[NYTr] Justice at last for 'Comrade Duch' of the Khmer Rouge

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[Note that the Independent's  "Troubled Hitory" begins only in 1975--
the year the losing US was finally ejected from Vietnam and well AFTER
the US began interfering in Cambodia -- in the late 1960s by bombing
it secretly, illegally and unmercifully, and before that by years of CIA
covert operations against Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who in 1970
finally abdicated while on a trip to Paris and did not return to his
country, paving the way for his very repressive and pro-USA General Lon
Nol to take power. See a good brief summary of recent Cambodian history
here at Mekong.net beginning at
http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/banyan1.htm   -NY Transfer] 


sent by Simon McGuinness

"The effort to bring the Khmer Rouge to justice has been slow and
arduous and not helped by previous support for the regime from both the
US and China."


The Indepndent - 01 August 2007 
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2823091.ece

Justice at last for 'Comrade Duch' 

After 1.7 million deaths and nearly 30 years, the first of Pol Pot's
henchmen is charged with crimes against humanity 

By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent 

He was a maths teacher turned torturer, a one-time college principal who
oversaw the Khmer Rouge regime's interrogation and abuse of many
thousands of innocent people. When the regime was ousted from power,
having perpetrated one of the most brutal genocides in history, he
converted to Christianity and returned to teaching. For decades it
seemed Kaing Guek Eav would escape justice. 

But yesterday, in a historic move, the 64-year-old also known as
"Comrade Duch" was charged with crimes against humanity by a UN-backed
tribunal in Cambodia - the first of the "Killing Fields" regime's
leaders to be brought before a court.

The tribunal made up of international and Cambodian judges spent the day
interviewing Duch, who headed the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom
Penh, and then issued a statement that said: "The Co-investigating
Judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia have
charged Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, for crimes against humanity and have
placed him in provisional detention."

The decision to finally charge Duch is a vital milestone in the efforts
to bring the surviving Khmer Rouge leadership to justice. The reaction
in Cambodia that Duch had alone been finally brought before the judges
was telling. Chum Mey, one of just seven people from an estimated 20,000
known to have survived incarceration at the prison, said: "I want to
confront him to ask who gave him the orders to kill the Cambodian
people."

Mr Mey, 77, said he was delighted the judicial process finally appeared
to be working. But he said he also feared Duch may seek to shift
responsibility to other senior Khmer Rouge leaders, now dead. "I want to
hear how he will answer before the court, or if he will just blame
everything on the ghosts of Pol Pot and Ta Mok," he added.

The Khmer Rouge, headed by Pol Pot, who died almost a decade ago, swept
to power in 1975. Almost immediately, the leaders of the movement, whose
ideology mixed influences from Vietnam, China and France with a homespun
nationalism, embarked upon a radical restructuring of the nation that,
in effect, turned into genocide.

Precisely how many people were killed or else died from starvation or
disease is unknown. Estimates range from between one and three million,
with most respected organisations opting for a figure of somewhere
around 1.7 million. Given that Cambodia had a population of just seven
million when the Khmer Rouge seized power, the genocide was
proportionally one of the world's worst.

At the heart the regime of horror lay an industrial-scale killing
operation. Central to that was the concentration camp at Tuol Sleng, a
former school in the centre of the capital, controlled by the Khmer
Rouge's special branch known as the Santebal and overseen by Duch.

At Tuol Sleng, known by the regime as S-21, Duch supervised the
interrogations of thousands of people brought there. A list of rules for
prisoners, still attached to the wall of the prison and poorly
translated into English, warned them against committing a host of
offences that would result in punishment. The 10th and final rule read:
"If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either 10
lashes or five shocks of electric discharge."

Under Duch's supervision scrupulous records were kept, and everyone
brought in was photographed. Today, those black and white images stare
from the walls of Tuol Sleng - now a museum - a genuinely haunting
reminder of the brutality that took place.

In her book When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge,
Elizabeth Becker wrote: "Duch oversaw a precise department of death. His
guards dutifully photographed the prisoners upon arrival and
photographed them at or near death, whether their throats were slit,
their bodies otherwise mutilated, or so thin from torture and near
starvation that they were beyond recognition. The photographs were part
of the files to prove the enemies of the state had been killed. Duch
even set aside specific days for killing various types of prisoners: one
day the wives of 'enemies', another day the children, a different day,
factory workers."

Like many members of the Khmer Rouge, Duch had an academic background.
As a student, he had excelled at maths and, after becoming a teacher, he
rose to the position of deputy head of a regional college. He was jailed
for his left-leaning views and opposition to the corruption that existed
in Cambodia in the 1960s.

By 1970, he had fled to the jungles and joined the guerrilla movement,
running one of its prison camps for suspected enemies been before it had
seized power.

When the regime was forced from power, driven into the jungles of
north-western Cambodia by an invading army from [communist] Vietnam in
January 1979, Duch disappeared from public view, like most of the other
senior figures.

Using various adopted names, he lived in a Khmer Rouge stronghold until
1999 when he was discovered by journalists. By that time he had ended
his association with the regime, had been converted to Christianity by
missionaries and was working as a volunteer for the charities World
Vision and the American Refugee Committee.

When he was interviewed that year by journalists, Duch initially
admitted participating in the activities at Tuol Sleng, saying he was
deeply sorry for the killings and was willing to face an international
tribunal and provide evidence against others.

He subsequently told a government interrogator: "I was under other
people's command, and I would have died if I disobeyed it. I did it
without any pleasure." Duch is one of five former Khmer Rouge leaders
the tribunal's prosecutors have submitted to the investigating judges
for further investigation.

The names of the other four have not been released though there is
widespread belief in Cambodia they are Nuon Chea, one of the movement's
chief ideologues, Ieng Sary, the regime's former foreign minister, Khieu
Samphan, the former head of state and Meas Muth, a son-in-law of Pol
Pot's military chief Ta Mok, who died last year. They live openly in
Cambodia, though some are in declining health.

The effort to bring the Khmer Rouge to justice has been slow and arduous
and not helped by previous support for the regime from both the US and
China. A number of former regime officials are still members of the
current Cambodian government.

Professor David Chandler, a Cambodia expert from Monash University,
Australia, said last night that although Duch had been in custody since
1999 and people expected him to be charged, the decision to proceed
against him was very important. "This is a significant development and
he was an important figure. He headed that terrible prison," he said.

For a various reasons, Cambodia has been slow to confront its recent
history. It was not until this summer that a school textbook was
produced covering the 1975-79 rule of the Khmer Rouge.

The $56m (£28m) tribunal was first recommended by the UN all the way
back in 1999. It is expected that the judges will hear their first case
next year.

Troubled history  

1975 Cambodian leader Lon Nol is overthrown by the Khmer Rouge led by
Pol Pot.

1975-79 Year Zero is declared. Money, private property, education and
religion are abolished; 1.7 million people die in the Killing Fields (21
per cent of the people).

1980 Vietnam takes Phnom Penh and instals new government. Pol Pot and
Khmer Rouge fighters flee.

1985 Hun Sen becomes prime minister.

1991 King Sihanouk becomes head of state under UN-brokered deal after 13
years' exile.

1998 Pol Pot dies in his jungle hideout.

2004 Sihanouk abdicates. Parliament ratifies plan for tribunal to try
Khmer Rouge leaders.

2007 Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, becomes the first surviving Khmer
Rouge leader to be charged.