Compilation of Statements of Apology Made by KAING Guek Eav alias Duch During the Proceedings By Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch 16 February 2012
I, personally, who was in charge S-21 as the director, was responsible for the criminal mechanism and I am determined to take legal and moral responsibility for all the crimes committed at S-21. And, secondly, I, Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch, was not in charge of all the security centres throughout the country, but I was a member of the Communist Party of Kampuchea and as such I still carry the moral weight of all the crimes perpetrated against the people and nation of Cambodia throughout that regime. I deserve whatever punishment the Cambodian people may mete out. When I am personally challenged before the victims, the many widows, the orphans - I accept that they condemn me. I bow before them so that they can see that I have acknowledged my crimes. It is unfortunate that some of the widows did not have the opportunity to come here...
Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch Sentenced to Life Imprisonment by the Supreme Court Chamber By ECCC 3 February 2012 The Supreme Court Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) today sentenced KAING Guek Eav alias Duch to life imprisonment, the maximum sentence available under the law, for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
Granting an appeal from the Co-Prosecutors, the Supreme Court Chamber quashed the 35 years sentence imposed by the Trial Chamber on 26 July 2010, and by supermajority also quashed the Trial Chamber’s decision to grant a remedy for the violation of KAING Guek Eavs’s rights occasioned by his illegal detention by the Cambodian Military Court between 10 May 1999 and 30 July 2007. The Supreme Court Chamber dismissed an appeal from KAING Guek Eav in which he alleged that he did not fall within the personal jurisdiction of the Court, holding that, whether an accused is a senior leader or one of those most responsible are exclusively policy decisions for which the Co-Investigating Judges and Co-Prosecutors are accountable. (Read More)
'Duch' Kaing Guek Eav, Khmer Rouge Jailer, Found Guilty Of
War Crimes by Robin McDowell, Associated Press 26 July 2010
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- A U.N.-backed
tribunal sentenced the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer to 35 years for overseeing
the deaths of up to 16,000 people - the first verdict involving a senior member
of the "killing fields" regime that devastated a generation of
Cambodians.
Victims and their relatives burst
into tears after learning that Kaing Guek Eav - also known as Duch - will
actually serve only 19 years after being convicted of war crimes and crimes
against humanity after taking into account time already served and other
factors.
That means the 67-year-old could one
day walk free, a prospect that infuriated many who have been demanding justice
for victims of the regime that killed an estimated 1.7 million people between
1975-79. (Read more)
DC-CAM
OUTREACH: Forgiveness is not a requirement Karlia
Lykourgou, University of Leeds, United Kingdom/Santa Clara University (USA)
Summer Programme August 2009
If I had
any finite expectations on what I would encounter in the course of this
internship, they were mostly concerned with the experiences of the victims,
what I would hear and how I would respond to it. I read books. However there is
little you can do to prepare yourself for the heavy reality of sitting across
from someone and having them tell you that a Khmer Rouge Cadre bundled their
daughter into a rice sack and threw her into the river right before their eyes.
It is at
moments like this you realize that the gap between physical reality and
abstract theory is an infinite abyss. Belief systems and moral concepts that
have bolstered your existence up until now count for little when confronted by
the cold experience of a person for whom those support systems have been
challenged and found woefully inadequate.
On trips
out to the provinces with the Victim Participation Project of the Documentation
Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam), I have witnessed some interactions with Cambodian
communities in Kampong Chhnang and with Cham Muslim communities in Kampot; had
conversations with Cambodians kind enough to share their stories, and spent
some slack jawed afternoons at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of
Cambodia (ECCC) listening to witness testimony. Like the Bett of Cambodian
folklore whose mouth is too small to ever eat, the issue of forgiveness hovers
in the air after each terrible tale but remains largely unsatisfied. (Read more)
Khmer Rouge Tribunal - Duch's Hearing: A Turning Point for Cambodia
By Youk Chhang, Director of Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)
March 30, 2009
Phnom Penh- Today is a turning point for Cambodia. Today, after 30 years of waiting, Cambodians have taken a historical step. Through legal means, we are challenging impunity and moving ahead in our long journey for genocide justice. This journey is essential for us to come together as a nation. The Khmer Rouge trials are not only about justice; they are also about the Memory of Our Nation.
Duch's hearing today offers a chance for survivors and Cambodians born after the Khmer Rouge period to learn about that terrible period in our country's history from those who were directly involved in it. There may be no single answer to what really happened. However, we all have the obligation to participate in the search for truth. Together, we can build a better understanding of our common past (Read more).
Voice of Justice: 30 Years of Impunity Has to Stop Now with Greater Accountability at the KRT By Theary C. SENG
7 January 2009
Thirty years ago today, Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia liberated us from the bloody rule of the Khmer Rouge which took the lives of 2 million Cambodians, including those of my parents and other relatives. However, three decades later, Cambodians are still not free and continue to live under the long shadow of their atrocities: justice remains elusive for the millions of victims of the KR regime, as well as for the many ordinary Cambodians who suffer the injustices of the legal system in which impunity has become the norm.
Now, for the first time, our country confronts a truly unique opportunity, a chance to realize accountability for the crimes of the KR and to create a new precedent for our embryonic domestic criminal justice system through the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers or informally, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT) which currently is detaining 5 KR leaders The recent decision of this KRT's National Co-Prosecutor to oppose the International Co-Prosecutor's proposed investigations into 6 further suspects jeopardizes this opportunity and amounts to yet another betrayal of the Cambodian people by our country's political elite (Read more).
Politics, corruption and the ECCC Allen Myers Dear Editor, In his commentary on the disagreement between the co-prosecutors of the ECCC (Post, January 8), David Scheffer, a former US ambassador at large, asserts that it will be a case of "political intrigue or corruption swamp[ing] the court's work" if the Pre-Trial Chamber rules in favor of the Cambodian co-prosecutor. However, his own argument is open to charges of attempted political influence and corruption.
Politics is not the exclusive preserve of government officials and self-declared "politicians". The advocacy of particular principles or actions to be taken by governments or branches of government is political activity. Advocating that a court decide some issue on a basis other than the law and the evidence is to urge it to make a political, rather than a judicial, decision (Read more).
Japan pledges more money for Khmer Rouge tribunal
The Associated Press
January 11, 2009
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Japan will give an additional $21 million to the Cambodian genocide tribunal trying the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, officials said Sunday.
The U.N.-backed tribunal is tasked with seeking justice for the atrocities committed by the communists during their four years in power in the late 1970s. The Khmer Rouge's radical policies caused an estimated 1.7 million deaths.
Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone pledged the money Sunday during a two-day visit to Cambodia, said Ieng Sophallet, a spokesman for Prime Minister Hun Sen (Read more).
The Khmer Rouge Tribunal's Rebirth
By John A. Hall, Wall Street Journal Asia June 8, 2008
Eight months ago the United Nations-sponsored Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh didn't look like it was worth funding. The United Nations Development Program, which distributes donor funds to the Cambodian side of the tribunal, had tried and failed to suppress an embarrassing audit, first revealed on these pages. The Open Society Justice Initiative's Phnom Penh office brought to light various irregularities at the tribunal, including damning allegations that Cambodian tribunal staff and judges were required to kickback part of their salaries to keep their jobs.
Now the cash is running out. This week, the tribunal is expected to ask donor nations for around $100 million to fund its activities for the next three years. Given the advanced age and poor health of the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, the stakes are high. But the tribunal's progress over the past few months has been marked. It is now is worth funding. (Read More.)
Cambodia's genocide trial gets under way
By Ian MacKinnon, The Guardian
November 21, 2007
The UN-backed genocide tribunal in Cambodia staged its first historic hearing yesterday almost 30 years after the end of the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror in which 1.7 million people died, nearly a quarter of the population.
Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, the head of the brutal regime's notorious Toul Sleng torture centre, appeared before the panel of five judges on Phnom Penh's outskirts, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Hundreds of Cambodians - many of whom lost relatives to Pol Pot's henchmen - queued for hours in the tropical sun to gain entry to the special court's chamber to catch their first glimpse of Duch in the flesh, or on the live video feed to the main courtroom. The first hearing of the war crimes tribunal gives millions hope that the Khmer Rouge's senior leaders will finally face justice and provide answers as to why "Cambodians killed Cambodians" (Read more.)
Copyright 1986 Gregory Stanton
Why Did You Abandon Us? By Gregory H. Stanton, President, Genocide Watch 30 September 2007
"Why did you abandon us?" Those were the haunting words of a survivor of the Cambodian killing fields in 1980.
I was the Field Director in Cambodia for the American relief program that included Church World Service, CARE, Lutheran World Relief, and other organizations.The woman who asked me that question saw her husband executed and her children starve under the communist Khmer Rouge.
I had no good answer.I could have said, "Because we got tired of fighting and Congress cut off the funds.Our soldiers' lives were worth more than your lives."(Read full text of op-ed.)
Perfection is the Enemy of Justice: A Response to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch's Criticisms of the Agreement Between the Cambodian Government and U.N. to Establish the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, by Gregory H. Stanton
Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Alliance to End Genocide P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 USA. Phone: 1-202-643-1405 E-mail:communications@genocidewatch.org
