiness."
"If (the girls) had ever said 'No,' he would have stopped," Donaldson said.
Court has heard witness statements from several children saying they were given gifts and cash to buy things like new clothes or soap for their family.
McCabe said Friday that while he can't prove the girls were not sex workers, he believes they were just "inexperienced" children. Video footage shown only to the judge make it "abundantly clear" some of the girls were much younger than age 14, he said.
Klassen's lawyers said he concedes the girls were under age 14, but not that they were as young as eight.
Donaldson told the judge his client will get a "substantial sentence ... no doubt," but he shouldn't get a longer sentence because of the aggravating factors raised by the Crown.
In asking for a more lenient sentence, he said Klassen is willing to attend all rehabilitation programs offered in prison and had no prior criminal record. Klassen hasn't offended in the nearly six years he's been in Canada on bail, either, Donaldson said.
Doust said the offences didn't occur in Canada but in a country where Klassen lived for two decades -- Columbia -- and where sex laws aren't as rigorously enforced, making the acts "quasi-acceptable" in his mind.
"By entering the plea of guilty, this man has publicly acknowledged that he did what he's accused of doing, that he's responsible for it, that he understands and he accepts that his conduct was criminal and that it was morally wrong," Doust said.
And while Donaldson raised no issue with Klassen providing a mandatory DNA sample or having a weapons prohibition, he asked the judge not to impose a lifetime ban on him attending playgrounds or community centres. Donaldson said Klassen has children himself and may eventually have grandchildren.
"He sees what he did was wrong, he sees how to avoid doing that," Donaldson said.
Klassen was arrested in 2004 after he was caught trying to ship homemade DVDs back to Canada with images showing him having sex with prepubescent girls.
The father of three pleaded guilty to the 15 charges in May after a failed constitutional challenge to Canada's child-sex tourism law.
A judge is expected to sentence Klassen on Wednesday.
Peeping-Tom [Wat Srah Chork] Pagoda Reopens After Scandal
Neth Khai in court (Photo: DAP)Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 23 July 2010
“All of Cambodian Buddhists should bury what happened at Sras Chak pagoda, and they need to think about Buddhism.”A pagoda that was at the center of a peeping-tom scandal has reopened in Phnom Penh, but it has seen few worshippers.
Sras Chak pagoda, where a monk allegedly convinced women they could be blessed by showering there and then secretly videotaped them, will now have to work to recover its reputation.
The video images have spread throughout Cambodia, passed phone to phone via Bluetooth technology or USB drives, despite a national call from the government to cease their disbursement.
Now defrocked, Net Khai has been charged with shooting video of more than 100 women since 2008. He is also charged with distributing pornography, a crime under the anti-trafficking law. He faces up to 15 years in prison.
The former head of the pagoda, Meas Kong, stepped down as a result of the scandal. The new chief monk, Chhoeng Bunchhea, told VOA Khmer he was preparing internal regulations and rules of Buddhism to restore the reputation of the pagoda.
“Monks are not allowed to bless in hidden rooms,” he said. “We allow the monks to bless people in public spaces.”
He appealed to Cambodians to stop the spread of the footage and destroy copies as an act of good merit.
“All of Cambodian Buddhists should bury what happened at Sras Chak pagoda, and they need to think about Buddhism,” he said.
The pagoda, which is home to 55 monks and 108 students, is now quieter than before and still controlled by investigating police.
The pagoda had previously seen up to 30 or 40 visitors per day, but now very few visit, according to a layman at the pagoda who asked not to be named. The shower room where victims were videotaped has now been destroyed, he said.
“I didn't think Net Khai could commit this video shooting, because he was a gentle man and talked little with ordinary people,” said a monk living near the suspect's quarters.
Chea Vannath, the former head of the Center for Social Development, said the scandal will hurt the reputation of monks as well as the victims.
Police are now investigating whether more suspects were involved in the video shooting.
