Names of the Suspects Get Leaked to the Press

Ieng Sary’s Son Believes The Government Will Give Justice To His Parents
Posted date : 24-07-2007 Source : Samleng Yuvachun Khmer By : Somnang Number of Visitors : 42
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Although the Khmer Rouge (KR) Tribunal’s Co-Prosecutors haven’t made public the names of any of the five suspects they included in the Introductory Submission, a senior KR Tribunal’s official spoke on the condition of anonymity that those people would include Kaing Khek Iev, known as Duch, chief of the notorious Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison, Nuon Chea, former president of the KR National Assembly, Ieng Sary, former KR deputy-prime minister for foreign affairs, Khieu Samphan, former head of state of the KR regime, and Ieng Thirith, former KR minister of social affairs and education. The hint has been dropped after the KR Tribunal’s Co-Prosecutors filed the Introductory Submission to the Co-Investigating Judges Wednesday last week.
Concerning this issue, Pailin’s Deputy Municipal Governor Ieng Vuth, Ieng Sary’s and Ieng Thirith’s son, is optimistic that the government would use the common sense to give justice to his parents. Ieng Vuth believes that the government has made a plan for this process already. “The government would be commonsensical in dealing with these things,” said Ieng Vuth.
It should be remembered that Ieng Sary was sentenced to death in absentia with Pol Pol, big brother 1 of the “Killing Fields” regime, in August 1979 by the Cambodian People’s Revolutionary Tribunal. Ieng Sary was later granted a royal amnesty in 1996 by Former King Norodom Sihanouk. However, whether to sentence Ieng Sary in early 2008 or not depends on the decision made by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) which acts in conform to law approved by the UN and the Cambodian government.
Sok An, deputy-prime minister and minister in charge of the Office of the Council of Ministers, once claimed that the government would not ask the king to give amnesty to the people who would be sentenced in the Khmer Rouge trials. New “article 40” of the agreement and law of the Khmer Rouge trials states that the amnesty which was given before the adoption of the law will be decided by the ECCC. The article states, “The Cambodian government cannot ask for amnesty or pardon on the people who would be investigated or prosecuted against crimes stated in this law.”
Nuon Chea, former president of the National Assembly and big brother 2 of the Killing Fields regime, once said that the KR Tribunal was a battle field between the patriots and invaders. Moreover, Nuon Chea has recently claimed that he is ready to face the trial since he might not die before the trial. He believes in Cambodian lawyer and is looking for a Cambodian defending lawyer to represent him.
Khieu Samphan has denied responsibility for the mass murder during the Killing Fields and he is now having a French lawyer named Jacques Vergés to defend him.
Both Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan have, so far, claimed that they are patriots and didn’t know about the mass murder of 1.7 million Cambodian people during their reign.
Whether or not they are patriots, we should wait and see the trials of the ECCC in early 2008, and the case that Pailin’s Deputy Municipal Governor Ieng Vuth believes that the government will give justice to his parents seems to reflect the political influence on the KR Tribunal.
Most Cambodian people seem to have no faith in the KR Tribunal in finding justice for victims although the tribunal’s officials have announced that the trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders will be held in early 2008. The tribunal has faced a number of obstacles and been criticized for corruption since it was established in 2006. For instance, the problem of foreign lawyer registration fee caused by the Cambodian Bar Association (CBA), led by Ky Tech, blocked the adoption of the internal rules of the KR Tribunal for months. Civil society’s officials and observers of the KR Tribunal have raised that at the moment the budgetary problem is becoming a concerned crisis to which the UN and the Cambodian government should pay careful attention; otherwise, the trials of former KR leaders would be stuck in the middle of its process when it runs out of money in April 2008. However, if the Cambodian government is willing to find justice for victims and end the impunity, budgets are not really a problem.
The general public wants the trials of the former KR leaders to be held as soon as possible to catch up with living former KR leaders who can explain the reason of the mass killings of 1.7 million people during the “3 years 8 months and 20 days” period. Former senior KR leaders including Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea have been ready to stand trials unhesitatingly. As a result, the Cambodian government and the UN shouldn’t allow any obstacle to obstruct the process of the trials of former KR Tribunal and especially, the budgetary problem should be overcome as soon as possible.
Informal Translation-Extracted from Samleng Yuvachun Khmer, Vol.14, #3094, Tuesday, July 24, 2007