Judges preparing for first trial on genocide in Cambodia

[Coventina]

Source: International Herald-Tribune

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian and international judges are making final preparations to begin the trial of the former commander of a Khmer Rouge torture center who is charged with crimes against humanity, a tribunal official said Thursday.

The trial of Kaing Guek Eav, 65, alias Duch, who headed the notorious S-21 prison and torture center, is scheduled for late September, said Helen Jarvis, a spokeswoman for the United Nations-assisted tribunal.

The trial is a key step in Cambodia's long wait for justice for atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge rule in the late 1970s. Some 1.7 million people perished.

"To have the director of that institution on trial for crimes committed will be of enormous importance in understanding the Democratic Kampuchea regime," Jarvis said, referring to the Khmer Rouge's official name at the time. The prison in Phnom Penh was the Khmer Rouge's largest torture facility, and has now become the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/31/asia/AS-Cambodia-Khmer-Rouge.php

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I was at Tuol Sleng earlier this year, I cannot even begin to describe the horror of that experience - and that was as a museum!

I will be following Duch's trial closely. I hope every one of those thugs lives to stand trial...

[struggle4progress]

1. Former Khmer Rouge foreign minister hospitalised in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary was rushed to hospital Friday after he discovered blood in his urine, said a spokesman for Cambodia's UN-backed genocide court.

Ieng Sary, 82, is one of five top regime cadres charged in connection with the Khmer Rouge's bloody rule over Cambodia from 1975-79, when up to two million people died from starvation, overwork or execution ...

The joint Cambodia-UN tribunal was established two years ago, after nearly a decade of haggling, to bring to justice those responsible for one of the 20th century's worst atrocities.

The four other defendants at the tribunal are mostly in their 70s and 80s, and worries for their health have also cast a cloud over the proceedings as critics worry they could die before trials are completed ...

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwJnR-0w6BkMMjG5hckBYpFjxacA

[marshall]

2. the Khmer Rouge were sick, sick, sick

I was in Cambodia last year and got just a small insight into the horrors inflicted on the country by Pol Pot and his cronies. I'm shocked that China hasn't had to answer more for their support for this insane regime.