Khmer Rouge Turned Cambodian Family Members Against One Another

June 28, 2011
Daniel Schearf, VOA | Kampong Chhang, Cambodia

Three decades since the Khmer Rouge decimated Cambodia, killing up to a quarter of the population in pursuit of a communist utopia, the devastation to families is still being felt. As the four most senior surviving Khmer Rouge leaders go on trial in Phnom Penh, thousands of lower-level Khmer Rouge responsible for atrocities will never see justice. Sometimes the victims and the accused are closer than they want to be.

Kraing Leav village is a typical rural Cambodian community just a couple of hours drive from Phnom Penh.

Everyone is somebody’s friend, neighbor, or relative.

But during the Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s, fear descended on the village as people were accused of being counter-revolutionaries and began disappearing.

Seventy-one-year-old Som Chhorm denies allegations that he was a low-level Khmer Rouge official responsible for atrocities in the 1970s.(VOA - D. Schearf)

Seventy-one-year-old Som Chhorm says he was forced to join the Khmer Rouge but, like many cadres, he claims that he never held any rank or committed any atrocities. He says his job was to take care of cows. "I think now we regard the past as the past. We should consider the current government and try to forget our bitter past. We should try to rebuild our society," he said.

But just down the road from Som Chhorm’s house, the past is not so easily forgotten for Pol Yum.

The Khmer Rouge killed so many of her relatives that she quickly loses count.

One man who she holds responsible is Som Chhorm, who she says never herded cows and was actually the head of the local communist cooperative, a low-ranking Khmer Rouge. He is also her cousin. "He lived with my parents for a few years when he was attending primary school. But, I do not understand why he did bad things. He was an educated man. I still do not understand," he said.

Pol Yum, who accuses her cousin Som Chhorm of being head of the local Khmer Rouge cooperative, says she is still afraid of him (VOA - D. Schearf)

Pol Yum says she talks to her cousin but she has never confronted him because, to this day, she is still a little afraid of him.

She does not want him prosecuted like the four senior leaders on trial in Phnom Penh but says, for her own sense or relief, he should come clean and tell the truth.

Neighbor Pol Sarath, confirms that Som Chhom is lying and was in fact in charge of the collective.

Like Pol Yum, she is also his relative, a distant cousin.

She, however, refuses to talk to him and says he should be brought to trial. “His punishment should be decided according to the law," she said.

Som Chhorm insists he is innocent and says the Khmer Rouge, who tortured members of his family and probably killed them, tried to force him to be a leader but he refused. “When the Khmer Rouge came they accused me of being a civil servant for the previous government or a secret agent working with the United States Central Intelligence Agency. But, after the Khmer Rouge dissolved I was accused of being Khmer Rouge because I have a big house like this as you can see. So now I am accused of colluding with the Khmer Rouge," he said.

Som Chhorm says he survived the Khmer Rouge by convincing them he was more useful alive than dead.

Pol Yum says she sometimes cuts and sews when she is feeling sad about the past and what happened to her cousin.

Although they live in the same village, and just a short walk from each other, their family remains divided by a past that continues to haunt them.

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In Hearing, Ieng Sary Defense Seeks His Release

Former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary (2nd row from front, L) and former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith (2nd row from front, 2nd R) sit at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on the outskirts of Phnom Penh June 27, 2011. (Photo: Reuters)

Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Reporters, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Ta Mok and Nuon Chea should be punished heavily, because they ordered people killed.”

Defense lawyers for Ieng Sary, the former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, said Tuesday he should be released from the UN-backed tribunal, claiming he was already tried for genocide under the Vietnamese occupation when the movement was ousted in 1979 and was protected by an amnesty deal years later.

In the second day of a preliminary hearing that marks the opening of a landmark trial of four former Khmer Rouge leaders, defense told the court its attempt to try Ieng Sary amounted to double jeopardy. Ieng Sary was tried in absentia at the Vietnamese court and sentenced to death for genocide, in what most legal experts consider an illegitimate trial.

Ieng Sary went on to help lead the Khmer Rouge in a guerrilla insurgency that lasted nearly two decades. He defected with 20,000 soldiers in 1996, under a broad government amnesty. Legal experts say the current tribunal is unlikely to accept the defense arguments, given the wide array of serious crimes he is now facing.

Ieng Sary is charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and other crimes related to the Khmer Rouge leadership, under which up to 1.7 million Cambodians died. He has denied those charges, as have defendants Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith.

In interviews with VOA Khmer, former Khmer Rouge cadre who were visiting the court Monday said they want their former leaders to be freed or have reduced sentences, in part due to their old age.

Khim Kheng, 53, a former cook and cleaner at the foreign affairs ministry, led by suspect Ieng Sary, said she only saw him commit good acts.

“He told us to save food in order to help poor people in rural areas,” she said. “About torturing his own people, I never saw that.”

In meetings held at the ministry, Ieng Sary discussed poverty reduction and development, she said. He never discussed a policy of killing, and when the Khmer Rouge was ousted, all of the officials from the ministry were still alive.

Um Ros, 82, a former Khmer Rouge soldier in the Southeastern Zone, said soldiers there did not have a policy of killing but built boats for people to use for fishing. The killing was the work of soldiers in the Southwest Zone, led by “The Butcher” Ta Mok, he said.

“My first request is that Duch and Khieu Samphan be freed, because the two of them were used by the top leaders,” he said. “Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Ta Mok and Nuon Chea should be punished heavily, because they ordered people killed.”

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Dutch lawyers in Cambodia mega-trial

28 June 2011
By Johan van der Tol
Radio Netherland Worldwide

Two Dutch lawyers are involved in the historic genocide trial which started in Cambodia this week. It centres around four leaders of the Khmer Rouge, the Communist movement which instigated a reign of terror in the latter half of the 1970s. The Dutch lawyers, together with a Cambodian colleague, are defending the regime's deputy leader, Nuon Chea, also known as Brother Number 2. They say obstruction by the Cambodian authorities has been their biggest problem.

Victor Koppe and Michiel Pestman have been involved in a variety of international tribunals. But, Koppe says, this one is unique:

"It has been called the biggest trial since Nuremberg. It's also the first time a Maoist or Communist regime has been put on trial. These two factors make it different from every other trial so far. It's an historic trial and that makes it extremely interesting."

Very worrying

The lawyers and international organisations following the trial have already complained about corruption at the tribunal and interference by the Cambodian authorities putting pressure on the judicial process.

"The direct influence of the Cambodian government on the judges in particular is a major problem. In the months to come we shall see whether that will become problematic to the extent that a fair and honest trial is no longer possible. But there is undoubtedly a great deal of obstruction and that is a very worrying observation."

Walk out

So are foreign lawyers being used to give a dishonest trial an international stamp of approval? Koppe does not believe things are that bad.

"There is a cut-off level, though. And if we fall below that, our client will no longer be prepared to appear in court. He already walked out of the first procedural session because he will not be allowed to challenge a number of things in the new few days."

Between 1975 and 1979 an estimated two million Cambodians died under the Khmer Rouge regime. Many of them died as a result of exhaustion, physical abuse and executions in the 'Killing Fields', rural locations where the urban populations were deported by their Maoist leaders. The charges ranged against Nuon Chea include genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and murder.

Vietnam & US

So what arguments can a defence lawyer bring to bear? Koppe is not prepared to go into detail but he does point out that a great deal remains to be said about the time in which the Khmer Rouge came to power and gained control over the country.

"We will attempt to focus on the factors which led him to take decisions and how those decisions were taken. These include the role of neighbouring Vietnam and the consequences of the US bombing campaigns of 1975. Those are just a couple of the many factors our client would like to put before the court."

The trial is expected to last two years. The two Dutch lawyers will spend approximately one year each in Cambodia.

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Cambodia: First hearing ex-Khmer Rouge leaders' trial

A UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia is holding its first hearing in the trial of four former top Khmer Rouge leaders.

The defendants include the "number two" in Pol Pot's regime, Nuon Chea. They face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity over the deaths of up to two million Cambodians in 1975-79.

They all deny the accusations, and the trial is likely to last for years.

Last July, former Khmer Rouge member Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, was jailed for 35 years.

But because of time already served and compensation for a period of illegal detention, Duch - the former head of a notorious prison where some 15,000 died - will be free in 19 years.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Maoist Khmer Rouge regime was ousted from power by Vietnamese forces in 1979.

'Second Nuremberg'

The four defendants appeared at the initial hearing at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh on Monday morning.

Besides Nuon Chea, they include former head of state Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister and international face of the regime Ieng Sary, and his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs.

The four showed no emotion as opening statements were read out before the court and a packed gallery, in proceedings screened on national television.

Moments later, Nuon Chea - who was dressed in a ski hat and sweatshirt - complained he was not well and felt cold and left the courtroom.

"I'm ready to come back when the court discusses my requests," he said.

The hearing will run for a maximum of four days, and no evidence will be given. Instead, the hearing is expected to focus on witness and expert lists and preliminary legal objections.

The trial proper is expected to open later this year, possibly in September.

"There hasn't been a case as large and complex as this since Nuremberg," international co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley told the AFP news agency in a recent interview, referring to the historic Nazi trials after World War II.

The head of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights said the start of the second case was a "cathartic moment".

The crimes "remain ingrained in Cambodia's collective psyche. I hope that this trial... provides all victims with some sense of justice, however delayed that justice may be", Ou Virak said in a statement.

Theary Seng, who lost both her parents to the Khmer Rouge, told the BBC: "This is the heart of the matter - this is the case that we have been anticipating for many years, since the operation of the court in 2006.

"It will allow a lot of information to surface which will help to chip away at the repeatedly-asked questions of why did it happen?"

Theary Seng is one of almost 4,000 civil parties to the case - victims who will have a voice in court alongside the prosecution and defence.

Health concerns

At least one of the defendants - Ieng Sary - is expected to argue that he should not be on trial at all, the BBC's Guy De Launey in Phnom Penh says.

The former foreign minister received a royal pardon 15 years ago as part of the deal which produced the final surrender of the Khmer Rouge.

The defendants are all in or near their 80s and some have been in bad health, so there is a real danger that not all of them may live to see the end of the trial, our correspondent adds.

The suspects have been kept in detention since their arrests in 2007.

Parts of court proceedings will be broadcast on TV, but hundreds of people from all over Cambodia are still expected to travel to the court to see the accused.

The current Cambodian government has repeatedly opposed efforts to widen the tribunal's inquiries, and insisted that there should be no further trials after that of the four leaders.

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Duch: It wasn’t me

Photo by: Reuters

Former S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, sits in the courtroom at the Khmer Rouge tribunal on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in July 2010.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/

via CAAI

Thursday, 31 March 2011 15:03James O’Toole and Cheang Sokha

Kaing Guek Eav struck a defiant tone yesterday in his final appearance before the Khmer Rouge tribunal, denying responsibility for his leadership of S-21 prison and asking the court to release him “in order to seek justice and truth for the Cambodian people”.

Speaking at the end of three days of appeal hearings before the tribunal’s Supreme Court Chamber, the man better known as Duch offered only a token expression of apology over the course of a 25-minute address in which he asserted that he falls outside the court’s mandate to try “senior leaders” and those “most responsible” for crimes committed under Democratic Kampuchea.

The argument represents a dramatic break from the approach taken by Duch and his defence over six months of trial hearings in 2009, during which he accepted qualified responsibility and essentially pleaded guilty. All this changed when he challenged the court’s jurisdiction and asked for an acquittal during closing arguments in November of that year, a strategy the defence has carried forward in its appeal.

Donning reading glasses and reading from a legal pad on which he composed his remarks over the course of yesterday’s hearing, Duch told the court that he had been forced to adhere to the line of a “criminal party”.

“The senior leaders, the most responsible persons, were others, not me,” he said. “According to the notion of senior leaders and most responsible persons, we refer to those who had the authority to design the [party] line and have it implemented. It wasn’t me.”

The remarks echoed claims made repeatedly this week by defence lawyers Kar Savuth and Kang Ritheary, who said Duch was no different from dozens of other KR-era prison chiefs throughout the country, all of the rest of whom have escaped prosecution. Duch said S-21 was “like the other torture centres where torture was employed”, claiming he was not permitted to make decisions on the “smashing” of detainees.

“Whatever you were ordered to do, you had to do it, otherwise you would end up being smashed,” he said. “I survived the regime because I respectfully and strictly followed the orders.”

Duch’s address came at the end of a day devoted to appeals of decisions on reparations and civil party admissibility in the original judgment, handed down last July. In that judgment, Duch was found guilty of crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Prosecutors have accused Duch of lacking remorse for his crimes and have called in their own appeal for him to have his sentence increased to 45 years, commuted from a life sentence only because of his excessive pre-trial detention.

Co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley said yesterday that Duch’s cold address had “underscore[d] all of the arguments that we made about sentencing”. Prominent civil party Bou Meng, one of the few living survivors of S-21, said he too was unmoved by Duch’s plea for acquittal.

“Whether he received orders from his superiors or he did it by himself, he has to be punished,” Bou Meng said.

Civil party lawyers argued yesterday that the reparations awards in the July judgment, which called for statements of apology made by Duch at trial to be collected and published and for the names of admitted civil parties to be printed in the verdict, were insufficient.

“The victims feel that such apologies are not genuine, and that when the apologies or names are published on the website, it’s not acceptable for the victims or the civil parties, who by no means have access to such materials,” civil party lawyer Kim Mengkhy said. “It is meaningless.”

Civil party lawyers have proposed ideas including the construction of a memorial stupa at S-21 and the recommendation that the government name a national commemoration day for victims, though the Trial Chamber found last year that these proposals were outside the scope of reparation options available to the court. In the aftermath of the judgment last year, the tribunal adopted rule changes that will allow judges to grant more expansive reparation awards in future cases.

An additional point of contention yesterday was the Trial Chamber’s decision to declare inadmissible the claims of 24 civil parties among the 90 who had been involved in court proceedings throughout the case. Civil party lawyer Hong Kim Suon said the tribunal had “outright misled” these people by not informing them that their claims could be rejected until the day of the verdict.

Kang Ritheary argued, however, that civil parties needed to present evidence to substantiate their claims.

“You cannot just make a plain statement and then it becomes evidence,” he said.

Duch himself mentioned the victims only briefly yesterday, allowing that he did maintain responsibility for “suffering at S-21 and for psychological damage for the victims throughout the country”. In closing his remarks, however, he returned to the issue of jurisdiction and his own limited culpability.

“I would urge your honours to decide and consider, on the issue of personal jurisdiction, that I do not fall within the jurisdiction [of the tribunal]”, he said. “This is the principle you should abide by in order to seek justice and truth for the Cambodian people, as well as for the former Khmer Rouge soldiers and cadres, especially the middle level, who do not fall within the jurisdiction of this tribunal.”

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Khmer Rouge Tribunal indictment after 31 years

This combination shows file photos of four top surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime. From left to right: Nuon Chea, 84, the group's ideologist; former head of state and public face of the regime, Khieu Samphan, 79; former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary; and his wife Ieng Thirith, ex-minister for social affairs, both in their 80s. Photo: AP

Phnom Penh, September 18, 2010
Parvathi Menon
The Hindu

The indictment pronounced by the Co-Investigation judges of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal against former Khmer Rouge leaders comes 31 years after the fall of the regime, and 12 years after its military and political structures were finally dismantled

The indictment pronounced by the Co-Investigation judges of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal against former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, Foreign Minister leng Sary, Social Action minister Ieng Thirith (wife of Ieng Sary and sister-in-law of Pol Pot), and Nuon Chea (known as Brother No. 2 in the Khmer Rouge hierarchy) comes 31 years after the fall of the regime, and 12 years after its military and political structures were finally dismantled. Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, the notorious head of the S-21 prison was tried and convicted separately by the Tribunal on 26 July 2010.

Their crimes include extermination, murder, enslavement, deportation (of Vietnamese people), imprisonment, torture and persecution on political, racial and religious grounds, rape, and other inhumane acts. According to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) between 1.7 and 2.2 million people died under the Khmer Rouge regime, and around 800,000 of these were violent deaths.

It is a phase of Cambodian history that has passed an entire generation of young Cambodians by. They know of it only through their parents, and memorials like the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh where the chilling history of that period is brought to life. The innocuous school building in which classrooms became torture chambers, and where 17,000 Cambodians were killed, is today a place where that past is relived.

“There are mixed feeling towards this trial,” said a judge from the Asian region who is on the Supreme Court Chamber of the Tribunal, known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea. “Some people want justice, others do not want to rekindle the past. The procedures followed by the Tribunal is based on the French legal system which makes it very slow, and will prosecute only the “most guilty”.”

Unforgettable mental trauma

Kay Kimsong, Editor-in-Chief of the Phnom Penh Post dismisses the view that time has erased collective memory. “There is a great deal of public and media interest in the cases,” he said. “Justice may be delayed but this trial is very important for the Cambodian people. Many young people cannot believe what their parents tell them, but here is documentation and evidence, here is Duch confessing to his crimes. My parents and everyone in their generation lost one or more family members, everyone suffered acute mental trauma. They can never forget.”

The ECCC was established in 2001 by a law passed by the Cambodian National Assembly. On Cambodia’s request, the United Nations agreed to participate, and the ECCC became fully functional in 2007. The five-tier tribunal has both national and international prosecutors and judges.

The ECCC is only prosecuting the top leaders of the Khmer Rouge, those who planned and gave orders and who are guilty of the most serious crimes. Of this group, Pol Pot and Ta Mok are dead, and the rest are old and frail.

The court’s second trial is likely to take place in the first half of next year, giving rise to fears that the accused may not survive that long. “Cambodians want the courts to move faster,” said Mr. Kimsong. “The prisoners have been getting excellent treatment and good medical care in custody. We want to hear them speak and defend themselves, we want to know what went on behind the scenes.”

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