ECCC Reparations

This blog is designed to serve as a repository of analyses, news reports and press releases related to the issue of RERAPATIONS within the framework of the Extraordinary Chambers in Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), a.k.a. the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

Friday, August 31, 2007

ECCC Press Release of 29 August, 2007

Press Release
On 23 August 2007 Mr Kar Savuth and Mr François Roux, co-lawyers for the Charged Person Mr Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch, lodged an appeal against the Order of Provisional Detention issued against the Charged Person by the Co-Investigating Judges on 31 July 2007. The case file has been sent to the Pre-Trial Chamber, which will deal with the matter expeditiously.
29 August 2007

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

ECCC Press Release: Notice of Appeal against Duch's Detention

Press Release

On 23 August 2007 Mr Kar Savuth and Mr François Roux, co-lawyers for the Charged Person Mr Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch, lodged a notice of appeal against the Order of Provisional Detention issued against Duch by the Co-Investigating Judges on 31 July 2007. The case file has been sent to the Pre-Trial Chamber, which will deal with the matter expeditiously.



The text of this announcement in the three official languages of the ECCC will follow.





Dr Helen Jarvis

Chief of Public Affairs

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

National Road 4, Chaom Chau, Dangkao

PO Box 71, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Mobile: +855-12-488134

Fax: +855-23-219841

Email: helen.jarvis@eccc.gov.kh

Website: www.eccc.gov.kh

Lawyers in Cambodia seek release of detained former Khmer Rouge prison chief

Lawyers in Cambodia seek release of detained former Khmer Rouge prison chief

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/29/apworld/20070829151702&sec=apworld

Wednesday August 29, 2007



PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP): Defense lawyers have mounted their first legal challenge against a ruling by the Cambodia genocide tribunal, arguing against the detention of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief, officials said Wednesday.

The lawyers launched a formal appeal with the tribunal's co-investigating judges against an order to keep Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known as Duch, behind bars ahead of his trial, said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

The tribunal's pretrial chamber will open a hearing soon on the request, which was filed last week, Reach Sambath said, but he declined to elaborate.

Duch, the former the head of the Khmer Rouge's S-21 prison and torture center, is the only suspect detained so far by the tribunal. He has been charged with crimes against humanity committed when the Khmer Rouge held power from 1975-79.

The communist group's radical policies caused the deaths of some 1.7 million people from starvation, diseases, overwork and execution.

Prosecutors have recommended four other suspects for trials, but they have not been named publicly and they remain free in Cambodia.

Duch is being represented by Kar Savuth, a Cambodian attorney, and Francois Roux, a human rights activist from France.

Kar Savuth confirmed that his team has appealed against Duch's detention but declined to discuss details, citing confidentiality rules of the tribunal.

The appeal is the first legal test for the U.N.-backed tribunal to demonstrate its fairness, said Sok Sam Oeun, director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, a nonprofit legal group providing legal aid to the poor.

He said that Duch's previous detention by the government without trial for more than eight years could be the legal basis used by the defense lawyers for their appeal.

"The fact known to us is that Duch had been held for several years already prior to his transfer to the tribunal. We will see if the tribunal comes up with appropriate reasoning in passing a decision'' on the appeal, Sok Sam Oeun said.

In their detention order late last month, the co-investigating judges denied the defense lawyers' request for Duch to be released.

They said they have no jurisdiction to determine the legality of Duch's previous detention. They also argued that his present detention by the tribunal will ensure his appearance at trial and protect him from any violent revenge for the crimes he is accused of.

Sok Sam Oeun predicted that, in light of the judges' argument, chances for the pretrial chamber to rule in favor of the defense lawyers are slim.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

UN envoys slam Cambodia over ECCC judge's transfer

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Two U.N. envoys accused the Cambodian government on Thursday of interfering with the judiciary by transferring a top judge from the Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal, which they said was a violation of the Constitution.

Yash Ghai, the U.N. secretary general's special representative for human rights in Cambodia, and Leandro Despouy, special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, made their criticism in a joint statement.

They said the government's move to appoint You Bun Leng, one of two investigating judges at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal, to head the Appeals Court is casting doubt on judicial independence in Cambodia.

Their criticism came amid mounting concern that You Bun Leng's transfer could also further delay efforts to convene the genocide trial. You Bun Leng has said he will not take up his new post right away to allow for a smooth transition.

The government has said that the new appointment is part of its agenda to reform the judiciary, and is separate from the tribunal.



The U.N. envoys agreed that reform is crucial for Cambodia.

"But it should not be undertaken at the expense of the essential protections ... that enable judges to administer, and be seen to administer, justice efficiently, impartially and fairly, free of political interference," they said.

They charged that the appointment violated the Cambodian Constitution, which states that all judicial appointments, transfers, promotions, suspensions or disciplinary actions are decided by the Supreme Council of Magistracy, the body that oversees conduct of judges.

But the council never met to decide on the appointment, which was approved instead by a royal decree. King Norodom Sihamoni signed the royal decree at the request of Prime Minister Hun Sen, the envoys said.

According to the U.N. officials, that meant that You Bun Leng's appointment "was done at the request of the executive branch of government in contravention of the separation of executive and judicial powers specified in the Constitution."

Chief government spokesman Khieu Kanharith could not be reached for comment.

The envoys' statement followed a recent appeal from the U.N. to the government to reconsider the judge's transfer, saying it could disrupt efforts to convene the long-awaited genocide trials.

After numerous delays, You Bun Leng and Marcel Lemonde, a U.N.-appointed judge, only recently began investigations of former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of crimes against humanity, genocide and other atrocities that resulted in the deaths of some 1.7 million people in the late 1970s.

The judges have so far indicted one of five suspects. Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, headed the former Khmer Rouge S-21 prison. The other four have not been publicly named and remain free in Cambodia.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The Question of Whether Reparations Efforts in Other Countries Can be of Guidance to ECCC

Editorial

Stan Starygin

Cambodia is by far not the first country where the issue of reparations for gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law has been contemplated. In fairly recent history measures have been considered (some of them implemented) to repair the wrongs done during World War II, the Crown's reparations to the Maori in New Zealand, government-instituted reparations in Malawi, ethnic Africans seeking reparations in the United States, the United Kingdom and multiple countries of Africa, Japanese Americans receiving reparations from the US government for War World II interment, efforts geared toward passing a bill authorizing compensation for torture in the United Kingdom (referred to below under 'REDRESS'). The list goes on.
The question here is whether the experience gained from the past or present reparations efforts is applicable to Cambodia's ECCC -- and if so, to what extent -- and whether there is still room to redefine the concept of reparations vis-vis the ECCC, or whether this door was permanently closed by the adoption of the Internal Rules (IRs) of the ECCC.

REDRESS: Torture Reparations Bill Advocacy Group in the UK

Following his release in 1984, Keith Carmichael, a torture survivor, consulted those with extensive experience in human rights, law and non-governmental organizations about how to go about seeking reparation for torture. He also met with over 90 other survivors many of whom, like him, wanted to seek redress but did not know how to go about it. While existing NGOs helped survivors in other ways - by campaigning for their release, providing safe havens and medical care - none assisted them to obtain reparation. While the right to reparation existed in law, the practical difficulties in obtaining reparation proved difficult to overcome.

Keith Carmichael developed the concept for REDRESS in consultation with four persons in particular: the late Peter Davies OBE, former Director of Anti-Slavery International, Dame Rosalyn Higgins QC, Leah Levin, former Director of Justice, and Professor David Weissbrodt of the University of Minnesota, who shared the same interest in seeking ways of obtaining reparation for victims of torture. In 1990, a concept paper for a new initiative, REDRESS - a programme to focus on the right of torture survivors to reparation and to assist them to seek a remedy - was circulated.

The idea was discussed further at the IV International Symposium on Torture and the Medical Profession held in October 1991 in Budapest, and again at the Symposium on Human Rights and Development in December 1991 in Manila. Among others, Eric Sottas, Director of OMCT/SOS-Torture, Professor Bent Sorensen, and Dr Inge Gnefke, participated in the discussion. The conclusion was that there was a need for such a specialised organisation and an action programme should be developed. Keith Carmichael established REDRESS which was registered as a charity in the UK in December 1992.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Victim Participation and Access to Justice Issues at the ECCC

Victim Participation and Access to Justice Issues at the ECCC

Editorial

Stan Starygin

From the very day when the location of the ECCC was switched from centrally located Chakhtomukh Theater to a thirty minute (in light traffic) ride from downtown Phnom Penh, it has been clear that access to the tribunal wouldn’t be the same. Being located right on the most popular congregation area on the Tonle Bassac River, Chakhtomukh Theater-based court would easily attract local and international visitors without making them go out of their way, as the theater is also conveniently located within a short ride from Phnom Penh’s major bus and taxi stations. Now that the ECCC is located this far from downtown Phnom Penh many Cambodians who I had asked whether they would visit the tribunal said ‘no’ because they “don’t have the time to travel this far” and that gasoline – which is a concern for many – “is too expensive” to be easily spent on a trip to the far-flung tribunal.

The issue of distance along with other recently reported hindrances pose a question of access to the tribunal’s justice. The Cambodian Daily (15 August 2007), for example, ran a story about a French Cambodian woman’s journey to the ECCC to explore ways of how she could participate as a victim and resulting in frustration and her return to France. She was quoted as saying that “it [the ECCC] is even more hectic than meeting with the King”.

An attempt was made by the ECCC Internal Rules to carve out a larger space for victim participation than the currently operating UN criminal tribunals have by creating a Victims Unit – which is currently being staffed – and of which close to zero information has been disseminated so far (cumulatively, I asked about 50 people of a fair cross-section of Prey Veng, Takeo, Kompong Speu and Phnom Penh during July and early August whether they had ever heard of the ECCC’s Victims Unit to which none of the respondents gave a positive answer). Although there are other formidable issues that the Victims Unit is now facing (status within the ECCC, budget, staffing, etc), the largest of them seems to be the current fact that it hardly constitutes an effective vehicle for obtaining the remedies sought by the KR victims. Effectiveness of the ECCC Internal Rules’ framed remedy can only be achieved if a. the general population is aware of this remedy, b. the general population is aware of the various ways of obtaining this remedy.

It is hard to imagine why the relevant line of the ECCC budget and significant ECCC outreach-earmarked budgets of a number of civil society groups have, to this date, not been expended to address the issues of access to justice of the tribunal and disseminate the currently available information on victim participation in the proceedings before the ECCC.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

ECCC Victims Unit Home Page

http://www.eccc.gov.kh/english/victims_unit.aspx

Victim Participation and Access to Justice Issues at the ECCC

Editorial

Stan Starygin

From the very day when the location of the ECCC was switched from centrally located Chakhtomukh Theater to a thirty minute (in light traffic) ride from downtown Phnom Penh, it has been clear that access to the tribunal wouldn’t be the same. Being located right on the most popular congregation area on the Tonle Bassac River, Chakhtomukh Theater-based court would easily attract local and international visitors without making them go out of their way, as the theater is also conveniently located within a short ride from Phnom Penh’s major bus and taxi stations. Now that the ECCC is located this far from downtown Phnom Penh many Cambodians who I had asked whether they would visit the tribunal said ‘no’ because they “don’t have the time to travel this far” and that gasoline – which is a concern for many – “is too expensive” to be easily spent on a trip to the far-flung tribunal.

The issue of distance along with other recently reported hindrances pose a question of access to the tribunal’s justice. The Cambodian Daily (15 August 2007), for example, ran a story about a French Cambodian woman’s journey to the ECCC to explore ways of how she could participate as a victim and resulting in frustration and her return to France. She was quoted as saying that “it [the ECCC] is even more hectic than meeting with the King”.

An attempt was made by the ECCC Internal Rules to carve out a larger space for victim participation than the currently operating UN criminal tribunals have by creating a Victims Unit – which is currently being staffed – and of which close to zero information has been disseminated so far (cumulatively, I asked about 50 people of a fair cross-section of Prey Veng, Takeo, Kompong Speu and Phnom Penh during July and early August whether they had ever heard of the ECCC’s Victims Unit to which none of the respondents gave a positive answer). Although there are other formidable issues that the Victims Unit is now facing (status within the ECCC, budget, staffing, etc), the largest of them seems to be the current fact that it hardly constitutes an effective vehicle for obtaining the remedies sought by the KR victims. Effectiveness of the ECCC Internal Rules’ framed remedy can only be achieved if a. the general population is aware of this remedy, b. the general population is aware of the various ways of obtaining this remedy.

It is hard to imagine why the relevant line of the ECCC budget and significant ECCC outreach-earmarked budgets of a number of civil society groups have, to this date, not been expended to address the issues of access to justice of the tribunal and disseminate the currently available information on victim participation in the proceedings before the ECCC.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Who can file a case with the ECCC now that the Internal Rules have been adopted and what will the process look like?

Who can file a case with the ECCC now that the Internal Rules have been adopted and what will the process look like?

Analysis

Stan Starygin


Under the newly-minted Internal Rules (IRs) of the ECCC, a reparations case (legally known as “civil party action”), technically, can be filed by anyone. This right is significant requirement by a requirement that to show injury which was inflicted on the victim during the period from April 17, 1975 to January 7, 1979. The requisite injury can’t be of general nature, but must be “physical, material or psychological”, which is likely to be a challenge to prove for the prosecution and the victim’s lawyer now that 30 years have spanned since the alleged offenses were committed. With this in mind, a civil party case of this type will have to be built like a patchwork and will require gathering evidence from sources other than documentary evidence. This will require time and resources that will need to be pulled together by the victims. A number of things will make this process easier, less costly and more coordinated. For one, the prosecution had been building cases against suspects throughout the entire time of the negotiation of the IRs and by now is likely to enough material evidence to turn them over the Co-Investigating judges. The more work is being done by the prosecution, the less work there will be to do for victims’ lawyers. However, anything that seems too easy always has a catch. Here the catch is that the prosecution builds cases with the assistance from the Co-Investigating judges, which means that they, and not the victims, have the authority to decide what to charge the suspects with. It is possible to try to influence the prosecution’s decision about what the charges should be and who they can be filed against by filing complaints far in advance of the prosecution handing over the preliminary investigations to the Co-Investigating judges, but, again, the final decision about what to include and what to leave out will remain with the Co-Prosecutors. The fact that the ECCC Law – and generally the Cambodian Criminal Law – hinges the success of a victim’s case upon the success of the prosecution’s case to which it is linked. This means that if the prosecution’s case fails, the victim’s case will not survive either. By the same token, if the prosecution’s case fails and the prosecution chooses not to appeal, the victims can’t appeal either. If the prosecution’s case is successful or successful in part and unsuccessful in part, the trial judge will hand down a judgement that equally applies to the prosecution’s case and the victim’s case. In addition to this, substantively, victims will have to show that the injury they allege had been inflicted to them was a “direct consequence of the offense, personal and have actual come into being”. This is known as causality in legal practice. Lucky for the potential victims in this case the standard of causality here is lower than it would in some domestic legal systems and only requires that “direct consequence” be proved, rather than that coupled with “perpetrator’s intent”. This means that whether it may or may not have been the perpetrator’s intent to inflict injury upon the victim is irrelevant for as long as the injury directly resulted from the actions of the perpetrator, the victim was the one the injury was inflicted upon and it can be proven that the alleged injury was indeed inflicted. The good news for the potential victims/civil parties is that the IRs authorized the use of victims associations we can have one lawyer represent a fairly large (there’s no restriction as to the size of the group) group of victims in what is known as class action lawsuits. Victims associations must registered organizations, but don’t have to necessary be registered in Cambodia, which opens the door for Cambodians living elsewhere in the world to form these associations and, thus, be represented before the ECCC. The ultimate difficulty for potential civil parties remains the unfettered discretion of the Co-Prosecutors and the Co-Investigating judges in rendering a case inadmissible on reasonable grounds (“reasoned order” in the IRs) for which there’s only one instance of appeal. If the civil party’s claim gets past the Co-Prosecutors’ and Co-Investigation judges’ level, it can still be killed in the Chambers by the trial judge declaring it in admissible. Even the success of the prosecution’s case doesn’t automatically guarantee a success to all civil party claims attached to this case with the judges having the authority to rule on each civil claim individually, if deemed necessary. This may open a venue for a new hearing once the judgement in the prosecution’s case has been handed down and result in an extension of the legal process for the victims beyond the end of the prosecution’s case. In the case of the civil party is not satisfied with the decision of the Trial Chamber, appeal is likely to present another conundrum for the victims for several reasons. One is that the Trial Chamber may schedule a separate hearing for all civil party claims after it has issued the judgement in the prosecution’s case. Unless appeal is not allowed until all proceedings pertaining to a particular case are terminated in the Trial Chamber, the prosecution may go ahead with the appeal – which under these IRs is allowed within 30 days since the judgement – and the civil parties who have to hinge their claims to the prosecution’s appeal will have to scramble and play a catch-up with the prosecution while still having their claims adjudicated in the Trial Chamber. The victims’ lawyer doubtless will find themselves in a tight spot, if the termination rule is not cleared phrased and enforced at the end of the proceedings in the Trial Chamber and beginning of the appeal.

Mixed Reports About Interrogation Practices In S-21

Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, former chief of notorious Tuol Sleng prison or Bureau S-21, once told Nate Thayer, reporter for Far Eastern Economic Review, about the mysteries in Tuol Sleng prison which no one else knew besides few people in the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK).

Duch mentioned that Tuol Sleng prison was a secret center, and in order to keep the secret of this prison, even [Khmer Rouge] soldiers who were working in Toul Sleng were not allowed to travel freely. “Therefore, they were slightly different from the prisoners in term of freedom,” said Duch.

“I never saw the river side though I had been working in Phnom Penh for 3 years. Neither did the other soldiers,” Duch told Nate Thayer in 1999 before he was arrested by the government.

Cambodian history researchers said that the main policies of Tuol Sleng prison were to search for the network of the betrayers of the revolution. “The prisoners were not “destroyed” immediately, but were interrogated and tortured ruthlessly over a period of time,” they said.

“Generally, prisoners at Tuol Sleng prison put their hands together and begged for lives by crying and asking for help from their mother, father or even Angkar to save them,” said people who used to interrogate Tuol Sleng prisoners.

“The tool for torturing was nothing but sticks plucked from “Mean” or Guava trees. There were no prepared torturing tools, but there were electric wires kept for torturing with electric current,” they said.

However, the former interrogators claimed that only small sticks were used for torturing. “We dared not to use big sticks since we were afraid that they would die. If any prisoner died of torturing, we’d be punished.”

In Tuol sleng prison, there were between 14,000 and 20,000 prisoners, most of whom were Khmer Rouge soldiers and cadres who were accused of betraying the revolution and taken from all over the country. Among those prisoners, less than ten people were lucky enough to be able to survive.

Vann Nath, an artist, was left alive since Duch wanted him to paint the portrait of Brother number one Pol Pot. “When a prison guard arrived in front of my cell, he called out my name, and I raised my hand. He ordered another guard to take the chain of out me while other 24 prisoners were also freed for a moment since the 25 prisoners were chained together and I was at the base,” Vann Nath described.

Vann Nath said that prison guards had told him that anyone who was chained at the base would not be alive. However, since he was transported to Tuol Sleng prison, he was never maltreated. He once checked his document and saw that he had yet to be questioned. While he was thinking that sooner or later, he would be interrogated, Vietnamese troops arrived, so he was released. He said that during the torturing, prisoners’ backs were critically injured due to being beaten with sticks.

It is a great suffering hearing that no former Khmer Rouge leaders dared to take the responsibilities of the atrocities committed although there are enough evidence such as documents, witnesses, photos, and mass graves which can prove the existence of Tuol Sleng prison and Boeung Cheung Aek Killing Fields.

Former Khmer Rouge leaders have always denied that they knew about Tuol Sleng prison. When Pol Pot was still alive, he told Nate Thayer in 1997 that he was the one who had decided senior Khmer Rouge officials’ fates. However, Pol Pot denied the presence of Tuol Sleng prison [in his regime] and claimed that skulls at Boeung Cheung Aek Killing Fields were not Cambodians’.

The researchers pointed out that top Khmer Rouge leaders had experimented that the important factor which helped their movement to achieved many things and be victorious on April 17, 1975 was “confidentiality”.

Based on this motive, the Khmer Rouge still continued to lead the country in a shadowy and mysterious ways, though they had already controlled the whole country.

All the tragedies in CKP’s mysterious Tuol Sleng prison, which have been found related with Son Sen, who controlled and appointed Kaing Guek Eav, aka Duch, to direct this prison, were also known and ordered by Nuon Chea.

At present, former Tuol Sleng prison chief is being detained provisionally awaiting trials at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal for crimes against humanity.

Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, has selected two lawyers to defend him, Cambodian lawyer Kar Savuth and French lawyer Francois Roux. Roux said that he had already been sworn in as a part to start the legal procedure in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

“I am happy that I can participate in justice finding in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal,” said Francois Roux.

Nephew Refuses to Talk About Duch

Stoung-Kompong Thom: “No one in the village talks about Kieu or Duch,” said senior villagers who are living in Chi Youk, Kompong Chen Tboung, Stoung, where Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Comrade Duch, was born. However, the people there generally called him “Kieu”.

In an old-fashioned house with tile roof and cement wall where it has been believed to be the inheritance from Duch’s parents and to be Duch’s birthplace, a man didn’t allow us to take photographs of the house either from outside or inside and refused to tell his name too. “This is my house. I have no relation with Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, at all,” he said. The man refused completely to say anything [about Duch] and reacted strongly by saying that: “[I] don’t know. [I] don’t hear. [I] don’t care about Duch.” However, he finally said that his father was also killed by the Khmer Rouge in 1977.

Meanwhile, Keu Michael, 58, a villager who used to lived with Duch, said that he was 4-5 years old younger than Duch. When he was growing up, he always saw Duch go to study. Duch was an intelligent student who had good relation and morality with others. Duch later on passed an exam to be a teacher of Mathematics at Skun, Kompong Thom. Concerning the question that: “Could Duch have become a brutal prison’s chief from a “generous” teacher?”, Keu Michael answered it could have been and gave the reason that prior to 1970, Duch had been imprisoned. “Moreover, there were some kind of ideology and other reasons that we don’t know,” he added.

Duch, 62, has been charged of crimes against humanity by the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Though Duch only received orders to kill people in Tuol Sleng prison from top leaders, the well founded evidence suggests that Duch made false reports to the higher levels to purge prisoners.

Keu Michael said that as a teacher he could observe that less than ten percent of the students believed there was the ruthless Khmer Rouge regime although their teachers were trying to explain them. “Because it sounds too brutal,” he said. In Chi Youk, where Duch was born, the villagers do not usually talk about Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Kieu, commonly known as Duch, since Duch’s mother, siblings, nephews and nieces are still alive. So, if the villagers say that Duch was brutal and killed people, it could affect his family. Therefore, to avoid the discrimination, senior people in the village dare not to reveal Duch’s story to their children.

Keu Michael said that he supported and was happy with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal since he was also one of the millions of Cambodian victims. “During Pol Pot regime, I was imprisoned for one month without any reason,” he said, adding that he was satisfied with the indictment and [coming] trials of the Khmer Rouge leaders. “I don’t want to talk about Duch since I don’t want it to affect his family’s state of mind.” Keu Michael is a teacher of Mathematics in Rasmei Saophoan High School in Stoung and is living in Chi Youk, Duch’s birthplace. He used to be imprisoned in Stoung Security Center before he was fortunately released after one month.

Duch's Family During Democratic Kampuchea

Stoung-Kompong Thom: Ly Thong Huot, known as comrade Thoeun, Duch’s brother-in-law, was a former chief of Stoung’s security center during the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime. Thoeun’s wife, Kiang Kim Heang, was Kaing Guek Eav’s sister. Kaing Guek Eav’s letter from the Central Committee to the Stoung’s cadres could save the spouses’ lives in a “purge” when a cadre from South-West Zone replaced the cadre in North Zone.

"However, another letter from Kaing Guek Eav couldn’t save another brother-in-law named comrade Yorn since it was too late. Tou Kuntheng, whose hometown was with Duch’s and lived near Duch, said that Kaing Guek Eav’s father was named Kaing Yuki and his mother is named Meas Sieu. There were 5 children in his family, and there was only one boy, Kaing Guek Eav, the eldest. Following Kaing Guek Eav were Kaing Kim Hieb, whose husband was comrade Yorn and Kaing Kim Heang, whose husband was comrade Thoeun. Kaing Kim Hiet and Kaing Kim Hoeun came last in the family."

Tou Kuntheng, the present Kompong Thom’s Sombo’s governor, said that during the KR regime, Ly Thong Huot, known as comrade Thoeun, was the chief of Stoung’s security center. "However, he became the chief because of his own ability fighting to topple Lon Nol's regime—not because of Duch’s influence in the Central Committee. When South-West Zone's cadre was changed to control North Zone, Duch seemed to be aware of the circumstances, so sent a letter to Stoung to save his sister's and brother-in-law's lives. When the letter arrived, comrade Thoeun and his wife, Kaing Kim Heang, who had already been arrested, were released. They were sent to Phnom Penh, where they were living with Duch until 1979 when the KR regime was collapsed. They fled with Duch westwards and died due to starvation while they were climbing mountains," Tou Kuntheng described.

Comrade Yorn, Kaing Kim Hieb's husband, was killed by the Khmer Rouge in 1977. According to Tou Kuntheng, Duch's letter arrived at Stoung after comrade Yorn was already killed. He said that because of Kaing Guek Eav's influence, Chi Youk became a village controlled by the House of Kaing. Tou Kuntheng was also in Chi Youk Cooperative during the KR regime.

He could remember that Kaing Yuki, Kaing Guek Eav's father, was appointed as chief of the male elderly in the village while his wife Meas Sieu, Duch's mother, was appointed as chief of the female elderly in the village. One of Kaing Guek Eav's sisters was appointed as chief of Chi Youk Cooperative. Tou Kuntheng said that Chi Youk became a village under Duch's family.

"During the KR regime, Chi Youk's villagers were suffering the most under the control of Duch's family, and Duch's power and influence left the villagers maltreated," said a villager on the condition of anonymity.

Though it has been claimed as above, Duch's nephew refuses to say anything about his family during the KR regime.

Will Duch Be Tried Individually?

Banteay Meanchey: Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, former Bureau S-21’s or Tuol Sleng prison’s commandant, has been detained under the provisional detention order issued by the Co-Investigating Judges of the Khmer Rouge (KR) Tribunal on July 31, 2007. He has been charged with crimes against humanity. The Co-Investigating Judges will continue to investigate and scrutinize Duch’s case. They will look for and check the evidence and receive testimony from living witnesses and victims. By then, Duch will be officially indicted and put on trial by the Co-Prosecutors. However, the question is that: “Should Duch be tried in group with other Khmer Rouge leaders or individually?”

“There will be two legal procedures to be chosen to try Duch, group trial and individual trial,” said lawyers in the Defence Support Section of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) or the KR Tribunal recently. “The decision will be made by the Co-Judges and the Co-Prosecutors.”

A victim who became a Tuol Sleng prisoner without trial and was able to survive Tuol Sleng prison said that it was a great achievement that the hybrid KR court had put Duch, former Tuol Sleng prison's chief, in provisional detention. "The light of justice is glittering in deceased victims' hearts and in fortunate surviving victims' eyes."

"The next thing to do is to investigate on Duch's case and try him with other KR leaders together since the crimes were committed through a structure," said the victim, adding that if Duch was to be tried separately, it would be able to reveal a small case in Tuol Sleng prison only. "Actually, there were 196 prisons, 388 killing fields, and almost 20,000 mass graves left from the KR regime," said the victim. "If tried separately, Duch would put blame on Pol Pot, Son Sen, who were already dead, and other living former KR leaders. Still, the former KR leaders would be finally put on trial together."

However, Aunt Kim, 67, a victim widow who is living in Rumlech, Bakan, said that the Tuol Sleng prison's chief was not commonly known. "So, he should be tried separately first so that we can see how cruel he was and how many people he killed.”

A foreign lawyer talked about the trials in Nuremberg, Germany which tried Adolf Hitler's partisans and members separately. "These individual trials made the court not famous. However, sometime it could have taken longer time and the trials could have continued interminably if it was a group trial."

So far, Cambodia court has tried Cambodian Freedom Fighters (CFF) members together, and the results were satisfying. The lawyer said that the people who decided whether Duch would be tried individually or with other KR leaders were the Co-Judges and the Co-Prosecutors of the KR Tribunal. “This will be at almost the final stage.”

Duch is 62 years old in 2007. He was born in Chi Youk, Kompong Chen Tboung, Stoung, Kompong Thom. Duch pursued his study at Sisowath High School in Phnom Penh and came second in the national mathematics exam. He became a teacher of Mathematics in a school in Kompong Thom. In 1964, he was changed to work in Pedagogy University and became a member of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) in 1970. Then, he was promoted as a senior cadre. From 1979 to 1992, Duch and his family were still working for the assignment KR Angkar in Koh Kong, Somlot, and Thailand.

After the Cambodian Peace Agreement on October 30, 1991, Duch lived in Phkoam, Svay Chek, Banteay Meanchey in the liberate areas in 1992. He worked as a teacher of Mathematics in Phkoam Secondary School. He changed his name to Hang Pin. He was living with his wife and two children. He often went to Battambang provincial town and had relationship with a Christian priest and American Refugee Committee (ARC). In 1993, Duch's family had to abandon their house in Pkhoam since the house was robbed. However, there was no one injured or property lost in the incident. Duch and his family switched to follow Christianity officially on 25 December, 1993. Duch had three purposes: (1) to built school for students and fulfill their hunger, (2). to end his life with the God, and (3) to have the God's influence in every Cambodian people’s soul.

They moved to live in Svay Chek for a while before they moved again to live in Battambang provincial town until the Khmer Rouge integrated with the government in 1996. Duch was working in Somloat a member of American Refugee Committee (AFC).

Duch once gave an interview to Hong Kong-based American "Far Economic Review" magazine, and the interview was issued in June 1999. Then, Duch was arrested by the government and put in prison awaiting trial. In February 2005, Duch was charged with war crimes and crimes against internationally protected persons during the Democratic Kampuchea Regime by the military court. Since 1996, Duch's health has been declining. When he was the head of Tuol Sleng prison, he was under of the order of Son Sen, deputy prime minister for Nation Defence. Duch directed Bureau S-2, where he was in charge of detention, interrogation and execution. All the interrogations and execution were reported to Son Sen, Nuon Chea and Pol Pot. There were 14,000 prisoners of the Angkar killed at Tuol Sleng prison, and only 7 people were lucky enough to be able to survive.

Duch was a teacher who used to live in monastery number 3 in Onar Laom pagoda between 1961 and 1963 and between 1970 and 1973. At that time, everyone knew that Duch was the Khmer Rouge and Kieu (Duch) was close to Sok Tuok (Vorn Vet) and Khieu Samphan. Duch once brought 50 monks to meet Khieu Samphan at the National Assembly to ask the ministry of education to verify monk [education] as equal to general student's certificate so that it would be easy for them to find jobs. Khieu Samphan helped them, but later on Khieu Samphan in turn asked those monks to hold a demonstration against the US.

Duch has 5 names. Kaing Guek Eav or Kieu is his real name. After 1979, while he was fleeing to the western border, Duch adopted another name “Hang Pen”, and when he was working in Phkoam, Svay Chek, he lived under the name “Hang Pin”. In 1993, he changed his name to Prach Prum. He used this name while he was working for American Refugee Committee (ARC) until he was arrested by the government.

Duch have been detained in military court since 1999. In 2005, the military court charged Duch with war crimes and crimes against internationally protected persons during the KR regime.

The military court on July 31, 2007 sent Duch to the ECCC (KR Tribunal), and after questioning on the same date, Co-Investigating Judges You Bunleng and Marcel Lemonde issued a provisional detention order which placed Duch in an air-conditioning detention cell at the ECCC. Duch was preliminarily charged with crimes against humanity. Duch has prepared two lawyers, Cambodian lawyer Kar Savuth and French lawyer Francois Roux, to represent him in hybrid court.

Duch is the first KR leader who has been brought to the KR Tribunal and must be a name among the 5 of the KR leaders to be prosecuted. No matter what to do with Duch, whether to sentence him individually or in group, the KR Tribunal is now moving forward.

Unofficial Translation
-Extracted from Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol. 15, #4361, Sunday-Monday, August 12-13, 2007.

Duch Claims Noun Chea Berated Him for Failing to Dispose of S-21 Records

After Vietnamese troops ousted the regime of Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan from Phnom Penh, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, chief of the security forces of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who was stationed in Tuol Sleng prison, had to flee for life too.

Duch, head of Tuol Sleng prison, left not only bodies of victims behind but also a lot of documents which later on Youk Chhang’s Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) gathered and organized as documentary evidence.

In an interview with Far Eastern Economic Review’s reporter Nate Thayer before he was arrested by Phnom Penh government, Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, said that brother number two Nuon Chea, the second highest leader of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) Regime, had blamed him heavily for not destroying those internal documents, thousands of photos and confession documents, and other evidence in Tuol Sleng prison before he fled away from Vietnamese troops.

Confession documents were very important for Khmer Rouge (KR) leaders since all of the people who were brought to Tuol Sleng prison or Bureau S-21 had only one fate—death. The interrogations conducted on the prisoners were not for trials, but they would be used for finding the network of the betrayers in order to capture them.

At the present time, only Duch, former head of Tuol Sleng prison, has been detained awaiting trails, in the provisional detention facility at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

Meanwhile, it’s reported that Ky Tech, president of Cambodian Bar Association (CBA), has just allowed a French lawyer named Francois Roux to represent Kaing Guek Eav, alias as Duch, who was charged with crimes against humanity.

Other than this, Khieu Samphan, former head of KR State Presidium, claimed that he had already selected a famous French attorney named Jacques Verges, notably known for acting for infamous criminals around the world and also known as “Devil’s advocate”.

Nuon Chea, former president the National Assembly of the genocidal regime, claimed he would act for himself in the KR Tribunal and considered the tribunal as his last battle field.

According to the KR Tribunal’s internal rules, a Cambodian lawyer can cooperate with an international lawyer to defend the accused, while the accused can represent him/herself without a lawyer like the case of Nuon Chea, former brother number 2 of the KR regime.

Concerning the KR tribunal, Joseph Adamo Mussomeli, U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, told the Cambodian-American community in Georgia that people would receive “real justice” in this issue in 1 or 2 years more.

“As many as 12 people would be brought to the trials of the genocidal crimes,” said the US ambassador.

It should be noticed that lawyer Kar Savuth, who has represented Duch since his arrest, still hasn’t commented anything on the addition of the French lawyer.

Researchers of Tuol Sleng prison, once directed by Duch, said that the present Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was a former ruthless torturing center during the KR regime.

Though KR leader Nuon Chea used to admire the bravery of the KR soldiers, most of the Tuol Sleng’s prisoners were former soldiers who served and were loyal to the KR revolutionary movement.

Those prisoners were brought to Tuol SLeng prison since they had been suspected of betraying the revolution. Thousands of KR soldiers, moreover, were captured to Tuol Sleng prison because their commanders were accused of betraying the revolutionary organization or “Angkar”. Among those prisoners in Tuol Sleng prison, there were also senior cadres, diplomats, and factory workers. “Those prisoners included district, provincial, and regional governors, military commanders, military officers, soldiers, factory workers, and ordinary people,” said Nhem En, former photographer at Tuol Sleng prison.

It has been said that if a KR soldier or cadre was alleged to have betrayed [the Angkar], his innocent wife and children would also be arrested and killed. This was the leadership of the Killing Fields, led by the Khmer Rouge.

Informal Translation
-Extracted from Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.14, #3232, Thursday, August 09, 2007.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Former King denies responsibility for creation of Khmer Rouge

Former King denies responsibility for creation of Khmer Rouge



(Somne Thmey, August 13, 2007 - translated and published in English by Development Weekly)



A few days after an unidentified group scattered anti-Sihanouk leaflets near Phnom Penh’s Wat Phnom demanding the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) try former King Norodom Sihanouk and China for forming the Khmer Rouge, the retired monarch wrote a letter in French on his website seemingly in response. The six-page-long letter is entitled “Who were the real people responsible for the complete victory and rise to power of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia on April, 17, 1975?”

In the letter, the former king said, “men and women from Field Marshal Lon Nol’s republic groups, have alleged that I bear the greatest responsibility for the matter, an accusation made in early August 2007.” In response, the retired monarch said, “from 1940 to 1950 and 1960, the Khmer Rouge considered itself as my long-term enemy with whom I couldn’t seek compromise and decided to do anything to topple me and dissolve the monarchy.”

“During the Sangkum Reastr Niyum regime, I strongly supported the Khmer Rouge’s young intellectuals. My administration gave them good positions based on their abilities. The Khmer Rouge intellectuals even received positions as chiefs of various services in the Cambodian government. Some worked as National Assembly members, while others were government members holding positions as ministers, secretaries of state or undersecretaries of state,” Norodom Sihanouk said.

“Finally, the Khmer Rouge decided to abandon, criticize and severely slander me. Moreover, they ran into the forest to struggle against Sihanouk and the Cambodian monarchy including the rebellion in Battambang province’s Samlot district,” the former king added.

In 1967 a peasant uprising broke out in Samlot, though its significance was not appreciated at the time, Sihanouk later claimed the attacks had been carried out as a group he labeled the “the Khmer Viet Minh,” or the “Khmer Rouge.”

On March 18, 1970, a military coup was staged by Lon Nol and his accomplices against Sihanouk and the monarchy, said the 85 year-old retired king, adding, “a short time after the successful coup, former senior Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary and several other Khmer Rouge leaders went to Beijing. They went there not to support me, but to seek all possible means to establish and operate a strong movement in Beijing against Sihanouk and Cambodia’s monarchy and to use the capital of China as an important base to destroy other nations.”

“With unexplainable excitement and pleasure, Ieng Sary kept on saying in Beijing that ‘[I] would like to say “thank you very much” to Lon Nol and Sirik Matak! The historical coup to overthrow Sihanouk is what we, the Khmer Rouge, never expected. Our fight to end Sihanouk’s regime and Cambodian monarchy is a process which we thought would require a very long time. In regard to the coup by His Excellency Lon Nol on March 18, 1970, we, the Khmer Rouge, had expected to spend at least 20 years trying to get rid of Sihanouk’s regime, Sihanouk’s groups and monarchy,” the former monarch stated. “With the greatest pleasure and unlimited boasts, the Khmer Rouge who supported Ieng Sary but opposed Sihanouk and many other Cambodian royalists dared to come to my residence in Beijing to shout out in front of me “we would have spent at least 20 years trying to overthrow you!”

To confirm that what he claimed is true, the aging monarch said, “Both General Oum Manorin and General Bour Hol, who currently reside in France, can act as witnesses.”

“Since, 1973, the Khmer Rouge never stopped its policy of cruelly destroying anything established by Sihanouk,” the retired king added.





With regard to the Khmer Rouge’s victory in April 1975’s, Norodom Sihanouk said “because the US air forces kept bombarding and destroying our Cambodian people’s rice fields, plantations, villages and properties and lives. The situation encouraged compatriots to join a struggle to liberate their nation from the claws of corrupt traitors whose bosses were imperialists, colonists and South Vietnamese; among those who precipitated hardship, robbery, and destruction of pagodas in Cambodia and who encroached on our villages, communes, districts, land, islands and sea.”



Authorities hunting the leaflet’s distributors

To date, there has still been no light shed on who spread the leaflets though authorities are focused on the investigation, claimed Daun Penh District Police Chief Phorn Pheng. He added that police at all levels have been taking action to uncover the distributors, but that he had very little hope of apprehending the perpetrators.

The leaflets which demanded the retired king and China be prosecuted by the ECCC, come as the Khmer Rouge tribunal is selecting five Khmer Rouge leadership suspects deemed most responsible for the deaths of nearly two million Cambodians during the reign of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) from 1975 to 1979.

Kaing Khek Iev, better known as Comrade Duch, chief of the S-21 detention center, is the first Khmer Rouge suspect to be charged by the ECCC with committing crimes against humanity. In reference to the claims made on the leaflet, ECCC spokesman Reach Sambath has stressed that the ECCC does not have any jurisdiction to try the retired monarch or China, stressing that “the Cambodian constitution states that the king is inviolable.”

“The jurisdiction of the ECCC can try only two groups of people, top Khmer Rouge leaders and people who bear the greatest responsibility for crimes against humanity committed during the DK regime between April 17, 1975 and January 6, 1979,” the spokesman said, adding that the ECCC is not entitled to try any countries or organizations.



Criticism of the anti-Sihanouk leaflets

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (CD-Cam), said the anonymous perpetrators should not have scattered pamphlets publicly accusing the retired monarch and China, reasoning it is unfair to the former king.

“Today, we have the ECCC, so [we] should let the court complete the work,” the director said. The former king has repeatedly said that he is also a Khmer Rouge victim, adding that during the regime he was detained in the Royal Palace and that some of his relatives were killed during the brutal regime. The aging monarch had also demanded the cremation of the remains of Khmer Rouge victims so that their spirits can reach a peaceful place.

ECCC hit by new fears of delay

Cambodian genocide tribunal hit by new fears of delay
The Associated PressPublished: August 13, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Cambodian judge in the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal
has been appointed to head the country's Appeals Court, officials said
Monday, sparking fears of a further delay in the trial of former Khmer Rouge
leaders.

It wasn't immediately clear how the appointment of You Bun Leng, one of two
co-investigating judges, would affect the trial of five former Khmer Rouge
leaders already under his investigation for crimes committed during their
1975-79 rule.

You Bun Leng said Monday that he will discuss his new appointment with his
foreign colleagues, but did not say whether he would step down from his
tribunal position.

He is unlikely to snub the government's new appointment, a posting with
better job security, and due to the heavy workload it would be virtually
impossible to hold down both jobs.

Marcel Lemonde, the U.N.-appointed co-investigating judge, declined to
comment on You Bun Leng's new job.

But Peter Foster, a U.N.-appointed spokesman for the tribunal, said he was
"concerned" and was seeking clarification from relevant officials.

After countless delays, You Bun Leng and Lemonde only recently initiated
investigations into former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of crimes against
humanity, genocide and other atrocities that caused the death of some 1.7
million people in the late 1970s.

Theary Seng, director of Cambodian nonprofit group Center for Social
Development, said she was surprised at the timing of You Bun Leng's
appointment, which came soon after the cases were finally put in the hands
of the investigating judges.

"I think it could slow things down," said Theary Seng, whose organization
closely monitors the tribunal's activities. "The timing of his transfer is
just bad for the Khmer Rouge tribunal."

You Bun Leng said Monday that he will discuss his new appointment with his
foreign colleagues.

The judges have so far indicted one of five suspects recommended by
prosecutors, Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav and who headed the
former Khmer Rouge S-21 prison. The other four have not been publicly named
and still remain free in Cambodia.

You Bun Leng's replacement must focus his attention on those five cases,
said Youk Chhang, director of Documentation Center of Cambodia, an
independent group compiling evidence of the Khmer Rouge crimes.

"The five cases are the most important and serious ones that can be a
foundation to look at other crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge at that
time," he said.

The government last week by decree appointed You Bun Leng to replace Ly
Vuoch Leng - the only woman serving as a top ranking judge - as president of
the Appeals Court.

Ly Vuoch Leng was removed for her alleged involvement in the release of sex
trafficking offenders who had been convicted by a lower court, Justice
Minister Ang Vong Vathana said Monday.

He declined to elaborate, but local media reported Monday that she had
allegedly taken bribes in exchange for acquitting the offenders. Ly Vuoch
Leng could not be reached for comment.

The tribunal was established last year following many years of negotiations
between Cambodia and the United Nations. Disagreements about tribunal rules
had kept the judges' investigations from being launched until last month.

Trials are expected to take place next year.



Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved

Duch Assigned Co-Lawyers: ECCC Press Release

ECCC, National Road 4, Chaom Chau, Dangkao, PO Box 71, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tel: +(855) 023 219 814 Fx: +(855) 023 219 841 Web: www.eccc.gov.kh
PRESS RELEASE
1 August 2007
On 31 July 2007, Mr Kaing Guek Eav selected two co-lawyers from the list to
represent him before the ECCC, Mr KAR Savuth and Mr François ROUX.
Mr Kaing has stated that he does not have the means to pay for his lawyers and so
they have been assigned by the Defence Support Section for payment by the
ECCC.
KAR Savuth has represented Mr Kaing for the past 8 years. He has worked as a
lawyer since 1982, joining the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia on its
creation in 1995, since when he has defended many criminal clients.
François ROUX is a French avocat who has practised law for over 30 years. He
has defended four cases of genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda, including obtaining a not guilty verdict in the case of Bagilishema. He was
also a member of the defence team for Zacarias MOUSSAOUI, implicated in the
September 11th attacks in New York. On 31 July 2007, Mr ROUX filed his
application for registration with the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia
in Phnom Penh. Whilst Mr Roux's application is being considered he is not able to
speak to the court but has been appointed as a Legal Consultant to assist in the
preparation of the case.

Kar Savuth: My Client Followed Verbal Orders and Had No Authority to Arrest Or Kill Anyone

Editorial

Stan Starygin


Shortly after his client's tranfer to the authority of the ECCC World News Australia (http://www.worldnewsaustralia.com.au/region.php?id=138833®ion=2) quoted Kang Kech Iev (Duch)'s Cambodian lawyer Kar Savuth as saying that his client was not guilty of the crimes he had most recenlty been charged with by the ECCC arguing that Duch was only following "verbal orders from the top" and "had no right to arrest or kill anyone".

It is not clear at this point whether by referring to the "verbal orders from the top" Kar Savuth is alluding to a possibility that the tribunal currently has no paper trail in its possession to link the top leaders of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) to the operation of Duch-supervised S-21.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Meet Kar Savuth, Kang Kech Iev's Cambodian Lawyer

Editorial

Stan Starygin

Kar Savuth represented Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in a defamation lawsuit Hun Sen filed against then FUNCINPEC President Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Kar Savuth informed the Municipal Court of Phnom Penh in February 2004 of his client's wishes to drop the charges earlier filed again Norodom Ranariddh (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDQ/is_2004_Feb_9/ai_113064265)

Kar Savuth has represented Hun Sen in a number of other cases and on multiple venues.

Bagilishema Judgment Summary by War Crimes Research Office

Trial Chamber

Bagilishema

On June 7, 2001, the ICTR Trial Chamber delivered its Judgement in The Prosecutor v. Ignace Bagilishema, Case No. ICTR-95-1A-T. The amended indictment charged Bagilishema with seven counts of genocide, complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and of Additional Protocol II. He was charged with individual and superior responsibility under Articles 6(1) and 6(3) of the ICTR Statute. In a landmark decision, the Trial Chamber unanimously acquitted Bagilishema of three counts, including genocide. The Chamber's majority found him also not guilty of the remaining four charges which included complicity in genocide, with Judge Mehmet Güney dissenting (Separate and Dissenting Opinion). Thus, Bagilishema was acquitted of all charges.

During the Rwanda genocide, Bagilishema was the "bourgmestre" (mayor) of Mabanza commune, which belonged to the Kibuye Prefecture headed by Prefect Clément Kayishema (Kayishema lost his appeal before the ICTR on June 1, 2001, and is currently serving a prison sentence for the remainder of his life for genocide). Following the downing of the plane of the Rwandan president on April 6, 1994, and the start of hostilities, people began to seek refuge at the bureau communal (communal office) in Mabanza. Due to security problems in Mabanza, on April 13, 1994, the refugees moved to two sites in Kibuye: the ­Stadium and the Home St. Jean Complex (Complex). Thousands of refugees were detained in harsh conditions at the Kibuye Stadium, without food, water, or sanitation. A few days after their arrival, many of those held at the Stadium and the Complex were massacred.

The Trial Chamber did not hold Bagilishema directly responsible for the mistreatment of the refugees in the Stadium or for the massacres because the Prosecution had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he incurred responsibility. The Chamber also found unproven the Prosecution's allegation that in instructing the refugees to move to Kibuye, the accused " 'knew or had reason to know that attacks at these locations [were] imminent.'" Moreover, it found that the Prosecution had failed to show that Bagilishema "was notified or should have known about the inhumane conditions at the Stadium, or about the attack on the Complex, or about the imminent attack on the Stadium." Finally, the court found that the Prosecution had not demonstrated that the accused's failure to take sufficient follow-up actions (e.g., punishment) as "bourgmestre" amounted to acquiescence in the killings, constituting aiding and abetting. Judge Güney disagreed with these findings.

In the period April 13 to July 1994, killings continued to take place in Mabanza and the Prosecution charged Bagilishema with several individual instances. In each case, however, the Chamber found the accused not criminally responsible because the allegations had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Lastly, the amended indictment charged Bagilishema with crimes in relation to the establishment and operation of several roadblocks at which some people, in particular Bigirimana and Judith, had been killed. In addition to examining the individual and superior criminal liability of the accused in these cases under Article 6(1) and Article 6(3) (which both failed), the Trial Chamber analyzed whether Bagilishema was responsible because of gross negligence. The court described this form of liability as "a species of liability by omission" that would be available "if the Prosecution were to show that the Accused had been grossly negligent in his administration of one or more roadblocks under his control, such negligence causing the murder of Tutsi civilians (by roadblock staff)."

The Trial Chamber held that for liability on the basis of criminal negligence to arise in this case, the Prosecution not only had to prove Bagilishema's public duty in security matters, but also the following four cumulative elements: (1) "that one or more crimes were committed in connection with identified roadblocks;" (2) "that [Bagilishema] was responsible for the administration of those roadblocks because he was involved in their establishment, acquiesced to their continuing existence, or more generally because they came under his control as bourgmestre;" (3) "that measures, if any, taken by [Bagilishema] to detect and prevent crimes in connection with the stated roadblocks were clearly inadequate in the circumstances;" and (4) "that the crimes in question would have been detected or prevented had [Bagilishema] administered the roadblocks with reasonable diligence." The Chamber found that not all of these elements had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt; in particular, the Prosecution had failed to prove "the Accused's wanton disregard for high-risk activities at roadblocks" and that "having established the Trafipro roadblock, the Accused neglected to regulate the conduct of those staffing it, thus causing the deaths of Bigirimana and Judith." Consequently, the court also declined to hold Bagilishema responsible on the basis of criminal negligence. The Prosecution has appealed this acquittal.

Judge Güney disagreed in his Separate and Dissenting Opinion on two points. In his view, there was sufficient evidence to hold Bagilishema responsible as an accomplice for the killings of thousands at Kibuye, and for the crimes committed against civilians at the Trafipro roadblock.

Roux's Participation in the 2005 Legal Training Project on Criminal Defense before the Upcoming KRT held by DCCam

Foreign guest lecturer II: François Roux, a lawyer based in Montpellier, France, and defense counsel before the ICTR. Mr. Roux dealt with “the role of the defense counsel before the KRT” and “rights and duties of defense counsel before the KRT” over two days (on days 6 and 7 of the training).



Throughout his presentation, Mr. Roux explained the role, rights and duties of defense counsel at each stage of the criminal proceedings, both before an international criminal court, such as the ICTR (which strongly draws on the common law system), and before French criminal courts (which are civil law jurisdictions). He then correlated the role of defense counsel before such national and international jurisdictions with the expected role of defense counsel before the KRT. Mr. Roux notably highlighted the importance of the role of the lawyer during the investigation stage before the future KRT. The issue of the role of the victims during the future KRT’s proceedings was also raised.



Mr. Roux also facilitated a workshop, which was held on day 7 of the training and which was similar to the workshop set up on day 7 of the August training (see August report).

http://www.dccam.org/Projects/Legal_Training/Report_September_2005.htm

François Roux's Defense in Prosecutor v Bagilishema

Editorial

Stan Starygin


In Bagilishema the prosecution brought charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II against Bourgmestre of Mabanza Commune Ignace Bagilishema.

In the course of framing of the indictment against Bagilishema the prosecution argued the necessity of amending the original indictment by incorporating charges mounted against Bagilishema's subordinates which Roux opposed calling this proposal "a grave injustice" and was quoted as saying that "it is out of the question that this Tribunal should charge someone on the basis of generalities and in the midst of confusion" and further continued that in his opinion "in reality, the prosecution has no evidence against Bagilishema himself. Instead it [the prosecution] is trying to judge him as responsible for acts committed by others. It has nothing against Bagilishema, so it is trying to widen the case to other people. That's not my concept of justice." (can be viewed at http://www.hirondelle.org/hirondelle.nsf/caefd9edd48f5826c12564cf004f793d/a5b92a5b19fc040cc125682d0080772c?OpenDocument)

Roux persuasively argued that one of the original charges brought against Bagilishema, conspiracy to commit genocide, had to be thrown out by the court since the same had been dropped earlier by the prosecution and against Bagilishema's alleged co-conpirators. Roux maintained that "if there is conspiracy, there must be more than one person [...] if you withdrew the conspiracy for one, you should do so for the other."

In the court's verdict Bagilishema was found not guilty on all counts and was ordered to be immediately released.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Profile: One of Francois Roux's Latest to Date Mass Crimes Cases

Editorial

Stan Starygin

At the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Francois Roux -- in one of his cases -- represented Vincent Rutaganira, commune chief (Fr: 'Conseiller') of Mubuga Commune (Fr: 'secteur'), who was indicted by the ICTR on the charges of conspiracy to commit genocide (count 1), genocide (count 14), crimes against humanity (murder)(count 15), crimes against humanity (extermination)(count 16), crimes against humanity (other inhumane acts) (count 17), violation of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions (count 18) and serious violations of Additional Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions (count 19).
The defense counsel's work in this case had resulted in the ICTR's finding Rutaganira not guilty on 6 of the counts listed above and handed out a guilty verdict in count 16 (crimes against humanity (extermination))for "having [...] aided and abetted by omission the attacks at [...] that resulted in thousands of deaths and numerous injuries to the Tutsi refugees. [...].
Roux's client remained commune chief of Mubuga Commune during the massacre of Tutsi refugees in the Mubuga Church, alleged by the prosecution. Delivering its judgement, the court stressed that its finding of Rutaganira's guilt in aiding and abetting was predicated upon the fact that the court came to believe that "Rutaganira still wielded moral authority over the civilian population of his secteur, and that he could have used such authority to prevent certain members of the said population from participating in the massacre at Mubuga Church".
It is instructive to note that a fair amount of judicial activism helped the prosecution secure a guilty verdict in this case.

Meet the Lawyers: Francois Roux, the First International Defense Lawyer Sworn In by BAKC

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

The International Herald Tribune/Associated Press's Frivolous Use of the Term 'Genocide'

Editorial

Stan Starygin

The International Herald Tribune (IHT)/Associated Press (AP)'s article below is an interesting, although unfortunately not unique, example of the use of term 'genocide' by the international press. In this article the IHT/AP refers to Kang Kech Iev (alias Duch)who since recently has been detained by the Extraordinary Chambers in Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)on an ECCC Co-Investigating Judges' provisional detention order.

The detention order (31 July 2007) refers to an earlier charge of crimes against humanity levied upon Kang Kech Iev by the Military Tribunal of Phnom Penh and grounded in the 2004 Law on the ECCC (KRT Law). The detention order in question does not bear any reference or mention of a genocide charge levied upon Kang Kech Iev. Furthermore, thus far, there has been no viable anecdotal evidence of the ECCC's Co-Prosecutors' intention to charge Kang Kech Iev with genocide, for which there is likely to be a lack of foundation based upon the currently available evidence.

Therefore, it is a tenable view to maintain that, as of today, there is no reason to believe that Kang Kech Iev is likely to be prosecuted for genocide (by its definition in the 1949 Convention on Prevention and Punishment for the Crime of Genocide), which means that the use of the term 'genocide trials' by IHT/AP in reference to Kang Kech Iev's case is unwarranted at best (although the article in question later does refer to crimes against humanity as grounds for Duch's current ECCC detention, it continues using the terms 'genocide' and 'crimes against humanity' interchangeably).

Isn't it about time the international press started using the correct language of law when reporting on legal events and developments?

French lawyer sworn in to defend former Khmer Rouge jailer at genocide trial

French lawyer sworn in to defend former Khmer Rouge jailer at genocide trial

The International Herald Tribune http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/08/asia/AS-GEN-Cambodia-Khmer-Rouge.php

The Associated Press

Published: August 8, 2007



PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A French lawyer who defended a terrorist convicted in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks was sworn in Wednesday to represent a former Khmer Rouge jailer in an upcoming Cambodian genocide trial, an official said.

The Cambodian Bar Association swore in Francois Roux at a ceremony Wednesday, making him the first foreigner officially allowed to practice law at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal, said Ly Tayseng, the association's secretary-general.

"Now he has the legal right to be an attorney at the tribunal after completing all legal requirements," Ly Tayseng said.

Roux, a human rights activist from France, is best known for being on the defense team of Zacarias Moussaoui, a Moroccan-born Frenchman convicted in a U.S. court of conspiring to commit terrorism and kill Americans in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

He has 30 years experience of practicing law and also defended four people accused of genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Kaing Guek Eav, the former Khmer Rouge prison chief now detained on crimes against humanity charges by the tribunal, selected Roux early this month to represent him along with a Cambodian attorney.

Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, is the first top Khmer Rouge figure to be indicted for offenses committed when the Khmer Rouge held power from 1975-79.

He headed a prison in Phnom Penh, where some 16,000 suspected enemies of the regime were tortured before being taken out and executed at a mass grave near the city. Only about a dozen prisoners are thought to have survived.

Some 1.7 million people died of hunger, disease, overwork and execution during the Khmer Rouge's rule.

Prosecutors have also sought indictments for four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders, but have not named them.

The tribunal is expected to start conducting trials early next year.

Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved

Who can file a case with the ECCC now that the Internal Rules have been adopted and what will the process look like?

Who can file a case with the ECCC now that the Internal Rules have been adopted and what will the process look like?


Analysis

Stan Starygin


Under the newly-minted Internal Rules (IRs) of the ECCC, a reparations case (legally known as “civil party action”), technically, can be filed by anyone. This right is significant requirement by a requirement that to show injury which was inflicted on the victim during the period from April 17, 1975 to January 7, 1979. The requisite injury can’t be of general nature, but must be “physical, material or psychological”, which is likely to be a challenge to prove for the prosecution and the victim’s lawyer now that 30 years have spanned since the alleged offenses were committed. With this in mind, a civil party case of this type will have to be built like a patchwork and will require gathering evidence from sources other than documentary evidence. This will require time and resources that will need to be pulled together by the victims. A number of things will make this process easier, less costly and more coordinated. For one, the prosecution had been building cases against suspects throughout the entire time of the negotiation of the IRs and by now is likely to enough material evidence to turn them over the Co-Investigating judges. The more work is being done by the prosecution, the less work there will be to do for victims’ lawyers. However, anything that seems too easy always has a catch. Here the catch is that the prosecution builds cases with the assistance from the Co-Investigating judges, which means that they, and not the victims, have the authority to decide what to charge the suspects with. It is possible to try to influence the prosecution’s decision about what the charges should be and who they can be filed against by filing complaints far in advance of the prosecution handing over the preliminary investigations to the Co-Investigating judges, but, again, the final decision about what to include and what to leave out will remain with the Co-Prosecutors. The fact that the ECCC Law – and generally the Cambodian Criminal Law – hinges the success of a victim’s case upon the success of the prosecution’s case to which it is linked. This means that if the prosecution’s case fails, the victim’s case will not survive either. By the same token, if the prosecution’s case fails and the prosecution chooses not to appeal, the victims can’t appeal either. If the prosecution’s case is successful or successful in part and unsuccessful in part, the trial judge will hand down a judgement that equally applies to the prosecution’s case and the victim’s case.
In addition to this, substantively, victims will have to show that the injury they allege had been inflicted to them was a “direct consequence of the offense, personal and have actual come into being”. This is known as causality in legal practice. Lucky for the potential victims in this case the standard of causality here is lower than it would in some domestic legal systems and only requires that “direct consequence” be proved, rather than that coupled with “perpetrator’s intent”. This means that whether it may or may not have been the perpetrator’s intent to inflict injury upon the victim is irrelevant for as long as the injury directly resulted from the actions of the perpetrator, the victim was the one the injury was inflicted upon and it can be proven that the alleged injury was indeed inflicted.
The good news for the potential victims/civil parties is that the IRs authorized the use of victims associations we can have one lawyer represent a fairly large (there’s no restriction as to the size of the group) group of victims in what is known as class action lawsuits. Victims associations must registered organizations, but don’t have to necessary be registered in Cambodia, which opens the door for Cambodians living elsewhere in the world to form these associations and, thus, be represented before the ECCC.
The ultimate difficulty for potential civil parties remains the unfettered discretion of the Co-Prosecutors and the Co-Investigating judges in rendering a case inadmissible on reasonable grounds (“reasoned order” in the IRs) for which there’s only one instance of appeal. If the civil party’s claim gets past the Co-Prosecutors’ and Co-Investigation judges’ level, it can still be killed in the Chambers by the trial judge declaring it in admissible. Even the success of the prosecution’s case doesn’t automatically guarantee a success to all civil party claims attached to this case with the judges having the authority to rule on each civil claim individually, if deemed necessary. This may open a venue for a new hearing once the judgement in the prosecution’s case has been handed down and result in an extension of the legal process for the victims beyond the end of the prosecution’s case. In the case of the civil party is not satisfied with the decision of the Trial Chamber, appeal is likely to present another conundrum for the victims for several reasons. One is that the Trial Chamber may schedule a separate hearing for all civil party claims after it has issued the judgement in the prosecution’s case. Unless appeal is not allowed until all proceedings pertaining to a particular case are terminated in the Trial Chamber, the prosecution may go ahead with the appeal – which under these IRs is allowed within 30 days since the judgement – and the civil parties who have to hinge their claims to the prosecution’s appeal will have to scramble and play a catch-up with the prosecution while still having their claims adjudicated in the Trial Chamber. The victims’ lawyer doubtless will find themselves in a tight spot, if the termination rule is not cleared phrased and enforced at the end of the proceedings in the Trial Chamber and beginning of the appeal.

More of DK's Child Combatants

Barrel of the Gun Evacuation of the Cities

Khmer Rouge Youthful Soldiers Taking Over Cities (Evacuation in Progress in the Background)

BAKC, Foreign Lawyer Applications and Insights on Lawyer Appointment Procedure

Bar Association Waits for Foreign Lawyer Applications

http://www.voanews.com/khmer/2007-08-07-voa9.cfm

Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
07 August 2007



The Cambodian Bar Association said Tuesday it was awaiting more applications for foreign lawyers to represent defendants under a trial by the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

Bar association spokesman Nou Tharith said the group had approved the application of French lawyer Francois Roux to represent Kaing Khek Iev, the Tuol Sleng torture chief known as Duch, who was indicted on crimes against humanity last week.

Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan has said he hired French lawyer Jacques Verges as to defend him should he be called to trial. Brother No. 2, Nuon Chea, has said he will defend himself if indicted.

Nou Tharith said Tuesday Verges would have to undergo the approval process.

About 20 foreign lawyers have so far expressed interest in defending former Khmer Rouge leaders, Rupert Skilbeck, head of the tribunal's defense section, said recently. These names will gradually be handed to the bar association for approval, he said.

The names of foreign lawyers will be handed to the bar association once a defendant is indicted, said Sok Samoeun, director of the Cambodian Defenders Project.

"The reason for not forwarding the names of the foreign lawyers at this point is that no one knows if their clients will be indicted or not," he said.

Earlier this month, the tribunal's prosecutors forwarded a confidential list of five suspects to tribunal investigators. Four of them are under investigation and have yet to be formally charged, their names not yet released.

Under tribunal rules, a Cambodian lawyer can defend a suspect alongside a foreign lawyer, and the accused has the right to self defense.

Tribunal observers expect the process to be lengthy, but investigating judge Marcel LeMonde said recently the first hearing will likely take place in the first quarter of 2008.

Khmer Rouge Fighter Youth

CIA/MI-6 Statement on the Khmer Rouge

Party of Democratic Kampuchea #CR0000800
(Also... Some alternate names are aliases, other are names for specific subgroups or
cells).
PDK
Khmer Rouge
Communist Party of Kampuchea
Khmer Communist Party
CPK
National Army of Democratic Kampuchea

Source: CIA, MI-6

Type: Political terrorist organization/Guerrilla insurgency

Scope:
Frequent ambushes, assassinations and other acts of insurgency throughout Cambodia
and Vietnam.

Affiliations:
Khmer Rouge members have received training and equipment from the Chinese
military. Also receive sanctuary with the borders of Thailand.

Personnel: Approximately 8,000 guerrillas.

Operating Since:
1971

Structure:
Military hierarchy, units numbering between ten and one thousand depending on the
operation.

Leaders:
The Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the CPK has consisted of the
same core group for some 25 years. Often called the "Party Center," this group is
comprised of Solath Sar [#LL4109565], (alias Pol Pot), former leader surrendered in
1997, Nuon Chea [#LL4635856], Chhit Chhuon [#LL4861352], (alias Mok), Khieu
Samphan [#LL4756251], leader, Ieng Sary [#LL4854621], Son Sen [#LL4765235], Yun
Yat [#LL4985426], Ieng Thirith [#LL4756528], and Ke Pauk [#LL4851386].

Legitimate Connections:
None.

Resources:
Smallarms, explosives and military weapons supplied by China. Support and Intelligence
supplied by China and Thailand.

Suspected Criminal Activity:
In an exercise of state terror scarcely matched in its scope and brazenness, the Khmer
Rouge initiated a reign of terror and state repression in order to destroy totally pre-
Kampuchean Cambodia and to create their ideal agricultural state. The Khmer Rouge
depopulated the cities of Cambodia, which they renamed Kampuchea, forcing the urban
population into agricultural communes where they were enslaved and brutalized. From
1975 to 1978, the Khmer Rouge systematically overworked and starved the subject
population, selectively executing the educated and killing others even for minor
breaches of rules. Approximately 1 million people perished under Khmer rule. The
Khmer Rouge now is engaged in a low-level insurgency against the Cambodian
Government. Although its victims are mainly Cambodian villagers, the Khmer Rouge
has occasionally kidnapped and killed foreigners traveling in remote rural areas.

Additional Commentary:
"Khmer Rouge" means Red Khmers, and is the name given to the left wing in
Cambodian politics by King Norodom Sihanouk in the 1950s. Since then, the name has
come to be identified with a particular faction of the Cambodian left, formally known
during the 1970s as the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and during the 1980s
and 90s as the Party of Democratic Kampuchea. Originally founded under Vietnamese
sponsorship in 1951, the Khmer Communist Party is a revolutionary group that sought
to create a socialist state in Cambodia following the Maoist model of guerrilla warfare
and cultural revolution. The Prince Sihanouk himself, alternatively fought and allied
himself with the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot.

On April 17, 1975, a bitter five year civil war was concluded with the Party Center
leading the Khmer Rouge to victory over the US-backed Khmer Republic of General
Lon Nol. Thus arose the Khmer Rouge regime. The Khmer Rogue took the capital of
Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975 and under Pol Pot's leadership, conducted a campaign of
genocide in which more than 1 million people were killed during its four years in power in
the late 1970s.The official tally published by the successor regime to the Khmer Rouge
sets the number of dead at 3.1 million. Several demographic analyses (by the CIA, the
U.S. Bureau of the Census, and the U.N. Population Bureau) have estimated the death
toll to be between 1 million and 2 million. The most competent empirical analyses by
Western scholars of Cambodia place the estimate at between 1.5 and 1.7 million dead
from execution, disease, starvation and overwork.

The Khmer Rouge subsequently established the State of Democratic Kampuchea, and
instituted what was arguably the most radical experiment in social engineering of the
twentieth century. In an effort to "purify" the "Khmer race" and create an absolutely
classless utopian society, the Khmer Rouge began by emptying all Cambodian urban
centers of their population, abolishing banking, finance and currency, outlawing all
religions, reorganizing traditional kinship systems into a communal order, and
eliminating private property so completely that even personal hygiene supplies were
communal.

The North Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge remained tactical allies until the fall of the
pro-U.S. Lon Nol regime in 1975. By 1978 bitter warfare erupted between the Chinese-
backed Khmer Rouge and the Soviet-backed Vietnamese. On 25 December 1978
Vietnamese forces entered Cambodian and within two weeks, on January 7, 1979,
Vietnamese armed forces entered the Cambodian capitol at Phnom Penh and
proclaimed the end of the Khmer Rouge State of Democratic Kampuchea. The actual
conflict between the two armies lasted until 1989, the Khmer Rouge reverted once
again to being a guerrilla army, continuing to terrorize and repress Cambodians in the
regions it controlled. In 1980, Khieu Samphan replaced Pol Pot as leader and the Khmer
Rouge began to receive tacit Thai aid in the form of sanctuary within border areas of
Thailand while China supplied weapons, munitions, radios, and medical equipment. The
Khmer Rouge fielded about 35,000 combatants and often exerted de facto rule within
Cambodian refugee camps within Thailand. Despite the appalling human rights record of
the Khmer Rouge, the United Nations and many of its members, including the United
States, continued to recognize the Khmer Rouge as the legitimate government of
"Democratic Kampuchea" in preference to the puppet regime established there by
Vietnam.

Following withdrawal of Vietnamese forces in 1989, a coalition government was
established in which the Khmer Rouge was invited to participate as the price to be paid
to avert the continuation of civil war. Under the United Nations-sponsored settlement
concluded on 23 October 1991, the Khmer Rouge agreed to formally dissolve their
Khmer Communist Party in December 1991 and to become coalition partners in a
civilian government. Many Cambodians continued to fear that these concessions were
merely short-term tactical accommodations by an unreconstructed Khmer Rouge not
unlike their alliance of convenience with their former enemy Prince Sihanouk. The
National Army of Democratic Kampuchea, as the Khmer Rouge military is known,
continues to wage warfare from jungle redouts in an attempt to regain control of
Cambodia and resume their utopian experiment. In fact throughout 1992 and 1993 the
Khmer Rouge has not ceased its activities as an armed, revolutionary party and has
attacked the militias belonging to other coalition partners as well as firing upon members
of the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia.

DK Slogans

KR Songs, Slogans, Theories and Definition





Khmer Rouge Slogans and Theories


Compiled by Ser Sayana
Translated by Sour Bunsou


¨ Our task is to be responsible for our speech, acts and political standpoint. These must be in conformity with people's ideas and interests. If a mistake is made, we must work it out. This is what we call responsibility before the people.



¨ In the military context, this stance can be described as having destroyed the enemy

one after another.



¨ The wind from the east always beats the wind from the west. (Notebook 053

KHN)



¨ Front troops mobilize their forces to smash the enemy. By so doing, we will soon

gain victory and be able to protect and expand our forces. (Notebook 194 KNH)



¨ Strengthen and expand the absolute stance of proletarianism while absolutely

sweeping out non-proletarian stances. (Notebook 135 KNH)



¨ All important lines and activities in the rear must be a strong and transparent

backing for front line.
(Notebook 200 KNH)



¨ Absolutely purge CIA agents from Angkar and Kampuchea forever. (Notebook 076 KNH )



¨ Keeping you is no gain, losing you is no loss.



¨ Be committed to absolutely abolishing the stances of privatism, materialism, authoritaria-nism and [no-good] moral of life. (Tungpadevat Book, 1976) .



¨ Destroy communication networks! (KR notebook 194 KNH)



¨ The revolutionary initiative is self mastery.



¨ Only the people can build world history.



¨ A soft robe can make a good tie. (Notebook Nhok Sarun).



¨ Hunger is the most influential disease.



¨ Must achieve one hundred percent the plan of three and a half tons and seven tons per hectare for 1978. (Notebook 067 KNH)



¨ Expand the militia war in all districts. - Attack and break up the ranks of enemy. - Attack enemy's arsenals. (Notebook 194 KNH)



¨ Cooperative: Villages and Sub-districts, which share, work and receive the same interest.



¨ Mobile Work Brigade: Male and female youths, who are the front forces assigned to work intensively at main working sites.



¨ Core Task: A necessary piece of work to be prioritized. (Extracted from a reading book for grade 2 students, published in 1977 by the Ministry of Education of Democratic Kampuchea.



¨ Reject no-good cadre who refuse to make changes in their attitude; abolish authoritarianism, bureaucracy, feudalism, and opportunism. (KR notebook 076 KNH)



¨ Prioritize national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and credit.



¨ Constantly strengthen patriotism, revolution, and be proud of our revolution, nation, people, revolutionary army and our party. Make them become as hard as iron. (Quoted from KR notebook Number 076 KNH)



¨ Increase mental and physical strength of every individual, unit, and the whole nation. Be united to struggle to get rid of all kinds of enemies, especially Yuon enemy of aggression. Protect and maintain the Cambodian nation and race forever.



¨ Nothing harmful to the nation, the revolution, or the party must be thought of or

created.



¨ Absolutely get rid of CIA agents from units and the territory of Cambodia. (Quoted from KR notebook Number 076 KNH)



¨ Angkar is the master of the territory.



¨ Angkar is very correct, bright and terrific!



¨ Must be loyal and love Angkar!



¨ Must love Angkar with no limit!



¨ Be committed to weakening and smashing feudalists, conservatives, and imperialists who are "reactionaries".

¨ Be committed to smashing hidden enemies burrowing inside--CIA and KGB agents!

¨ Be committed to sacrificing our lives in fulfilling Angkar's labor tasks!



¨ Angkor selects only those who are never tired!



¨ One feels frightened only just to hear the word "Angkar".



¨ The comparison of Angkar doesn't mean comparison of military and economic strength, but human and spiritual strength; that is, the human being is chosen to lead economic and military forces.



¨ Outstanding cadre and committee have to spare no effort to tackle and improve the living standard of people in all fields and at all times based on the stance of responsibility and high creativity. (KNH076)



¨ Revolution against imperialism is not an action of inviting guests to have meal, writing articles, braiding, education, softness or fear of enemy. But it is a class wrath seized to topple another class. (KR notebook Nhok: 78).



¨ Externally, American imperialists are powerful, but their internal strength is weak because people do not support them. (Nhok, p.77)



¨ Be humble; draw experience from the masses; be linked with the stance of the masses; and be close to the masses. (Iv, P. 74)



¨ We have to support what the enemy opposes and vice versa. (Nhok, p.78)



¨ The worms inside the meat of fish paste will not show up if boiling water is poured down.



¨ Baskets used for screening rice retain only the good rice seeds.



¨ A child is a clean-cut individual.



¨ Political, ideological and organizational measures are the first and last priorities. (KNH079, p.18)



¨ Individualism is to collectivism as capitalism is to socialism. (KNH079, p. 11)



¨ Cut off the ownership regime and the old commerce and create a new one.



¨ Those who have never labored must be made to do so in agricultural production. (KHN179)



¨ We expel all people and enemies. (KNH179)



¨ Make every effort to destroy enemy forces, maintain and nourish our forces. The more we fight, the stronger we will be, and the more we will win.



¨ Combat enemy movements and stir up the masses to stand up to conquer our enemies and master our territory. (Excerpts from notebook 200 KNH)

¨ To win over enemies, we must destroy the internal ones.



¨ Loss of life is a simple thing for a man of war.



¨ Life devoted to battle is one honored in value.



¨ For the people and the army, to live or to die must be for the greatness of the

revolution.



¨ Communists are best known by the sacrifices they make for their country.

(Excerpts from Comrade Iv’s notebook)



¨ Combine the combating of with the disbanding of enemy troops. (Excerpts from

notebook 194 KNH)



¨ Stand absolute at all times with the standpoint of independence, self-mastery, and

self-reliance.



¨ Absolutely get rid of the Vietnamese invaders wishing to swallow our territory

from Cambodia forever.
(Excerpts from notebook 076KNH)



¨ Unconditionally and highly self-consciously respect the disciplinary organization of the Kampuchean Communist Youth League. (Excerpts from notebook 26KNH)



¨ Prevention of diseases is a matter of importance. (Excerpts from notebook 188KNH)



¨ We are to oppose what our enemies support and support what they oppose.



¨ Revolution is a war of people and will not be victorious unless there is stirring up of people. (Excerpts from Comrade Nhok’s notebook)



¨ Without the force of labor, the revolution cannot move forward. It is only by the force of struggle that favored results can be achieved.



¨ In order to make revolution there must be revolutionary people; and in order for people to be revolutionary they must possess the standpoint and the spirit of the party. (Excerpts from Comrade Keo’s notebook)



¨ We hope for peace, but Americans are stubborn and counterattack. We absolutely must not surrender, but go on with war, and construction will be the second priority.



¨ Die for the interest of the people which is heavier than Mount Meru. Capitalists, feudalists and reactionaries are not even as heavy as a goose's feather. (Notebook Nhok, p.60)



¨ How does an elderly, insane man remove a mountain? His son will follow him and when his son dies, his grandson will go on with the model. As for the two mountains, they can not grow any longer no matter how big they are. On the contrary, once we gradually remove mountains from regime to regime, they will be lower and lower (Tai Haong Mountains). (Notebook Nhok, p.60)

DK: On Resignation of Sihanouk

Standing Committee Minutes, March 11, 1976




Documentation Center of Cambodia Catalogue Number: D7562



[Unofficial translation by Bunsou Sour; edited by Prof. David Chandler]



MINUTE OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE

THE FRONT


11 March 1976
PARTICIPANTS: COMRADE SECRETARY GENERAL [Pol Pot]
COMRADE DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL [Noun Chea]
COMRADE VORN [Vorn Vet]
COMRADE KHIEU [Son Sen]
COMRADE HEM [Khieu Samphan]

COMRADE DOEUN
COMRADE TUM
COMRADE TOUCH



AGENDA: SIHANOUK'S RESIGNATION FROM HIS POST

I. Report on the Resignation of Sihanouk

Comrade HEM reported to the Standing Committee on the resignation of Sihanouk. Sihanouk has sent two letters written in French:

- The first letter conveys his resignation and explains the important reason for which he is resigning. In particular, he emphasizes his various health problems, which do not allow him to continue his work.

- The second letter is a statement addresseed to the people of Democratic Kampuchea informing them that he wishes to resign from his post before the 20th March 1976.

During his meeting respectively with the Ambassadors of Mauritania and Senegal, Sihanouk has also indicated that he categorically resigns. But during his meeting with the Chinese Economic Delegation he grumbled about his illnesses...

II. Angkar's Opinion

1. Reason for his Resignation.

There are two: in the long term and in the short term.

A. In the Long Term: it is the difference of "classes", the difference between the grass roots of the Revolution and his own person and family. He cannot live with us. If in the past he was able to remain with us, it was simply because of his strategy. As we no longer go along with his strategy, he can onlyremain provisionally with us. It is not the first time that Sihanouk has resigned. He did that in 1971 already.

B. In the Short Term: It is a strategic difference together with the grass roots difference. An example was the case when we dispatched our Ambassadors abroad without consulting him. The incident has no importance but he would have thought that we no longer have any need for him. Thus the wrangle over position continues.

But the situation has evolved more thoroughly than before. Outside the country, Sihanouk can work with us. While inside the country he feels completely lost without any future. He is very frustrated. He lacks work, he is bored and the environment that surrounds him, in particular his wife who cries constantly, pushes him to the point that he cannot endure any longer. In the case that he decides to remain with us, that cannot last either, at the most l or 2 years. As he wishes to leave, his leaving now is the best.

2. POSITIVE and Negative aspects of his Resignation

A. Positive Aspects for our Revolution :

- All the people of Kampuchea will feel a hhuge surge of relief. The same applies to all our cadres and military. As far as the world is concerned, there won't be any problem.

- We can resolve the problem of the nominattion in our State Organisation easily. And under these conditions we can work peacefully without any obstacles.

- Our work in External Affairs will thus bee improved because henceforth we will make the decisions ourselves, we will express our position by ourselves. Without Sihanouk we are clean-cut.

B. Negative Aspects for our Revolution

- On the one hand, Vietnam attacks us and ttreats us as being too far to the left. Sihanouk has helped us, so why should we drop him? Vietnam will point out to others, saying something bad about us, but good about themselves. But it is a provisional problem only. If in the final analysis we remain very close to them, we shall certainly have no problem.

- On the other hand, the enemy is about to attack us, but we should let them be for say half a month. But even if Sihanouk had not resigned the enemy will always attacks us, their spies still exist. If the enemy does not cease attacking us, are we going to suffer? No, because they cannot isolate us.

3. MEASURES to be Taken: two directives

A. First directive: We don't reject him. We ask him to remain in the same
position. If he wishes to remain with us, he could remain for 5 months, l or
3 years, as long he would like. If he cannot resist, it is not because of us, it
is not our fault. In fact he won't be able to remain with us. He and his family can see very well that they won't have well-being We don't give him any choice, if he does not wish to remain, too bad for him.

Thus we must go and see him and ask him to excuse us for being unable to pay him visits as often as we would like, because we were very busy. We SHOULD acknowledge reception of his letter. That is why we come together to see him. The Situation of our country is very difficult, very poor, the country must face tremendous difficulties. We must resolve all the problems with
national dignity. It is in this way that we can be truly independent. Our position, including that of the government, is of always recognizing his noble contribution, HIS deeds and efforts for the country, in particular in the international arena.

The [Khmer] Nation owes him its gratitude for his highly patriotic contribution, something which our Assembly has already noted in its resolutions. We respect a lot [our] collective decisions once they have been adopted. But we request that he remains with the people. The people will
preserve his nationalist undertakings and we also will congratulate him and will do our utmost to implement the resolution of our extraordinary session of the National Assembly.

B. Second Directive: in the event that he insists on resigning. We thank him. In the recent past we fought together, shoulder to shoulder. We very much regret his resignation. We shall convoke a meeting of the Council of Ministers to take a decision. If he resigns we won't allow him to leave the country. His departure will render the situation complicated to China. The enemy does not cease to condemn and criticize us. If we refuse to allow him to leave, the enemy can criticize us at least for one month.

Certain reasonable attitudes of Sihanouk show a patriotic spirit, but his wife has no patriotic spirit at all. Consequently, if we are not clear in solving this problem, it is possible that unresolved questions will complicate our tasks later on. Thus we should go for the first solution and if that does not work, adopt the second one.

III. ANGKAR'S OPINION (meeting of 13 March 1976)
Comrade HEM made several reports to the Standing Committee on the Sihanouk problem. He has made a categorical decision to resign. He asks Angkar that it TAKE PITY ON him. HE lowers and humbles himself only requesting Angkar that it accepts his resignation. This resignation is not against us...

Comrade Secretary General pointed out that it is an important question to be decided by the Central Committee of the Party. But Comrade Secretary General has already prepared a number of ideas, which WERE supported by the Standing Committee:

1. To forbid Sihanouk from leaving the country is the first measure to be taken.

2. It is necessary to call a meeting of the Council of Ministers to submit to it reports on the matter, in order for the latter to make a decision and, then, to meet Sihanouk once again, with the presence of Penn NOUTH

It is necessary that arrangements be made to record the conversation with Sihanouk. It is necessary to speak to him in such a way for him to keep UP his hopes and allow the recording of his conversation. It is for our documentation.

3. To dispatch telegrams to the sons of Sihanouk asking them to return as soon as possible, pointing out that they must come for the New Year and the National Day celebration. We must solve this problem once and for all. We must also solve it for the interests of our revolution.

4. Is Our Decision TRUE TO Revolutionary Morality?


a. As the morality of the Revolution or the interests of the Revolution. The morality of the revolution must be based on the interests of the revolution. It is a gain for the revolution. To allow Sihanouk to leave is a loss for the Revolution. In reality, Sihanouk is a meek tiger, which only has its skin and bones left, without claws and the fangs. HIS beard has also been shaven. Thus all that remains is to wait for the day of his death. But if this old tiger is freed in the street, all the children would certainly be afraid of it. Certain old men that did not know this meek tiger would also be afraid.

b. Sihanouk participated with us in our Revolution despite his differences with us. That is the reason why our Party decided that Sihanouk should become President of Democratic Kampuchea. But Sihanouk refuses. Thus it is up to him, he can remain or not, it is his problem.

We consider him as a Senior Personality. We shall not kill him. But vis-a-vis the people and the Nation, Sihanouk must also be punished for his fault of having massacred the people.

Thus our decision is reasonably taken in every respect. We shall not change it. But if he continues to resist us, we shall take measures to liquidate him.

5. Direction of the Evolution of our Revolution:

Consequently, it is necessary to put an end to feudalism. We have reached this stage. The whole feudal regime has been destroyed and definitively dismantled by the Revolution. The Monarchy existing for over 2000 years has finally been dismantled. We do not have any other alternatives. Reactions will certainly take place, but we must follow the path of the Revolution in order to win.

6. Another Measure to be Taken:

Henceforth, Sihanouk shall not be allowed to meet foreign diplomats. We shall give them valid reasons to explain the situation.